so what @Adam is calling a “stern catch” is basically the standard on a gottlieb system 3?
No. A “gottlieb catch” is different. For that one you do:
step 1: hold up the flipper any time before the ball arrives
step 2: watch the ball stop on the flipper, lol
The “Stern” catch, which I still contend is unique to modern Stern inlane design is raising your flipper at just the right moment just before the ball arrives from the inlane such that the ball looses all of its forward momentum and (some of the energy is transferred to backspin, it seems) stops on the flipper for a catch. The post isn’t involved at all in this maneuver, so it’s definitely a different type of catch.
There is yet another until-now-unnamed way to catch the ball on a flipper for some designs and that is the “wicked shimmy catch”. Just as you would try and shimmy a ball from the outlane by walking it back up into play, the wicked shimmy catch can work on inlanes that are mostly vertical (think of the right inlane on The Addams Family or the right inlane on Spiderman) where you shimmy the ball as it travels down the inlane and remove enough of its momentum so that the ball will stop on your flipper. We could also name this the “Rosa catch” because both Andy and Andrew excel at this maneuver and use it all the time.
To round out all the ways you can catch a ball on a flipper, let’s not forget the “Magna catch” on World Cup Soccer. It doesn’t work on all World Cup Soccers, but it does work on most. If you shoot the left ramp and fire off the magna grab before the ball arrives, the magnet will grab the ball for a trap on the left flipper. This can be super useful for hitting one of the all time most important shots in pinball - the scoop to start multiball. Some players prefer to hit this scoop on-the-fly from a left ramp feed, but if you’re better at hitting the scoop from a cradle, the magna-catch is definitely the way to go. Note, too, you can do the “backdoor magna catch”, too, lol, which is plunging, and holding the right flipper up for a ski pass to the left and then firing the magna grab, and that too will often end with the ball trapped on the left. The anti-thesis to all of these catches on World Cup Soccer is that when the game goes into ball search, it fires this magna grab magnet, so if you are comfortably cradled on the left and for some reason (usually a trough issue) the game goes into ball search, watch the ball fling out of your cradle and back into play, lol. Good times.
And as always, YMMV!
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can you go further into what the mechanism is by which the ball is losing momentum or clarify the specific timing? Is it the flipper rubber hitting the ball to slow it down? something like the p3 inlane to opposite flipper transfer with the inlane guide itself exerting some force? any clips you can think of off-hand or players to look at?
I think Adam already captured it: back spin. There’s likely also some of the physical momentum being slowed down as well from hitting the heel of the flipper rubber. Note: to get the ball to a full cradle, you often have to couple this skill with a micro-flip as the ball is near the tip of the flipper.
what is imparting the back spin? or is it already there when the ball’s in the inlane? if you have to do a micro-flip to stop the ball then it sounds like you haven’t succeeded at @Adam 's ‘stern catch’ since the micro-flip is usually enough on its own?
i have seen that move more and more, i feel like Jason used it quite a bit at INDISC and i saw a player for Portland doing it at our event last weekend on BKSOR to increase success of doing a post catch with a slower ball. Interesting concept for sure.
From what I’m seeing and feeling its not about spin. It feels and behaves like with Live Catches and the timing is also the same. I guess the friction also slows down the ball. Watch how smooth the ball will roll up the flipper after the manouver and this even can work better than in those examples.
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Indeed. It could very well be a “micro” live catch. Perhaps when the ball comes off the inlane guide it’s briefly “airborn” and if you raise the flipper at just the right time, you’re live catching with the back of the flipper near the crook. Your “Ostemeier” examples are gorgeous! Well done.
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Perhaps part of the effect is the dampening from the flipper rubber which in the now classic slow-mo video can be seen to be flapping around whenever the flipper is activated without the weight of the ball slowing it down - eg around 10:26 in this timestamped link
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Hey there, some thoughts come to mind.
More and more I see players on-the-fly-shatzing balls into the opposite inlane when the ball nearly would go down the middle. I wonder whats the benefit of aiming into the inlane vs slapping it into a trap on the opposite flipper. With a perfect shatz the ball often shoots up the inlane fast right into chaos or its coming back down again at high speed, making it hard to get back in control or making a safe shot.
Can you tell me why you prefer on-fly-shatzes vs other teniques like single hand slap saves or nudge passes? All three techniques puts the ball onto the opposite side so the “pass” can’t be the reason here.
