Advice on mindset

[MLGF]

Hey, so my region is having a consistent set of weeklies lately and generally I do well, or decent anyways. I usually place below the "top" players at the weekly but recently I've been doing a lot of "leveling up" or however you imagine it.

And generally... well I beat the bad players much easier. But then come the people who are better then me. And it's always extremely close, and I generally have a lead. But every time I get close, I always mess up in some way and lose games I know I can definitely win. Whenever I feel the intense desire to win and refuse to lose, I get nervous when I don't have a lead and flub and that's even worse TBQH.

I'm not sure if it's because my primary goal is that I want to be taken seriously which is hurting my mindset to actually win, or if it's because I get nervous. I don't think these things on a conscious level in games, but something seems to make me screw up and I'm unsure of what. And trust me, I know this sounds like the craziest john ever, but it's been something I've been having trouble dealing with for a while.

How do other players keep a clear mind when playing people who are reputably better or on par with you? What is it that let's you keep clear minded and determined? I know weeklies are much smaller scale then some other people, but I want to feel as if I'm defeated by my opponent more then myself.

#supermegaultrajohn

 

[KHL]

i'm probably not the best to give advice so take this with a grain of salt, but what's helped me is to be extremely confident, borderline cocky in my own head, and not stress so much.

If you do well against people better than you, it's easy to get in your head and think, "whoa I might beat this ranked player, people will know i'm good how is this happening oops I spotdodged 5 times in a row," and you lose whatever lead you had. Leffen gave great advice on his stream that if you don't have the mentality that you're a top level player, it's incredibly different to be a top level player. When you do well against people better than you, treat that as the expectation. You're one stock ahead and tech-chasing this dude because you should be, he's a fraud and is just as free as everyone else you've beaten in bracket so far. You playing well is not a fluke.

just try not to drown in your own thoughts during a match and just focus on the match. if you're having trouble, imagine how flustered your opponent probably is being down a stock to someone they know they should be beating.

 

[Paradoxium]

If you are facing a player better then you and you can't seem to keep a lead it is probably because they are adapting to your play style. Try to see what adjustments they make so you can counter adapt.

 

[1FD]

Change your mind-set to figuring out what your mind-set even IS and maybe you'll be able to figure it out. You were looking in totally the wrong place (symptoms lulz) with your examples. The place you're looking that will HELP you, is the fact that you're looking at your mind-set. Not what you think happens, but wtf you're actually doing. (your mind is adapting always, so watch your own mind's adjustments, and it's all easy)

 

[Deleted member]

getting ***** is the best part about this game

always try to **** them harder

don't care about winning or losing just **** them harder

thank me in 2-3 years when you understand why this advice is good

 

[kyaputenfarukon07]

^ Result of that training PPMD

 

[Deleted member]

^ Result of that training PPMD

actually that's a mix of me, m2k, mango, and s2j. by the time kevin got it, the idea was already pretty fleshed out, and tbh he'd already come up to something similar on his own. just giving credit where it's due.

 

[Blazing Ambition]

I'm not sure if this would count as a "mindset" per say, but a key part of playing smash is picking up on your opponent's habits and predicting their movement. If they love to shield-grab, exploit that with some grabs, tomohawk or otherwise. If they always tech a certain way (or not at all), CAPITALIZE ON DAT SHIIIIIT