Speed Train Your Brain

[Acryte]

How would you like to try a cool experiment in melee? Some people remain skeptical about this but once you actually try it you will realize how amazing your brain really is, because the effects of speed training are absolutely incredible.

Note: this works much better if you have a modded copy of the game or Action Replay codes for using C-Stick in 1-Player mode.

Grab a fellow smasher and go into training mode. Set the speed to 2X speed and on a map of your choice (I prefer the larger stages for this like Stadium or FD but it works great on most neutrals).

Set the opponent to Human and fight against your friend for about 20 to 30 minutes. Try your best to execute things accurately. Kills and edgeguards and especially dash dances, wavedashes, L-cancels and shorthops etc. Try to release the shield button so it doesn't pop the shield on L-Cancels too. You won't be able to input things as quickly as possible but you'll still be inputting things much faster than usual.

After playing for 20-30 minutes, go back to the normal multiplayer 4 stocks etc. and start playing. The effects are absolutely dramatic.

(Added affect to post since some people would rather speculate than just try it and see what it does): Normal melee will seem like slow-mo melee because your mind has adjusted to playing at a much faster speed.

The idea isn't to train in it constantly because after a couple hours it wears off. The idea is using it for a few minutes before you play to kickstart your brain into a higher gear.

Have fun.

 

[Jayk]

What is the effect? You're better at techskill now?

 

[Massive]

I've done this before with lightning melee.

It's crazy fun, but it does have a tendency to screw up your techs/l-cancels when you go back to regular speed.
It definitely helps with reaction time though.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

I thought this was going to be something useful for training your brain power. Playing the game sped up only makes you rely less on reaction and more on prediction, which is not what you want to be practicing.

 

[Acryte]

I thought this was going to be something useful for training your brain power. Playing the game sped up only makes you rely less on reaction and more on prediction, which is not what you want to be practicing.

I thought you would actually try it out first instead of deciding what it would do beforehand. If you did try it you might have realized that it isn't about making you rely less on reactions and more on predictions, but has quite the opposite effect. Your brain starts operating at a much faster pace (2X starts to become the norm), it is elevated to where regular melee becomes slow motion melee. It becomes very very easy to space and see attacks coming, your reactions are much faster because you are anticipating, taking in and processing the visual data at an accelerated speed. Also the timing is so easy for everything afterward. I have no negative effects on my technical skill afterward in fact things seem easier because the timing window just feels so much wider.

Also this effect is much stronger in 2X than using lighting melee which is only about 1.5X

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

Your brain doesn't just operate 2x faster because you're playing the game faster, sorry to break it to you. You might feel more adrenaline because its new, faster, and exciting for you and that could give the perception of operating 2x faster. In reality, you have limits to your reaction time and other processes.

It is bad because you are wasting your time not learning to react to things you should. In a real game, spacing is very tight and players react to things like initial dash animation and jumpsquat. If you speed the game up 2x, you have 1/2 the frames to react to (the game still operates in 60 frames/second, the speed up is essentially just frame skipping). By definition, animations look different. Example: between the jumpsquat and startup time, Ganon's fair takes ~21 frames before a hitbox is out. This is a perfect window of time to react to. In a 2x match, that would come out in ~11 frames which is not enough time to react to. You would have to guess when he is going to jump and attempt to counter his action before he did it, which is not a good habit to get into.

 

[Massive]

Lightning melee is nice because you can put stock rules into place and play discrete matches at higher speeds.

You could always use the 30fps AR code from the dolphin online threads to play the game (in regular melee mode) at double speed as well.

 

[Acryte]

Your brain doesn't just operate 2x faster because you're playing the game faster

Like I said, I've told that to plenty of people who remained skeptical until they actually tried it. That's why I didn't say what effect it had in the OP I'd have rather you actually tried it out. Unfortunately some people would rather just disagree than possibly try something new in Melee. The only person I've tried to show it to that didn't feel like the game was in slow motion when going back to regular melee was my friend who refused so strongly that it could have that effect, that he refused to ever even try it. I've done this with many friends and the effect is always the same. Don't believe me, that's fine. It doesn't change the fact that I've performed it on various friends without telling them what effect it would have and they all perceive regular melee as if it is in slow motion. 30 Minutes of your time, spent playing Melee. How miniscule is that? Nevermind, continue just speculating.

