How to become a Beruit Champion!! Blog #3

Move over Baggo and Horseshoes, because Beruit also known as Beer Pong, or Bar Pong depending where you are, is becoming one of the biggest party, tailgating, graduation, social games ever. I will be giving you tips on how to become a Beruit champion. I personally have now reached the milestone of becoming a five time Snatch Alley Tournament Champion. Snatch Alley Tournaments are played through out Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island and have prizes that range from $150 to $500 for the winners.

Tournament Win #1
Team Donohues

First off, I would like to begin and advise people to play with water and not beer! Playing with water is a much safer option. You do not know where others peoples mouths have been so sharing cups is disgusting. Also the ping pong balls will be rolling around on the ground, I don't care if there is a "wash" cup the ball is still dirty. If you are going to drink on the side, drink responsible, too much alcohol will effect your play in a negative way.

Tournament Win #2
Team Donohues

There are two basic ways to shoot. Shoot using an arc, and shot using a line drive shot. Shooting with an arc gives you a better chance of hitting nothing but water, and less of a chance of the ball spinning in and out of the cup. If you are shooting a line drive shot you basically want to aim for the back of the cup and use the inside white part of the cup as a backboard. I tend to use a high arc, some tell me I shot ridiculously high, but it always seems to work for me. Depending what type of building you're in the ceilings can be low and will force you to use more of a line drive shot. 

Tournament Win #3
Team Donohues

Beruit is all about the wrist! A lot of people don't realize this but if you use your wrist more, you have a better shot of getting the ball in a cup. What I like to do as I'm shooting is, I set my feet, concentrate for a few seconds on the cup I want to hit, keep my arm bent in a 90 degree angle, shift my elbow left or right to line it up with the cup. Once I'm all set and lined up, I raise my arm keeping the elbow lined up with the cups and extend the arm towards the cup while flicking my wrist and releasing the ball hopefully resulting in a cup made.

Tournament Win #4
Team Donohues

In beruit it is important to know the rules. There are different rules in different venues. At Snatch Alley you play with six cups and get unlimited racks from four cups down. When I get down to three cups I don't like to use the normal triangle rack. The rack I like to use is either the Stop Light which is three cups in a row or the play button. These racks are beneficial because in both racks you already have at least two cups in a row, so all you have to do is keep your elbow straight when you shoot. I usually like to use the stop light but the play button can be an advantage if you tend to hit the middle cup of the stop light. If you hit the cup on the right of the play button you still have the two rack for the next player to shoot at, or if you hit one of the cups that are on the left you still have cups connected where in the stop

light if you hit the middle cup you have an open space. 

Play Button

The last two cups tend to be easy cups for me. What I do is keep my elbow straight and flick my wrist forward and I tend to easily make either the back or front cup. Last cup is hard for a lot of people. My hint for people is to pretend there is still two cups. It is easier to shoot at two cups then one cup. If you concentrate hard enough and imagine there being a cup in front of last cup you are either going to just miss short or get the ball in the cup. I usually make last cup on my first or second shot which is a lot better than most people who take at least five turns to make it. 

Tournament Win #5
Team Donohues

In Snatch Alley, distractions are legal. A friend of mine will do the good cop, bad cop routine on the other team. He will yell HURRY UP! WHAT ARE YOU READING A BOOK OR SOMETHING! While his partner will do the opposite and say its alright take your time we have all night. Distractions get in the heads of your opponents and give them a better chance of missing. Some of my favorite distractions include asking someone on the other team who has a tight shirt "is that a tap out shirt" while they are shooting, or if they are wearing a polo shirt "is that a gap shirt?". If they respond to you then you are in their head. Another distracting I like is something I call the "gosh dance". I will hop left and right waiving my hands in the air while yelling gosh. This distraction works because it obviously distracts the other team but also makes them laugh on top of it. 

Trying To Distract

If you're losing bad, there is ways to help make a comeback and win. First, stay calm and don't let the fact that you are losing get in your head. Second, think of ways to make your comeback. One way to get cups quick is by bounce shooting. Bounces count as two cups. Sometimes at house parties I will look at the wall in a horrified manner, and ask the other team if they can kill the spider on the wall. Some teams will turn around to see the spider (not there) and I will bounce the ball for two cups. At Snatch Alley I have looked to the left and start yelling to the person running the tournament (not there) saying we are going as fast as we can. This gets the other team to look allowing my partner to get in a quick bounce. My tip for bouncing is to keep a low quick bounce. Even if the other team has good enough reflexes there is a chance they will swat the cups instead of the ball causing cups to get knocked over. Another way to try to come back and win is by doing what I call a "Hail Mary". A "Hail Mary" is when you and your partner shot basically at the same time trying to get it in the same cup. If you both get the same cup its called death cup, causing the game to officially be over, giving you the win. In Snatch Alley there are no rules against people shooting at the same time. If other teams shoot at the same time I will just smack one of the balls out of the way and allow that person to re shoot. That eliminates the chances of a death cup happening on me.

There are some other blogs on the internet that talks about beruit. The blog I choose was on Bleacher Report . In this blog, it shows pictures and talks about what he thinks are the different types of players. It is interesting to see that there is actually other beruit blogs. Snatch Alley has a Facebook page where you can see where they have tournaments and see pictures of recent winners. The owners offered me a job, where I can run my own Snatch Alley Tournament at a bar near Nichols. I am in the process of finding a bar that will allow a weekly tournament, and once I do I hope for a huge outcome. All in all, I hope that my blog will help you master the skills of becoming a Beruit Champion.