I'm very ordinary at nudging, so take this with a grain of salt, but...

Like most things, one of the keys to nudging successfully is to be confident about what you're doing. So my #1 tip would be to eliminate any doubt about gambling your bonus by practicing on a game that does not award bonuses (this is common on old EMs). That way if a ball is headed to the outlanes or SDTM you can try nudging with nothing to lose. Another way to get more confident is to nudge when you don't really need to. If the ball is headed for the right side of the left flipper, try to move the ball left, closer to the centre of the flipper. You'll get used to nudging and get some idea of how hard you have to nudge to get the ball to move.

As for the technical side, the earlier you nudge, the greater the change to the ball's position when it gets to the flippers- as long as its speed is fairly constant (in the Hulk scenario you described this is unlikely to help, since the ball's speed starts at ~zero). For this reason, I often prefer a series of short, sharp nudges as the ball rolls down the playfield to a huge slap save when it gets to the bottom. This has the added bonus of limiting the chances of tilting. The key to this technique is to recognise when the ball is going SDTM as early as possible, which, unfortunately, only really comes with LOTS of experience.

I like your honest post. I nudge like a caveman, so my success is limited. Tilts are easy to obtain though

I actually think I've trained myself to nudge the wrong way.. So if its going back left to front right I hit the left side which just pushes it more into SDTM.. Ive been pondering some kind of nudging training wheel gadget that is kind of like a pitching machine that just let's balls drop from different angles just to focus on nudging effects.

Especially on location......flip that fecker over.... .................Joey

Imo, those bricked shots that lead to SDTM drains cannot be fixed with light nudging. You will have to slide the game at least just a bit to save those. Sliding is tricky to learn because you have to get in the habit of pushing the machine the opposite direction you want the ball to go.

It looks like when you miss the hulk shot and it goes down the middle, it is closest to the right flipper. If that is the case, as the ball is heading down, give the game a quick nudge to the left buy pushing on the right side with your right hand and almost simultaneously flip the right flipper. This should result in more saves.

The bricked left lane shot would be the opposite nudge technique. Since this one looks like when it drains it is closest to the left flipper, you will need to nudge the game from the left and push the game to the right and almost at the same time flip the left flipper.

Now, depending on how tight the tilt is, you can really save these shots with only one to two warnings and have the result be the ball trapped on either flipper. If it has a tighter tilt, you just have to hope the nudge flip technique is just enough to keep the ball in play without tilting. If the tilt is super tight, don't brick those shots. Haha

The outlanes are a different animal. I never shake the machine back and forth when trying to save an outlane drain unless trying to perform a wicked shimmy. So, I would look at what all is surrounding the outlane that you want to nudge the ball into that will help it stay out of the outlane.

I try and anticipate when the ball might be headed to the outlane as early as possible so I can decide what type of nudge to try and save it. If the seems to have a direct course to the wood wall on the outlane, I'll position my hand on the outside of the wall right where the ball is going to hit and smack the cabinet right when the ball make impact with the wall. If you time it right, it will give the ball more of a bounce off the wall and hopefully back into play.

I think the key to outlane saves is not letting the ball get to a point of no return. Anticipating that the ball is in danger of heading to the outlane will help you decide what kind of save to try. Also try to memorize what types of misses result in outlane drains so that you can plan ahead.

Also, unless I am 100% the ball is going to go down one of the inlanes, I assume it's going to drain out the out lanes. Treating the inlanes as outlanes has helped me with those outlane drains too. If you've played TWD, you know exactly what I mean. Don't let the ball go past the slings. Haha

I've found limited information regarding nudging online. There are a couple of ok videos on youtube. But it would be nice to have a relatively good video on youtube with some depth to it. I'm slowly getting better at nudging - but really only teaching myself. Good information Circus Animal. There were some things you mentioned in your post I did not know.

Chuckwurt's got the right idea. Those particular two shots you're going for are simply not safe which means you want to avoid intentionally shooting for them as much as possible, though there are ways you can make those shots "safer" to a degree.

The first thing to keep in mind is where you're shooting the ball from. If a particular shot almost guarantees a drain each time you go for it, try shooting it from the other flipper. Failing that, if what you're trying to hit is simply a rollover, a standup, or a drop target, try banking the ball off of something else; much harder to intentionally do, but possibly safer if the direct approach is routinely draining the ball.

Another trick for dealing with unsafe shots or trickles to the drain is to learn where those spots are on a specific machine and to preemptively nudge when the ball makes contact with those spots, thus altering the angle the ball will return at. If you nudge too early or too late, there will be little to no effect, so timing is everything when doing this. The idea is that since nudging doesn't have a huge effect (unless you make a massive slide save or such) doing it sooner rather than later, when possible, should make for a greater change in the final position of the ball once it gets back down to the flippers. A good recent example of this is the magnet which holds the ball in front of the prison on TWD. To prevent centre-drains off of this magnet you have to learn the timing for when it will let the ball go and start shaking the game an instant beforehand so that the ball will have an angle to its motion.

