Shamuu
Smash Rookie
Hey! I'm Shamuu, I've been playing melee for a few months now, and I've heard this term called "The Zone" being talked about a lot. I scrolled through the threads shorty after making this account and saw there was no place to discuss this topic, so I thought why not just make one?!
What exactly is this Zone? I personally view it as a state of pure focus within the game. I find myself to be at my best when I don't allow any outside distractions to interfere with my gameplay, be it loud cheers in the venue or me simply internally telling myself something like "oh my god why did you just get hit by that you scrub?" I found that how I deal with these distractions greatly contributes to how well I play the game. Outside noises are fairly easy to tune out, plugging in some headphones and listening to my favorite jams is an easy fix. What I really have had trouble with in the past is ignoring self doubt mid-match. It has been something that has greatly hindered my progress as a player in the past, but once I changed my mindset and developed a much more "self-forgiving" attitude mid-match, I started improving much more quickly and became incredibly more focused whenever I picked up my controller.
A good friend of mine known in the Project M community as Steel Kangaroo told me to read a book called "The Inner Game of Tennis" after telling him that I had been finding it hard to focus. One day while I was taking the train home I decided to listen to a summary of the book on youtube (I'll link it at the end of this post.) There was something the narrator addressed that greatly stood out to me. In short, the more we judge and dwell on what we do in-game as "good" or "bad" the more distracted we become, thus disallowing ourselves to enter The Zone and hindering our ability as players. Don't get me wrong, it's VERY important to differentiate a "good" option from a "bad" one, but in the moment it's very easy to become emotional about what options we choose. Instead of beating myself up over a "bad" option, I try to recognize that I made a mistake, take note of it, and instead of pursuing the thought any further I let it go and try my best to react accordingly with this new information that was sprouted from my mistake.
Have any of you come to any revelations like this in the past? I think it would be beneficial to all of us (as well as being a lot of fun) to share our experiences and thoughts on this mysterious Zone! What do you guys think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUdTxXkecr8 (the video I was talking about earlier, I highly suggest you watch it!)
What exactly is this Zone? I personally view it as a state of pure focus within the game. I find myself to be at my best when I don't allow any outside distractions to interfere with my gameplay, be it loud cheers in the venue or me simply internally telling myself something like "oh my god why did you just get hit by that you scrub?" I found that how I deal with these distractions greatly contributes to how well I play the game. Outside noises are fairly easy to tune out, plugging in some headphones and listening to my favorite jams is an easy fix. What I really have had trouble with in the past is ignoring self doubt mid-match. It has been something that has greatly hindered my progress as a player in the past, but once I changed my mindset and developed a much more "self-forgiving" attitude mid-match, I started improving much more quickly and became incredibly more focused whenever I picked up my controller.
A good friend of mine known in the Project M community as Steel Kangaroo told me to read a book called "The Inner Game of Tennis" after telling him that I had been finding it hard to focus. One day while I was taking the train home I decided to listen to a summary of the book on youtube (I'll link it at the end of this post.) There was something the narrator addressed that greatly stood out to me. In short, the more we judge and dwell on what we do in-game as "good" or "bad" the more distracted we become, thus disallowing ourselves to enter The Zone and hindering our ability as players. Don't get me wrong, it's VERY important to differentiate a "good" option from a "bad" one, but in the moment it's very easy to become emotional about what options we choose. Instead of beating myself up over a "bad" option, I try to recognize that I made a mistake, take note of it, and instead of pursuing the thought any further I let it go and try my best to react accordingly with this new information that was sprouted from my mistake.
Have any of you come to any revelations like this in the past? I think it would be beneficial to all of us (as well as being a lot of fun) to share our experiences and thoughts on this mysterious Zone! What do you guys think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUdTxXkecr8 (the video I was talking about earlier, I highly suggest you watch it!)
