# Tasker Smith Talks Flow, Focus, and Bad Luck at His Book Launch in Natick
by [Andrew Quemere](/author/andrew-quemere) · August 3, 2026 · [News](/news/category/news)

> Tasker Smith took questions from Marc Patenaude and the audience at the Center for the Arts in Natick for the release of Pinball: A Quest for Mastery. Flow states, focus rituals, split flippers, and the 1974 Strato-Flite he brought in for the occasion.

Tasker Smith has been playing competitive pinball since joining the New England Pinball League about eight or nine years ago. But the Wayland, Massachusetts, native said his love of the game dates back 48 years, when a friend's father brought home and fixed up a 1968 Bally [*Dixieland*](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/dixieland) pinball machine.

"I remember him … tinkering around, trying to understand what it was that was working or not working," Smith said. "I remember seeing a switch flicker, and it seemed like an important insight. … And I'm probably overstating that in my own mind. For whatever reason, it really drew me into it, and I felt really connected to this machine and to the process."

Smith said watching the broken game come to life was a magical experience.

"As kids, we just played the hell out of that game," he said.

Nearly five decades and many rounds of pinball later, Smith has learned a lot about how to play better — and now he's sharing his advice in a new hardcover volume, [*Pinball: A Quest for Mastery*](https://pinballmastery.org), published by Schiffer Books. Smith discussed the book with his friend and fellow competitive pinball player, Marc Patenaude, during a release event at the Center for the Arts in Natick, Massachusetts, on July 28.

"It's a beautiful documentation of how to play pinball, how to get better, how to understand it, how to look at the game differently," Patenaude said.

The book teaches players about understanding the rules of pinball tables, techniques for keeping the ball in play and improving their scores, playing in the competitive pinball scene, and having fun while doing it. Smith said it's aimed at newer players who are enthusiastic about getting better.

"I don't come to it from being like a pinball master," he said. "I come to it as a person that's just infatuated with this game."

![Tasker Smith speaks at the Center for the Arts in Natick](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/09820df5-1124-48a8-a139-2947d6c6ddfe.jpg?width=1920&height=1080)

*Tasker Smith speaks at the Center for the Arts in Natick, Massachusetts, on July 28.*

Smith said he's learned a lot just by watching other players.

"What's magical about this game is you'll have these moments where you'll see this thing, and it'll completely change the way that you think about it," he said.

For him, one of those moments was the first time he watched someone perform a bounce pass — a technique in which the player allows a ball to bounce off one flipper to the other.

"I remember seeing that, thinking, *I can't believe they just did that*," he said. "Meaning, like, I can't believe they just didn't do anything. They did nothing. … It was a revelation."

Smith said competitive players have a practice of wishing each other good luck before matches, but he isn't a fan of the word choice.

"The minute you blame something on bad luck is the minute you stop looking for that insight that's going to help you understand what went wrong in that moment," he said. "I really like this idea that you make your own luck by just really investing in your attention and your quest to really understand."

Smith said a big part of playing pinball well is maintaining focus. Some competitive players wear headphones to tune out distractions, he explained.

Patenaude said some of the top players listen to one song on repeat for hours at a time when they play.

"It's very interesting to hear everyone's little strategies to make them feel that they're back in their basement," he said.

Smith compared it to professional athletes, who often have strict routines that help them stay focused, using the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps as an example.

"He gets up at the same time every single day," Smith said. "He has the same food every day. He listens to the same music right before he swims and competes."

Smith said part of his book is about a concept from psychology called flow, a state in which someone is completely immersed in an activity. He said entering a flow state requires a person to be doing something "on the edge of \[their\] ability."

"So if you're doing something that you're very familiar with, maybe your mind gets bored," he said. "But if you're doing something that challenges you, then it drives you into this state of flow."

Smith said he explored "exotic" training methods used by some professional athletes, like hypnosis, strobe glasses, and transcranial direct-current stimulation. However, a conversation with his brother about sensory-deprivation tanks convinced him that these techniques didn't belong in a book about pinball.

One audience member asked whether pinball counts as a sport.

"It's kind of a sport," Patenaude said. "The players play and commit and feel as though other athletes that play in the World Cup or in the NBA feel. There's just not the sponsorship and the money. … It just hasn't expanded to a point of being able to have someone fly around and get paid just to play pinball."

Another audience member asked Smith how he feels when he sees a beat-up pinball machine.

"Oh, sadness," he said. "One of the great things about doing pinball league is that you get to play on some private collections, and almost without exception, people that have these collections just care super deeply about them playing really well."

