How to stay focused during matches?

[L33thal]

As a player, I try to theorycraft a lot and then draw from what I've studied in matches. This includes:
-which moves beat which (option select)
-noticing what moves my opponent picks (reads)
-what will help me take 4 stocks faster than my opponent (risk/reward)
-what moves I can do to put myself in more favorable situations than my opponent (stage control).

But, one problem I've been noticing is that the better my opponent is, the harder it is to juggle all my trains of thought. For example, I've been playing a bunch of good Fox players and--coupled with the speed--when I try to play out everything I listed above during a match, I 4-stock myself mentally. I would tend to put all my focus onto specific things like trying to hold onto stage and it's like my mind gets sucked into hard focusing on any exploitable habits from my opponent. But of course, the good players would pick safe options as well as mix them up without giving too much away. It's disappointing because it feels like when this happens I drop a lot of my game, or the stuff I've been theorycrafting.

What can I do to focus more on bigger picture, or incorporate all aspects of my gameplay? So far, what I have in mind is playing super slow with low APM. Also, I'm thinking of sticking to moves that feel second-nature so I don't have to wonder, "Oh shoot, what are some good moves in this spot" but instead think "Ok my opponent is trying to bait me into whiffing", etc. And then, I'd work my way to using more complicated setups as I get more comfortable and get more experience. Any thoughts?

 

[Pauer]

-which moves beat which (option select)
-noticing what moves my opponent picks (reads)
-what will help me take 4 stocks faster than my opponent (risk/reward)
-what moves I can do to put myself in more favorable situations than my opponent (stage control).

I've been playing a bunch of good Fox players and--coupled with the speed--when I try to play out everything I listed above during a match, I 4-stock myself mentally.

Working with the four things you listed, I belive that you should only have to focus on the "(reads)" during a tournament match. The other three points, you need to practice/learn/theorycraft beforehand (I think this is something you allude to in your last paragraph). I think there's a major distinction to be made here between playing to win and playing to learn (recommended reading). Many of PPMDs answers in his Marth and Falco threads should also be of great help to you. In fact, I believe you will likely be able to find any answers that you seek in PPMDs writings, given that he is such a successful, mindful and eloquent top player. Though it might be hard to find exactly what you are looking for. I've gone back to PP's writing time and time again and I've always found new insights to be gained.

I'll just share some ideas/experiences I've had and maybe they'll be helpful to you. I currently have some time to kill, so I'll just ramble until I don't feel like it. Please take whatever I say with a grain of salt.

I believe when you're playing to win, you want to generally be hyper-perceptive of whatever is going on, like noticing which options they choose and remembering them for the next time the situation occurs and perceiving exactly what's going on at every moment to accurately judge timings in neutral or during combos. While this can sound a little robotic on the surface, I've found that if you focus your mind on what's going on, your subconscious will naturally produce the best decisions/combos on its own - sometimes things you've never done or even seen before. Recommended Reading: The Inner Games of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey (recommended by many top players). My personal quick tip on staying focused in melee is focusing on when precisely the characters touch the ground or when precisely they dash in a different direction. This is analogous to some tips you will find in The Inner Games of Tennis, where the author talks about tracking the ball as a tool to stay grounded/in the moment/focused. If you want a more scientific perspective, you might be interested in the psychological study of "Flow". There should be a wealth of books and scientific papers available on the subject.

When you're playing to learn, you generally want to ingrain good habits and untrain bad habits. This works best if you've theorycrafted ideas beforehand. An example:

Problem: You frequently dash back to whiff grab Fox's nair, but you still get hit.
Analysis: You realize that you get hit, because there is not sufficient time to dash back far enough to dodge the Nair. Dash back is not a viable option in this scenario.​

Possible Solutions: You could roll away instead. Or shield the aerial. Maybe you have time to catch the nair with a rising aerial. Maybe you have time to jump to a platform.
In practice: You play a few matches very consciously. Because you are conditioned to always dash back when you expect a Nair, you get hit sometimes. You make note of the positioning whenever you get hit and when you don't. Then finally, you try to both recognize the positioning and act accordingly: dash away when you can and roll when you can't dash away (for example).​

[Note: In an ideal world, you should not care about winning or losing when you try to learn. Supressing one's ego/desire to win is difficult to do and has a learning curve on its own. It may takes months or years to be able to effectively use friendlies as a learning tool. ]​

In retrospect, we can see that the cause of the problem was a lack of awareness or not acting upon our awareness of a situation. Maybe staying focused and in the moment is also the answer on how to improve/train most effectively? Maybe it's a part of it? I don't know, but it's something we can think about.

Further recommended reading: The Art of Learning (Joshua Waitzkin)

 

[Melonsismyusername]

-which moves beat which (option select)--This can and should be learned through muscle memory
-noticing what moves my opponent picks (reads) Mindgames
-what will help me take 4 stocks faster than my opponent (risk/reward)- This can and should be learned through muscle memory
-what moves I can do to put myself in more favorable situations than my opponent (stage control).- This can and should be learned through muscle memory


I think that when playing a match of smash you should primarily concentrate on is your opponent, I like to take notes of how he responds to my options and conditioning, however try to also be mindful of your opononents notice of you.

 

[MalanoMan]

Recommended Reading: The Inner Games of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey (recommended by many top players). My personal quick tip on staying focused in melee is focusing on when precisely the characters touch the ground or when precisely they dash in a different direction. This is analogous to some tips you will find in The Inner Games of Tennis, where the author talks about tracking the ball as a tool to stay grounded/in the moment/focused.

Really glad to hear that this is a book other Melee players have read. When I first started playing competitively, I got whooped. My friends would always joke "Have you read The Inner Game of Tennis?" I thought it was just some dumb joke they came up with, but they soon explained it was a real book. I finally read the book. I can now also recommend reading the book.

 

[Onmitsu]

I need to check it out. I had my own personal breakthrough with game theory at dreamhack. Definitely been trying to implement it more.