Not that I am a pro or a top 250 player right now but I believe the real trick is to understand the machines and how they score for tournament play, and then of course execute it. The best players can do all the live catches, staging, cradles, nudging, etc so it doesn't hurt to use these techniques, but their biggest advantage is that they know these machines inside and out and know how to take advantage of the scoring be it stacking strategies, mode strategies, multiball progression, etc. The other part is that in tournament play you need to keep your emotions in check and play it relaxed like you would at home etc, really the mental side of the game which is where I need to work on for sure. Good luck and most of all have fun with it after all it is only a game

Add me to the club, I would appreciate any tips and tricks as well.

I feel like my two biggest problems are mental "freak-outs" when I get excited, and my overall consistency. I have some amazing games where I feel in the "zone", and then will immediately have a terrible game where I make stupid mistakes, like watching the ball roll down the flipper and never hit the button.

Practicing the techniques will actually help a lot with the "mental stability" as well as will winning your first tourney, lol. I didn't get an actual win until like...#13 I think? Then I had a finish about as close as you can get in the double elim tourney against someone who's been in the top 100 (Lost winners bracket to him, came back from last of losers bracket, went best 2-out-of-3 against him on 3 games and only lost on his last ball of the last game), won a non-IFPA tourney, then won another small tourney.. so yeah...practice skills, and get the first win out of the way.

Put a sock in the center drain, take the glass off and practice your shots, passing and cradle separation.

Buy pinball 101 to learn the flipper skills. Watch Bowen's PAPA tutorials for game specific stuff. Practice playing with one hand. I know it sounds weird but it forces you to concentrate on the ball's trajectory. Predicting where the ball is going to end up after a missed shot is half the battle.

This is key. I know it does not seems as fast and fun and glamorous to try and stop and cradle the ball after every shot but it will improve your game 1000% percent. The more control you have the better.

Don't be afraid to NOT flip sometimes, learn how the ball behaves when it just hits a flipper. Most times if you don't flip it will lose momentum and bounce over to the other flipper where its slowed down for a nice easy shot. This is called a dead flipper pass, or dead flipper bounce.

Learn how the machine behaves for certain things. Example, the scoop eject on Funhouse. Now they all aren't going to be the same but the one in my game room when it ejects if I do nothing it will hit the right flipper and bounce over to the left where I can cradle it for my next shot. This makes it a no risk move whereas if I just tried to flip when it shot out of the scoop who knows where it would go. Like I said they all aren't going to be the same, maybe the one at your local bar has really old flipper rubber and that wont work. Another example, on my old Hurricane when the ball came off of the ramp to the in lane if I held the left flipper up the ball would go up the flipper and over the outhole gently to the right flipper for a trap. Another nice, safe, controlled set up.

If you are playing in a tournament somewhere and the games are available to play beforehand get there early and waste a play just learning how the ball behaves when it comes out of scoops, off of ramps, etc.

Watch these too, shows dead flipper bounces
http://papa.org/play/techniques/

I have to agree with KME. Watch Pinball 101 to learn flipper skills (and a few cool game tricks), then watch Bowen's tutorials (all of them) for game specific rule information and good applications of flipper skills. PAPA's technique videos are also good too. Watch them all!

Another important thing to consider is that playing mindlessly will not help you get better (or at the very least, it won't help you get better quickly). You may find that you need to make a conscious effort to attempt new flipper tricks (dead passes, drop catches, etc). For the longest time, I personally had a big fear of doing drop catches. I never did them in tournaments because I had gotten away with not doing them during location play. It wasn't until I made a serious effort to do more drop catches when playing for fun that I felt comfortable enough to do them in tournament play. Bounce passes can be similarly scary for some people, but they improve your gameplay so much that you have to break out of whatever rut you're stuck in and consciously decide to do them.

What practicalsteve said is also true. Try to pay attention to things like how a game's kickouts are kicking. A good example is The Addams Family; on some Addams', the swamp kickout can be safely bounce passed over to the left flipper, or caught on the right simply by holding the flipper up. If you know which of these moves are available to you, then you can avoid worrying about whether or not you'll drain off of the kickout.

Watch a lot of papa videos and try to do what they do. Over and over.
And yes, with controlled gameplay you get higher scores..

For me, it's pretty much all of the above. However, I've really worked on changing my mindset when playing. I used to walk into an arcade with the goal of getting on the HS table. But I was always overcomplicating things and when they weren't paying off I would get frustrated and likely drain. A lot of times I would not mode/point stacks as much as I could for fear of draining. I've really had to let the "fear" go and just play.

Work on your flipper skills and know the stacks, but most importantly have fun.

Agree with Keith as well. Pinball 101 is a great DVD to get to learn some skills.

With pinball, I've found its as much when you DONT flip and when you do.

ie lots of people just smash every shot. I really focus on not doing that, and slowing the game down to a snails pace. Pick your shots. Know where to aim. Hit it. Hit it again. Makes a huge difference.

