I think many of the people replying to this post seems to know what Snute should do. This post was only meant to show us what he's been going through, not asking for help. I'm positive he knows what do to most of the time, but asking a forum for tips have never been his intentions :p I appreciate Snute letting us in on his thoughts though, it's just a shame people not understanding them and trying to "help" him There's nothing wrong with him, and this post only gives us some insight on what it must feel like going through the things he has been facing the last few years. Kudos to him :D
Most of the times people seem to know the better of others, forgetting that other people are entirely different beings. Your own thoughts or behavior may not always apply to the next person.
That being said, there's a lot of love in this reply thread, and I enjoy reading so much praise for a person working so hard for a goal, and has indeed reached it in our eyes
Courage Wolf used to help me out when I was in a funk. Something about a confident voice in my head, a stern assertion that I Am Enough (to be the person I want to be) helps me in the dark times. Actually, right now, I'm on the up-and-up after a long depressive period. One thing I found is to listen to the bad voices, talk to them, see what they want, and have a healthy discourse with me fear. It's possible to ignore the voices, tamp them down into your core and use the bottled up pain as an engine for success, but that comes with heavy costs to health. Only once I've sat with my fear have I been able to identify the root of it, move past it.
Oh, and this is something I see rarely talked about, but the human brain needs rest. Grinding and grinding and grinding does just that. It takes a toll. My full-on brain healing can take months, so I don't find taking breaks particularly helpful until it's a very long one. So keep fighting. If you're going through hell, keep going. And if your body can't take it any more, it will shut down. Remember to balance with physical activity and water. Loving your body can help you put more into your passion.
Snute, you're an inspiration and a beacon of the merits of hard work. I believe in you! Only those who risk failure can truly break the mold. Risk, Fail, Risk again. Sock it to 'em!
Love you Snute! I don't care if you think you've hit a wall or you wont make a certain goal you set for yourself! Your a well mannered, good looking guy that listens to some great music and has some of the best Zerg concave's I have ever seen in my life!!!
I wish you all the best and hope no matter what it is you decide to do your happy, because in the end that's all that matters.
Part of being a pro, a pro at anything, and dealing with competition, is the realization that somewhere on earth, there is always a person better than you. Such is the nature of competition. You would never be motivated to do better if there wasn't someone you had to surpass.
I had the same problem! Except i was in masters and i started losing to diamond players who seemed to play so stupid and bad . Unfortunately i couldn't handle losses like that so i quit. SC2 is a tough game to master.
Don't doubt yourself in piano or SC, the strongest athletes/competitors/successful people are where they are because they have have an almost arrogant self-belief that carried them through where other people would crumble to their own insecurities.
Take the example of Ayrton Senna, dude honestly thought God was in the cockpit with him, this belief+ his unnaturally good ability to feel a car and keep it on right on the knife-edge of traction, meant that he was a god in his time as he was able to push boundaries that even guys like Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell had to just sit back and say "how the **** did he do that?"
If you can transition that mindset into your efforts I'm sure you will improve more with less practice than if you are playing 14 hour days but constantly in the back of the mind saying "i need to practice, I can't even play". Practicing like that you will never improve in the highly competitive events.
As a side note I strongly recommend taking up a martial art in order to work on self-confidence. GL HF, and remember mind always > body!
I am somehow olxer than most here and haave a full time job being a surgeon. So what i learned from my life experience - you have to work hard, jusr keep doing that. You are getting better without realizing that. Two other things: change the coach and go train to korea, even if its only for a month. It will give a new perspective on a things. Train systematically. Laddering i s not training systematically. You should ladder may be couple hours a day. The rsst is training on some aspect of your build or preparing for upcoming opponent. Just my 5 cents
Hey Snute have you heard of Josh Waitzkin? He was a chess champion who then moved on to be a world champion in tai-chi. His book "The Art of Learning" is a great book on the psychology of competition.
There are many who have experienced similar frustrations as you are now, and there is a lot of good literature out there. I think it's a worthy exercise to spend some time reading about it... I think there're even quite a few good resources on TL for this kind of shit.
Also, don't forget to take breaks now and again. Waitzkin was a big believer in taking a few weeks completely off from your competitive focus, to give you some perspective on your play and strategy. Best of luck! Your openness on here is admirable... it takes a lot to open up like this.
Absolsnutely loved this post. Your openness about your thoughts were very candid and real, I figure pretty much every person who strives for true excellence and greatness go through these thoughts and mindsets, and it probably never really goes away because once one breaks a threshold and plateaus to the next level, one can only realize that there are way more levels, perfection might be unattainable but near perfection is not.
