Regression in skill?

[Rubyiris]

@scar: I didn't understand any of the terminology you used in your blog. In order yo understand it. I'd have to read even further to understand the terms you use. Especially if it all came from a specific book.

@umbreon: this is that awkward moment where I tell you that I'm really not in to women.

 

[N.A.G.A.C.E]

The sports analogy can be quite apt, but remember what is usually glossed over in these conversations: All sports players have a limited lifespan at their peak level.

Try as hard as you might at real sports or in games, but it is difficult to keep the maximal performance for very long. You will eventually slip and not play as well as you used to. It could be from age, it could be from over or under practicing, it could just be that you've lost whatever mentality/aptitude you had before. There are countless examples of this, even within our own community.

It is not futile, but a break from smash is definitely helpful, and beneficial to anybody who wants to stay interested in this game for a long period of time.

Reinforcing the same thought process and routine that has not allowed you to improve in the past will not make you better. Stop practicing for a while, do something else and come back later with a fresh perspective. Either that or come up with a method of training yourself that is so completely different from what you're doing that it forces you to reevaluate how you play.

tl;dr: Nobody's at their best forever. If you don't cross-train (or at least take breaks), you will burn yourself out and stop improving.

I didnt mention anything about how long one can be at top level without losing anything, so i find it odd thats how u responded to my post.

But if u want to bring it up i will say most athletes can stay at a very high level well into their 30's (depends on the sport). Now reaction time tends to slow down in your 30's but i feel often the major issue for athletes is parts of the body breaking down. This is something that should not be a huge issue for melee unless hand issues become prominent. With that in mind people should be able to play high level melee for many many years. Now if u r talking mentally like a chuck knoblauch, this can happen but is kinda rare in all sports and is a issue one has to find a way to overcome Themselves

Edit:at work so the last part got a little rushed

 

[leffen]

jesus people in this thread really suck at giving advice


lol @OMGUNEEDTOFOCUSLESSONTHEGAMETHEREISNOOTHERWAY

lmao you people
There is benefits from taking a break, but those are generally attainable from just thinking differently/smarter when you play (or when you dont play). There is nothing that specifically asks for big breaks from the game.
EVEN if there were HUGE benefits from taking a break, then still stfu about it. Ruby clearly says that he isn't going to take a break >_>


From what I gather, your problem is not REALLY, as you make it out to be, your tech skill/execution.
Simply keep practicing on getting consistent, always ask yourself why did I SD there etc and don't make any excuses but - focus on just being smarter overall. If you were the best player at fundamentals then you'd win despite having a "Bad" day with your tech skill or the fact that you can't really "focus" .
Learn matchups, identify the different mixups, practice playing those. Identify what makes you lose, and try to solve that problem. These are things that you can do to "brute force" improvement. Knowing more about the game and what people do will ALWAYS help you - and because everyone isn't doing this it'll give you an advantage and it'll hopefully make you less locked in on autopilot - making it easier for you to make some progress on your focus/execution problems



Oh btw, Armada hasn't taken a break from smash that lasted more than 3 days (iirc) for 3+ years now

 

[Rubyiris]

I have a problem making the logical leap from this is my problem to this is how I'm going to fix it. I can identify issues fairly easily, but it's the actual application that stumps me. It's difficult to maintain that play to learn mentality versus people who you don't play against very often, and not allow pride to get in the way.

Sometimes I think I'd be much better if I wasn't so prideful.

 

[Warhawk]

Doesn't mean that a break won't help him. What helps Armada get better won't necessarily work for everyone else.

 

[Rubyiris]

I personally think more melee with better players would help me out more than anything, but people are too lazy to drive to my side of town.

With the exception of taking a break, which I might do anyways, I've gotten a ton of good advice here and over aim that I would like to apply sooner rather than later.

I also agree that a new hobby could potentially help, but I'm really serious when I say melee is one of the few things that really engages me. There are other things that interest me, but they are far too expensive to juggle with my budget.

 

[leffen]

Where did I say that? Of course it MIGHT, but it has already been said a billion times now >_>

 

[TaFoKiNtS]

I think it does boil down to pride alot.