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i do like single flipper slap save into the inlane, not a perfect Shatz for the reason you mentioned below so sometime that is what happens 
I often end up doing a slow 2 flippers slap save, raising the opposite flipper the same way i do when i Shatz in case i hit the bottom of the sling shot and it rebounds dangerously.
Thats exactly what I’m doing also.
As I’m working on the upcoming tutorial a question comes up and pinside is not able to help and I don’t want to get this wrong.
ALIGNMENT HOLES on Bally/Williams machines.
- Ignore the holes, align the flippers with the inlane guides?
- Align the flipper with rubbers on with the help of a toothpick at the hole?
- Align the flipper without rubbers with the help of a toothpick at the hole?
I KNOW that on Stern machines the holes are key to best alignment (tip of the flipper pointing at hole), since i heard an interview where Keith was stating this.
I also know that the alignment affects how strong the flippers are on certain shots etc, and that there should- if possible- be no flipper hop.
Anyone knows what’s right on Bally/Williams machines?
Please don’t tell me what works for you, I’ve had enough of those 
Maybe someone who worked on those games can explain it to me?
cheers
Are you sure that all sterns are supposed to point at the holes? I’d talk to every designer to be sure their intent. I seem to remember Ritchie saying he adjusts his flippers with the lane guides.
The most important thing about adjusting flipper position, imo, is explaining how the power moves to a different part of the flipper depending on the position of the flipper.
Sellout Flipper Alignment - #2 by sk8ball
But, other interviews with Stern designers have specifically said ignore the holes. I think Gomez with aligning deadpool, and certainly he who shall not be named on GB.
I don’t know the answer to the BW question, but one description I read said said you put the metal alignment rod between the rubber and flipper (so the touching the flipper bat version) and the rubber will hold it in place while you tighten the set screws. It seemed clever, although I don’t know if it is true.
I believe there are also setup instructions on some games (SAM era sterns) that say to use a straight edge to align with the lane guide.
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Thanks for that, however this is from 2015. Maybe Keith has changed his view these days, at least for his own games. As he was stating- these points took him the longest to get right out of the whole PF-design process.
@chuckwurt
You are right, I have no idea about the Stern alignment holes other than Keiths interview.
However, I`m quite sure the last 3 years releases where pretty much all aligned at the holes, at least for the titles I have owned so far.
I wanted to give some advice on how to align the flippers in the tutorial. Instead I think I will only explain how to deal with different alinged flippers, regarding gameplay.
Thanks!
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Yeah I think this is the play since we’ve seen designer intent can be hard to track down.
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Tempted to throw in my 2 cents, but it sounds like you already decided. One thing many Pinsiders get wrong is leveling a game properly. Any thoughts on doing a video about that Abe? I’m sure there would be some disagreement on that too, but I suspect we could come to a consensus.
New info is always welcome! Regarding leveling and other machine adjustments, I think it would be nice to do some tech tutorials on youtube too. As you stated there a different opinions, thats also a reason I tried to avoid some of those topics in the past. Leveling (pitch, not side to side), doesn’t affect the gameplay too much imo. Flipper alignment has a greater impact, if the game isn’t totally jacked up or floaty, thats why i think im not getting into it regarding gameplay.
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Align with the lane guides on Bally Williams. Games play like butt if you don’t imo.
Deffinitly, never, absolutely do not make the flipper higher than the guides at rest.
Some people will argue some games are supposed to be “flopped” / lower/ droopy-er than the guides, but I don’t see it. They feel correct to me aligned to the guides.
Also, no one likes flippers that are at different angles in the up position.
Pro tip.
To really dial in the flippers when you rebuild them, and get a perfect mirror match in the down and up position for both flippers:
Align the flipper of your choice to the ball guide, and fully tighten it down with the proper up down play.
Take the flipper you just tightened down and rotate it so it is at the top of its full stroke in the “cradle” position.
Take the other flipper, make it semi-tight in the pawl with still some ability to adjust - now rotate that 2nd flipper into the cradle position and make it perfectly match that first flipper so they have the same mirror angled cradle. (they now both look the same when both flipper buttons would be held and pressed).
Fully tighten the second flipper.
Now, at rest that second flipper may not be quite aligned with the ball guide. This is because of small variations in the flipper base plates. Take a pair of channel-lock pliers and very gently adjust/bend the stop-plate of the flipper baseplate until the flipper is in line with the ball guide.
Voila - you now have flippers that are mirror aligned in both the down and up-stroke position.
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