I train very hard in ultimate yet friends are still better than me (advice?)

[Nectur]

Does anyone have any advice for this?

When Ultimate came out I couldn’t play the game online for 8 months after its release (I was living in a dorm where the Internet NAT type wasn’t compatible with switch)

I have friends who I don’t see too often but when we meet up smash is one of our main activities to talk about/do. Well because I couldn’t play with them (or anyone besides my roommate) they got so far ahead of me, and though now I’ve been playing for almost a year and a half I’m still maybe half as good as any of them.

Another frustrating aspect is most of them play half as much as I do yet they’re still able to outplay me in so many ways. I’ve grinded so many hours in the game trying to get better and every time I play with them it’s a constant reminder of how I’m still no good at the game.

I’ve of course improved since I’ve started the game and can play well but I feel so lacking when I play against them. I want to achieve a lot with this game in bracket and state wise but it makes me question if I should even keep playing. Anyone who can relate to this/have any advice for how to handle it?

TL;DR

My friends are still better at me in smash even though I’ve spent a lot of time aiming to get better at this game. With improvement over time in the game itself, but no results when it comes to fighting them.

 

[Sucumbio]

When I lived at college my circle of friends played Tekken 3 for 10 hours a day or more. We played constantly and got real good...at playing against each other! Sure we'd rek anyone who randomly stopped by to kick it for a bit but because we were playing so much there was no chance they'd be any good compared to us.

That is of course until my roommate invited some of their other friends over who didn't hang out with us oftentimes but who also played tk 3. And they were unstoppable. I mean we thought we were good but these guys were pros literally and it just showed me the level of depth one can achieve in a game's understanding.

Bottom line... You can't judge your skills based solely on one subset of opponents. With today's social media compared to 1999, you have far more resources available.

My advice would be to reach out to as many players as you can for experience. Losing is good because it teaches you where you should improve and exposes your technical weakness. After a match set dm the opponent for advice. Maybe your defense was too predictable...etc.

 

[StoicPhantom]

Well, the obvious solution would be to practice smarter and not harder when faced with such a massive experience gap. If you make your practice more focused and efficient then you should be able to catch up quicker than just grinding day after day. If you focus on the most critical and influential aspects of your play then it should have a major affect on your development overall. And that's where your quickest progress will be made.

I would try to record your play if you can and study multiple videos against the same player with the same characters. Try to identify the most critical points in the match, points where you lost a stock or took major damage, and then see if you can find a pattern of behavior that led to it. Start with the times you lost a stock and figure out what went wrong, whether you overcommitted or were too telegraphed in your movements, and then focus your practice on fixing that. You can then move onto things like taking massive damage from a string. Don't just focus on how you got with hit with the startup, but also what you could have done to avoid the opponent extending the combo, i.e. whether or not your DI was off or whether you tried to attack in disadvantage or panicked into a risky option.

Focusing on those specific things will substantially improve your play in a quick manner than just simply grinding matches.

Overall, don't get discouraged because they got a head start on you. Just throwing out arbitrary metrics here, but 85% of the skill you could gain in any field can be obtained relatively quickly with consistent and efficient practice. It's the remaining 15% that the time and investment required exponentially increases even with efficient practice. And I would say that for the majority of players who don't have the resources and access to top play, that 15% won't really matter to them. It's more for top players who are playing other top players that also put that kind of time and investment to gain that 15%.

Meaning that your friends will eventually hit significant diminishing returns and that will allow you to catch up quickly. It happened with my friend who was too poor to afford a Wii U and had no one to play Melee with locally. He bought a Switch and Ultimate when they came out and managed to reduce most of the gap that was between our skill levels from my year in Smash 4 online. He's still not quite on my level but he's not too far behind and I've long since hit that wall.

 

[Nectur]

Thank you guys for your input, I should really be focusing more heavily on purposeful improvement. My goals with smash extend further than just wanting to beat my friends in friendlies but playing against them gives me a reality check of sorts, making me question my improvement in the game.

I really love this game but in all honesty I often get impatient with the progress I’ve made so far and want to be far better than where I’m currently at. I struggle with teaching myself certain things because I really “don’t know what I don’t know.”

Achieving a greater understanding of the game is something I really want, I just wish there was a more narrowed down way to do it. Either way, I appreciate what you guys have said and will do my best to follow your advice.

 

[RetrogamerMax]

The only advice I can give you is keep training and try to play with people on your level or beyond as what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Get better with your mains by going through hell with them online or against Level 9 CPUs. Learn how to read more of your opponent's moves and dashwave away from them if they're fast and dashwave forward and shield when you see a opening to attack.

 

[Sucumbio]

Achieving a greater understanding of the game is something I really want, I just wish there was a more narrowed down way to do it.

The most important path is match up experience. Unlike polarized fighting games Ultimate's roster is balanced enough barring specific issues not on topic. And since Brawl when I got into competitive smash that was the first advice I learned from top players. As you learn your main's strengths and weaknesses you will naturally adapt by being mindful of your decisions. Of course learning advanced techniques is the next most important thing because if you can't properly control your fighter's movement you've already lost regardless of how try-hard you are.

 

[Tranman]

I've heard a handful of times from other people that that having a 'rival' that is around the same skill level as you really helps!