Also, just noticed your part about the ball sitting at the top of the lane divider between the inlane and outlane. Use the same nudge technique here. If you are sitting on the right inlane/outlane divider and want the ball to go in the inlane, nudge from the left side not the right.

I saw a video posted here of one of the pros playing. The camera angle was different in that you could see what they were doing with the machine. I noticed some things that surprised me. The first was how little the guy (I don't know his name) actually had to nudge the machine. And the other was that his nudges were very controlled and much lighter than what I thought was necessary. I suspect it's all timing, but I guess that's why he is a pro.

I'll see if I can find the thread, but I don't know his name so the searching might be a little difficult.

When the ball is stuck/resting, I have better luck nudging "opposite" of what I would nudge if the ball was in motion.

Interesting. What helped be immensely was when I realized that when you nudge, you are not moving the ball, you are moving the playfield underneath the ball. So. If the ball is at rest on top of say a lane divider and you push the machine from right to left, that will slide the playfield under the ball to the left leaving the ball in a spot to the right of where it was before. Once I realized this, nudging made much more sense to me. That is why I think a lot of those videos you will see of the pros nudging way less and getting way better results. That is because they have a firm grasp on when to nudge, how to nudge, and what will result from said nudge.

Nuuuuuuuuuudddddddgggggeee. haha.

The big nudging tip i got was for outlines. When a ball is heading towards the outlanes an up nudge helps the most. if the ball is about to hit the top of the slings or the post or wire of the outlanes an up nudge at the right time will bounce it about enough to get it back in the middle of the play field. also learn and know the slap save, doesn't work for SDTM but will save a lot of DTM balls. i think there are some good vids on the slap save

From a rest position, I notice a "rocking"effect after nudging and the restoring motion of the machine (after the nudge) is more effective at moving the ball then the actual nudge.

Scenario: Ball is trapped on right side in/outlane divider. Nudge right to left (opposite of what you would do if it was in motion), the playfield moves under ball and shifts it toward the outlane slightly. As the machine restores/moves back to its initial position, the rocking effect dumps the ball in the inlane

Nudging skills are honed on EM games with 2 inch flippers. There is no short cut.

You spelt Nuge-ing wrong:
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Nudging ultimately takes a TON of practice, and the tricky thing is you can't really "plan" for it and intentionally practice certain kinds of nudges. It's something you have to experiment with and when you do something that works and saves the ball, you remember it and do it again whenever it seems like you should. : B

On my specific Hollywood Heat for example, I need to do a nudge from the right side if the ball doesn't go all the way around the right to the lanes and instead comes back down, but the nudge has to be timed to bounce the ball off of the one-way wire door in front of the shooter lane. If I fail to do this there's a very high chance the ball will go SDTM. : P

Right. I have seen this work both ways, so those stuck balls are a tricky one. I would much rather the ball be in motion. Easier to predict the movement of the ball when you nudge.

The right lane on Big Game and the right 8 ball lane on my EBDLE at my house are just like this without the wire door issue.

Outlane nudging 101: nudge to get the ball completely away from the in/outlane area. The goal is not to try to nudge into the inlane, it's to get the ball back to the center of the playfield. Only when this isn't possible, do you nudge to get the ball to the inlane instead of the outlane.
Use upward nudging -- a lot -- to accomplish the above.

Yup. an forward/upward nudge will make the ball travel down, or it will get more bounce if the ball is making contact with something pointed downwards.

So, if the ball is traveling towards an out lane, you can nudge forward making the ball travel down and contact the top of the sling instead of the wall on the outlane or even the lane divider between the outlane and the inlane. On my games, I don't want the ball going past the slings, so I use this technique a lot. This is a very helpful type of nudge if the ball is traveling side to side.

There is a lot of instinct too when it comes to solid nudging skills. After a TON of practice, your brain will start to give you "danger" feelings when the ball is going somewhere in a way you don't want it to, as though you're seeing where the ball's going to end up a second or two ahead of where it actually is.

The instant you have this feeling that it's not going to go somewhere good is the instant you have to get ready to nudge, because the only chance for nudging to affect the ball in any significant way is the next time it hits something, but since these danger feelings only come when the ball is likely already in trouble, you don't have many options and you can't really think about the situation, so you just have to react. The safest nudge is the upwards nudge, since it adds bounce to the ball when it hits something beneath it and a bouncing ball is less likely going to travel down a narrow path like an outlane (or even an inlane). Sideways nudging is more useful when the ball has little to no vertical motion, is rolling along the side of something, or is almost dead centred between two lanes and is moving slow enough that you can influence it to choose one lane over the other.

But, all this said, there's no "magic formula" to nudging. The only way to really learn to do it is to do it. You could watch hours upon hours of videos on the topic and still not really understand it because every nudging situation is unique, similar to how you can't really "teach" flipper accuracy. Practice and experimentation are the best teachers for learning to aim, and they're the best teachers for learning to nudge too. ; )

Dave Stewart, #18 in the world, gave a great tip while he was in the booth during the IFPA Pin Masters recently. He talked about stance. His tip was to make sure your weight is on your feet, not your hands on the machine. He mentioned to take your hands off the machine and see if it feels like you're falling over. I've tried to adjust the way I stand at the game since I heard that.