Sveet, let me also iron out some details. It doesn't have anything to do with adrenaline, adrenaline has obvious effects, increased heart rate, hands shaking, etc. I have felt adrenaline plenty of times, this is completely different.

Also, I am not talking about permanently playing in 2X as if it is going to make you improve. I'm talking about playing a short 2X period in order to sharpen your senses by challenging your brain through placing higher demands on it speed-wise. If your brain IS actually operating to where normal mode is perceived as half speed, do you think that your ability to react will be improved or will suffer? Think about it.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

You act like you're the first person to have this idea, man

lol

 

[Massive]

It is definitely an old idea, (I'm pretty sure brother and I "trained" in this mode on release week for hours at a time thinking it would make us awesome at smash) but if this is what it takes to help someone improve, there's no real harm in them doing it.

 

[Acryte]

You act like you're the first person to have this idea, man

lol

Oh, so this is already something people commonly do before matches to sharpen their senses... I didn't know that it was already being utilized in such a manner and fell under the realm of common knowledge....

Seriously trying to talk to some people on smashboards borders on impossible. Keep throwing out negative, uneducated comments since you've apparently committed to your stance quite some time ago. It doesn't matter if 200 people tried it and said "OH COOL, IT REALLY DOES WORK!" Your opinion is unlikely to change. Thanks for stoppin' by.

It is definitely an old idea, (I'm pretty sure brother and I "trained" in this mode on release week for hours at a time thinking it would make us awesome at smash)

The application is a bit different though, the idea isn't to train in it all the time to make you better in general. The effect usually lasts for around an hour to two hours etc. It won't do much for you if you used it on a previous day any more than taking caffeine pills a week before some boring event you want to stay awake during. It's more of a temporary thing.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

Oh, so this is already something people commonly do before matches to sharpen their senses... I didn't know that it was already being utilized in such a manner and fell under the realm of common knowledge....

Seriously trying to talk to some people on smashboards borders on impossible. Keep throwing out negative, uneducated comments since you've apparently committed to your stance quite some time ago. It doesn't matter if 200 people tried it and said "OH COOL, IT REALLY DOES WORK!" Your opinion is unlikely to change. Thanks for stoppin' by.

Did you read my posts? I thought I backed up my point of view very well. If you don't want to listen to what I have to say, that doesn't bother me. Good day sir.

 

[Acryte]

My apologies, I also felt I had addressed your points satisfactorily and that afterward you just decided to troll me. I guess that wasn't your intention.

Playing the game sped up only makes you rely less on reaction and more on prediction, which is not what you want to be practicing

That's true but only true for when playing in 2X. The idea is that when in normal speed, everything is perceptually slowed down, making reacting to various situations easier as it seems there is much more time to respond. Inputs for moves also seem much less tight as well so tech seems much easier than usual.

Your brain doesn't just operate 2x faster because you're playing the game faster, sorry to break it to you. You might feel more adrenaline because its new, faster, and exciting for you and that could give the perception of operating 2x faster. In reality, you have limits to your reaction time and other processes.

Just because your brain operates doesn't mean it can't process information much more quickly than it normally does. I can't tell you exactly how it works as the brain and the mind are only shallowly understood at best. I only know that it does work. Just a few thoughts loosely correlated but maybe unrelated... when waiting around and not doing much time seems to pass by rather slowly. When preoccupied by various activities it seems to pass much quicker. This is just an illusion for the most part, but the perception of the speed in which time passes is variable based off of our focus and mental activity.

