Consolidating my techniques

[TomTom]

I've been maining Meta Knight for a good while now, and feel I have a good grasp of advanced techniques and how to keep on the offensive, as well as knowing how to take the killing opportunities that arise.

In theory, that is.

I'm normally perfectly fine in the match environment, but my main problem tends to be that in a lot of my technique is lost under pressure; I find myself darting about and jumping, using quick tilt and aerial moves, rather than really commanding the field. Often even when I do have good game plans, I find myself messing up moves occasionally - for example, launching an ineffective drill rush instead of positioning myself slightly and then using a mach tornado.

I understand a lot of this is rectified by simply practicing more, especially in a free environment such as training mode, but do any of you have advice for sticking to the game plan set and to consistently use the most effective moves in gameplay?

 

[Affinity]

This quote may help:

Psychology [of Smash]
This is a great topic that doesn’t need to be boring or overly complicated. This is about emotions, the lack of emotions, reading your opponents mind through their habits, predicting your opp, and stuff like that. Learn how humans react and learn to make generalizations and classify your opp based on you vast repertoire of habits you’ve collected from years of experience.

I’ll make this quick. This isn’t about meditating and using magic to read minds. The psychology of fighter game is simple and complex at the same time. Here’s some wisdom everyone should learn:

People who let their emotions get the best of them are not thinking logically.
They make decisions based on immediate circumstances and don’t make plans.
You also have emotions and have to learn to get rid of them or hide them.
Learn the different stages of a fight. Like chess: there’s the opening where you and your opp try to get a feel for each other. There’s the middle game were there is mostly reactive play and nice back and forth momentum going on. Lastly there’s the endgame where one player plays proactively and the other player changes their style in a desperate attempt to save themselves.
Do small experiments (like running up to you opp, faking an aerial approach) to see how they react. Build “data” and use it to assess their weaknesses and kill all who oppose you.
When anyone has just lost a stock, expect for the other guy to lose one also within 20 secs (watch any match not involving Mew2King on Youtube. It’s true). Learn to counter this phenomena and reverse the situation and reset the match. Hold on to that stock like it’s your last one!

Most importantly, learn to do all of this and use this knowledge without thinking. Make it instinct and habit. Please don’t think “Ok, now let me set up an experiment and form a hypothesis and analyze my data to…” No. This should be natural. Don’t think too much. Play a lot and this will become natural. I promise.

 

[TomTom]

Good advice, and I do think most of it will come from experience, particularly in these pressurised conditions.

 

[samdaballer]

tournament experience will aleive these problems