Practicing drop catches...

[pinballguru]

Pull the glass from the (any) game for your practice session.

[pinballcorpse]

Metallica seems a good modern game candidate for drop catches and dead bounces. Lots of shots up the middle coming back to the flippers. Also the scoop feeds (snake and mystery) sometimes offer that opportunity.

In following what @Snailman stated, combinations of flipper tricks are often useful on certain games. Drop catches to tap pass to opposite flipper can be useful (assuming the game is tap pass friendly).

[Law]

Wizard - Multimorphic, Inc

Just sayin’ - if you want to practice drop catches for five minutes or an hour straight there’s a way.

For now, if there’s an operator or owner near you with a Cannon Lagoon module you might want to see if they’re interested in getting into the early access program.

[PinballNarcissist]

@Snailman

One other comment on a consistently great use of the drop catch: partial ramp shot rejects. Partial ramp rejects happen on EVERY modern machine, so it’s good to have a plan on how to deal with them. Often, on friendly ramp rejects, the ball will go back to the forehand flipper that just shot the ramp. There are three typical player responses to this:

Natural tendency: one-timer on-the-fly shot back at the ramp again. Unless you’ve got a great feel already for this ramp reject, it’s angle, and timing of the flip needed to send the ball back to the ramp, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Dead bounce: but in this situation, it’s likely not the best option for two reasons… (a) a successful DB will result in a shot or cradle on the opposite flipper, so you won’t be set up to try that ramp again (I’m assuming that the rejected ramp is indeed the best shot to be making at this point), and (b) ramp rejects typically have a lot of speed, and the DB might go “high” and bounce to the opposite sling, putting the ball out of control.

Drop Catch: this gives you a more controlled shot right back at the ramp you failed to hit the first time and need/want to shoot.

Or if you’re Henderson, Robert, or Raymond, you live catch like some sort of lunatic when the ball is coming from the opposite side of the playfield.

[joe]

@Hepatitis_B_Good

Live catches came very naturally to me […] I still suck at drop catches.

Funny, I’m the exact opposite… I always found drop catches easy and use them constantly, but my live catches suck. I should really take this hint to go dedicate practice time to them. Pinburgh approaches!

[phishrace]

@genex

Hey who is this?

Tony L. He was at INDISC and I’m guessing other events you’ve competed in. He’ll of a nice guy and awesome player.

[WxManBookie]

Here’s a great Crowd Source funded idea. A device that can be placed onto the playfield with a “hopper” that holds pinballs. It basically feeds pinballs onto the playfield (thinking via a remote switch or voice command), with speed that can be altered by a kicker with a potentiometer or something to that end. Sure a niche device, but it would be nice to have something I could quickly load up with pinballs and repeatedly practice the same flipper skill.

[djreddog]

We already have that. Apollo 13.

[jurfjurf]

I learned to drop catch out of the feed from the pops on Fast Break, which you get very frequently in that game, including off the plunge, which makes for a perfect skilled drop catch and then fire up the middle for your Tip-Off combo! Highly recommended.

[Frisbez]

I forced myself to learn to drop catch by playing Space Station.

I have found that the actual mechanics of drop catching are pretty easy and forgiving compared to live catches. I realized that I was already often doing drop catches on upper flippers (The Shadow feed from Khan scoop and sometimes on Spiderman). For me at least it was just a matter of forcing my brain not to automatically dead bounce.

[ChubbyGoomba]

This thread made me realize I’ve had the terms of drop catch and live catch backwards!

When is there advantage to drop catches versus live? I’m pretty good at live, sometimes I can even time it right so the ball stops dead on the flipper, but drop catches usually end with me sending the ball wild somewhere.

[Snailman]

@ChubbyGoomba

When is there advantage to drop catches versus live?

If you’re good at live catching and have found the live catch on a pin, always live catch.

But… it does depend on the angle the ball is approaching. Coming in line with the flipper (from its same side), then live catch. Coming across the flipper (from opposite side), then drop catch or dead bounce.

[metallik]

@Frisbez

I realized that I was already often doing drop catches on upper flippers (The Shadow feed from Khan scoop and sometimes on Spiderman).

I do this fairly often on Tron - a failed right ramp shot that rolls back can often be “drop-caught” on the UL flipper and sent back up the left orbit a few inches, setting up an easy gem or ramp shot as it rolls back down.