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Off/bad days

Jim_P

Smash Rookie
Joined
Apr 2, 2015
Messages
19
Location
Switzerland
Hey fellow falcos

As I started getting better, I noticed that I'm having bad and good days.
The best indicator for this is wheter I can or cannot waveshine..
Some days I can zero to death people, spacing is on point, I mix up my recoveries,
then there are days where I can't even l-cancel shine.
Sure you can have bad matches/days where you're not as good as normal, but I drop
down to where I just began with melee :mad:
Newcomers have no problems beating me on these days.
The more I play on these days, the worse it gets.

It has nothing to do with my real life, its like every 3/4th day I'm having this.

Are you experiencing the same shi*?
What can someone do to minimize these days?
Worst case scenario: Tournaments. Just accept it and go home?


What I'm doing now is to play like 30mins and then stop playing for the day.
This especially hurts, when I'm pretty hyped to play melee, and then... u know..:facepalm:
:psycho::crying: insta turn-off
 

FE_Hector

Smash Lord
Joined
May 26, 2015
Messages
1,420
Location
Raleigh, NC
Could be burnout. Get used to playing for longer periods of time without troubles. Also could be inconsistency, which generally decreases as nerves do.
 

Klemes

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jul 4, 2015
Messages
236
Location
France
Yeah, there are days when I'm really slow to warm up, get in the zone.
And on the occasional super bad day I just never get there and spend 3 hours recovering into marth counter and dying, getting rekt by joke characters etc.

causes :
personal **** going on, other preocupations, bad sleep, bad diet, bad configuration of planets for your astral sing etc.
frustration when you're playing like ****.

what not to do :
raging.
I've been there. There are tons of reasons to get mad. At yourself, at your friend, at your character, at his character, at battlefield's ledge... It's the worse thing to do. You play worse and worse, it's not fun for anyone. So I try to block it or switch mindset quickly whenever I'm irritated, so it doesn't escalate to the point where it's useless to keep playing.

johns. just don't. It's counter-productive, that's how you can spend 10 years dealing with your ego and staying the same scrub as day1.

switching characters all the time. So you should have 1 main character (2 MAX) and stick with it. how can you adjust what you were doing wrong and make progress in your losses if you don't even play the same MU ?

what to do :
1. Not caring. You're here to play the game, just play it. Considerations like "I should have won that game" "I'm so bad" are outside the game. Stay in it : lose a stock at 6% ? next stock. Got rekt ? next game. Puff steals the game with a stupid rest ? Move on. Dwelling on negative things hurt your focus. Just don't give a **** and play the game.

2. Take 10 sec to think between games if you noticed something you could do better, got you punished, and visualize what you'll do next time instead. You can't just say "I played bad". You can identify what's off and focus on working things out better. I got shieldgrabed for bad aerials on shield ? I was too slow to combo off my shine ? Lasers don't work and they completely figured out to hit me out of my SH ? I missed 9/10 edgeguards ? So you played bad, yes.
But you can identify WHAT you did wrong and what counter plays to try out or be wary of your opponent's traps.

3. Keep grinding tech skill and solo practice. Doesn't have to be long, just keep training often. So you're at a certain tech-skill level, right now. Let's say on bad days your tech-skill is half as good, pretty bad right ? But as you keep getting faster and frame perfect, you'll get to the point where even half your potential will be enough to play the game and beat good players.
Keep at it and soon, even at your worse, your waveshines will still be clean enough, guaranteed.
Also try this : when you get ready play, drink a big glass of water, and warm-up your Falco 2min before you do anything.

4. In your case. Picture yourself : it's your regular friendlies session, and after a few games, it becomes apparent you're getting outplayed, you're missing easy stuff etc. Do you really think that your fate is sealed for the day ? It's not. Take your time to find your rythm, Falco is the hardest character to warm up imo.
Does it matter that you lost 5-10+ games in a row ? Only if you think it matters. I suspect that in this situation you start wondering "oh no, is this one of THOSE days again?" What do you think these kind of thoughts do to your mentality and your focus ? I don't know, but it can't be positive, and it's the start of a viscious cycle.
It's important that you recognize these moments, and to tell yourself that it's thinking that kind of stuff that makes you play worse, and it's not a constatation that you're already playing like ****.
When these moments occur, remember step 1. then step 2. In that orer.

5. Keep in mind your objective. You should play to learn. This can be nebulous, since the aim of playing any game is clearly to win the game. But it can be resumed like this : Your first objective is to play good. Winning is secondary. period. Loosing a game is not a negative thing, if you played fine most of the time but dropped kills/SDd you did good, as long as you understand what you did wrong and work on fixing it.

So here it is. Following these steps will accomplish two things.
-Avoid those buster days more easily until they get super rare.
-Even when it happens again, it's not that bad and you can make something of your playtime, and have fun.

Don't hesitate to come back to this post often to keep these tools fresh in your mind.
 

Jim_P

Smash Rookie
Joined
Apr 2, 2015
Messages
19
Location
Switzerland
This actually helps me a lot!

