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#2 - Four Playing Tips

A Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·17m 23s·analyzed·Aug 27, 2020
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.019

TL;DR

Four intermediate pinball tips: slow play, quiet eye aiming, bailout shots, and multiball management.

Summary

A Pinball Podcast episode #2 focuses on four intermediate-to-advanced playing tips: understanding your play style and avoiding playing too fast, using the quiet eye technique for aim and hand-eye coordination, identifying bailout shots for ball control, and managing multiball modes effectively by trapping up after ball save expires. The host emphasizes that slowing down gameplay and maintaining control significantly improves performance, especially under tournament pressure.

Key Claims

  • The vast majority of pinball players play too fast and don't slow down enough for themselves

    medium confidence · Host observes this from watching players at different locations and competitions; states it's a widespread pattern he's witnessed

  • The quiet eye technique—gazing at a target for 2-4 seconds before shooting—has been studied and shown to significantly improve outcomes in tasks requiring visual attention

    medium confidence · Host cites research on the quiet eye technique and applies it to pinball aiming; acknowledges the technique comes from other fields like baseball

  • Ball save durations in high-level tournament play are often much shorter than default (3-5 seconds or even zero during certain multiball modes)

    high confidence · Host references specific experience with Iron Maiden machines thanks to Josh Sharp; notes variability across games and tournament setups

  • Most players cannot effectively play full multiballs on the fly with multiple balls simultaneously

    medium confidence · Host acknowledges he is not capable of this and expects most listeners won't be either; frames it as a very difficult skill

  • Playing under control during multiball opens up additional skill sets and gameplay options (cradle separations, defensive tactics) that are unavailable when playing purely on the fly

    medium confidence · Host explains multiball management strategy and the tactical advantages of controlled play post-ball-save

Notable Quotes

  • “I have a red light. So I know when I start to get out of control, that red light clicks on, and I know I need to get under control.”

    Host @ ~04:00 — Host's personal mental model for recognizing when play speed is unsustainable; illustrates the self-awareness technique he recommends

  • “When you're just trying to get over that hump in terms of getting a certain GC or getting over a certain score threshold, it's important to remind yourself not to play too fast, to take your time, to pick out your shots.”

    Host @ ~05:00 — Core teaching point: slowing down is essential for progression and breaking through scoring plateaus

  • “There's no way I have yet to meet a great blind pinball player...so something like that is very important to do.”

    Host @ ~08:00 — Emphasizes that visual attention is non-negotiable in pinball; reinforces why quiet eye technique matters

  • “When that ball save goes off, it's time to stop being a crazy person. That's where you need...you've done the work to get extra balls out there.”

    Host @ ~17:30 — Clear transition point in multiball strategy: aggressive play during ball save, controlled play after

  • “If you work that hard...you work that hard to get into a multiball, you want to stay in multiball as long as you can, advance and get things set up.”

    Host @ ~22:00 — Emphasizes the strategic value of prolonging multiball through control rather than flashy play

Entities

Josh SharppersonWalking DeadgameIron MaidengameMetallicagameGuardians of the GalaxygameA Pinball Podcastorganization

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Host provides educational podcast content on intermediate pinball skill development, positioning the show as a resource for players looking to improve from intermediate to advanced levels

    high · Episode structure, depth of gameplay instruction, invitation for listener feedback at apenballpodcasts@gmail.com

