I would really love some tips. I have a hell of a time with it, partly because my arms aren't amazingly muscular or anything. I feel like I'm at a disadvantage for nudging to begin with. I am pathetic at it, and I really want to get better at pinball.

I've just recently wanted to learn to do some cool moves, but have no idea how to go about it. Are there instructional videos somewhere? I'm afraid to nudge also, and usually just watch the ball go out the outlane.

Stance is very important, took me a year or two to find the proper balance and position with my legs. Nudging is the same, takes practice to get your grove. It is mostly timing and knowing the machine and how it reacts. Once you do, it becomes a natural reaction and you do it without thinking about it. The important part is you are thinking "why did I not nudge it?", that is creating the reaction pathways in your brain which soon will become natural reaction. Just keep playing!!

Stance is very important. You shouldn't, however, need a ton of leverage to nudge a machine.
A good nudger is subtle, especially if the tilt is set reasonably (as opposed to missing/off).

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This.

I have to be conscious of it myself. It's easy to do when playing by yourself. I'm less likely to play lazy if I'm playing against someone.

As the OP mentioned, if you're putting weight on your palms, i.e. using the game as a giant walker, then forward nudging is really a non-starter.

I made a nudging basics video. I threw it together for a presentation or something and should probably make a better one, but you might find some of it useful.

Problem with that video is it's not clear exactly when to nudge. The way I see it, if you nudge or slap when the ball isn't touching a rubber the table will move and the ball will stay still so if you slap the right side, the ball will move right relatively. If you nudge at the exact time it hits a rubber then the nudge or slap will combine with the natural bounce and the direction you nudge in. So if this is true (and I'm unsure that it is) how do you execute a 'slap save' to stop a SDTM coz I just can't do them?

You need a good power stance, anything where you're rooted to the ground 100% of the weight on the balls of your feet. Quick flips and slaps are required, so weight on your palms is out.

As for nudging, here's the only information you need:

1) You move the table under the ball. So if you need the ball to move left you have to nudge the machine right (UNDER the ball... it rolls).

2) The biggest mistake is the belief that your goal is to nudge the ball to go down your inlane, instead of your outlane. While this can be the case, it's almost never your goal. If the ball is headed towards the in/out lanes your goal is to nudge "up". Both palms should give a good pop to the lock bar straight forward right as the ball is about to touch the centre post between the lanes. The goal is to bounce the ball straight up. Almost every machine has an angled bumper above the outlanes, if you nudge well it will hit this and return to the centre of the playfield. Your goal is to get the ball out of the lanes entirely.

3) Sometimes you'll need to nudge during the game, for example to kick the ball off a wall to stop it from feeding to the slings.

4) Nudging hard enough to trip the pops can keep your ball in the jets longer.

5) The goal is not to really move the machine (well it can be, but not typically), you're simply adding kinetic energy to increase the degree of bounce you're getting off posts, etc. So you don't want to grab and shove, it's really just a "pop".

6) Beware "popping" your palm into the corner of the lockbar. Serious bruising can result.

That's all the gunching advice I have for now.

This is hard, because it's not always possible. But here's what you're doing:

You're slapping the machine (on the flipper button) on the side closest to the ball. So when the ball is coming down slightly to the right of dead centre (if it's truly dead centre you're pooched, unless the tilt is extremely lax) you want to slap the right flipper button hard enough for the tip of your flipper to just catch enough of the ball so you can immediately slap the left flipper and get enough of the ball to take it out of danger. It's a quick 1-2 slap-slap, a tip then dig.

_{Post edited by SeanLind : spelling}

If the ball is coming SDTM, you can usually get away with a double danger slide. It helps if you put one of your feet on one of the legs, and kind of twist your ankle(less painful than it sounds) to force the machine to move a lot very quickly. If the legs are taped or something, same theory, just one good hard shove to the tip of one flipper. When the ball just reaches the very tip, hitting the flipper will often just send the ball straight sideways. This is when you need to hit the other flipper right afterward. It is commonplace to seemingly hit both flippers at once when actually you are rapidly hitting one after the other to save. After a lot of practice this becomes natural, even during intense multiballs.