I think the more likely explanation is that normally life only requires your brain to operate at a certain base-level speed. It isn't necessary for it to be going a million miles an hour, that would place much more stress on it over time, kind of like how playing through a tournament can be mentally stressful vs just doing everyday routine things. The more you exercise muscles, brains, etc... most things that are part of your human physiology they adapt and grow faster or stronger to suit your needs. You lift heavier and heavier weights more often you grow stronger. You practice memorizing things, your memory improves at performing similar tasks. Playing in 2X speed places much more stress on your mind because its being overwhelmed by the speed of play. You aren't even capable of inputting things at the speeds you're allowed to. The limit is basically whatever your dexterity and concentration allows. Adapting to that speed seems to boost your mental speed for a while. That's the best I can do to explain it...

It is bad because you are wasting your time not learning to react to things you should.

The idea isn't to play in 2X for prolonged periods as if it will increase your abilities in general. The idea is just to use it as a means of speeding up your frame of reference / mental activity. You won't be learning bad habits or getting accustomed to playing poorly from such short exposure, and your intelligence and strategy is unlikely to dissipate either.

In a real game, spacing is very tight and players react to things like initial dash animation and jumpsquat. If you speed the game up 2x, you have 1/2 the frames to react to (the game still operates in 60 frames/second, the speed up is essentially just frame skipping). By definition, animations look different. Example: between the jumpsquat and startup time, Ganon's fair takes ~21 frames before a hitbox is out. This is a perfect window of time to react to. In a 2x match, that would come out in ~11 frames which is not enough time to react to. You would have to guess when he is going to jump and attempt to counter his action before he did it, which is not a good habit to get into.

Yes, reaction is less effective when the game is in 2X speed, but you won't be playing in 2X for prolonged periods or long enough to establish bad habits from it. On the flip side, it does help to speed up your reaction times in general when in normal mode.

 

[etecoon]

there could potentially be value in speed training of some kind, some people have reported increased twitch reaction time from things like playing FPS games

I don't think playing the game you're competing in at 2x speed to do it is a particularly great idea however

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

I think there are merits too this, but not necessarily in the ways expected.

Sveets has pointed out the spot I think it helps least in which is your ability to register what is going on and making an appropriate choice in some circumstance. In short, I doubt your decision making ability will improve any. However, I think its true that playing at 2x times faster can help force you to attempt to play faster which is really just making you physically get quicker at the game rather than mentally.

A common problem I see very new people having at the game is simply short hopping with someone like marth or captain falcon. So, a couple of times I told them to just go and do it with fox. Force them to try pushing the limit with the fastest squat jump character, then come back to Falcon and Marth. Falcon and Marth are easy to short hop with in comparison now.

 

[Bones0]

I haven't done this in a long time, but I still remember the effect and it was pretty crazy. I wonder if it'll be weaker now that I'm so used to the game (or perhaps stronger).

@Sveet

You're missing the point of it, bro. You aren't playing at 2x speed for practice. You're playing at 2x speed so when you go back to regular Melee, you can perceive it twice as fast. There's no way someone will learn to play the game improperly just from warming up for 10-20 minutes at high speeds before playing.

Idk how much of this is just your perception of time being warped, however. Maybe it feels like you are reacting faster, but maybe you actually aren't. When I get a chance, I will try to test my reaction time with things like PSing and tech chasing to see if I actually improve at all after practicing in Lightning Mode or at 2x speed.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

^Again, I completely disagree with any sort of reaction time getting better. Simply your finger speed is improving for auto-pilot mode. Its one thing to play a character quickly and still be able to register exactly what is going on at each moment.

I think you'll get better at fox shffl nair shine repeat with 2x play. But, you'll still nair shine x2 in place before realizing that your target got away by roll after the first nair shine lol

 

[t3h Icy]

The majority of what every player knows and is capable of doing is subconscious and works with muscle memory. If you're practicing at 2x speed long-term, you're going to mess that up, and you won't be able to focus on important things like reads and prediction while everything else is supposed to be on auto-pilot.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

@Sveet

You're missing the point of it, bro. You aren't playing at 2x speed for practice. You're playing at 2x speed so when you go back to regular Melee, you can perceive it twice as fast. There's no way someone will learn to play the game improperly just from warming up for 10-20 minutes at high speeds before playing.