Patenaude said sometimes it can be fun finding a worn-out machine because it challenges the player to find new ways to score points.

"You're not trying to lock balls and hit a jackpot because the jackpot doesn't work," he said.

Smith said there are ways to play pinball that aren't necessarily intended. One example, he said, is "split flippers," when two players team up, each controlling one of the game's flippers. He said he likes to play a variation with his brother in which they switch sides whenever the ball goes up a ramp.

"It's not about finesse or accuracy," he said. "We're just there to have fun."

Smith said that, in his research, he found other books about how to get better at pinball, but they were all written in the 1970s and don't cover modern concepts.

"The artwork has evolved, the mechanics have evolved, the software has emerged since that time and evolved," he said.

Modern pinball machines, he said, are designed to be immersive experiences that tell stories.

"You go on a hero's quest to accomplish certain things, and if you are able to do so masterfully, then the games will reveal other modes that \[were\] unavailable," he said.

Smith said that during the past 20 years, the market has shifted with more people buying new, in-box pinball machines for their homes. As a result, designers have added more complex rules to keep players engaged for longer periods of time.

"You don't want to beat something in a day," Patenaude said. "You want to be like, *Oh, my God, I've been spending nine months chasing after this thing*."

Smith said the future of pinball is internet-connected games that track scores and allow players to compete against each other.

"For some people that maybe is not as fun, because I guess for me the joy of pinball is I get to unplug from my digital life," he said. "But I think there's a lot of fun to add."

Smith said his favorite pinball machines are mostly from the 1970s.

"I love the nostalgic quality of them," he said. "I love the aesthetics. They're really less about rules and more about ball control, and for me also the experience of hearing the bells and the chimes."

Smith brought one of his machines, a 1974 Williams [*Strato-Flite*](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/strato-flite), to the book launch and showed it off after the event.

![1974 Williams Strato-Flite pinball machine](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/baa0cce3-2297-46b6-aaae-a0a73a2c4313.jpg?width=1920&height=1080)

*A 1974 Williams Strato-Flite pinball machine, which Tasker Smith brought to the Center for the Arts in Natick for his book launch.*

"It's all about hitting these series of As, Bs, Cs, and Ds," he explained. "Each time you complete a series, it's advancing your end-of-ball bonus. So the double bonus, the triple bonus."

He said that like many older games, the best way to score points is to follow the rule of "up top all day."

"The way to keep the ball from exiting the playfield unexpectedly is just to keep it up in the upper playfield as much as you can," he said.

![Playfield of a 1974 Williams Strato-Flite pinball machine](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/3ccee83e-bbb0-4556-8fb3-befb56195bb9.jpg?width=1920&height=1080)

*The playfield of Tasker Smith’s Strato-Flite pinball machine.*

Smith said he bought his *Strato-Flite* machine after encountering the game during the New England Pinball League finals one year.

"I thought this is my game because I love electro-mechanical games, and I totally blew it … \[and\] I got knocked out," he said. "I felt wounded by it, and then I saw one come up locally, and I'm like, *I gotta buy that game*."

Smith said he owns 13 pinball machines, which he considers to be the perfect number.

"My wife would tell you it's probably a couple too many," he said.

Smith said people who are interested in playing pinball should check [Pinball Map](https://www.pinballmap.com/), a website and app that tracks locations to play and which machines are available at them.

"Your favorite \[location\] will depend on whether you prefer family fun spots, arcade bars, or alternate venues," he said. "I recommend visiting a league night for the New England Pinball League. That's always free to new members and affords an opportunity to visit private collections of machines in people's homes."

Smith said his main takeaway for people who want to improve at pinball is to "stay curious, practice with intention, and keep it fun."

*To purchase a copy of* Pinball: A Quest for Mastery*, check Tasker Smith's website,* [*pinballmastery.org*](https://pinballmastery.org)*. You can watch a recording of the book launch event* [*here on YouTube*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyWD1M2_F8U)*. We also* [*interviewed Smith about the book*](https://www.kineticist.com/news/tasker-smith-interview) *in July.*

![Tasker Smith and Marc Patenaude play split flippers on Strato-Flite](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/32a5e4bc-b6e4-4cbe-b02d-104751e83147.jpg?width=1920&height=1080)

*Tasker Smith and Marc Patenaude play a “split flippers” game of Strato-Flite.*

## Related
- Game: [Dixieland](/games/pinball/dixieland)
- Game: [Strato/Astro/Super-Flite](/games/pinball/stratoastrosuper-flite)

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