As for outlane nudging, it's all about the little bumps. If you bump the machine really hard just as the ball hits the post between the lanes, without actually moving the machine significantly, you should avoid a danger, because the pendulum doesn't care how sharp an impact is, it only cares how far the machine moves. One other thing that you'll see advanced players do is to actually nudge the ball towards the outlane. Especially when you can tell the ball is about to hit the side wall on really open outlanes, giving the machine a good hard sharp nudge right when the ball meets the side wall(or rubber post above the outlane) will often make the ball bounce right out of the outlane. It is pretty impressive when you see it done.

My favourite type of game for practicing nudging is an old EM with little flippers. Due to the slower, floatier nature of these games, even a novice can see major results from a sharp upward shove that barely moves the tilt pendulum, like when trying to nudge the ball to a certain top lane. I can reliably make a ball bounce about 150% as high as it would have when bouncing off the top of a rubber post on these games, you have to think about it at first but after a while you get the feel for it. Also, wide outlanes often found on ems make good practice for bouncing the ball off the outer wall.

You have the right idea but you're combining two different nudges. When the ball is going down the middle, you want to move the table left or right (the slap/slide/nudge part) so the the ball, relatively, is now within reach of a flipper, not so you can impart extra oomph to the flipper rubber.

When you're doing outlane nudging and trying to get the ball out of that area, you ARE trying to add that little extra oomph to ensure the ball doesn't settle there, but bounces out.

Not instructional. Bowen's videos on pinball.org are really good and cover most everything.

I will probably do a part 2 on the nudging at some point. I just finished a new camera rig so I can start recording my home games. I want to do some where I'm recording the game overhead but also have a camera on the tilt bob so people can see both at the same time.

let me try, but on simple and quick mode:

-put the palms on the machine if you want, but without the weight of the body on them.

-to nudge: hit the machine on the side you want the ball to go to. hit on the right, ball goes to your right. hit left....

-hit the machine with a fast slap. no letting you body's weight get into the machine.

-to execute a 'slap save' to stop a SDTM, most of the times you have to do a half an inch drag on the machine. just a little drag, and very quick. most of the times you get away with it.

it depends on the machine and your skill.
what i always do to improve my skills at any machine is try to figure out all the possibilities of all shots. so you know what you can and cannot do. because every missed shot is a potential drain.
do you know what i am saying? for instance on you jackbot, figure out trying a million times if it is possible or not to backhand the ramp with the ball stopped. cuzz if it isnt, and if you try it anyway you will get the ball out of control. so you know in advance you cannot do it

good skill is needed of course.
on my congo, the backhand shot of the left ramp with the ball stopped was impossible. i tried it a bunch of times and i knew i couldnt do it.
then one day i changed all the rubbers. so i went to try all the possibilities again and hey.. the backhand of the left ramp became possible! LOL
this means every tinny adjustment can change some details that you can use at your advantage..

My theory on backhanding is that one of the reasons it's often safer than fore-handing certain shots is because there's less side to side momentum when done from a trap. The other reason is because a backhand shot tends to have less power than a fore-hand shot. Less power + less side to side momentum means that if you miss, the ball is less likely to go flying around like crazy.

Doesn't mean that backhanding on the fly is never good, though. I have seen players backhand the left ramp on ACDC on the fly over and over no problem. As with anything, the more consistent your shooting, the more options open up.

I was just about to recommend this video!

When I am lazy as hell and don't give a shit I tend to lean on the table. If I know I am going to have to "play hard" and will be nudging like crazy I have almost no weight on the table and tend to physically move around a lot more. Pinball is way more physical, and calls for a lot more finesse, than a lot of people realize.

On the flip side, in competition I tend to muscle the machines into a tilt a LOT.

