Hey guys, I'm Tim Ball, so today I'm going to be doing a comprehensive overview on how to aim correctly in pinball. There's a lot of tutorials about how to aim, but they pretty much only cover the basics. You shoot the ball earlier on the flipper, you'll shoot the shot earlier, or a backhand. You shoot later on the flipper, you'll shoot later, or a forehand. But I'm going to use some key concepts here to help you improve your aim. The number one tip I would say to anyone playing pinball, if they want to improve their aim, is to keep your eye on the ball. You've heard this phrase very many times in different sports. Well, what does it mean? Typically, in golf, when you're staring at the ball, the golf instructor will tell you to keep your eye on the ball. What happens is when you move your head early, you move your body, which means that you don't hit the shot exactly where you want it to go. By keeping your eye on the ball, you're actually looking through the shot, and it becomes part of your follow through to keep your head down as your arms move past your head until your body naturally turns itself back up. In pinball, you can use the exact same concept. Keep your eyes on the flipper. This means that through the entire duration of the flip, you'll be watching the flippers so that you know exactly where you did shoot the ball. In case it missed, then you can adjust more precisely and more correctly to better hit the ball next time. This may seem difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be shooting your shots a lot better in pinball, and you'll become much more accurate. If you see a player aiming like this, they're not aiming correctly. If you see a player aiming like this, they are aiming correctly. What's the difference there? In the first instance, the incorrect aiming, the player is trying to line up their shot by looking at where they want the ball to go. This means that they're taking their eye off the flipper for the start of the shot, and possibly for the end of the shot. The other mistake players will make is looking up too early or trying to track the ball before they flip. If you want to aim precisely, you should not look up at your target at any point until after the ball has already left the flipper. Your stroke should start here. You're looking at the ball on the flipper. You're lining up mentally where you want to flip the ball on that flipper. I have drawn a point in my head where I want to flip the ball to hit the right targets. I know where the targets are, and they won't be moving on this game. I'm going to try to shoot them now. Once I shot the ball, I was able to look up and find the ball. The reason you don't want to look up until the ball is flipped is because your eye cannot track the ball while it's moving. It's going to hold a picture while you look at your target. You will be able to find the ball after it's going to move slow enough that you'll be able to figure it out before it comes straight down. The important thing is knowing exactly where you flipped so you can adjust for next time. If you know where the ball hit but you don't know where you flipped, you're not going to be able to fix your flip for the next time you flip if you were off. There are some games where it is important to look at your target. In this case, I want to lock in on the first aid target in order to play blood bath. What I do in this situation is I change my flip or stroke to a two-stage process. In the first stage, I wait until food is flashing. After food is flashing, I move my eyes to the ball. Once my eyes are on the ball and I see the ball is at rest, I drop the flip. My goal is to shoot it at the point where I know that I will hit the drop targets to lock in the correct one. Let's do this process. Food, drop eyes, look and fire. I've locked it on first aid. Now in my next shot it's easier. I don't have to look at the targets again because I already have memorized that only the top target remains. I'm keeping my eyes down at the flip or area unless I shoot to track it. Here I know that the top target is the only one I need so I'm going to shoot where I think I will hit the top target. There we go. Thanks for checking out my tutorial on aiming. If you dislike any of these techniques or disagree with any of them, please let me know in the comments or on my Facebook page. Hopefully these tips can help you aim better in the future. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube and Facebook pages for more pinball content.