Playing under pressure in tournaments

[Doggard]

That bloody Batman! All three practice games 200-300m, then I go up against Greg, immediately get in my head about it and I think I finished on 4m...
Reading the responses here have been good to see how widespread this is, and how many of us are trying to working on "playing the machine, not the player".

Ultimately performing well under pressure, and reliably, is one of the most important skills in pinball. Andy Foster may be generally really bloody good, but IMO he's #1 because he never leaves a game without putting in at least one great ball, even if the other two were house balls.

The week before Xmas I went to the pinball office, and got 577 mil on Batman 66, in the comp on Saturday, I came 4h when played it with just over 2 mil, 3 house balls !

 

[Wayne J]

I came 4h when played it with just over 2 mil, 3 house balls !

This comes down to machine knowledge and situational awareness.

On BM66 (as well as a lot of other machines) you can short plunge to get the ball to the flipper without activating the playfield, meaning that you at least have 1 shot under your full control.

 

[David_Vi]

Ultimately performing well under pressure, and reliably, is one of the most important skills in pinball. Andy Foster may be generally really bloody good, but IMO he's #1 because he never leaves a game without putting in at least one great ball, even if the other two were house balls.

Interesting you say that because I believe Andy still has issues with nerves when playing in big events, but I suppose his skill level allows for a bigger margin I think Andy has only recently been attending the bigger events stateside so probably that's a part of it.
Maybe @PUP can share some words on this?