Definitely agree. Horizontal + speed vs. vertical. IMO you can sometimes predict what the ball is going to do off a cross flipper (and make it a little less hairy) utilizing basic billiard's style geometry on some tables. WPT's bank targets are a super obvious example of this. They become very controllable and rarely give a random result if you get a feel for the machine and just work the possible trajectory out in your head. They don't have to become random, scary, uncontrollable shit you hit while going for other stuff. *shrug* 2-cents nobody asked for.

I think the biggest barrier to nudging is mental. At the start you have to consciously force yourself to do it and do it consistently, so it stops being a decision and becomes a reflex.

once it becomes a reflex, trial and error will identify what you do it what situation. It becomes rote in a way, but it can't unless you do it.

I come to the same realization as you earlier this year that I needed to be a little more aggressive is seeking control over the ball. I am still much the wailer, but do use more control than I did.

Unconscious incompetence-you do not know how bad you are.
Conscious incompetence-you are aware of how bad you are.
Conscious competence-you are getting better while thinking about what to do.
Unconscious competence-you are better without needing to think about it any longer.

The natural order of developing any skill. Sounds like you are between 2 and 3 and moving onto four in due course.

Dan

I made a new video and slowed it down as much as the software would left me.

so cool videos

I watch my wife and kids play, and they stand over the machines, on their palms.

To me you must stand back and watch the ball come to you, see what’s going on, be at one (maybe). I think it’s a bit like playing tennis, make the machine part of you.

PS I suck at nudging too!!

Awesome. So it's quite clear that you slap the side that you want the ball to move towards. You also slap it at the same time as you want to flip it. That's cleared it up perfectly. Now to practice!

I agree with whoever said to overuse nudging techniques until it becomes instinctive then rein it back to only use when really needed. I suppose it helps to adjust your tilt settings for practicing too.

The reason it's a slap is that you need to use the flipper button at the same time. The only way to do this is to have your hand open which results in you slapping the side of the game. Otherwise it's a nudge pure and simple.
You need to be balanced in your stance. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction so if you are not firmly planted all you'll do is push yourself the other way (the machine having more mass than most of us, Todd excepted!).
An upward nudge increases the speed the ball contacts the rubber resulting in more ball movement. This is why an upward movement can often remove the ball from an outlane as it reacts with the rubber dividing the lanes, often bouncing right out of the area!
You can sometines counter the tilt if you've nudged heavily (or intend to) by nudging back the opposite way so contering the swing of the tilt bob.

None of this worked last night on Avatar!

playing visual pinball also helps. because you start to realise when and where to nudge faster than playing real pin.

i always know when and where to nudge. the real problem is finding how much can you do it on every machine. some machines let you drag the machine half a meter to the side and others give you a tilt just by coughing too hard

You must be deeply rooted in the Tau, young Grasshopper.

I have a hard time nudging on my Indy. I am sure it has something to do with either the pinball sitting on carpet or the front leg adjusters are all the way down but the thing just doesnt move. I slap it and it doesn't budge. I have put wood flooring samples from Home Depot under the legs to get it from sinking into the carpet and it has helped a lil bit but not much.

That video is both educational AND comically brilliant! Thanks for both elements.

You could always loosen the legs so that you can spring it around without the legs moving.

hmm that may work; you mean loosen the leg bolts? I don't want the legs to move much and mess up my cab. I am sure when I put the bolts on I tightened them as much as possible.

I just loosened the leg bolts a bit and WOW thats a big difference. It moves!

If you're playing in competition and you get a crappy ball, like a couple flips and then a side drain, you can intentionally give the machine a good shake to try and generate a warning. That way you'll have an idea of how sensitive it is. You'll also leave the bob swinging a little for the next guy, and if he's impatient and jumps right on instead of letting it settle, you get a little advantage.

haha!! never heard that one

i only entered a competition once. it was a small local tournament for guys of a portuguese forum.
i was so nervous i didnt even pay attention to the tilt. i simply didnt do any hard nudges at all.. i dont know way.. maybe the stress? lol
anyway i won the tournament muahhahahahahah

Stance is very important!

PorkChopExpress

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This why you will see the next player take time before playing. I have heard it said that the bob can swing for up to 3 minutes.