Finding improvement, and keeping it.
theflow - May 22, 2017It is midnight, and i never thought i would be writing something like a twitlonger to help people getting good.
Anyway, i'll start with a disclaimer. I'm still a fraud, so take what i say with a grain of salt.
What is improving? Improving is getting better and better as times passes. Your gameplay gets better, you think more during your matches, your experience and MU experiences adds up to this, and you get stronger, allowing you to place further in bracket. But, i see often some people that are stagnant ; They got to a certain level, and they can't improve further. It's like they've hit a ceiling !
This has not happened to me. I don't really know how i stayed on a good progression curve though, so i'll just explain to you what i do to keep things fresh.
1> Learn from your mistakes
They say the fool learns from experience, and the wise learns from history. This can be translated to smash as the wise watches a LOT of vods, studies the game, labs his character's options, and generally knows his shit well ; That's how he improves. I'm not that kind of guy, so i can't help lol. The fool, and this is clearly what i am, learns from getting bodied, and trying stuff out.
Listen : Every interaction you've lost in this game says so much more than the interactions you win. You can analyse how did you get grabbed by Mario (and took 60%) much more than you landing a hit or a grab. Basically, if you get hit by stuff, ask yourself why did this happen, how did this happen. Don't hesitate to get exterior help ; Seeing things from another perspective is very helpful, it helps you take a step back and see the bigger picture.
Now i see a lot of players that are like beginner/mid level that hate to take a beating. For some god forsaken reason that i can't understand, they know they're not very good players, but they still hate to lose. Let me tell you that ; If someone from Paris 3-0's me in a set and two stocks me all the games, i'll be happy, especially if this is freeplay or a money match. (losing in bracket hurts, you can definitively take lessons from it, but salt will make it hard at the beginning). I mean it shows that i have a lot to stuff to improve, and it clearly showcases what's wrong with my playstyle/my current habits that got capitalized on hard. So i'll keep training with this person more and more, to the point where the games are even. As long as you take a stock, or a single more %, you're improving, you're learning.
Back when i was learning competitive smash in brawl, i keep getting 3 stocked over and over and over and over. But eventually i did get somewhat good before going on a 2 year hiatus. When i came back (in smash 4) , i kept getting 2 and 3 stocked multiple times. But it ended, then i started taking names.
You may be down biting the dust for the moment, but soon will come your time to rise once you've figured it out. And here comes my second point :
2> Having a motivation.
This speaks for itself. I'll develop more about my mentality towards it, as an example :
I want to become a top player of my character (Roy), someone people type the name in their youtube.com search bar to learn the combos/neutral. I also want to prove he's not a bad character. Whenever I think about those things, the motivation comes. It's a weird feeling, it has even physical appearances : you feel light, your eyes are focused on the screen, you feel the need to prove yourself from the bottom of your being. You're fully ready to take the beating you need to take to get good. Otherwise, it will feel annoying and useless.
How i see smash, is that you have a battle of wills. The one with the stronger will to win, is going to win. Actively craving victory is extremely important. Settling for second, top 8, etc, is okay after you tried your best. But in the heat of the moment, you should always aim for the victory. This is what it means to be a competitor !
I don't know if it's like that for all people ; I mean, some people have the complete opposite mindset and are still extremely good. I just feel like i want to become strong, and prove myself and my character. I guess this is what it means to be a legitimate tryharder.
You guys have a motivation ; Find it, and work towards it.
Also, the source of your motivation has to come from yourself. Play for yourself, and believe in yourself.
3> Training : How to?
When you're facing a stronger player, like i said before, learn from your mistakes and try to actively think about why you lost. Working on your neutral game and defense in general is extremely important ; You'll meet less and less players stronger than you as you get better as time passes.
When you're facing a player of your skill level, try to win. If it's freeplay, try to implement some of the tech you've been labbing (useful stuff tho pls, you need to be able to pull this off in tournament)
When you're facing a player weaker than your skill level, try to work on your punish game. That's how i got some good combos, because i considered freeplay matches as some sort of combo contest (lmao). Try to recognise if they're true or they're good mix ups, they need to be viable to land on better players.
As per usual, in order to land those devastating combos of yours, you'll need to practice them. But try to be realistic when your practice them : Like some sort of shadow-boxing.
For example, when i practice my nair strings as Roy, i tend to do them out of shield, because that's the most likely situation i'll land a neutral air on someone. Then i practice spaced aerials (even though i'm facing a motionless cpu) to keep the motions in my hand and prevent misinputs in tourney. Having reliable tools is extremely important. When you're facing the nerves from a tourney, you'll be only able to pull the most reliable stuff.
Anyway, this is all that passed through my mind at the current moment. Hope it can at least help someone.
LATE EDIT : You need to have nerves. If you can't deal with them, you'll NEVER become good, no matter how much of a god you are in freeplay.
This blog post was written by a SSB World community member. Share your Smash 4 knowledge by creating your own blog post now.
You must log in to comment.
Be mindful of how big of a gap the person your playing is compared to your own skill level. If you play someone way too far out your depth, then that's not really good practice. Even if you can understand why you get punished for everything, it's pointless if you can't even do anything to land a hit on your opponent to apply your adjusted mistakes. Getting 2 or 3 stocked every game? Can't take a stock? Then you're not exactly learning anything cause you see the mistakes, but you can't even correct them because of the skill gap. Playing someone your skill level or just slightly above is the best practice because you can enjoy the freedom of being able to implement your own gameplan, while also being punished for your habits if you get too predictable.