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.052

0:00
Welcome everybody to episode two of a pinball podcast. I appreciate you guys being here today. And today what we're going to talk about is something that I feel is going to bring a lot of value to you as the viewer or listener of the show. And we're going to talk about a few basic tips that's going to help you kind of improve your pinball game almost instantaneously. And these aren't necessarily novice tips. I'm going to assume if you're watching this, if you're listening, you understand, you know, catching, you understand, you understand dead bouncing, you understand the very basics that you need in order to be a halfway competent pinball player. and if you don't know those things yet it's perfectly fine we'll discuss that another episode but this is going to be specifically for people that are more intermediate some advanced and it's kind of melding those two things together and these are just a few things i want you to think about that will help you get over initial frustrations or any frustrations you might have in your game right now. And so basically the way that I like to define how I discuss different pinball skills is I like to go through a proficiency scale, which is novice, intermediate, advanced, and expert. And we all know basically who the experts of the field are in terms of gameplay and rule knowledge. But I feel like a lot of us do fall in the intermediate to advanced category, especially those that play in tournaments. But these tips can apply and can bring value to you, even if you're playing at home amongst your friends or family. So if you want to impress your wife, your kids, or your husband and your kids, or just impress yourself, I believe these tips will help you out. All right. So number one, make sure that you understand what your play style is. And what I really recommend is not playing too fast. And what I mean by this is there's basically two play styles you can essentially do. And you can technically do a hybrid of these, but you're either going to play on the fly or you're going to be under control.
2:17
Now, what happens is that a lot of people tend to play on the fly very early in their pinball careers or very early when they pick up the game. It's not natural to really want to stop because it's quite frankly maybe not as fun for a lot of people. I know for me, I enjoy playing on the fly when I'm at home, but I recognize too in a competitive setting, there's no way that I can possibly do this for any amount of time and have any type of success with it. So it's important to understand that whenever you do start playing and you want to start getting to the next level, you have to understand what your play style is and whether or not that's being successful for you and most likely the vast majority of people are probably playing too fast i know the vast majority of people that i've watched at different locations at different competitions they didn't ever tend to slow the game down for themselves and you're already dealing with a semi-high pressure situation or some situation that where you have some type of external pressure to perform. And when you're not slowing it down for yourself, there's just a lot of unintentional chaos that you're creating out there on the play field that's not going to really be helpful for you as a player in terms of maximizing or optimizing your ability to actually play that game. And a lot of times in your head, what I would recommend, and I do this all the time when I play, is I have a red light. So I know when I start to get out of control, that red light clicks on, and I know I need to get under control. I'm constantly reminding myself to play under control, because if I have control and I can get a ball and a flipper, I can actually start aiming. I can actually survey the play field. I don have to actively try to multitask several things at one time such as shooting an orbit or shooting a ramp and knowing that it going to score this and knowing that going to lead to that And that does come in due time especially when you get more advanced in your rule set knowledge But when you're just trying to get over that hump in terms of getting a certain GC or getting over a certain score threshold, it's important to remind yourself not to play too fast, to take your time, to pick out your shots. And that'll allow you to do something that I've worked on for years and years, especially through baseball. And what that's called is the quiet eye technique. Now, reading directly from my notes, basically what the quiet eye technique is, it's a tech, excuse me there. The quiet eye technique is a technique that improves outcomes in various tasks requiring human visual attention. Now, unfortunately, that technique obviously does not help a dry mouth, which is what I'm having right now. So let me give me one second. I'm going to sip on some Mountain Dew here, the breakfast of champions.
5:21
All right, we're all good now. So quiet eye technique, technique that improves outcomes in various tasks requiring human visual attention.
5:31
And so what this means is, is it's a technique that has been studied. And there's there's all kinds of information out there about it. And just to break it down in the simplest ways, it just means that when you have a ball cradled on a flipper, you gaze or look at the target that you're wanting to hit for two to four seconds. And then you look back at the flipper and then you can take your shot. Now, the research has shown that people that do this and they do this consistently and they train this, they have a significant advantage over people that don't perform these tasks and it really links up your hand-eye coordination especially when you know pinball itself it requires nothing but visual attention there's no way i have yet to meet a great blind pinball player they might be out there haven't met him yet so something like that is very important to do and it also helps you as well that whenever you are slowing the game down and you are looking at your target and you are taking your aim you're going to be able to to perform better under pressure you're going to have those moments because it's it's easy for anybody that has a game at home you're going to obviously put up massive scores you're going to understand the geometry really well you're going to understand the bounces really well you're going to know practically everything about that machine because you played enough times, it becomes second nature, right? Well, you also have no pressure either.
7:10
But when you're in a competition, you're usually going to play a pin that you don't have any experience on, or if you do have experience, it's going to be very little with the way that it's set up. You're going to be performing under pressure as well because you need to outpace at the bare minimum two other players to keep your head above water. So, you know, these are things to consider, especially when you're looking at aiming. So don't play too fast. Slow down a little bit. Utilize a quiet eye technique, which we will go into greater detail in another video. But basically just cradle up, look at where you're going to shoot, take your time, and then take your shot.
7:55
So what we get into next is, is actively know what your bailout shots are. And a lot of people don't necessarily know what a bailout shot is.
8:09