It took me about 2 years to slow down. I've been whacking everything hard for 20 years so it takes time to slow down.

At IFPA10 last year I just freaked out (it was my first big competition) and reverted to my old style. I've spent the last 9 months telling myself off hahaha.

rd.

Keep in mind as well as you re-program yourself to be more controlled your scores will go down at first because you are going against your instinct. Once control becomes your instinct your scores will shoot up. Remember it is consistency that counts in tournaments. Blowing up one game then tanking the next two is much much worse than 3 underwhelming but solid games in a PAPA type format.

I've been trying to use the nudge more effectively, but practicing has been hard to figure out. Normally when learning a skill you can set up situations to repeat over and over but I haven't figured out how to do that. What I am trying to do is to manage avoiding the outlines better. Games like TZ can really kick my butt with them and I know I'm leaving a lot on the table...

I'm not great. But I am currently a top 300 player. My best advice to you is to learn to try to NEVER hit the ball on the fly. Do I still do it? Yes. But it is probably like 1 in 6-8 shots. Hitting on the fly is fun, especially when you pull off an awesome shot. But like Bowen often says, "We aren't playing for fun, we're playing for points".

What I have done to improve is play in a league(Well, actually I started one!). I have also played in as many tournaments as possible for my budget. I have learned a new skill and practiced that skill about 1 to 2 per year. First was the dead pass, then the cradle sep, then the live catch, then the drop catch, then the loop pass, etc, etc. Once you learn a new skill, you have to practice it to the point that you feel comfortable using it in competition.

As someone else stated, there is no substitute for confidence. You get confident through success. You get successful through many failures. Don't get discouraged(well, not too often).

I drove myself crazy "trying to get better." I'd try to focus too hard on flipper tricks and hitting "critical" shots, and I would always psyche myself out. For me, I just focus on one trick or one shot in the game - other than that - just have fun. Once I do that with 10 different tricks, flipper skills, or shots and THEN put them all together in a game - that worked out very well for me.

There are 1000's of players better than me - so just take my thoughts for what they're worth.

Learning to control the side drains is the most important thing IMO. This is something I have been working on more and more myself lately.

Guys…there is a pinball coach in Spokane.For 50 bucks a hour he will hands-on teach you all the nuances.As a bonus there will be free deli meats,cheese and shasta……….Remember him

I helped organize a league in my area. There are a big mix of players. Some strictly play for fun. Others like to compete and attend tournaments as well.

There are a lot of players in our league that just get better and better. With the internet and PAPA coverage and new leagues forming everywhere, it really makes qualifying in national or regional tournaments a lot more difficult.

One thing a lot of people do not realize is that competitive pinball is an endurance event. Even playing one, high scoring, intense, and fully focused game of pinball is hard. Playing well in an all day pinball tournament takes a ton of mental stamina and concentration.

I know a former prostitute who told me the exact same thing.

This. And this...

Learn to have the patience and nerves to NOT flip at everything coming at you, and learn how/when to nudge LONG BEFORE your ball is at the entrance of the outlane.

well there you go then ...

rd

Speaking from my limited experience, buying/playing BSD has made me a much better player overall. I recall reading an article about a top-rated player who could only have one game to practice on and that was the one he picked. That article was one of the reasons I bought BSD (well, that and reading a ton of reviews and feedback from my fellow pinsiders). Gotta have the lightning flippers!

"watch bowen"..how come when I watch bowen play ac/dc and a multiball comes up he has time to point out stuff about the shots, sings to the music, has a cup of tea and gets 1 billion and then i go to my table and get a multi ball and its like normandy beach at the height of the invasion!!!!! lol

LOL! Hilarious!

Practice control and nudging techniques or wax on wax off and sweep the leg

wowo.jpg

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Others have said it but slowing down play and recognizing what you should shoot for are a big step forward. The shot to make is not always the brightest blinking light and that can get people in trouble, including myself. I practice flipper skills when playing but really try to focus on bringing the ball to a stop and thinking my next three shots and then try to make the shot. Alia consider what is going to happen if you miss the shot so your ready to get out of trouble and back into a safe cradle.

I am just getting into pinball but doesn't game kind of dictate this? Maybe, I am playing my pin ,The Shadow, wrong but it seems like to me that the game is geared towards rewarding combo play. I catch it when I can for specific shots but it seems like learning how to play on the fly is rewarded heavily on this machine.

I've gotten so much better after using the blindfold practice technique, it works for any pinball machine as you're forced to develop a much better feel for the game...

Awesome! Best post of the new year!

Yup...like a great quarterback (or any athlete) sees the game slower, I think great pinballers do too. That and fantastic skills, patience, and understanding the rules as well as possible.

Lots of 'keys' in this thread!

Here are some ideas from another hobby of mine.

