Taking breaks

[GenNyan]

So I recently went on a week long trip over christmas break. I had no access to melee, and I feared that I would lose a lot of my tech skill upon returning home. Since taking melee more seriously, I had only gone one or two days max without playing, and I would forget so much in that time that it could take me more than a week to relearn muscle memory and everything. But when I came back, I was surprised to find out that my tech skill had actually improved slightly while I was gone!

What are your experiences taking breaks and such? I'm curious to see if I'm an anomaly or the norm.

 

[-ACE-]

That happens kind of often. I think breaks work more often than not for players that put in lots of hours.

 

[Dolla Pills]

I'm never really worried about my tech skill because I've spent a lot of time playing, but sometimes if I haven't played in a week I'll be worried that I will be slow at thinking and I'll be bad. However, I usually end up better. I guess it's refreshing for people who play a lot to let everything process and step away every once in a while. Not sure how else to explain it.

 

[EPsilon933]

Breaks prevent burnouts, which helps keep players motivated. They're nice

 

[Massive]

Breaks usually serve to loosen the connections you have formed during your playtime, starting with the most recent/infrequently used.

Assuming your technical practice is not something you only started recently, you probably won't lose it. What you will see starting to happen is your more recent bad habits beginning to loosen.

Breaks can help you break through plateaus, breaks keep you from getting frustrated and burned out, breaks are awesome.

Take more breaks, lol.

 

[Archelon]

I spent a week away, and the first couple minutes when I came back it was super awkward, but after that I found my overall play (once I played someone) had deteriorated only slightly.

 

[Roukiske]

I've always been off and on. The most I haven't played might be a year. Every time I come back though I seem to still retain everything with a little bit of practice and warm-up at least. But maybe I've just played the game in general for too damn long. I don't think I get better during those breaks though, just stay the same.

If it means anything, even with breaks I'm always playing something competitive. So the brain is always working and I do usually have a controller in my hand.

Edit: In terms of getting better after taking breaks though... when I don't play a music game for a long time and come back sometimes I'm better which is weird...

 

[zero sum]

breaks are good since they give you time to clear your head of any disappointment or work out some troubles you've been having either inside or outside of the game.

taking breaks of 3+ days is hard for me sometimes even though i'm not particularly technical and i usually need to grind invincible ledgedashes, shine grabs, shdl, even basic waveshines for at least 2-3 hours before i feel confident enough again. during the summer i didn't play at all and it took me about a week to get my tech skill back up to snuff. good for working things out though

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

So I recently went on a week long trip over christmas break. I had no access to melee, and I feared that I would lose a lot of my tech skill upon returning home. Since taking melee more seriously, I had only gone one or two days max without playing, and I would forget so much in that time that it could take me more than a week to relearn muscle memory and everything. But when I came back, I was surprised to find out that my tech skill had actually improved slightly while I was gone!

What are your experiences taking breaks and such? I'm curious to see if I'm an anomaly or the norm.

I have been playing Melee with breaks as long as say several months to only a few weeks for pretty much the last 2 years almost. You do not easily lose all the work you have built up from being only gone a few weeks. At the very least if you have had the practice of say playing for probably months with regular occurrence. Usually, what I have seen is there is a slump period of trying to get back your tech skill. Though it usually picks up pretty rapidly from as little as a single match to maybe a couple of hours.

Though once you get going you might notice an improvement because you are thinking clearly. Many times you might dig yourself into a rut trying to get better and the refresh period helps clear that. However, repeated long breaks does nothing except stagnate your performance overall. A break I would say is usually good when you have hit a pretty low rut such as beating yourself up over your performance.

 

[AH-6 Little Bird]

Breaks are fine in moderation. Just like all things in life

 

[-ACE-]

Breaks are fine in moderation. Just like all things in life

Wise man. Too much of anything is bad.

 

[hunterlittle]

Breaks prevent burnouts, which helps keep players motivated. They're nice

I can agree! I used to play melee everyday but then I had a month long burn out so I took a break and I start to play 3 times a week and it helps out!