MookieRah
Kinda Sorta OK at Smash
I wrote up a guide back in 2006. Seeing as how we got a bunch of new peeps in on the scene I figured I could update it a little and repost it here. Hopefully it will be a catalyst to improving the metagame.
Introduction
Playing to learn is a process of analyzing one's play and addressing the problems in it during friendly play. Either a player analyzes his performance in play or uses tools such as recording devices to look at his matches objectively to find out errors or possible improvements in play. Once something is discovered through analysis a player can then focus on fixing or creating a new strategy based off his analysis. In this experimental phase the player is only trying to improve ONE thing. He is experimenting against an opponent who is playing to win. It is imperative to realize that in order to get to the experimenting phase he has to identify something worth trying or improving. The experiment phase is not randomly trying to do weird or crazy things. There is usually always something that they can work on to improve, and if they want to progress in skill as quickly as possible they have to play to learn in order to improve.
Before one can learn he must first have a good estimate at where he is at.
Stages of Developement
This is a quick and basic rundown of the tiers of skill you would encounter in competitive games. This isn't scientific by any means, so don't try to force yourself into a category if you float in between them. This is simply an easy way to gauge your level of skill.
Newbie/Beginner ~ Someone who has barely played the game. Struggles with the most basic of concepts, and is still adjusting to the controls.
Casual Novice ~ A player who understands all of the basic concepts of the game. They understand or at least know of pretty much all of the basic options as presented in the instruction manual. A casual novice knows little or virtually nothing of the competitive scene, and will not truly progress past this stage until they discover it and then choose to reach a higher level of play.
Novice ~ A player who has a good understanding of the lower level skills, and is currently in the process of learning and experimenting higher end techniques. This is a very influential stage in ones development, because a lot of players tend to get overwhelmed. It's easy for humble players to realize that in the grand scheme of things, they aren't good. A cocky player will see his improvement at this point and attribute this as him having some incredible innate talent to smash, and is liable to believe that he will be at pro level within a month, or perhaps even a few weeks. Regardless of one's mindset, it is at this point is when people usually attend their first tournament, and that can make or break the player.
Intermediate ~ I would gander to say that most competitive players fall into this category. At this point a player has pretty much hammered out all the low end stuff, has a good understanding of the higher level stuff, and is beginning to dabble into various "nuances" in play.
Journeyman ~ Someone who has hit the plateau stage in their development. At this point your progression comes to pretty much a halt, because the player has developed most of the tech skill he will ever have. The things that he is to learn is not clear-cut techniques as most of what is left to learn is abstract concepts such as observation, positioning, and mind games. Most of what is left to learn are simply nuances in play.
Semi-Pro ~ Someone whom has progressed through several plateaus, and can see most of all the underlying things going on in matches. They can more easily gauge themselves in comparison of the pros cause they are at a high enough maturity to see the mastery that the pros have.
Pro ~ Ones who have mastered pretty much all there is to know about their game. Their understanding of the game as well as how to manipulate players is incredible.
Super Pros ~ Even amongst pros there are some that stand out. This is the most exclusive class, as very very very few reach it. While I would have one feel positive about it, it might not be possible for some people to reach this level of play. Only a few have attained this level worldwide, and only a few will ever reach this stage.
Once a player knows where he is in his play then it's easier to know what he needs to do to improve. In the next section I will discuss ways to progress through each category.
Learning Strategies and Progressing for Early Stages
In the beginning learning is easy and intuitive. The first two levels of development are easily attained by simply playing the game. Most players who aren't aware of a large competitive scene will typically not progress beyond those two stages, because they are unknowing of the larger community outside of their local scene. Once one has discovered the community and reads up on the wealth of knowledge that is available and then actively chooses to take his game to the next level, the importance of good learning strategies come into play.
In Super Smash Brothers Brawl there are a handful of basic techniques that are obvious to casual players; however, there are a lot of hidden techniques in play that were either simply unexplained or completely unintentional. The smash community, and I'm assuming many other communities of the fighting game genre, refer to the mastery of these skills as tech skill. In the early levels of play tech skill should be the primary focus. One needs to be able to do what is expected or standard with one's character before he can begin to address issues of higher level play.
Often times people adhere to ineffective methods of improvement. The most common would be spending hours and hours trying to perfect a single technique. When building tech skill, one needs to realize that they are building muscle memory, specifically fine motor skill. While playing for hours and hours isn't ineffective, there are other easier and better methods that require less time and is also less likely to lend themselves to habits in play.
The best way I have found to improve your tech is simple. Practice a technique or many techniques for 10-15 minutes at a time and take a short break (anywhere from 10-30 minutes). It's that simple. Oddly enough I stumbled upon this method while using a very similar method of studying for classes. I would study for 15 minutes and smash for 5-10. All of the sudden my tech skill is increasing faster from less time spent practicing.