Don't get me wrong, but you seem to want to justify and prove yourself to other people, which makes you VERY unteachable. I've seen countless threads where people have given different opinions and feedback to which you just complain and try to defend yourself.

In my opinion, I feel like you think you're better than what everyone thinks you are (which is fine). As a result, you try to validate everything through your own means and own reasoning without other people.

 

[Rubyiris]

I'm not unteachable, but I'm definitely prideful and stubborn.

@leffen: that was a blanket post covering several basis.

 

[Plairnkk]

I don't know how legit this is, but a friend of mine told me DJ, a mid-level Marth from MD (at least he was like half a year ago), recently beat Plank and Vist. My friend didn't know if it was tournament or friendlies, but even if it's only friendlies, that might be saying something about his improvements. He credits it to working out at the gym frequently

hahahahaha

winning 2/40 matches in friendlies vs someones secondaries doesn't constitute "beating" them

el oh el oh el

 

[zZz]

Where did I say that? Of course it MIGHT, but it has already been said a billion times now >_>

Just because it's been said a billion time doesn't make it any less true.

 

[TaFoKiNtS]

I'm not unteachable, but I'm definitely prideful and stubborn.

@leffen: that was a blanket post covering several basis.

Case in point about my original hypothesis =p

 

[Rubyiris]

Which was also one of mine.

Pride is a *****.

 

[danieljosebatista]

I'm still relatively new, but I find that most of us are held back by our pride in this game. Being confident is necessary, but pride will really hold you back imo. Instead of taking note of important things like opponent habits, strategies that work, good punishes etc., we worry instead about "am I better than this guy" or "can I win" or "that's so cheap." All of those things are very common while we play, because of course all of us who are aiming to be top players play to win.

I find it extremely helpful to take yourself off that pedestal. This isn't a personal attack or anything, I personally recently realized I have some pride issues as well (so do most of us, because again, we want to win). My advice? Keep playing if it makes you happy, but focus less on winning and more on playing well. This ironically will lead to more winning and consistently better play.

 

[Deleted member]

hahahahaha

winning 2/40 matches in friendlies vs someones secondaries doesn't constitute "beating" them

el oh el oh el

this is why i **** the **** out of noobs hate ***** *** noobs thinking they are good after winning 1 FRIENDLY

unless they are not a ***

 

[Rubyiris]

^is especially annoying when said noob is a casual, and they won because you played pichu and suicided 4 times.

...I'll figure out how to beat my pride issues eventually.

 

[twizzlerj]

im pretty much a noob if i take a game off of someone really good i will say i took a game if i beat them in a best 2/3 set i will say i beat them but i dunno if that is going to happen anytime soon so whatever. I hate when one day i feel like im playing great and my execution is good then the next day it practically evaporates. I'm so inconsistent

 

[Rubyiris]

I understand all too well how you feel about consistency.

 

[Battlecow]

Yo **** you guys making me agree with leffen

Rubyiris: Hey guys I enjoy smash and would like to get better at it

OTG: Stop playing smash it's bad for you. Have another rehash of some uber-generic life advice and don't worry about getting better

Everyone else: seems legit

 

[Vist]

I don't know how legit this is, but a friend of mine told me DJ, a mid-level Marth from MD (at least he was like half a year ago), recently beat Plank and Vist. My friend didn't know if it was tournament or friendlies, but even if it's only friendlies, that might be saying something about his improvements. He credits it to working out at the gym frequently

Dunno who your friend is, but this is kinda true? DJ is pretty legit. He and bones probably get the least amount of practice / experience with other smashers in MD/VA since they're pretty far north but despite that, they seem to significantly improve every time I play them.

Also, this is probably in reference to the Xanadu fest last Tuesday. Idk about his matches with Plank, but DJ won the majority of the matches we played vs my secondaries (I probably won like a few out of like 10 or so lol). Of course, I have my excuses and could john about this and that, but DJ did well and his / bones' improvement are impressive imo.

