*This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Have you been looking at becoming a professional Air Hockey player, but wondered about being in the olympics? Maybe you just found out Air Hockey is a professional sport and you wanted to know if they were in the olympics as well. Well, in this article we will answer all of your questions.
So is Air Hockey an olympic sport?
Although Air Hockey is a professional sport, at this time it has not been added to the Olympics as an official olympic sport. There has been some talk about it being added though, so if you are just starting to play, now is a great time to perfect your skills in order to one day play in the Olympics.
If you want to know more about Air Hockey and how it is working to become an olympic sport, you will want to keep reading. You can also watch this video of the worlds youngest Air Hockey champion playing so you know what you have to do in order to even qualify for the Olympics.
If you have an air hockey table (or are planning on getting one) then you have to get this accessory set as well. It comes with extra pucks, paddles, and everything that you need to take your play to the next level. You can find it by clicking here.
If you have a game room (or want one) you have to check out this classic arcade game console that attaches directly to your TV.
This machine has classic arcade controls but hooks directly up to your big-screen TV so you can easily move it (even if you don’t have a dedicated game room).
Oh, and did I mention that it has 5,000 games built in that you can play anytime you like?!?!
Why isn’t Air Hockey an Olympic sport?
There are a few reasons that Air Hockey isn’t an Olympic sport yet. The first reason Air Hockey is not an olympic sport yet is because it’s not recognized worldwide. Although it is extremely popular in the United States, a lot of people around the world have never even heard about it.
The second reason Air Hockey isn’t in the Olympics yet, is the fact that there are not enough participants. Basically because it is not popular enough in other countries, then it isn’t in the Olympics because it would just be the United States and maybe one other country competing.
Although Air Hockey should also enjoy the status of an Olympic game, unless something changes and the word gets out to other countries about it, it simply just isn’t going to happen. The USAA and AHPA organize the tournaments here in the United States and as of right now even those are held in the middle of a mall.
What would happen if the federation existed?
If that federation existed, it would have to fill out a 100-page application form and be appealing to a younger generation. On top of that, the cost to build the venue is an important factor in receiving approval to join the Games.
If your application meets all of those steps, then it must be approved by the IOC Executive board before the entire Olympic committee votes on it. This is just for a test run at the Olympics and does not grant permanent participation.
The last thing to know about having air hockey become an Olympic sport is that the decision for approval takes place 7 years ahead of the games. You would have to start now to get air hockey considered for the games 8-10 years away!
The greatness of Air Hockey
We can say with some conviction that the most excellent sound we know is the unstable clunk of a dinged-up air-hockey puck dropping into goal. To be honest, the entire game is symphonic: the clatter of a copper token as it tumbles down a flimsy chute. The buzz of the inside fan as it granulates on, shooting puffs of air through a lattice of modest openings, creating that low, suspending pad, the vitalizing enchantment of the game. The stimulating of your own pulse as you twist into a goaltending squat, gripping a little tar sombrero. The strident whack of first contact.
My enthusiasm for air hockey was restored the previous summer at a place called FunSpot. This place is located in Laconia, New Hampshire. FunSpot is, as we all know, the biggest arcade on the planet, and properly unmooring. To calm the nerves, my friend and I thought about having a drink, but decided against it and just had some water.
Air hockey, as most high-stakes human endeavors, is as much a round of the brain as one of the body. It’s easy to remember this now, as you watch hungry youthful contenders from around the globe pursue triumph at the Summer Olympic Games, in Rio de Janeiro: it is unsportsmanlike, maybe, however confusing your adversary is similarly as essential as outfitting your own significance.
In air hockey, this implies the expectation that you may have the option to secure your accomplice a defenseless volley against himself. The solitary decimation of numerous incredible competitors. Any individual who has ever walked up to a table and dropped a little coin has witnessed something like this, or perhaps been a casualty of it: for a short period, the puck reaches neither the objective nor your rival’s hammer, yet just ricochets to and fro between your own thrashing hands and the most distant edge of the table. The harder you smack it, the harder and quicker it comes back to you. This can continue for an upsetting and silly amount of time. It would be entertaining on the off chance that it didn’t so conveniently epitomize the manner in which we tire ourselves out, making a decent attempt to get what we need.
The most effective spot to situate your hammer is eight to ten inches legitimately before your goal, where you can take off approaching shots without the sort of insane thrusting that may some way or another land you midsection down on the table, legs akimbo and mid-region wounded, as though you were endeavoring to oust an errant ort from your windpipe without anyone else overseeing the Heimlich move.
On the off chance that your rival endeavors some slippery fast bank shot pinging off the left side, you can without much of a stretch zap back to either corner of your objective, proficiently stopping the goal. This is known as the Triangle Defense, and it is fundamental in Air Hockey.
This is why it is important to know the rules as well as the best way to play Air Hockey before challenging someone to play. If you are precise and know exactly how to hit the puck to score every time, you will defeat your opponent quite quickly.
When did Air Hockey gain its popularity?
By the late nineteen-seventies, the game’s fame had topped. Children were tricked away by the era of arcade games such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man. These games had their squinting lights and perpetual blaring and bombastic looks of High Scores for everyone to see!
The game in the end made somewhat of a rebound, much obliged, to some degree, to an indefatigable saint named Mark Robbins. He persuaded Dynamo Corporation, an effective producer of foosball tables, to bring air hockey into its stable of diversions. In any case, contemporary air-hockey acolytes like to regret the game’s underestimation, as though air hockey is the vinyl record of the arcade era.
Conclusion
Although Air Hockey has been around for a while, and you would think that it would be popular, as of right now there just simply are not enough people in the world that know about it. Recently though the game has been coming back and gaining popularity as many people are now able to afford air hockey tables for their homes and are able to practice a lot more often than just at the arcades. If you are looking to get an Air Hockey table in your home to become the best of the best, you can get one here.
Air Hockey is such a fun game, and even if you do not play to become the best in the world, it is still a fun way to pass time and to play a game with your family or friends that doesn’t include sitting in front of a tv screen.