Below is an initial self retro to help build coaching plan off of
Goals¶
My goals can be best exemplified by two quotes below
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime
You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems
This means, I am looking more to “learn how to learn” and base foundation to understand the game
This would be opposed to just learning optimal strategy, specific strategies for MUs.
But instead closer to
How one arrives to these conclusions/strategies in first place?
What are ways they learn, experiment?
What things do they look at during vod reviews?
Clarity on my blind spots (“I dont know what I dont know”)
How I learn?¶
Some notes about where my strengths are in learning:
I am naturally an analytically minded person
I think through lot through verbally talking and writing. Though I am very forgetful and something written down or recorded that I could write up is needed
Visual learning is not as intuitive for me. With that spacial awareness is something have to work hard and train at (usually coming up with visual markers and queues to serve as base).
I have not great rote memorization, I do better when understand the why, and more small foundational building blocks I can use to extrapolate
I just started playing smash this April, and didn’t much of any video games prior to this. I have also only ever played Mac (which has hurt my intuitive understanding of certain parts of game, eg ariels)
Weakness I Have Noticed¶
I rely to much on preemptive strategy and mix ups. I think of ideas of mix up and ways to tackle MU during match, but lack ability to adapt, take info in front of me. and react.
Above leads me to going for combo set up whether true and overall “vanilla” playable
My reaction time is not great. eg consistently get hit by projectiles (this may relate to movement options and how well I’m watching my opponent instead of myself)
Not precise with movement, overshoot a lot, not comfortable moving around plats consistently (especially within neutral, advantage state bit better)
Dont know how to deal with opponents that:
Can air stall (i just throw up tilt, not timed or spaced hoping will hit)
Opponents that platform hop and “camp” just feel lost
projectile heavy characters like Samus and Young Link, just constantly getting hit and cant get in.
Lack proper understanding of disadvange, just feels like I am having to memorize where/whether to SDI & DI per MU, no4 intuitive understanding why do one option
Ideas Of What To Learn?¶
Looking more in-depth what it means to have good neutral and advantage with Mac
I have tried to just memorize combos, without much question on why those are true. I think trying to rethink how think of advantage state for example, don’t know if better to understand base aspects of my moves like (1) when sends into tech situation (2) when puts into tumble (3) what angle move sends out (4) what evasive options opponent has (eg air dodge, jump, attack, etc)
Seeing write ups of you analyzing a set. Seeing the framework in how people look at game, what things they look to observe, has been helpful insights
Learning how to vod review (perhaps both doing write up of one my sets and yours and comparing notes)
Learning how to be reactive instead pre-emptive
Simple start, ledge trapping
Some advantage state strings
Coming up with strategy against niche MUs and how to do this on fly and within game
In addition, how do you learn an MU? How do you experiment and hypothesize a strategy.
If talk to other players that play that character, what questions may you ask? My question not too specific right now, its to broad like “How would you fight little mac?”
A good one perhaps to apply above is Snake, Mega Man, or some other MU that requires specific different way to tackle
Is their general heuristics based on MU archetypes
Just simply writing out our bread and butters combos and kill confirms, I think I know these but would rather double check.
Understanding movement more in-depth, especially mix ups and precision with movement. Macs movement is one of my favorite parts of character, but I still feel like overshoot, not comfortable with plats, etc.