Of course, being able to do something doesn't equate to doing it well or by any means knowing how to truly implement it. A lot of practice must be done in a competitive setting against friends and fellow crew mates. After you learn "how" to do something you have to learn "how to use" it. A lot of noobs will claim a certain "tried and true" high level tech is useless, and/or that they have beaten "pros" who use those techniques. Obviously this is not true, but people often don't realize that you have to "learn" how to use techniques the same way you learned how to properly use all the other basic techniques.
Plateaus
A player who focuses himself on learning tech skill will inevitably hit a wall, or a plateau. They stumble onto this plateau because they run out of tech skill to practice. The only thing they are left with is nuances in play.
Once a player gets to the point that you hit plateaus it is a sign that you are becoming a more mature smasher, in terms of level of play. Often times this frustrates players, cause the things that further your improvement are more abstract and conceptual things as opposed to simply practicing tech skill. A lot of players will hit their first plateau and not know what to do. Others make the transition more seem less, as mind games, strategies, and just general game psychology comes naturally to them. A lot of times the players who had a harder time with tech skill tend to improve faster once they hit their first plateau. It's important for those who have a hard time in the beginning to know that they may not fall behind to some of their contemporaries in the long run, and that players who are progressing quickly in the beginning that they might hit some rough spots. Whatever the case, whatever the cause, players need to know that they will hit a plateau, and that their skills won't continue to increase as rapidly as before.
Once players hit a plateau they seem to improve in stages rather than gradually. Sometimes one will stop playing for a while, come back, and just end up being better than before for no apparent reason. My theory on this is that during your absence of playing you somehow manage to drop habits of bad play. Also, it's the same as the previous concept with tech skill, that practicing in small amounts and having down time is more effective than non-stop playing. These are all just theories, but this is the most common way I myself and others I have talked to have improved, and it's still a mystery to me as to why it happens this way.
The best way to progress once a player hits the plateau stage is to focus on his observation skills. At this level analyzing matches and decisions in play are key. Learning small things, like individual player habits with a given character, go a LONG way towards breaching the next level. Being able to quickly identify habits and patterns is the first step towards learning how to control players and establish the flow of the match. Simply put, observation skill is what dictates your personal growth. I very much recommend that players record their matches and analyze them. It makes it INCREDIBLY easy to pinpoint your problems as well as things you can expand and improve upon.
Once a player has discovered something he can improve upon he can move to an experimental stage. A few key things one should know: your opponent needs to be playing to win. If both players are experimenting it's hard to gauge how effective their new strategy is. To truly gauge it's effectiveness it should be up against someone whom is focusing on winning and not learning in any way. Another thing to remember is that one needs to focus on one problem at a time. A player can be easily frustrated if he spreads himself too thin. Take it slow, and easy, and you will improve.
Introduction
Playing to learn is a process of analyzing one's play and addressing the problems in it during friendly play. Either a player analyzes his performance in play or uses tools such as recording devices to look at his matches objectively to find out errors or possible improvements in play. Once something is discovered through analysis a player can then focus on fixing or creating a new strategy based off his analysis. In this experimental phase the player is only trying to improve ONE thing. He is experimenting against an opponent who is playing to win. It is imperative to realize that in order to get to the experimenting phase he has to identify something worth trying or improving. The experiment phase is not randomly trying to do weird or crazy things. There is usually always something that they can work on to improve, and if they want to progress in skill as quickly as possible they have to play to learn in order to improve.
Before one can learn he must first have a good estimate at where he is at.
Stages of Developement
This is a quick and basic rundown of the tiers of skill you would encounter in competitive games. This isn't scientific by any means, so don't try to force yourself into a category if you float in between them. This is simply an easy way to gauge your level of skill.
Newbie/Beginner ~ Someone who has barely played the game. Struggles with the most basic of concepts, and is still adjusting to the controls.
Casual Novice ~ A player who understands all of the basic concepts of the game. They understand or at least know of pretty much all of the basic options as presented in the instruction manual. A casual novice knows little or virtually nothing of the competitive scene, and will not truly progress past this stage until they discover it and then choose to reach a higher level of play.
Novice ~ A player who has a good understanding of the lower level skills, and is currently in the process of learning and experimenting higher end techniques. This is a very influential stage in ones development, because a lot of players tend to get overwhelmed. It's easy for humble players to realize that in the grand scheme of things, they aren't good. A cocky player will see his improvement at this point and attribute this as him having some incredible innate talent to smash, and is liable to believe that he will be at pro level within a month, or perhaps even a few weeks. Regardless of one's mindset, it is at this point is when people usually attend their first tournament, and that can make or break the player.
Intermediate ~ I would gander to say that most competitive players fall into this category. At this point a player has pretty much hammered out all the low end stuff, has a good understanding of the higher level stuff, and is beginning to dabble into various "nuances" in play.
Journeyman ~ Someone who has hit the plateau stage in their development. At this point your progression comes to pretty much a halt, because the player has developed most of the tech skill he will ever have. The things that he is to learn is not clear-cut techniques as most of what is left to learn is abstract concepts such as observation, positioning, and mind games. Most of what is left to learn are simply nuances in play.