Reminds me of Sukiyabashi Jiro, regarded as the best sushi chef in the world(has a wonderful top-rated documentary), been doing it 75 years and his timings/technique/quality is considered to be the ceiling of his craft - yet he thinks of himself ''not that good yet'' and says he probably never will be, which is why he's trying to instill his son to reach that next level.
Here he is telling Anthony Bourdain that perfection is unattainable. at 4:44.
On August 30 2013 01:28 m0lder wrote: I think many of the people replying to this post seems to know what Snute should do. This post was only meant to show us what he's been going through, not asking for help. I'm positive he knows what do to most of the time, but asking a forum for tips have never been his intentions :p I appreciate Snute letting us in on his thoughts though, it's just a shame people not understanding them and trying to "help" him There's nothing wrong with him, and this post only gives us some insight on what it must feel like going through the things he has been facing the last few years. Kudos to him :D
Most of the times people seem to know the better of others, forgetting that other people are entirely different beings. Your own thoughts or behavior may not always apply to the next person.
That being said, there's a lot of love in this reply thread, and I enjoy reading so much praise for a person working so hard for a goal, and has indeed reached it in our eyes
He wrote "... and at the same time I want to write down my struggles just to get it out of my mind and perhaps receive some tips for moving forward."
And besides, it is really natural and human to give your part of what you think might help.
After reading most of this I think you need a better training system. You just can't be the best by playing 16 hours a day when there are 2000 other people playing the same hours. I don't know if TL has a house and if you are a part of it, but you will be handicapped against other pros if you do not apply a proper systemic approach in your training. Talent has nothing to do with it. I do science now and used to do sports in my bachelor's years. It is very tempting to explain success in both by a very fuzzy concept of "talent". It is not talent that makes one better than everyone else, it's little things. Little things like how much salt or sugar you eat, when you go to bed every day, do you have sex before training/exam/event, do you drink alcohol, what hobbies you have and how much different are they from your work, how do you rest your eyes during training or is your chair comfortable. You need a system to manage all of the little things in your training and I don't think you can do it on your own. Guys like Hero and Taeja came to Liquid from oGs house (if I'm not mistaken) and were trained by the best coaches and shared practice tips with the best players, learnt to manage their time, stay healthy mentally and physically, endure losses and deal with wins in a team that was a highly sophisticated system. If you didn't have such experience and you still want to pursue a pro-gaming career, I think you should consider moving around and adopting a competitive training system.
On August 28 2013 21:52 Nerchio wrote: It's not like I didn't tell you for 1 year that your style is bad? Sure you can call me bm or the worst person ever but my point still stands even though i might not be sending it in a correct way. Practice is not about brainlessly massing games and it's not brainlessly massing games with replay analysis in between either. I always told myself i am not going to play pure practice sessions longer than 4 hours because it's simply counterproductive(not saying you can't play longer here.. for me it works like that). You can get mad at me at talking about your mass roach but it's what you did for like 1 year or so. You had good results but it's not the problem with mass roach. Your problem is that you don't change and Starcraft2 needs variety especially when you use something like that. It's type of play that can win the best people and lose against the worst and you just kept hanging to it because it helped you win something. Consistency is what makes a player the best and you can't achieve that by not changing(it doesn't quite make sense but it's true). With the ammount of hours you put into it you could have thousand different builds. This is why in terms of SC2 i always respected you for hard work(same as Kas) but nothing else.
TLDR: Mass roach is a bad style that will bring you random great results but in a big picture you will lose to the players you shouldn't lose.
classy nerchio . this post is like a well-meant, helpful and honest - kick in the nuts.
On August 29 2013 09:36 Jett.Jack.Alvir wrote: @Yapa
His honesty resonates with everyone. We can all feel worthless sometimes, and some more than others. That feeling of not good enough can be applied to everything we do in life. I applying it to Starcraft 2 is great though, because it gives other people who are striving to be pro an insight to the struggles involved.
I believe Nony had the same sentiment before. Didn't he state he had developed depression due to Starcraft 2?
No it was from before I was even a competitive SC:BW player.
not kidding when I say this but maybe try talking to a sports psychologist . I know alot of great athletes (especially in baseball) benefit from it. Good Luck. HAVE FUN. But I think you know that :D
EPT
There's nothing wrong with him, and this post only gives us some insight on what it must feel like going through the things he has been facing the last few years. Kudos to him :D
. Unfortunately i couldn't handle losses like that so i quit. SC2 is a tough game to master.
. this post is like a well-meant, helpful and honest - kick in the nuts. 
