New Orleans, LA
Quoted from Switch:Totally discouraged tonight. I am fairly new to pinball I have only been collecting for about 6 months. I am totally in love with the hobby but I have a goal to someday be good enough to play competitively in a league. I have watched every tutorial i can get my hands on, I have read everything I can get my hands on as far as technique. I practice every night but honestley i don't feel like my scores are getting any better.........It seems lately I walk away from my pins more discouraged and bummed out then when I turned them on which is a big problem. What am I doing wrong? I watch alot of guys and it looks like they barely ever have to nudge the table while myself i find the need to nudge almost constant, am I doing it right? Hell I don't know I guess i just need to vent more than anything. I am about to start facing the fact that I will be in pinball as a hobby of collecting rather than playing them?
I'd have to see how you're playing but I suspect someone who is more experienced can notice some specific things you might be doing that are contributing to your unsatisfying play. The most common thing is people get excited and "anticipate" the ball and tend to flip early. Good pinball is about being patient and letting the ball come to you.
The second aspect IMO of good pinball is knowing how to play competitive. In many cases it's entirely different from casual play. It's important to understand the nature of how pinball is designed as well - you have to look at the pinball playfield as a "battlefield" and some areas are "mined" (dangerous when the ball goes there) and you need to avoid those zones.
I'm in my third year now of competitive play, and I've probably only started to take it somewhat seriously the last year. (I say "somewhat seriously" because I think taking it too seriously can be a pitfall - if you let yourself get too emotionally-invested in the outcome of matches, that can affect your ability to be consistent). Competitive pinball is all about being consistent.
