These are a couple of the responses I got on SRK regarding my False Plateau post. Many are very wise and so I’d like to save them here for both prosperity and further reference.
Dorion:
See the thing is, the people who never get better are the people who never realize what you came to the realization of tonight. Now that you noticed it, you’ll start to adjust. The mind games will become obvious in time.. Now that you’re looking for them.
Reece:
@Tsumuji, yo what do you say you work on gettin comfortable outside of your comfort zone. That can range from doin shit that you normally wouldnt to loosening the spring on your stick so that its like everyone elses’ stick so that if you use another person’s stick youre not outta your element. Either that or never play on anyone elses’ stick but your own lol. But if you do end up doing the spring readjustment and you acclimate well, help me convince Zaine to continue to work on using a REAL (jap) stick. ahaha. Both of you have that problem whereas if you guys arent using your own stick that youre comfortable with, whether you dont wanna annoy people by changing out sticks every match, (more so Zaine than you bc not many ppl use his stick), or just being semi lazy, you miss shit…Dah well, must be a Viper thing.
So yeh, I’m not pro but thats definitely something to consider. That and not giving a fuck sometimes will help. You’ll eventually end up doing something or not doing something that you’ll notice and go “oh shit, okay. I guess this DOES work” or “damn, if I…then…” ect…Allll bc you had a little dose of i dont give a fuck.
If you dont believe that last part, just ask Dorion. Although he CAN do it with Gief’s 12000 HP (YES, it might as well be 12,000), he’ll often jump in and eat hella damage just to see which attack of his will beat whatever attack…Just bc he doesnt give a fuck, that and Gief’s 12000 HP can take it. But after that he has that much more knowledge of his character and whatever matchup.
DrDogg:
Realizing the problem is the first step, but there’s a lot more to it. I think a big issue is playing online and in training mode. How often do you talk to your opponents and actually discuss why they did something? That’s how you become better at a game IMO.
When I play Paul or Arnold in Tekken 6, if they do something that caught me off guard I’ll immediately ask what they were thinking. This helps me understand what’s going through my opponent’s mind and how I can manipulate that to my advantage. I also pay attention to how I react to certain things and look into what I’m thinking when I take a hit and why I took that hit.
It’s really just about not mindlessly playing. I think Paul said it best one day stating, “It seems like you’re just throwing out good attacks instead of having a plan that you’re trying to execute. What are you trying to do?” Or something along those lines.
A-Rodt:
@Tsumuji – I’ve been reading a couple articles lately that have really been seeming to help me out with the psychological aspects of winning. Prior to reading these articles I hadn’t won any G1 tournaments online. After reading these articles and playing online for like 2 or 3 hours, I won three G1 tournaments. They helped me not really change my game per se, but more so think about the tactics that I’m using, why they are or are not effective, and how I can turn them into tactics that are more efective or make a decision to abandon that tactic all together. The first articles were these ones on footsies -
Intro – http://sonichurricane.com/?p=460
Chapters 1-5 – http://sonichurricane.com/?cat=8 (starts at the bottom)
next is a book written on tournament mindset that’s helping me along
http://www.sirlin.net/ptw
Reading through these articles helped me come to a realization. The higher and higher level play you are at, its no longer about the knowledge of what beats what, and it starts becoming more an issue of “ok, I know this beats this, how do I get him to throw that so I can beat it.” sorta deal. Anyway, check those articles out, see if it doesn’t blow your mind a little.
Thread: http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=204779&page=185