Hello All - I interviewed one of the top players in the world, Neil Shatz, for pinballnews.com.

http://pinballnews.com/learn/interviews/neil.html

Next up: A peak inside the warehouse of the Pacific Pinball Museum

Thanks! They're a lot of fun to do.

"loose tilt" means you can be more aggressive with nudging and the game won't tilt on you. At most tournaments the tilt is set very tight, so even moderately aggressive nudging will get you a warning or worse.

As for scoring, well, the possibilities are endless. If the game has a loose tilt you can slide save pretty much anything going towards the middle. Or if it's headed toward the outlane you can slide the game so the ball hits the post or goes down the inlane, or nudge forward to just bounce it off the post and get it out of that general area.

For me, when there's no tilt I can easily double my score. But in the hands of someone like Neil...

@sealclubber - I will post some BAPA league finals at some point (technical difficulties editing the clips), but you will see some great outlane nudging (none of it by me, I played terribly)

The main thing is when the ball is heading in that direction you do a sharp forward nudge as the ball hits the post or the top of the sling. Even on a tight tilt machine you shouldn't get a warning. You're basically just trying to get it completely out of that area. Don't wait to see if the ball is going to choose a lane, just whack it out. Once it's bouncing around the in and outlane post it's too late.

@drbond - thanks for the kudos. I'm going to take the additional footage that Neil and I shot (more vids, including slow mo) and Mads and I are going to put on a "how the pros play pinball" seminar at PPE. Note, I did not say "we are the pros" . Mads is pretty darn good though. He came in 6th at IFPA, out of the top 64 players in the world.