Double flips and other bad habits

[chuckwurt]

@Silverball

If I hold both up in a ‘defensive’ position, the gap is smaller so less drains.

I want to know if this technique is the dreaded ‘double flip’ and if so what to do instead??

Well if the ball is perfectly going straight down the middle, no flipping will save you. If the tilt allows you want to do a slide save to get the ball over to one of the flippers. If tighter tilt, a slap save will move the ball to one side just a hair to be able to get a piece of the flipper on the ball. When going perfectly straight down the middle I like to slap the game from one side on the flipper button, getting a piece of the flipper on the ball and then letting the ball dead bounce off the other flipper on a deflection.

@michi

A pinball mate of mine recently told me about his “Zen of pinball”. He said “you need to care just enough about the results to almost not care.” Unfortunately, I don’t have any real suggestions for how to get into that state.

I call it perfect drunk. For me it’s around 6-8 beers. The perfect mix of confidence without too much loss of your wits. Haha

[Silverball]

That makes sense - thanks.

Just been watching Bowen play AC/DC ( Encore tutorial ) and occasionally it looks like both flippers in the up position?

At this point the gap between flippers is at it’s smallest so less chance it goes down the middle?

I don’t do slap saves so think I need to learn from your observations.

[joe]

A big problem with having a flipper raised — especially both of them — is that any non-lateral motion of the flipper is moving in the wrong direction (toward the drain). You want to be poised to hit the ball away from the drain as much as possible. Even if holding both flippers allows you to deflect a wannabe SDTM ball, now what? You can only hope the ball bounces someplace favorable, you have limited ability to help that happen.

Not saying the double flip will never work, but I’d rather have my flippers ready for attack.

[Silverball]

You have just described one of my draining issues!

I am trying to watch what the ball does in practice to evaluate if the ball drains because of poor play as opposed to bad luck.

I am aware that a fair few drains are when the flipper was raised and as it drops, the ball follows it SDTM! Exactly as you described.

So, what is the ‘cure’ to this type of drain?

Flip early? Try and get a bounce pass instead?

[JSZ]

Bounce passes work a lot more often than you might think. Best to experiment and see for yourself.

If lowering the flipper on impact leads sdtm the ball was probably coming from the flipper’s “backhand” side in which case a live catch is often a good call.

Also I want to mention that the flipper gap is not smallest when flippers are raised, it is the smallest it can be if both flippers are horizontal, ie. pointing directly at each other.

[Silverball]

Thanks.

So, practicing live catches and slap saves seems the way forward.

Loop passes are something I don’t try but maybe that is another technique for that kind of ball?

[JSZ]

For a loop pass to happen I find that in addition to the proper trajectory the ball also needs enough velocity. But definitely a good skill to have.