Great point. If you lean on the game, your nudges will tend to be much more forceful than they need to be. Quick jabs or slaps are usually all you need for most saves imo.

I'd recommend to start nudging all the time, even if you don't absolutely need to. Nudge in the bumpers, when the ball comes around an orbit, whenever it hits the slings or bounces off an exposed rail. Nudge when you're trying to do a sling catch or a dead bounce.

You'll get a much better feel for how it impacts the ball's motion in different situations much more quickly and be primed to do it when you do need to. You'll also figure out how and when you can safely nudge a machine without tilting or getting a warning and how to gauge how sensitive the tilt is set.

Up nudging for the outlanes works great for slow balls, but my struggle has been with the fast side-to-side outlane drains that require split second reaction. In that I'm stumped... is up nudging still the preferred method?

No, not in my experience. The laser shots at the outlane will almost always hit the wall on the outside of the out lane. I try to be on the ball and slap the cabinet right outside of where the ball hits the wall. Instead of the ball dying on the wall and running down the outlane, it will sometimes hop off the wall just enough to get it into the in lane, or back into the play field. Again, not full proof, but better than letting the ball drain every time. Plus, this works on even the tightest tilts.

Chuck and Circus love those original posts. I suck at nudging/sliding stuff, almost just give up on it. My problem though I honestly feel isn't so much about power but direction. Consciously I know it's like backing up a car, do the opposite to turn, but when I just see it going I slap the wrong side and then it's all over. :\ Those are some really well put explanations on the practice and how to practice it more safely too.

Practice; practice; practice!

Find a tough game to practice on (Fish Tales is a good one), and play a lot while focusing on nudging.

One of the main reason's I have a WOF!

I don't have many games at home, but really if you have any games at home, that is enough to really practice nudging. I am no where near as good as most people, but I can make a crazy save or two. My aim is what I really need to work on. I can make all kinds of good moves then brick the same shot like 10 times in a row.

Kiss did it for me here. Learn to nudge or fail terribly. Nothing else to be done!

Long Answer: One thing the pros mention quite a bit is to avoid side-to-side movement entirely. When the ball starts doing side-to-side movement, not only will it be incredibly difficult to tell where the ball's going to ultimately end up but if the ball is going directly for an outlane at high speed there's very little you can do about it. You can try nudging the machine from the side it's about to hit to give it just a tiny bit of bounce to get it to rattle out of the outlane, but chances are this won't work since whatever walls or posts are above the outlane are designed to help guide the ball down it.

Short Answer: Side-to-side movement is death. AVOID! D :

I don't think this is entirely accurate. Pros consistently use side-to-side nudging to coerce balls from the tip of one flipper to the other during multi-balls and other single-ball saves. Slap saves are side-to-side as well.

Below is a video I made a few years ago. Also, pinball 101 has some great nudging info and you can rent it on youtube for around three bucks.

If the ball is heading for the outlane area you just want it out of there. You're not trying to control it into the inlane. So you typically forward nudge when the ball hits either the top of the slingshot or the inlane post. In essence, you're trying to use the top of the sling or the post like a flipper and knock the ball away.

If the ball is already "settling" in the inlane/outlane area, subtle nudges can get it into the inlane but this is very tough to do even for really good players. If the game has a loose tilt, a fairly hard forward nudge can sometimes just pop it out over the sling on even a tiny bounce. It's very situational, but that's why it's so skillful (and fun).

This is a great discussion. I have a question. I find that I can nudge much better with my right dominant hand than my left. My nudges with my left hand are often weak and ineffective. Do others have this problem and how do you compensate? Just practice or more forceful nudges?

Practice practice practice. I nudge with the left just as much as the right. Sometime more if the game calls for more left hand nudging.

does this mean you can switch hans without missing a stroke?

What do you mean by switch hands? I was speaking about nudging with my left hand as opposed to my right.

The post you're referring to was a bit confusing. He meant: pros try to avoid getting into a situation where the *ball* is moving side-to-side.

I have the same issue but I am left handed. Here is how I compensate. I firmly plant my thumbs on the inside edge of the side rails. I can then use my left hand to shove the game to the left(using some assistance from the weaker right hand). It doesn't get the machine to move as much as a normal right direction shove with my left hand, but it is still effective enough to make some saves.

Are you saying you actually pull with the opposite hand? That's interesting.

The other problem I have is that Star Trek (one of my two pins) is such a damn fast game that I can't think fast enough to nudge, and when I do nudge, I can't tell if it worked. I also have a Special Force which is slower and stop and go, so I should probably practice on that one.

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I couldn't resist !

Now that I agree with!

Just remember...you're generally moving the machine under the ball, not the ball in the machine.

My problem is nudging up hurts my wrist if I do it too often. I find it's not worth the soreness. Also, since I'm so tall I have too lean on the machine.