pooch182
Smash Journeyman
Hey everybody,
Here's a basic introduction to who I am so my thread has a bit of context behind it. My name is Pooch, and I've been watching the competitive scene for over a year now, but I started attending tourneys in late January of this year. At first, I was only interested in playing Melee, but I discovered PM at my second tourney, and loved how new and different it felt.
I went from being consistently the 0-2 33rd place scrub to the guy who has an upset here and there but places either 13th or 17th at every tourney in both games. This came through an intense drive and passion to succeed, and routine practice and study that sharpened my abilities to both execute inputs properly as well as analyze and adapt to my opponents in the middle of my sets. For about over a month now, I've been stuck in a rut. My placements haven't gotten better, and I find myself struggling to take games off of certain characters and players, mainly due to a mental block that keeps me from playing very confident. I can't seem to consistently play fast and aggressive, which is the style I originally started playing with, and I find myself falling back and over-using missiles in my neutral game out of a fear of technical mistakes on my end.
My routine practice hasn't really changed much: 30 minutes of movement practice, 30 minutes of match up study, at least 3 times a week, every week. The in game practice is only Melee due to my lack of a Wii and PM, so there may be an inherent issue there. My question to you all is, what can I do to improve my confidence when playing? I know Samus' limits off stage, and I know how to close out a stock, but something about me just won't allow me to go out and consistently do these things. What sort of mindset do I need to be having in practice and in tournament in order to keep that passion and drive for success burning and pointing in the right direction?
I apologize if this is a rather vague and subjective thread that I'm asking answers to, but I find that it helps me to write out the issues and read them over, and I also would love to hear any opinions you might have that could help me reach an epiphany of sorts. Thanks for any and all feedback, it's very much appreciated.
Here's a basic introduction to who I am so my thread has a bit of context behind it. My name is Pooch, and I've been watching the competitive scene for over a year now, but I started attending tourneys in late January of this year. At first, I was only interested in playing Melee, but I discovered PM at my second tourney, and loved how new and different it felt.
I went from being consistently the 0-2 33rd place scrub to the guy who has an upset here and there but places either 13th or 17th at every tourney in both games. This came through an intense drive and passion to succeed, and routine practice and study that sharpened my abilities to both execute inputs properly as well as analyze and adapt to my opponents in the middle of my sets. For about over a month now, I've been stuck in a rut. My placements haven't gotten better, and I find myself struggling to take games off of certain characters and players, mainly due to a mental block that keeps me from playing very confident. I can't seem to consistently play fast and aggressive, which is the style I originally started playing with, and I find myself falling back and over-using missiles in my neutral game out of a fear of technical mistakes on my end.
My routine practice hasn't really changed much: 30 minutes of movement practice, 30 minutes of match up study, at least 3 times a week, every week. The in game practice is only Melee due to my lack of a Wii and PM, so there may be an inherent issue there. My question to you all is, what can I do to improve my confidence when playing? I know Samus' limits off stage, and I know how to close out a stock, but something about me just won't allow me to go out and consistently do these things. What sort of mindset do I need to be having in practice and in tournament in order to keep that passion and drive for success burning and pointing in the right direction?
I apologize if this is a rather vague and subjective thread that I'm asking answers to, but I find that it helps me to write out the issues and read them over, and I also would love to hear any opinions you might have that could help me reach an epiphany of sorts. Thanks for any and all feedback, it's very much appreciated.