Replying to I Need Help with my New Hookah

me and my friends just got a new 4 hose 32 inch egyptian hookah. the problem is, it doesnt hit very well. i cant tell what the problem is. it came with a metal tray to set the coal on, so my first guess is the coal wasnt close enough to the shisha to get it burning, so i tried poking holes in some foil so i could bend it in and get it close, but that didnt help. we were only using 2 hoses, with rubber plugs in the other holes for the 2 other hoses. we made sure that the hose not being hit was capped, but we found that if we both hit at the same time we could get better hits some of the time. im talking really little hits too, not just sub par of some picky asshole. is there anything i could be doing wrong? the only defect i could notice was that 2 of the holes on the bottom of the clay bowl that channel the smoke into the chamber run together to make one larger hole, but that cant make that much of a difference and is just proof that it is a handcrafted bowl. what should i do? and suggestions would be well appreciated. thanks guys.