 

[Deleted member]

@umbreon: this is that awkward moment where I tell you that I'm really not in to women.

they went out trying to pick up girls via a method as if it were a science. it turned out that they ere just pretending to be better people. then they tried being better people instead of faking it and it still worked. whether or not you want women, it's still a useful skill learning how to talk to them, and it forces heavy and diverse self-improvement on the way. it's a different goal that you have, but it's still the same.

 

[Bing]

Are you sure you are actually getting worse? Or is it at a psychological point where you are expecting to be a pro top 10 finisher when really you just havent developed enough.

Im in a similar stage, Ive been playing consistently for about 6 months now, never made it out of pools(actually I did once, because the person infront of me had to leave early). I feel like I'm so much better than I actually am, I expect to make top 10(Confidence isnt a bad thing, over-confidence can kill you) So I feel for you man, Its depressing when you work hard and don't get the results you feel you deserve.

 

[Scar]

they went out trying to pick up girls via a method as if it were a science. it turned out that they ere just pretending to be better people. then they tried being better people instead of faking it and it still worked. whether or not you want women, it's still a useful skill learning how to talk to them, and it forces heavy and diverse self-improvement on the way. it's a different goal that you have, but it's still the same.

i can't stress enough that the underlying solution is knowing how to improve. in my experience, it requires at least two things:

1) honesty and clarity with who/where you are
2) honesty and clarity about what / where you want to be

once you have those things, you can start really learning how to improve yourself.

 

[Deleted member]

i can't stress enough that the underlying solution is knowing how to improve. in my experience, it requires at least two things:

1) honesty and clarity with who/where you are
2) honesty and clarity about what / where you want to be

once you have those things, you can start really learning how to improve yourself.

i don't believe that at all. what you're suggesting is optimal, but you can still improve sub-optimally and still be better off for it. just going from complacent to somewhere slightly better could be as simple as me saying "brush yo god dam teeth". regardless, most people are VERY far from honesty and don't want anything to do with that, especially about the self.

hitting on women is fun in particular because it's basically a field-test.

 

[Rubyiris]

The last two months, I've been very honest. It's been both very liberating, and very confusing.

@Bing: I was consistently placing top 5 in my region, and occasionally breaking 4th and 3rd place. I got 7th in a monthly when I typically place 5th or higher, and 5th in a city tournament where I typically fight for first with Kyle, or gg7.

 

[SSBM_or_GTFO]

If you play these people often, maybe they just figured you out.

 

[PGH Carroll]

only play when your in a good mood. its unreal how much better people play when theyre in a good mood

 

[Scar]

okay so then did you know how to improve? or did someone tell you how to improve? and then did you objectively improve by brushing yo teeth? i submit that it depends on your honest assessment of where you want to be. maybe this person doesn't want to brush their teeth, and is looking for girls who will accept this.

to your point's credit, realistically (outside of the intellectual bubble), yes there are certain things that are declared by society as better or worse, and if you do the wrong things often times people (likely friends) will tell you what you're doing wrong as per society, and often times they're right, and so people do tend to improve from society's perspective. what i'm advocating is self-improvement, because i'm down with socrates. the unexamined life is not worth living.

 

[Bing]

If you play these people often, maybe they just figured you out.

I agree with this, Im improving yet when I play the only other person in the region I do the same, only because he knows me and my habits very well...

 

[Deleted member]

okay so then did you know how to improve? or did someone tell you how to improve? and then did you objectively improve by brushing yo teeth? i submit that it depends on your honest assessment of where you want to be. maybe this person doesn't want to brush their teeth, and is looking for girls who will accept this.

to your point's credit, realistically (outside of the intellectual bubble), yes there are certain things that are declared by society as better or worse, and if you do the wrong things often times people (likely friends) will tell you what you're doing wrong as per society, and often times they're right, and so people do tend to improve from society's perspective. what i'm advocating is self-improvement, because i'm down with socrates. the unexamined life is not worth living.

all of your posts from the last month make you sound like the man. i can't wait to see what you look like when you're done.

+10 rep.

 

[Scar]

haha thanks mow. i still think we should take a week off and play video games sometime.

