Bart Volman (37) enters his ‘flipper-man cave’ with a big smile. Fourteen pinball machines are flashing in the basement under his house. “Here I practice for the Dutch Pinball Championship”, says Bart. At the last Dutch Championship in 2019, the pinball player came second, now all signals are green to become the champion.
This weekend the Dutch Pinball Open will take place in Rotterdam. More than 160 pinball players compete with each other, one of them is Bart from Veldhoven.
“You don’t learn it in a few weeks.”
Bart has mainly been playing pinball in recent weeks to get in shape for the Dutch National Championships. “There are also tournament evenings in Eindhoven, for example. There I play against others to be even better at my best.” But most importantly, you have to control the ball. “Control is everything.”
“You don’t learn it in a few weeks”, Bart begins. “With pinball it’s about technique and reaction speed, but it’s mainly about knowing the rules of the different cabinets. You have to play a lot for that. You almost have to study for that.” And so the pinball player can be found for hours in his man cave.
“My girlfriend then got some question marks.”
On Thursday Bart will practice on the Metallica pinball machine. Bought two years ago for a few thousand euros. “This is a lovely cabinet, one of my favorites. I can play on this for hours.” In the early nineties, the pinball adventure began for the Veldhoven resident. “If I saw a pinball machine somewhere, I had to throw in a few quarters and play.”
But at the end of the nineties pinball machines disappeared from the streets. About ten years ago Bart’s passion returned when he bought his first cabinet. “Not much later came the second. My girlfriend then got some question marks. On the third and fourth pinball machines, we had a serious conversation about how many there would be.”
After moving, Bart has his own game room under the house, a cellar of sixty square meters. “She’s been fine ever since. She likes it for me. I can play pinball for hours on end, my girlfriend is done with it after five minutes”, Bart laughs.
“The final rounds are always tiring, they cost a lot of energy.”
Bart’s hobby no longer only takes place in his dark man cave. “I heard about tournaments and a few went there to watch and play. The first few entries were dramatic, I ended up at the very bottom. The winners had a nice technique and I wanted that too, so I started practicing a lot.”
Bart now also manages that technique and especially focus. “During a tournament I am super focused on the ball. It’s all about minuscule reactions. That is why the final rounds are always so tiring, they cost a lot of energy.”
What are the chances for Bart at the Dutch National Championships this weekend? “It can just happen,” he says as the balls roll through the pinball machine. “I am fit enough, concentrated enough and my reaction speed is good. I hope to be able to take that title to me.”