And what it is, or how I define it, is basically any place that's on the play field that I can actively put a ball at. If I know I can't come to a trap, or I don't feel confident enough that I'm going to slow the ball down enough to cradle it, that I have to go ahead and put it back out on the play field. But I also recognize there's really no shot in this direction that going to necessarily progress me in my gameplay for whatever mode I in or whatever it could be So I try to find parts of the play field that I feel I can put the ball at and it won cause as much chaos as if I put the ball somewhere else. Basically, it's the safest place to park a ball, even if it's no points, just so that way I can work to get the ball under control. So that's really important. And what my bailout shots might be for one particular game, it may not be what yours is. a lot of the times i'll take walking dead for instance one of the bailout shots i really do like especially when it's coming to the left flipper is to simply aim for the upper part of the well walker i typically like to do that simply because i'm keeping the ball vertical i'm not going horizontal i am making a little bit of progress possibly towards well walker multi ball and i don't have to worry about the ball randomly hitting any post or anything like that so there's a lot less variance if I'm parking the ball there as opposed to randomly hitting it towards the right ramp, towards the arena shot. In which case there's, what, maybe two posts there. I mean, it's a really, really close shot. And that just tends to send the ball into disarray, especially if you miss that shot. So that's, that's basically one thing to consider that on any game that you're playing, think about where your bailout shots are. Think about where you can hit the ball to whenever you do feel yourself getting out of control, but yet you have to put the ball somewhere. So that's a very, very important skill that I feel if a lot of people really start focusing in on that, your gameplay would improve drastically just overnight.
10:23
The next thing, and pretty much what the last tip would be on this for today, would be multi-ball management. I see a lot of people using multiball to basically just slam on the gas and just go. And that's correct. In nearly all instances, that's the absolute correct thing to do while your ball save is on. That's while your ball save is on. When that ball save goes off, it's time to stop being a crazy person. That's where you need, you've done the work to get extra balls out there on the play field, which obviously if you have extra pinballs out there, you can stay alive a little bit longer. The longer you stay alive, the more points and the more opportunity you create for yourself to progress further in the game, which is very important. So when it comes to multi-ball management, what I like to do is I will play on the fly, until my ball save goes off. And I'll either be looking actually at the ball save if I don't know what the timing is of it, or I'll be counting it down in my head while I'm playing. Once I start redlining and getting to that point to where I know the ball save is about to go off, that's when I'll start thinking about trapping up.
11:48
And to me, that's so important to do that you understand the ball save. Because a lot of these times, if you're playing in high-level competition and you get into a multi-ball, most of the time your ball save won't be the full normal default ball save. It might be three to five seconds at most. I've played on some Iron Maidens,
12:10
thanks to Josh Sharp, that basically had no ball saves whatsoever during certain multi-ball modes. So you want to really keep that in mind as well. And when we're talking about multi-ball management, once you do trap up, you know you're the the value that you're able to or the way that you're able to optimize your gameplay at that point is really important because then that's when you're able to pick out your shots that's when you can start thinking about cradle separations think about control you can think about defensive tactics whenever a ball's out of control and you know it's going to drain you could use another ball to basically be like a mini missile and deflect it from draining i mean And those are some skills that you can start developing over time and you can start applying especially when you under control So keep in mind when the ball save goes off and you under control you actually open up a lot of the game and a lot of other skill sets that otherwise wouldn't be there if you were completely playing just on the fly the whole entire time.
13:19
And I will say, in general, you do want to be under control. there are some people that are able to play full multi balls on the fly. Quite frankly, I'm not one of them. And you'll find that most likely you won't be one of them either. And that's perfectly okay. Cause it's, it's a very hard thing to do when you're having to multitask two, three, four balls at one time, sometimes even more.
13:50
Thus you want to really keep that in mind. So trap up, find your shots, You want to make sure that everything you do has a purpose. Does that make sense for everybody? I mean, it makes total sense for me. And the multiball management to me is that much more important because it definitely can make or break your game. If you work that hard, like I said earlier, you work that hard to get into a multiball, you want to stay in multiball as long as you can, advance and get things set up. So that way, once you get out of multiball, you can be able to have something ready to go, whether it's dropping down targets, adding on to your bonus X at the end, whether it's getting a multiplier ready to go, whether it's collecting certain parts of the play field. Like take Metallica, for instance. You could collect different inserts there. Grave, was it Sparky?
14:48
I'm drawing a blank on the other ones. I'm sure somebody knows it out there. You guys know what I'm talking about. You can get those and order Snake. That's the other one I'm thinking of. You can get those in order to advance to another mode with your crank it up mode. So that's something to really think about, and that's something to really keep in mind. Guardians of the Galaxy is another prime example. If you're in any type of multiball, you can combo up a lot of shots as well. Increase your jackpots. Get multipliers on things. Get modes completed much easier. These are all things that you can actively do if you simply just play under control. so going back and here I go saying so a lot of times again going back and reviewing over everything really quick keep in mind what is your play style are you playing too fast it's more than likely you are make sure you find something that works for you if playing on the fly works for you that's great still find ways to improve on that that's very important next thing is is whenever you do get cradled up, take more than a couple of seconds to look at where you're shooting. Your accuracy will improve. It may not happen with that one shot. I guarantee you do that 50, 75, 100 times in a row, you'll find your accuracy goes up. Very, very important to do. Fell out shots, make sure you know where they're at. Don't worry about, you know, making too many mistakes or anything like that. Just find your shots that you know you can park the ball at, even if there's no points there, in order to keep the ball from going out of control. Very important. And lastly, multi-ball management. Make sure you understand what the ball saves are, how long they are, and understand how to trap up and keep the balls under control. Those things right there, they'll help you out a lot. This is the perfect time to practice on it, especially if you're at home, you got pinball machines there. You can do this. Simple, just work at it, you'll get better. I appreciate you guys being here. That's going to be it for today. You guys can contact me at apenballpodcasts at gmail.com with thoughts, comments, whatever it could be. Good luck with those tips. Hope it works out for you guys. You guys have anything else? Just let me know. There's obviously plenty of other tips to go over. There's a vast array of ideas, and it's almost like once you figure something out, it opens up a whole other world of other options you could do. Other than that, you guys take care. Thank you guys so much for watching, and I'll talk to you guys soon. Later, guys.