1. Set up properly at the table

Stand with your hip towards the short end of the table and put the foot nearest the table slightly forward. Bend your knees a little and lean in so your hand can follow the edge of the table in a straight line. Stand too upright and your arm will swing in an arc - sending the puck off line.

2. Push the puck - do not throw it

Place your fingers on the side of the puck and your thumb behind it. The motion is a smooth push forward with the puck staying flat against the board the whole time. Lift your hand as you release and the puck bounces - and you lose all control over how far it travels.

Release early and let your hand continue towards the target. Follow through, just as in bowling or darts.

3. Weight is the whole game

Direction is usually the easy part - the hard part is making the puck stop in the right place. Before each shot decide which zone you are aiming for and how much weight that needs. Then use the same motion every time and let the distance come from how far back you take your hand, not from how hard you shove at the end.

4. Read the board and the wax

The board is scattered with wax that lets the pucks glide. The wax is rarely spread evenly, and most boards also drift slightly to one side. Send a couple of pucks down at the start of a game purely to get a feel: do they run straight, or pull left or right? Test both sides of the board - they can behave differently.

5. Learn the scoring - only one team scores

Only the pucks lying further forward than your opponent's best puck score. That means a single well-placed puck from the other team can wipe out several of yours. A puck resting on a line counts as the lower zone.

A puck hanging over the far edge without falling is called a hanger. With us it counts as 5 points - the official tournament rules use 4, so do ask our staff if you are playing to competition rules.

6. Think tactically - not just far

Beginners always shoot as far as possible. Better players choose between three things: placing a puck in a high zone, knocking off the opponent's best puck, or parking a puck in the way as a block. If you are already lying best, the smartest move is often to protect the puck you have rather than chase more points.

7. Save the last puck

The last puck of a round is the most valuable - whoever shoots last decides how the round ends. Share it out in your team so the player with the best feel for weight takes the deciding shots.

Practise like this next time

Send five pucks in a row and try to stop them all in the same zone - without any falling off the end. Three out of five means better weight control than most. Then raise the difficulty: aim to place each puck as far forward as possible without it hanging over the edge.