 

[omgwtfToph]

this is why i **** the **** out of noobs hate ***** *** noobs thinking they are good after winning 1 FRIENDLY

unless they are not a ***

omg dude

this post speaks to me

but umm, on topic, my best advice pretty much echoes Fly Amanita. Ok so I've talked to you, rubyiris, about smash a few times and I can tell you're very knowledgeable and have the basics down, and I've seen your vids so I know your techskill is fine. from a "hard" perspective, you're golden. but there are also "soft" skills involved in Melee, and in improvement thereof - clarity of mind, ability to focus, ability to maintain a good mood etc. and these "soft" skills can dictate how you end up playing. so I'd start looking at those aspects of yourself if you're struggling to improve.

outside of that, do scar's thing

 

[SUNG666]

I have never once thought that I regressed or got worse with falco. I don't believe in bad days, that's just what people say when they want other people to think they are better than they really are.

There was a time where I stayed on the same level for a bit because of my ego/arrogance (against Baka). But I think I've gotten completely past that now. I almost never underestimate or play differently than when it's tournament or friendlies (I don't go for the utmost/flashy stuff/anything like that ever).

You can never really get worse if you're always playing differently. Mix up everything you can do (approach/pressuring/defense game...). I find that it doesn't matter if you take a break or not, people get better either way but if you are unable to do things differently (which I highly doubt) then taking a break would be good so you can play with a refreshed mind the next time.

In terms of maintaining composure, always try to stay relaxed, take some deep breaths while playing and when you die don't come out immediately but stay in that little angel ring for a bit. The Crimson Blur recently picked up listening to music while playing. He says it helps him immensely and claims that he doesn't choke and focuses better. From my experience I feel that being tense will make your execution more likely to screw up. I think people like you are at a point where SHFFL timings are engraved into your brain so I wouldn't focus on tech skill while playing but gameplay stuff like 'ok I got him cornered time to keep him there' or 'ok I'll bait him with a laser' etc...

But besides that there's a lot of good advice here.

 

[Citizen Snips]

but people are too lazy to drive to my side of town.

... seriously?

That is the worst attitude I have ever seen. It's like you expect people to come to you so you can get better. That's not how it works.

 

[Rud Lisi]

I actually am a psych major and i can tell you right now ur problem...

you subconsciously don't need smash anymore, since the rest of your life is starting to make sense, so subconsciously you don't want to get better, since you know what a commitment that will be, along with the fear that you may never become the best in the world and anything less is unacceptable.

 

[Moxin]

I actually am a psych major and i can tell you right now ur problem...

you subconsciously don't need smash anymore, since the rest of your life is starting to make sense, so subconsciously you don't want to get better, since you know what a commitment that will be, along with the fear that you may never become the best in the world and anything less is unacceptable.

Wait... A psych major who cites Freudian psychology as definitive fact despite all of the newer developments in psychology, and bases said assessments on little to no information? Sick man!

 

[Massive]

Wait... A psych major who cites Freudian psychology as definitive fact despite all of the newer developments in psychology, and bases said assessments on little to no information? Sick man!

Sounds about like most psych majors I've met, lol.

 

[Rud Lisi]

Wait... A psych major who cites Freudian psychology as definitive fact despite all of the newer developments in psychology, and bases said assessments on little to no information? Sick man!

well im about to graduate from mit, so i think i know what i'm talking about, don't worry, you'll learn why i'm right later on if you haven't already

 

[twizzlerj]

I actually am a psych major and i can tell you right now ur problem...

you subconsciously don't need smash anymore, since the rest of your life is starting to make sense, so subconsciously you don't want to get better, since you know what a commitment that will be, along with the fear that you may never become the best in the world and anything less is unacceptable.

this made me laugh pretty hard my life keeps getting better and i don't really think it hinders my ability to play a game and improve at it at all. I'm unaware how not needing smash anymore would prevent someone from getting better regardless.

 

[Scar]

well im about to graduate from mit, so i think i know what i'm talking about, don't worry, you'll learn why i'm right later on if you haven't already

hopefully your MIT education has taught you how preposterous it is to use the authority of the institution you hail from as the justification for your argument