- Get a coach (even a video coach).
- Be a coach
- Add skills one at a time, try to master one before adding another.
- Keep your practice sessions short (less than 30 minutes)
- Perfect Practice makes perfect (don't ingrain bad habits through by repetition, stop and fix the little things)

Years ago I used to 'go out shooting' and I'd empty magazines as quickly as I could pull the trigger. It was a lot of fun but I didn't learn very much about marksmanship. My skills never changed in all that time.

Now I rarely fire more than two shots at a time. I never 'go out shooting' anymore, when I am out now it's always to practice various skills. There's a purpose to each session. It's a different kind of fun than I experienced a long time ago.

Maybe it could be the same with Pinball? Just starting my 2nd year playing I haven't gotten over the first kind of frantic fun or been exposed to players with that crazy level of skills that make me want to take the next step. But someday I can see making the same transition.

Lots of great advice already. A few things I would add are:

Tighten up the tilts on your home games. There's nothing worse than tilting away a big bonus during a tournament because you're not used to playing a game with a tight tilt.

Setup your games more difficult than factory default. Increase the pitch, open the outlanes and turn off (or at least reduce) extra balls, increase software difficulty settings when objectives are too easy, etc. This will force you to be more careful with your shots and not depend on extra balls to have good games. I often find that I actually have better scores on 3 ball games vs. 5 ball settings because I make each ball count more.-it's a mental thing. I also try not to restart bad games and play each ball through.-You never know when you'll get a huge ball 3 after starting a game with 2 bad balls.

Challenge your friends/family to friendly competition while playing (dollar games) and play in tournaments.-even if you suck. A huge component of good pinball play is mental and if you get used to competing against people and being more relaxed you'll become a better player. The part of pinball I struggle with the most is just staying mentally focused/sharp when I play. The physical part of pinball comes easy. It's staying focused for a long stretch of time and pulling yourself together mentally (when you are struggling) that's the toughest part for me.

For tournament play I def agree that learning the scoring and rulesets really helps. When I have a friend who knows a game tell me what to shoot for and why, my scores go up like crazy. I guess as pinball gets more popular there can be more 'coaches' for hire I guess. I kinda don't like though that I have to do 'homework' and learn the rules of some game I am not a big fan of to do well at a tourney, but hey that's why it's a sport!

if you dont have your own machine, finding time to practice techniques can be difficult and expensive. so heres my tips for saving a few bucks in your quest to be grand champ.

1. if youre unfamiliar with a games ruleset, focus on scoring the extra ball. its free time to learn more about the game your playing, its almost always easier to achieve than a replay, and how to score it is usually indicated on the games instruction card.

2. if you earn a replay or are given a match, use that game as practice. it may seem shitty to toss away perfectly decent games trying techniques your unfamiliar with, but hey, their free, and if your waiting until all of the things you need to practice occur naturally in a game, your gonna be playin forever!

3. come to terms with when your playing seriously, for fun, or practicing. knowing which type of game you want to have before you start playing is very important. if you dont know for which purpose you are playing, it could be difficult to focus as the tide of your games starts to change.

"watch bowen"..how come when I watch bowen play ac/dc and a multiball comes up he has time to point out stuff about the shots, sings to the music, has a cup of tea and gets 1 billion and then i go to my table and get a multi ball and its like normandy beach at the height of the invasion!!!!! lol

+1 on this.

and that's precisely why I don't play in tournaments, once you start playing for points the game isn't fun anymore...

I have enough stress in my life from real things, the last thing I want is pinball performance anxiety! lol

Love this thread. Thanks to all of you for these tips. Now if I just knew what the hell you're talking about.....Time to watch some PAPA vids.

Nice thread thanks.

BAH it's more fun to compete

I'd rather have fun competing against others than a life of pinball solitude only playing solo. Scoring more points than your opponent(s) is a LOT of fun.

When performance is measured, performance is improved.

are you a manager or something?! You sound like my business partner

Seriously though, a friend suggested I track my high scores so you can see your improvement too. I started doing that and it's def helpful.

My supervisor told me that during a feedback a couple years ago and I've never forgot it.

He's right though. I mainly keep a mental note of my game averages.

Remember that girls under 17 need not apply to learn from this particular pinball coach.

When all else fails .....

KEEP CALM AND USE THE FORCE.jpg

A quick tip to add, maybe a controversial one.

A true pinball wizard is someone who plays well consistently. A beginner often doesn't play well or consistently

A suggestion: if you've just been previously trying to play well (do catches, moves, etc), instead try to play consistently by picking a strategy and shooting those shots. You might see your overall performance rise with some practice.

I tried doing that on Attack from Mars one time in a pizza place. Before I tried to be consistent, I had many sub-billion games, a few 2-3 billion games, and then a random 6.5bil. After I tried to be consistent in my strategy and shots, I found that i would consistently put up 1.9bil. Personally, I'd take a "reliable" 1.9bil over a random 6.5bil any day.