Emotional Play
Extremes are generally bad things. Too much emotion clouds judgment, but none at all can wear away your mental resolve (it's very taxing for some people to block out everything entirely) and it prevents you from really 'feeling' what's going on. I find sometimes, for me, it's almost like playing with cold hands-- but in a mental way.
Somewhere in the middle, there's gotta be an ideal (and it probably varies from person to person 'cuz we're weird like that). There's gotta be a place where you've achieved enough emotional involvement to be engaged in the match in a meaningful way, while simultaneously not getting caught up in the heat of the moment and making rash decisions based on raw emotions.
People are strange.
Is there a personal "best" for every person though? Should we all be more engaged or should we reserve ourselves just a little more and stick to analyzing things? There seem to be benefits for both mindsets, and I feel like someone could be successful at times and fail at times using a more emotional mindset, a more reserved mindset, and one that attempts to balance everything. With an emotional mindset, I believe you will be able to push your reaction time farther because you will be hyperfocused on the match due to how invested you are in it, but it may be at the cost of reads or exposing your own predictability. With a more reserved mindset, I believe you can spend more time playing calmly and reading, but you may get too caught up in this and possibly sacrifice a reaction for more assurance of a possible better read in the future. Finally, with a balanced mindset, I think the biggest problem with this one is people would try too hard for balance and end up swinging too much one way or the other at different times. they may even begin to focus on this balance more than the match itself(which seems somewhat common for people to struggle with, myself included every so often).
So, what do I think the best way to handle this issue is? In short, I believe the best way to control emotion is to regulate it whenever possible but have the overall control to know when to let it flow as well. This may sound like a balance prospect, but I am talking about intentionally swinging between one end of the emotional spectrum and another on purpose rather than slightly deviating from the middle of it because of the difficulty it takes to control emotion in a given match.
An example of how I would execute such a strategy is this:
I begin a set, and I use the first stock or maybe two to slowly feel out my opponent and use it to settle in to the pressure of the set. Then, once I have determined how my opponent would respond to all of my setups, I then switch them up and use an emotional, highly reactive state of mind and take control of the tempo of the match. Not only will this throw my opponent completely off guard, but it could give me the momentum I need to turn around the game if I am losing or break the opponent for the set if I am winning.
I am not saying this strategy(or its execution) is foolproof, but it does account for ordinary human fluctuations in emotion and still seems to grant the benefits of both emotion and control while minimizing their weaknesses. There is also the fact that people and their emotions behave very differently from mine or those of anyone who reads this wall, so they may have to come up with their own effective answers. I think this is a solid, competitive suggestion to test out though, and I am hoping to do so myself in future majors. I have noticed a sharp difference in my play overall when I am calm and when I am confident or super focused on winning(reads and safety vs reaction and risks basically), so I urge anyone reading to experiment with their own emotional play and observe the results.
what do u guys do when ur in shield and the enemy sheik is right in front of u jabbing and waiting for u to do something like shl so they can kill u
If she's close, try to CC shield grab(shield and hold down and mash A). If she's farther away, then you can try to CC punish OOS(mash A and down for a Dtilt for example). You could also just roll away or WD OOS but it all depends on how frequent the jabs are and the spacing.
Most people I know (myself included) get pretty irrational when seriously angry about something. And while I may be more focused, I'm unsure the trade off (thinking significantly less logically) is productive in a game like smash where lapses in judgment can easily get you killed.
I'm generally an advocate of balance when it comes to emotional stuff (although I should really try to take my own advice more often) so thinking so much in extremes seems kind of weird. It reminds me dimly of the "tech skill vs. strategy" discussions and their ilk.
Yeah that's a fair analogy. I believe this is a separate facet of smash play that is influenced by and in turn influences these other aspects of smash though, including how you learn. It's pretty important to get a handle on for a variety of reasons(including handling pressure).
), whatever), and harness whatever enhances your focus and decision making (ever had a "gut feeling" about something? That's an emotion, too).