Semi-Pro ~ Someone whom has progressed through several plateaus, and can see most of all the underlying things going on in matches. They can more easily gauge themselves in comparison of the pros cause they are at a high enough maturity to see the mastery that the pros have.
Pro ~ Ones who have mastered pretty much all there is to know about their game. Their understanding of the game as well as how to manipulate players is incredible.
Super Pros ~ Even amongst pros there are some that stand out. This is the most exclusive class, as very very very few reach it. While I would have one feel positive about it, it might not be possible for some people to reach this level of play. Only a few have attained this level worldwide, and only a few will ever reach this stage.
Once a player knows where he is in his play then it's easier to know what he needs to do to improve. In the next section I will discuss ways to progress through each category.
Learning Strategies and Progressing for Early Stages
In the beginning learning is easy and intuitive. The first two levels of development are easily attained by simply playing the game. Most players who aren't aware of a large competitive scene will typically not progress beyond those two stages, because they are unknowing of the larger community outside of their local scene. Once one has discovered the community and reads up on the wealth of knowledge that is available and then actively chooses to take his game to the next level, the importance of good learning strategies come into play.
In Super Smash Brothers Brawl there are a handful of basic techniques that are obvious to casual players; however, there are a lot of hidden techniques in play that were either simply unexplained or completely unintentional. The smash community, and I'm assuming many other communities of the fighting game genre, refer to the mastery of these skills as tech skill. In the early levels of play tech skill should be the primary focus. One needs to be able to do what is expected or standard with one's character before he can begin to address issues of higher level play.
Often times people adhere to ineffective methods of improvement. The most common would be spending hours and hours trying to perfect a single technique. When building tech skill, one needs to realize that they are building muscle memory, specifically fine motor skill. While playing for hours and hours isn't ineffective, there are other easier and better methods that require less time and is also less likely to lend themselves to habits in play.
The best way I have found to improve your tech is simple. Practice a technique or many techniques for 10-15 minutes at a time and take a short break (anywhere from 10-30 minutes). It's that simple. Oddly enough I stumbled upon this method while using a very similar method of studying for classes. I would study for 15 minutes and smash for 5-10. All of the sudden my tech skill is increasing faster from less time spent practicing.
Of course, being able to do something doesn't equate to doing it well or by any means knowing how to truly implement it. A lot of practice must be done in a competitive setting against friends and fellow crew mates. After you learn "how" to do something you have to learn "how to use" it. A lot of noobs will claim a certain "tried and true" high level tech is useless, and/or that they have beaten "pros" who use those techniques. Obviously this is not true, but people often don't realize that you have to "learn" how to use techniques the same way you learned how to properly use all the other basic techniques.
Plateaus
A player who focuses himself on learning tech skill will inevitably hit a wall, or a plateau. They stumble onto this plateau because they run out of tech skill to practice. The only thing they are left with is nuances in play.
Once a player gets to the point that you hit plateaus it is a sign that you are becoming a more mature smasher, in terms of level of play. Often times this frustrates players, cause the things that further your improvement are more abstract and conceptual things as opposed to simply practicing tech skill. A lot of players will hit their first plateau and not know what to do. Others make the transition more seem less, as mind games, strategies, and just general game psychology comes naturally to them. A lot of times the players who had a harder time with tech skill tend to improve faster once they hit their first plateau. It's important for those who have a hard time in the beginning to know that they may not fall behind to some of their contemporaries in the long run, and that players who are progressing quickly in the beginning that they might hit some rough spots. Whatever the case, whatever the cause, players need to know that they will hit a plateau, and that their skills won't continue to increase as rapidly as before.
Once players hit a plateau they seem to improve in stages rather than gradually. Sometimes one will stop playing for a while, come back, and just end up being better than before for no apparent reason. My theory on this is that during your absence of playing you somehow manage to drop habits of bad play. Also, it's the same as the previous concept with tech skill, that practicing in small amounts and having down time is more effective than non-stop playing. These are all just theories, but this is the most common way I myself and others I have talked to have improved, and it's still a mystery to me as to why it happens this way.
The best way to progress once a player hits the plateau stage is to focus on his observation skills. At this level analyzing matches and decisions in play are key. Learning small things, like individual player habits with a given character, go a LONG way towards breaching the next level. Being able to quickly identify habits and patterns is the first step towards learning how to control players and establish the flow of the match. Simply put, observation skill is what dictates your personal growth. I very much recommend that players record their matches and analyze them. It makes it INCREDIBLY easy to pinpoint your problems as well as things you can expand and improve upon.
Once a player has discovered something he can improve upon he can move to an experimental stage. A few key things one should know: your opponent needs to be playing to win. If both players are experimenting it's hard to gauge how effective their new strategy is. To truly gauge it's effectiveness it should be up against someone whom is focusing on winning and not learning in any way. Another thing to remember is that one needs to focus on one problem at a time. A player can be easily frustrated if he spreads himself too thin. Take it slow, and easy, and you will improve.
