I used to be no-nudge player until I came back to pinball in the 21st century after a 20-year hiatus. I don't see why there's anything wrong with it as long as it's not overly damaging. If you don't do it, then pinball really does become a true game of change, with the only thing you can control is the flippers. Nudging it makes it a more "athletic" game, giving you more control over where the ball does (or, sometimes keeping it from going where it shouldn't).

I've got gentle nudging to a point where I can keep at least 50% of balls headed for the side outlanes in play. I wish I could master technique nudging techniques to keep balls from going straight down the middle.

Forgive my ignorance of pinball terminology, but can you please explain what each of these strategies are and how they're done (and, yes, I did look up both terms on pinside and on the web and didn't get an adequate answer).