EPTI know this blog may look long, but it's nothing longer than average let me assure you. If it still doesn't tickle your fancy, there's some Day9 in here somewhere, so if you read the whole thing you'll find it and be even more intelligent than when you came in here. Guaranteed or your money back.
So in this blog I want to talk about how one should go about improving in Starcraft, and why the principle of individuality is important in this process (and something team manager's should have a good understanding of). This is more tailored towards a structured team, not necessarily in a team house, but by all means can be.
First off, what is the principle of individuality? Basically, it's a training principle that is based around the fact that everybody is different. Shocker, right? But you'd be surprised at how, even at the pro level (let's take the NFL for instance), they will just design a basic workout program for a group. Well, what if one individual has an inherent weakness? That won't be addressed and thus they won't reach their full potential.
So, the take home point is that no two individuals will respond in the same way to a given training program.
Is this already clicking in your heads? Already we can cross of statements such as, "You need to practice like a Korean to be good at this game." I can't tell you how many people I knew in BW who would play 8 hours a day and still suck really bad. Like, embarrassingly bad.
Team managers should realize that each player is different. If player X enjoys practicing from 9 AM - 2 PM, 2 hour break, and then back at it from 4 -9 PM, that's fine. Even if player X shows fantastic results.. this does not mean what works for player X will then work for player Y, Z, etc...
However, it's important to keep in mind that even though a player may not practice that exact schedule (maybe they want to practice 2 PM - 12 AM), you may also have a player who plays very little, say ~3 hours a day. He may be a Stephano, but I doubt it. And it's on the team manager and I'd say, even the teammates, to push him and get him motivated in some way to practice more, or just be done with him.
Obviously there are many things that would go into the decision, it would not just be, "Well he doesn't like to play that much so let's off him,"
So let's get down to how to actually improve!
Practice. And I'm done, thanks for reading!
No I'm kidding.. but the answer is practice, but with proper feedback. What does this mean? Let's put it in golfing terms. A man could go to the driving range every day and hit two bucket of balls, and still not break 100. There are also people who have never picked up a club and could do better than him. It's just the way it goes sometimes.
But the bottom line is practice does not make perfect. Practice with proper feedback (so that you can realize what you're doing wrong and what you need to do to correct yourself) makes perfect. Practice without fatigue is also more beneficial than with fatigue, as with fatigue your reactions slow, mental processes are slower, finger accuracy/mouse accuracy can decrease, things of that nature. This is also why staying hydrated is important as well. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't practice at all with fatigue, because you need to be familiar with it so that you can cope during an MLG-like tournament, for instance. I've played in them, they're long, enough said.
Something outside the game a player can do is increase their aerobic fitness, as that increases mental alertness so that you're not as tired after your Winner's Bracket RO4 match at 2 AM.
Now coming back to the game, knowing what you want to do in the game before it starts, and knowing how to adjust certain things in your build order based on what you see is huge. The former starts off a plan in your head, a general flow on how you want the game to go, and the latter is based off many games of experience or an educated guess.
Nerves is another big issue, but one that is sort of glossed over. For example, how many times have you heard, "Yeah this guy is really good in practice but get him in a big game and he seems to choke. I just think he needs to play more games to get use to it."
I've heard the above a few times and I've witnessed it with teammates and friends through BW and SC2. While the advice of playing more games to get use to it may work for some, as we've learned at the beginning of this beautiful blog, this is not helpful advice for all people.
What happens when a person chokes? This is something I talked briefly with Day9 about 3 years ago, but the more stressful an event is (say, a World Series game, or a game to make it to GSL Code S finals), the more a player regresses back to their ingrained training. So what you'll see is, let's take a 16 year old pitcher pitching in a state playoff game. They'll start pitching like they would a year or two ago, and you'll see some more obvious faults than they had in the past. The reason being is because it's human nature to regress to what has been ingrained in you during the most stressful times. This is how our ancestors survived.
Applying this to Starcraft II, let's say you've practiced (what you thought was good) for a couple of months, but it turned out not to be as good as it could have been, then the last month you practiced great, and then you had a relatively big tournament. It's not to say you'd totally regress, but there would definitely be those kind of elements in there. And obviously to combat that you need proper focus, mindset, positive affirmation, a game plan, a back up plan (not thinking you're going to fail, but studies show that individuals who know what to do in case the main plan doesn't work out deal better than those who don't [common sense, right?]), all that good stuff can help counteract that.
Day9 responded by saying, "The brain functions surprisingly similarly to a computer. The frontal lobe holds 'registers' that can carry unique bits of information or can point to bits of memory/learned material. When you're feeling very nervous, the number of registers drops fairly significantly and, as a result, you have a lot of trouble accessing what you've learned. Instead, what your brain has automated tends to take over and, hence, the EXACT outcome is what you described: you play the way you played a while ago instead of how you've been playing recently."
Again, this goes back to proper training. Are you starting to understand how important this is yet? One thing to keep in mind though is why do they feel so nervous? Perhaps it's their first big event, or they're doubting their skills. Whatever it is, it's a friend's job, a teammate's job, a manager's job to snap them out of it. You know your player better than I do so you do what you think is best for the situation.
One thing I can suggest is to get the player in the habit of positive self-talk. "I WILL win this game. I WILL make it out of my group. I CAN DO THIS!" and things of that nature, because positive self-talk is good, and negative self-talk, "I don't know how well this is going to go, I hope I don't lose too horribly , I hope I don't let my team down," is obviously bad.
If you start thinking that way, you have more of a chance of that happening. Thus, think positive, things will go good for you! Not always, but you will have a better chance, it's proven, you will have a better chance to succeed.
Thanks for reading!
Complexity <3
