one more question. when getting good scores, how much do players rely on bumping the table with the stick? just wondering if its a skill that's used regularly at a higher level than im at now.
im still getting used to which way i need to be pressing the stick to get the ball to do what i want. i figure its just one other skill to develop along with flipper control. if anyone wants to speak about that id appreciate it.
I'm not the best player here, but I use nudging pretty often. 90% of the time, it's used when the ball is close to draining down the center. You nudge the stick in the direction opposite of the flipper you want the ball to hit. (So if you want it to hit the right flipper, nudge left.) Nudge when the ball is approx 6 inches above the flipper and then hit the flipper so that the flipper will hit the ball at the center of its arc. If it's an especially close call, and you're afraid you're only going to graze the ball, hit the flipper and then the opposite flipper a split second later.
You can also nudge to avoid losing a ball down the outlanes. This is trickier due to the way the outlanes work. You really just have to get a feel for them. You want to nudge in a direction that causes either the outside wall of the table or the outlane separator to strike the ball. (so if the ball is going to drain clean out by the wall in the left outlane, nudge the table to the right to cause the wall to hit the ball and make it pop out. If it's going to graze the separator on the way in, nudge up or left to get the separator to strike the ball. Don't nudge more than twice in a short timeframe or you're likely to tilt.
Sometimes after an outlane drain (or a re-entry drain on Black Hole) you can nudge up while raising a flipper on the side it's draining. This will cause the ball to pop up a little bit and you can then hit the opposite side flipper to occasionally save a ball. This only works rarely, but I've had some pretty miraculous last-ball saves this way.
Finally, when there are rollover lanes on a table, and you're trying to light (or un-light) all of them. Most modern tables allow you to use the flippers to adjust which lanes are lit, but some older tables (such as Black Hole) did not. You can nudge the table to help coax the ball down the lane you want. A lot of times in Black Hole, the ball will pop repeatedly on the bumper and up through the center rollover lane. Nudging left or right at the right moment can cause the lane separators to strike the ball into an outside lane.
