This discussion has evolved into a general discourse on improving one's game and performance, which is cool because I think it complements PeePee's Falco-specific advice quite nicely. These posts in particular grabbed my attention because they made me wonder whether my desire to improve has actually counterproductively impeded my overall grasp of Melee. And I think in a sense it has, because I still haven't developed a way of playing that fits organically with my thinking process and understanding of what works and what doesn't, and I think what Cactuar was implying (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that to improve you need to first develop a grasp of the game (through learning MU's and playing lots of good people) that can then be applied to your particular way of playing. There's just no rushing that.
When I feel that I'm improving, it's during the moments when I realize the connection between a decision I made and the thought process behind it. It doesn't necessarily precipitate improvement, but from understanding this connection I can break down either how to replicate a decision if it was a good one or change a bad habit and try other things based on my experience of playing other people (except I haven't played that many competitive smashers
). Eventually, I'd like to get to the point where I don't have to think, "How can I do this again?" or, "What else can I do?" because it's embedded in my fingertips. That's how I imagine what developing my own style should be.
On a meta-self-conscious note, I feel that it really helps to think about how you think so that you can control the thought processes that drive high performance and summon them at will. I'll give you an example. I was just practicing JC shines and shining OoS with Fox and Falco. They're pretty hard technical feats for me to accomplish and I'm pretty scrubby, but I was just telling myself to not worry about how demanding they are or how terrible of a player I am. Instead, I first thought how much fun it was playing Melee even if I was by myself. Then I started focusing on specific objects in my mind that would make the task at hand easier to digest. So to JC shine, I simply thought B-B, as in, "Press B, press B." I am fully aware that I must press Jump before I shine again, but every time I thought B-Y-B I was too slow or messed up somehow. It simply took too much mental energy for such a small interval of time, and my fingers were unable to realize the movements I imagined.
Whenever I successfully JC shined, I noticed that I was focusing mostly on the interval of time between B's. I internalized the reality of these successful moments by simplifying my mind's (and thus fingers') understanding of this interval of time into a pattern of thinking- B-B. And whenever I thought B-B, the process of pressing jump between each shine was noticeably shorter. My execution of these shine techniques became way more consistent because I could abstract my thoughts into a specific pattern that I knew worked, though I still have a long way to go.
This example is obviously tech-skill related, but my point is that if I could incorporate the process of realizing and replicating my thought patterns into my strategy and my overall style, I know I could become a much better player. I used to ask some people how to improve my game and they would half-seriously say, "Don't get hit," and honestly how could they possibly be wrong? But the reality is that the "Don't get hit" mentality doesn't translate directly to winning matches. I can't just tell myself, "Okay, I'm not gonna get hit," and then JV5 stock everyone I go up against. One specific mentality does not account for the incredibly dynamic process of playing an intelligent, adaptive opponent in a game that requires players to react within split-second intervals. Players have to make decisions moment-by-moment, and in such a fast-paced environment the best decisions can only be informed by your own intuition/ experience/ muscle memory, and through what PeePee might call collecting data on your opponent. As in a game of chess, your moves correspond to your opponents' based on each other's options, except this game is taking place so quickly that the amount of time you can reflect upon these options is severely limited.
The way I see it, it's kind of like engaging in a subconscious dialogue between myself and my opponent, and this dialogue is taking place at a speed measured in frames per second as it is being articulated by our characters. Our thoughts are mediated by our controllers, and our language is the characters we choose. "Don't get hit" thus becomes something completely contextual- "Don't do Y or Z when you're character A playing against opponent B who is using character C when you're on D stage on E part of the stage spaced F far apart with respect to character C's punishment options G with character A at H% and character C at I%, but do use option J to safely avoid punishment or option K if seeking retaliation. If opponent C's recent behavior is consistent with behavioral pattern L, do J. If, however, his using M and/or N in situation O reflects a P change in psychology, do K." It doesn't really make much sense to break it down like that because for every situation you find yourself in there will be an endless array of variables that are nearly impossible to memorize and certain variables, namely the psychology of your opponent, that are impossible to consistently account for. However, the beauty of experience, and of developing a style while employing strategy, is that the process of choosing options becomes, as I've said before, embedded in your fingers. You might have to consciously look at things like percentages when you're weighing your options, but by the time you have to make a decision, most of the thinking has already been done subconsciously and all that information has already been digested.
The "don't do this or that" inner monologues are really singular thoughts during precise moments of a match. When you can generalize successful patterns of choosing options, you can condition yourself to adapt to any situation, character, or opponent. That, of course, takes time.
Regarding Drugged Fox's question on nerves, I agree with others that there isn't any getting rid of them, but I find that being nervous and most negative states of mind in general have a tendency to make themselves worse. The more you are aware of the feeling, the more intense that feeling becomes. Sort of like what I did to JC shine, maybe it helps to think about a productive thing you should be doing to take your mind off your anxiety. Doing technical stuff in between stocks, for example, doesn't necessarily calm me down but it gets me to think that if I can at least control my character, I can control myself. I just saw a vid of you during the last match of a LF's set I think, and it was clear you were losing your composure. You were messing up your SHFFLs, getting chain grabbed, and spot dodging. I think once you realized that your tech skill was being affected, you started being more careful and went for more grabs. In a sense, you were adapting to yourself. Once you landed a few grabs, that match was basically yours.
.
