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.
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First off, nobody totally avoids those bounces. Remember that everybody drains eventually.
The easiest way to learn to avoid those bounces is don’t miss shots. Most games, even old EMs, are designed to have pretty safe return paths on shots.
It takes a good long white to learn to be deliberate about your shooting. If you are ever hitting a ball just to keep it moving, you’ve already screwed up.
The second thing you’ll notice is that experienced pinball players backhand a lot more than amateurs. *Backhanding* meaning shooting the same side of the machine as the flipper you use (so right flipper to right ramp, for example). Backhands are generally safer shots for a lot of reasons that I won’t go into right now. If you can backhand a shot, you generally should.
The third thing is high-skill players know how to slap save. A ball going down the middle can often be saved with a hard slap which can temporarily move the flipper over up to an eighth of an inch. Most balls that drain down the middle don’t drain *exactly* in the middle of the flippers.
High-skill players also know how to nudge while the ball is bouncing around, and those nudges influence the final trajectory of the ball.
But the #1 thing is high skill players hit the shots they mean to hit, and they know how to slow the ball down to prevent it from getting out of control. Accuracy is 70% of the battle, ball control (like catching and passing between flippers) is another 15%.
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