How do people who are “good” at pinball manage to consistently avoid those random bounces that just go right down the middle out that there is no counter-play for?

Question

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

Answer 1

The same way people get ‘good’ at anything else. Practice. Lots and lots of practice. In the case of pinball, you’ll start to know where your shots are going to go, and if you know roughly where they are going, you can predict where it’s going to come back down, especially if you’ve made a similar play thousands of times before. In the case of the ‘straight down the middle’ scenarios, you just avoid shots that have a high propensity to end up in that situation. You’re working around the problem by trying to ensure it’s never a problem to begin with.