As Cayle mentioned above, I felt that playing one handed helps. It’s what basically forced me to learn dead bounces, live catches and when you look for ways to get the ball under control vs flipping it away.
1 Like
For me a big part of playing competitively is dealing with stress. I practice deep breathing, mentally visualizing my shots and strategies and getting into the practice of realizing that either I am in trouble (anticipation) with the ball on the PF, and dealing with it without raising any anxiety to the moment. If anxiety or stress is taking over I do my best to recognize my headspace and get to a trap or a safe place in the game and take a quick break.
Sometimes only 5 seconds is needed. Othertimes I’ll take 30 second break and a sip of water. A quick break that takes me away from the world under the glass and coming back with a “reset” makes all the difference sometimes.
Another thing that has really helped me is to change my visual perspective. If I am having trouble with a shot, I will take a lower “Lyman-like” stance. This helps me look up the PF and shoot “through” my shots as compared to just making a shot, missing, the raising of stress after multiple misses and… the rust takes over.
Hope this helps and as always, play more pinball!
2 Likes
One approach I take is to put myself under pressure by playing old style papa tickets against myself. I use denasi’s software to do this. At home it is so easy to have a bad game and just press start again. This way if you have a lousy game you ruin your ticket - it makes every game count. And competing against your best tickets is fun.
I can’t take credit for the idea, Cayle suggested something like this when I interviewed him on Pinheadz.
2 Likes
No real way other than spending money/time on tournies and competing. You will quickly find however your greatest learning experiences are if you get to playoffs final though.
Check out sections 11 thru 13 in this handout we gave to players of the first Pittsburgh pinball league 20+ years ago: http://wapinball.net/skillguide.pdf
2 Likes
Some of the best things I learned over the past year and a half (650-ish in rankings, PAPA 19 C 1st):
-
Pinball is equal parts physical (shots, nudges, control), mental (strategy, awareness), and emotional (staying calm vs. “Never Am I Ever expletive Lucky In This Hobbit League Game”). Master all 3 to become amazing.
-
Learn to play around others. You’ll have to wait a good amount, which can affect your play for better or worse.
-
Know the formats and adapt to them all. Best Game encourages risky but lucrative strategy, Old PAPA format encourages consistently good play, and the match play formats require you to adapt and change based on the situation.
-
If you don’t know a game, think if you’ve seen something similar you can work with. Stick with a strategy and see if you can pick up tips from your opponents as they play.
-
Play the emotional game well. Know when you’re feeling negative and know how to set the ship back on the right course. For some it might be waiting; take some time to breathe. For others it might be getting into another game to set the record straight.
-
Embrace your quirks! Whether you sweet talk games, play in a split, dance in a happy jig, or do anything else to get yourself pumped up, do it! We’re all allowed to be human.
There’s so many things to say, but like others here the biggest one is getting experience. Get out and play!
11 Likes
Thanks everyone for the input. She has read through and we have printed that document to study-it is really well done! We play in 2 leagues-one every 2 weeks and have our regular battles pretty much every day. We are at the stage where I can out score her most games, so at the moment we are playing a mini pingolf style challenge. 3 games, set one objective on each eg number of left ramps hit or bell hits or orbits etc and keep count of these. I think it helps with concentrating on accuracy rather than just going for highest scores-we leave that to league nights. Big comp night this Saturday with a junior division so we will see how it all goes!
5 Likes
Well look at that. All the advice worked. Took out first place in the junior division, 33rd out of 63 overall in the open division. Thanks again for all the help (I snuck in the finals in 14th but the bombed out)
23 Likes
Nice job! Keep up the great playing and keep having fun! 
great job, good to see new competitive player
Can I share this guide on a Facebook page with my newly formed Belles & Chimes League in Portland, Maine? We have a lot of new players who are looking to get better and this is an excellent guide. Most of the people in the league are not here on tiltforums yet, though I hope this will change in the future!
1 Like
Please feel free to share it as you wish.
Thanks!!
My advice would be, play with tilts set tight - NEVER restart a game if you have a bad first or second ball and play long hours.
A recent comp I entered, Qualifying started at 10am, I was finally knocked out at 2am the following morning. My stamina was definitely a factor.
How the hell @cayle played through to the final, and then went through to the final the following day is beyond me. My play on the second day was definitely compromised.
I actually disagree with this. You will never learn and nudging techniques this way. Best to get good at them on a loose tilt then slowly dial down to what you can get away with on a tight tilt as you get better.
10 Likes
My god, yes. IMO, one of the best things that PAPA ever did was to gradually move away from the ridiculously tight tilts they used to have and towards games that are actually playable. I remember a High Speed in B division many years ago that was so tight, a hit to the lockdown bar was risking a tilt. You basically just pushed the buttons and didn’t touch a thing. Other games would give warnings for flipping sometimes. It was awful. Eventually they learned other ways to make the games harder and the result is a better experience for everyone.
Bumping and nudging is a distinct skill and one of the many vectors of good, well-rounded play.
4 Likes
Interesting, that must be one of the things I’m doing wrong.
I never seem to be able to adjust from “home tilts” to comp tilts
If you have your own machines and you’re wanting to practice for Pinburgh, PAPA, FlipOut or other larger, established tournaments, set some/all of your games up like they’re setup at these competitions: 8 degrees of incline, sensitive and strong slings, strong flippers, conservative outlanes, rubbered/nerfed shots where applicable. It is generally more difficult to gain control of the ball on a tournament machine - learn to play more ‘on the fly’ and rely less on repetitive, controlled play. Learn alternate strategies so you’re prepared if the TD boogers up your ‘go-to’ shot on a particular game. If you’re used to this type of setup, you won’t be blindsided by tournament games and will do better.
3 Likes
You mean that SW we played in league isn’t a good setup to practice comp pinball? 
You mean the “fourteen doc-ock-multiballs” Spider Man? Beautiful machine, but yea, you can’t let the right flipper go up further than factory, and certainly not with a loose tilt…
1 Like