I have always wanted to get into pinball. But the few times I decided to really give it a go. I could do alright but most of my games seemed to end with a bounce that went straight down the middle out with nothing I can do about it.
When you watch professional pinball players. It doesnt matter what game it is they always seem to be able to avoid those shots even if its their first time on a machine.
So there has to be a method or developable skill to it. But I cant for the life of me understand it.
In: Other
Well, there are a few layers to it.
First off, most major tournaments have warm-up time. That’s when you literally try each machine and get a feel for where the shots are on *that machine.* (Shot timing varies machine to machine.) You’re not playing the game to earn points per se, but you’re playing the game to get a feel for where the shots are (the timing), and if warm-up times are short you often abandon games early to move onto the next one.
Secondly, even though you have warm-up time you’re constantly dialing in your shots while you’re playing. This isn’t really a conscious thing, but it’s more of an unconscious thing. Most people most shots you’re not thinking “shoot the ball when it gets to X spot” but rather “shoot the ball to the left ramp” and let the brain do the math. *Occasionally* for really off angle shots you might pick a spot on the flipper to flip to make X shot, but that’s *rare.*
Third, there aren’t *that* many pinball machines (and usually for tournaments you’re going to be on the newest of the new), so you have an idea of what to practice in general for the next few months. Combine that with warm up time and you can walk up to a machine and it looks like you’ve never seen it before but nothing could be farther from the truth.
Third+, since you’re probably playing on a machine you’re at least base familiar with, you already have an idea what’s a dangerous shot. *Don’t shoot there* unless you have a really really good reason to. If you’re shooting something up the middle that kills the ball’s momentum (the saucer in AFM, the boat in jaws, etc.) it often comes back uncontrolled, don’t shoot there unless it’s worth big points (or you’re in multiball, see below).
Fourth, strategy. If you keep aiming for shot X and missing, you stop aiming for shot X. This really applies to newer games (90s+), but almost all machines have many ways to score, if not score big. Sometimes if you just aren’t making shot Y you have to come up with a scoring strategy that doesn’t use shot Y. I once won a league game by hitting the center ramp of Mousin’ Around 35x in a row. The entrance isn’t far from the flipper and it’s wiiiiide, which made it a really safe shot. It only netted me around 3.5M, but that’s all I *needed* to win. It’s called chopping wood and it’s boring as fuck to play that way (both for the player and the watcher!), but I’d rather chop wood and advance than play wild and be eliminated.
Fifth, during multiball nearly everyone who’s any good at all will trap up as many balls as possible on the lower flippers, leaving only one ball and the upper flippers to shoot with. This works on most games (occasionally there’s a machine that forces you not to), and gives you almost the same level of control in multiball that you do in single ball play.
Sixth, there’s no substitute for practice, practice, practice.
Source: [Am ranked in the top 1000 players worldwide.](https://www.ifpapinball.com/rankings/overall.php)
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