A Physical/Mental Advantage To Be Age 24+ ?

[BBOY15]

With a game like Melee, is there some kind of advantage to being about 24 or older? I'm talking about a physical or mental development type thing. I'm 20 now, and when I was younger, I just had so little confidence that I could do high level tech skill correctly. My fingers were so shaky and unstable. I couldn't maintain an extreme level of focus throughout a melee match. Now, I feel very confident, my fingers are fast and precise, I can learn techniques a lot faster, and I can think/multitask at a high level while in a game. Continuing the age trend: the competitive smashers I know that are mid-20s seem a few steps ahead of me in these regards.

The obvious argument against there being a physical "prime" age is that older players are better mostly because they have been playing longer on average. Yes, the longer you've played, the more experience you have and the better you get; but haven't you noticed that mid-20s people who are new to the game learn much faster than teenagers who are new to it? I think age at least has an effect on how fast you can learn.

Look at the best players in the world, and look at their ages. Not many 20 year olds, even though tons of 20 year olds have had as much time to train should they have chosen to. Look at how old most of the pro players are. I don't think this is a coincidence.

I doubt that you can be too old though. Maybe being over 35 or so is a very slight disadvantage, but not nearly as disadvantageous as being young. I can't really back this up though.

 

[gmBottles]

I think that teenagers can learn the game extremely quickly. I've only been playing for about a year and I'm 17, and I've gotten really good, really fast. It all depends on the person really.

 

[Xyzz]

Reaction time goes down (and yes, that starts in the mid 20s),
speed / ease of learning new things does down,
general life experience goes up.

Who knows what's more important (:

 

[Massive]

Honestly? It doesn't really matter. Your reflexes start to get very slightly slower as you get older, but smash isn't about reflexes, it's about prediction, strategy, practice, and experience. This isn't baseball or boxing, and the best players only seem to get better as they get older.

Speaking from experience, I'm almost 30 and I'm better than I ever was. I have actually been playing this game since I was a teenager and I can tell you that the biggest difference between being 16 and 30 is the amount of free time you have to play smash in.

 

[20YY SS | Saiblade]

Honestly, I think at older ages you're more confident, but I think before you're faster, have more precise inputs, and are able to react faster.

 

[Deleted member]

I don't really believe this to be true. I'm 13 and have only played for about 5 months but because I dedicate a lot of my time learning this game I have gotten good fast. I can put up a "decent" fight against players that have been playing for years...

 

[kingPiano]

All that seems to matter is IQ (specifically fighting game or videogame intelligence) and how much time you put in.

Over 24; unless you are a manchild, you also have to have a job and you have other responsibilities that take a TON of time away from being able to play Melee or other games. So really if you're a kid who mooches off your parents you have so much free time it's ridiculous, you can get REALLY good REALLY fast and do nothing but play Melee if you want.

Wizzrobe is a great example of a young kid that is so damn good at all the Smash games, and it doesn't take him much time at all.

Then you can look at a lot of the Old School players as well, they have been playing this game since it came out but now a lot of them can't even hang with the doc kids that just came onto the scene. Not many generalizations or conclusions can be drawn since everyone is so different in intelligence, dedication, dexterity, ingenuity, and creativity.
.

 

[BBOY15]

I'm thinking you guys are mostly right. I do think confidence is a big advantage that older people have though. And I do wonder why there aren't more 20 and under pros.

 

[Narpas_sword]

No idea on whether the 'study' hold merits (i.e is an actual study, or a media news-piece) but i remember reading something about the brain not developing into 'adulthood' till 25ish.

basically you become more aware of consequences associated with your actions once you're in your mid twenties.

 

[N1c2k3]

I'm 28. I don't compete anymore, but I play competitively with my friends. I play better now than I ever have before. My reactions, tech skill, and understanding of the game are way better than they were 10 years ago when I was playing nonstop. What I would say has probably diminished is my ability to pick up a game, learn and catch on to things as quickly.

Does a younger player have an innate advantage given the same time, training, etc over someone approaching their 30's in any particular moment? I would say no. But I would say that they probably have the capacity to adapt and overcome more quickly, which is obviously an advantage over time...