Idk how much of this is just your perception of time being warped, however. Maybe it feels like you are reacting faster, but maybe you actually aren't. When I get a chance, I will try to test my reaction time with things like PSing and tech chasing to see if I actually improve at all after practicing in Lightning Mode or at 2x speed.

One doesn't actually perceive anything faster, it is just an illusion of perception. Like the "Arm in Doorway" trick you may have done as a kid, where you push on the frame in a certain way for a minute or so and then when you take your arms off it "feels" as if your arms are floating or whatever. If you play the game long enough to "get used" to the fast speed, then go back to normal, you aren't perceiving anything faster; your brain's perception has simply been tricked. Your reaction time remains the same.

If you want an unbiased test, try this: Go to a smashfest, have the best player warm up for 30 minutes. While he is doing that, play your friend in 2x speed. Then play the first player.
Hypothesis: you will spend a few minutes johning about your timings being off, you will kill yourself a few times, you will make a few dumb decisions, then after a game or so you'll be used to regular speed again and play normally.

 

[The 2t]

Yeah idk, this seems like one of those things that could seem kind of cool for the novelty, but would probably not really help you much any actual practical way.

 

[KrIsP!]

Lol at sveet.

I'm going to try this, I'm always off my game when I get to a tournament and need to warm up, I tend to pick faster characters just to get the ball rolling and then settle into my main so maybe this will help in a similar way.

 

[Acryte]

I haven't done this in a long time, but I still remember the effect and it was pretty crazy. I wonder if it'll be weaker now that I'm so used to the game (or perhaps stronger).

@Sveet

You're missing the point of it, bro. You aren't playing at 2x speed for practice. You're playing at 2x speed so when you go back to regular Melee, you can perceive it twice as fast. There's no way someone will learn to play the game improperly just from warming up for 10-20 minutes at high speeds before playing.

Idk how much of this is just your perception of time being warped, however. Maybe it feels like you are reacting faster, but maybe you actually aren't. When I get a chance, I will try to test my reaction time with things like PSing and tech chasing to see if I actually improve at all after practicing in Lightning Mode or at 2x speed.

I think its probably not just an illusion but your mind being more active. When players first start to play Racquetball or Speed ball for instance, the ball travels so quickly that it's hard to follow at times, but once you learn to focus and track the ball you're able to keep up with it and it doesn't seem as fast as before. The slowing effect of your increased perception is due to your mind operating, processing, and making decisions at a faster rate than usual. The payoff is quite quantifiable and immediate, you become a more proficient player of the game (Obviously it won't help you make smarter decisions but it won't have you make dumb ones either, the difference is that you have more time to react and can track the ball better). Melee isn't just about speed however, but the slower a speed you perceive the same game, due to your mind being more active, should allow you more ample reaction time or time to see what your opponent is doing movement-wise etc. Split second decisions aren't as split second.

If a casual baseball player gets thrown a 75 mile per hour pitch it's most likely going to be a blur and hard to track as it comes in for the hit. The difference to him between a 75 mph throw and a 90+ mph throw is not very substantial. For a professional baseball player who's eyes and mind are trained and used to 90 mph pitches, a slower pitch like that stands a much more likely chance to be swatted out of the park.

Same could be said for a goalie in hockey tracking the puck to grab a slapshot out of the air, etc

On the same note, if a professional baseball player went to a high school baseball game, he's likely to hit all those pitches out of the park. It isn't going to cause him to mess up because it's slower than he is used to, because it's so slow he can just look at it and time it easily. Same with Hockey etc. He would dominate because it's too slow for him. The negative effect would only be if he played against slow pitches for so long he lost his ability to see the fast ones coming anymore (rust). We don't have to worry about that because the slow version is the standard and not vice-versa.

 

[t3h Icy]

Best of luck at Apex 2014 Grand Finals.

 

[Jim Morrison]

Can't use C-stick in training mode

 

[InTimidator]

This Sveet guy sure loves to troll.

 

[Dark Hart]

Dude why are you so butt hurt?