Mostly step 1, not caring.
I always try to get better when playing, no matter if I lose or win, against good or bad players. But on these bad days, just not caring that much helped me to have a clear mind.
I'm going to re-read this next time I'm having a shi* day :)

Thank you Klemes!
 

tsm2k420XX

Smash Cadet
Joined
Aug 31, 2015
Messages
35
Location
DFW
Sometimes my tech skill will make me feel like I could beat anyone, other days make me feel like I can't beat a cpu. This was a big hurdle for me for half the time I've been playing, but one day I just stopped caring. I wanted to get better, but if I'm frustrated and the fun is gone, I just stop caring about how I'm playing and play classic or adventure mode with a random character. Because I'm just too lazy to get up and do something else, playing adventure mode is like a different game entirely. I just stop caring and do something else, and in a little bit I go back and try again. You just have to make sure you don't get frustrated when playing, because I knew someone who stopped playing because of this.
 

exilexi

Smash Rookie
Joined
May 22, 2016
Messages
5
Location
Paris, France
Slippi.gg
LEXI#277
Klemes, great advice post. Thanks for taking the time to write it, it's much appreciated.
tsm2k420XX, agreed, I'll try going into another mode or with another character next time I feel like I'm getting crazy because I can't play at all.
 

Barry BlaZe

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jan 12, 2015
Messages
73
Location
New York
Some days I can zero to death people, spacing is on point, I mix up my recoveries,
then there are days where I can't even l-cancel shine.
These statements trouble me. As someone whos a low to mid level player, these techniques should be second nature. If youre having on and off days in terms of performing these inputs the answer is simple. You need to practice more. Simple as that. More practice rasies consistency and confidence aswell in ur ability to perform these techniques.

Just play more alone/people to get ur baseline up. Once you reach a certain baseline level of skill/tech skill these things should be trivial and second nature.
 
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CP Adagio

Smash Cadet
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
52
These statements trouble me. As someone whos a low to mid level player, these techniques should be second nature. If youre having on and off days in terms of performing these inputs the answer is simple. You need to practice more. Simple as that. More practice rasies consistency and confidence aswell in ur ability to perform these techniques.

Just play more alone/people to get ur baseline up. Once you reach a certain baseline level of skill/tech skill these things should be trivial and second nature.
Are you telling me you can L-cancel shine
 

Shreke

Smash Rookie
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
11
NNID
zeke_h
Just pick up a lot of characters, one of them is bound to be playing good :)
 

CP Adagio

Smash Cadet
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
52
Just pick up a lot of characters, one of them is bound to be playing good :)
Respectfully disagree with this, spreading your skill and time across several characters is counterproductive to improving. If you enjoy multiple characters and you want to play them all then feel free, it's just that chances are it will make it harder to move up in the ranks.
 

SSG SAX GAMER

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jan 18, 2016
Messages
190
Location
Bay Area
Something that can really help if you having trouble wavedash is to warm up your hands, and i don't mean like hand-warmers before a match. I'm talking about actually warming it up with maybe warm/hot water or something if your hands are a bit cold. I agree with what Klemes Klemes said, that you need to be in control of your emotions and not get pissed easily. But a lot of negative emotions like frustration, anger etc. can help later when you aren't playing because it gives you leverage and more intent on your practice, so your practice will be more concious directed, but getting angry in the middle of the set does nothing. If your having a hard day You can do this which is AMAZING, it's like hitting the reset button and turning a bad day into a good day. Meditating. I know this sounds really wierd but it actually works. just sit for 20 min (or 10 if you don't have much time) and focus on your breathing and try not to think at all
 
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SAUS

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 20, 2008
Messages
866
Location
Ottawa
Something that can really help if you having trouble wavedash is to warm up your hands, and i don't mean like hand-warmers before a match. I'm talking about actually warming it up with maybe warm/hot water or something if your hands are a bit cold. I agree with what @clemes said, that you need to be in control of your emotions and not get pissed easily. But a lot of negative emotions like frustration, anger etc. can help later when you aren't playing because it gives you leverage and more intent on your practice, so your practice will be more concious directed, but getting angry in the middle of the set does nothing. If your having a hard day You can do this which is AMAZING, it's like hitting the reset button and turning a bad day into a good day. Meditating. I know this sounds really wierd but it actually works. just sit for 20 min (or 10 if you don't have much time) and focus on your breathing and try not to think at all
+1 to meditation.

Also I find my off days are pretty much 100% mentality issues alone.
 

Audos

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Messages
104
Location
Austintown, Ohio
Bad play perpetuates itself. When you get used to playing melee for hours at a time you forget the importance of simplicity. When you have the start of a bad day stop focusing on the hard parts of the game, like amazing reactions or constantly checking spacing or an amazing combo game. Slow yourself down and check all your processes immediately after you start to feel the issue arise. Do a couple dash dances and wavedashes, not as a tactical advantage but instead to feel if your hands are being antsy and hitting the buttons a little bit off. Focus on something really simple in the game instead of the game as a whole. I personally like to mess around with my shield when I start having a bad day. I experiment with whether or not I can dash dance and make the opponent hit my shield a certain way. I do different angles of my shield often, something I don't focus on much at all when I'm on my A-game. It's important for me because it helps me feel like I'm doing something in a clean, thought provoking way. Even if most of my gameplay is a little off, I can build a little bit on something that calms me. For me it is dash dance shielding, for you it might be testing how to mess with your ariel drifts, or maybe focusing only on what they do after they get hit by a laser, or just testing how it feels to drift different ways like dash dancing in the air. I feel like everyone can find comfort in taking this overly complex game and finding at least one way to move that is simple and intriguing to them.

As for a tournament, I can't say much. If I play bad and don't have much time to improve I just make the best I can of those games and try to be as humble as possible after I lose, I find that it makes the salt a little less painful. I started taking it a step further and started following the run of whoever knocked me out of bracket and rooting for him. The way I see it, people don't get enough support from the people that they beat, and if the guy does make it really far I can feel like I lost to somebody worth losing to. But hey, all that is just one tourney, if you make friends with the locals then they can spit knowledge and practice on you to help you get better for the next one.
 
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