A Conversation with Doug

I have this buddy Doug. He's really a very good SF'er, and we go way back to my days playing Jedi Knight II (about 8 years ago roughly). When Doug and I play he scrapes me. I get bodied by his Fei Long, and really sometimes it almost seems like he's not trying until he wants to just turn on the juice. Anyway, Doug is a very chill dude, and always has been really. I know that he gets angry or frustrated just like I do, but he always handles it much better than I do. Today I was in one of my moods on SF and when I get in these moods I just spam my friends with all of my negative thoughts. I throw out a "FUCK, I suck" and they think to themselves "I'll bite" and reply with "No, you don't suck", and then I'll throw out "Yeah, I can't even win against *insert name here* regularly. And they say "you can" and I say "I'm not smart enough to play this game" and an endless tirade of negativity on my part ensues while they continue to be encouraging. This happened today when I was playing Doug as he was beating me down with Gen and El Fuerte I just couldn't take the losing anymore. We had the following conversation, parts of it are missing, but I think there is still some good info here for those that might be running into similiar frustration. It helped give me some clarity as I focus way too much on winning and losing and not enough on improving as a player. I'm still going to struggle with not improving fast enough for my liking, but hopefully if I can take in some of what Doug was talking about I can not notice the time go by as I rise to become a skillful player.

Balmung (Doug): I liked your dhalsim.

Insahn (Me) : dhalsim just makes me angry, really

Insahn: because I wasn't improving with him

Insahn: I just want to see visible signs of improvement

Insahn: and for me those signs are winning more often

Insahn: and I'm not seeing it

Balmung: my signs for improvement are different i guess.

Balmung: winning is secondary to improvement in my positioning and mind games

Balmung: wins come with that

Balmung: i think

Insahn: well, when you win as much as you do, or as often it doesn't have to be a concern

Insahn: because you win enough to satisfy you

Insahn: but if you practiced all of the time and still lost to all of your friends

Insahn: it would start to bother you

Insahn: don't you think?

Balmung: nope, not really. i would get frusterated for sure

Balmung: but when i played third strike

Balmung: i only played on ggpo

Balmung: no training mode

Balmung: no nothing

Balmung: just played people who were dominant

Balmung: ggpo is a super niche community of all arcaders it seems

Balmung: and i would ask them questions and try and mimic other people when i spectated

Balmung: i would lose 30 games in a row

Balmung: to someone who was taunting me

Balmung: i got angry with losing

Balmung: but i also didnt let it effect me so long that i couldn't try again

Balmung: i would try new things

Balmung: every loss wasnt such a horrible thing, it was something i could learn from

Balmung: and thats how i started playing SF

Balmung: my work habit in it is based on that experience now

Balmung: i would love to get my ass beat by Justin Wong for a day straight

Balmung: or even nagger (another friend that plays who is very good)

Balmung: or someone who could teach me something

Balmung: nagger helps my game out a lot

Balmung: he has a good mix up

Balmung: i try and feel him out for the first 5 or so games

Balmung: then i start getting in a rythym]

Balmung: and then maybe he starts getting into one

Balmung: its very good.

Insahn: yeah, I just fight beginners for the most part, and I don't try much new because I don't really know what to try, ryu doesn't suprise many people. I can't take losing 30 in a row without it bothering me also.

Insahn: if I fought you 30 times a day I don't know if I would get better, because I don't think

Insahn: If I can just get over losing and feeling stupid I can improve I think.

Balmung: this

Balmung: you get off your throne

Balmung: its an ego thing

Balmung: you have to be willing to be a beginner

Balmung: a beginners mind set

Balmung: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin

Balmung: that

Balmung: it's your concept of better and worse is whats holding you back

Balmung: you think that for some reason

Balmung: you have to be better than this person

Balmung: that that person and you are even

Balmung: that this guy is good but random

Balmung: you just can't look at it like that, you need to approach each match completely differently

Balmung: "i have trouble with this guy"

Balmung: "i have trouble with that guy"

Balmung: but when i take the time to relax, assess what they are doing

Balmung: see what their bag of tricks consist of

Balmung: i learn

Balmung: i get beat by horrible people

Balmung: i don't let it get me down

Balmung: if i lose to someone from a gimick laggy thing

Balmung: im going to blame the lag and assume i did my best

Balmung: if i just am trying to lie to myself and say it was lag

Balmung: and they caught me with some scrubby shit that i wasnt looking for

Balmung: thats my fault

Balmung: and i need to think about how sometimes new players can catch you with things like that

Balmung: the concept of better and worse should be used very loosely. its like saying whos better, gootecks or mike ross

Balmung: or gootecks and keno

Balmung: or mike ross and moval

Balmung: its like... it doesnt matter

Balmung: mike ross is trying to win his match

Balmung: learning him his mistakes

Balmung: i think you need to train your brain in the middle of a fight to analyze quicker

Balmung: if you think your messing up

Balmung: back away

Balmung: and try and re-assess

Balmung: things like that

Balmung: you aren't an idiot

Balmung: you arn't even slow

Balmung: you just haven't trained your brain mid game yet

Insahn: but how do I do that

Insahn: what is an example you could give me?

Insahn: I don't really know what you mean by 'train my brain'

Balmung: well

Balmung: in the middle of a game

Balmung: try predicting your opponent

Balmung: not always by conditioning them to do things

Balmung: but just straight think about what they are doing

Balmung: just as much as you think about what you're doing

Balmung: think about what you think they will

Balmung: a lot of my psychic focus attacks are like that

Balmung: and i get into the habit of doing it at certain points because i know it catches people a lot

Balmung: and if it doesnt

Balmung: i back up re-assess

Balmung: think as fast as i can

Balmung: and try something new just for the sake of changing my game up

Insahn: I don't notice patterns in this game

Insahn: I used to in jk2

Balmung: there are many patterns

Insahn: but that kind of analysis just dissapeared

Balmung: you have to be thinking about what you would do if you were them

Balmung: how would you beat your ryu

Balmung: if your a gen

Balmung: i would try and catch you with my wall dive

Balmung: after a few hados

Balmung: thats what i would try to do

Insahn: ok, I see what you mean

Balmung: so you have to think about that

Insahn: but I guess when fighting fei long, or gen, I really don't know what those characters would do

Insahn: I know fei might chicken wing at me if I'm throwing fireballs

Insahn: and I try to prepare for it, sometimes I predict it

Balmung: Protip: you have to think about what your opponent is doing just as much as you think about what you're doing"

Insahn: but the shoryuken doesn't come out

Balmung: thats what gootecks said

Balmung: play as fei

Balmung: play as gen

Balmung: a little

Balmung: so you a hve a better idea

Insahn: yeah, but "thinking about what your opponent is doing" is defined differently by those that know how to think about what their opponent is doing.

Insahn: I don't think I would be good enough to do half of the shit those characters have to offer

Insahn: and it would take a lot of time

Insahn: and my ryu would get worse

Balmung: it doesnt matter if you're good or not with them

Balmung: understanding their movements

Balmung: helps greatly

Balmung: understanding some of the tools they have

Balmung: like.

Balmung: do fei and gen's normal trials

Balmung: get a feel for them

Balmung: don't need to practice combos and shit

Hope you guys enjoyed, until next time!