Coach Dad speaking.
Tip #1
Jason will write plenty of these. The first one's mine, because the first thing I ever taught him wasn't a flipper skill. It was a habit, and it's the same habit I'd drill into you if you were standing next to me: look at the machine before you touch it.
Most players walk up, hit start, and plunge. They start learning the machine during ball one, which is a very expensive classroom. Meanwhile the player who spent thirty seconds looking first is already ahead before the ball moves. In a tournament, that gap is the match.
The scan, in order:
- The flippers. Watch someone else play if you can, or note it fast on your first trap: strong or mushy? A weak flipper changes which shots are even worth attempting.
- The slope and the outlanes. Steep machines play fast and drain mean. Wide-open outlanes tell you to favor control over risk all game.
- The score display (DMD, LCD, etc.). What's lit, what's the machine begging you to shoot? Modern Pinball games (😉) tell you the strategy right on the display. Almost nobody reads it.
- Other players' drains. The machine is showing you exactly where it kills people. Free intelligence. Take it.
None of this requires Jason's hands. It's discipline, thirty seconds of it, and it's the difference between playing the machine and being a passenger on it. I taught it to a kid who couldn't see over the glass. It scaled up fine: three world championships in a row, plus a Pinburgh threepeat for good measure. He took it places I'm trying to follow.
A note from Jason
My dad asked me to say hello before his first email went out, so that you know I'm part of this too. He really did teach me to look at the machine before touching it, and I still do it before every game I play.
The next email will be mine. It will be about my hands, and about how often they are doing nothing on purpose. That sounds strange until you watch a ball bounce off a flipper that is not moving. If you want to try what I describe, everything will work at any level.
Still in the shooter lane
A few of the editions waiting to launch:
- The saves that look like magic (most drains only look unsaveable)
- How Jason qualifies #1 almost every time
- Energy management for 11-hour tournament days
- The Secret Tapes, and a few words from some people you've definitely heard of
No schedule. They launch when they're ready.
Warm up. Look. Then plunge.
Steve (and Jason, who you just heard from)
P.S. Yes, there are recordings Jason didn't know I was making. The Secret Tapes are real, and this list hears them first.
P.P.S. The conversation lives in the Zahler Pinball Community, our Facebook group: come tell us which machine is beating you.