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Snake Eyes - Mentality of a Snake Player

Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
19,345
Foreword (you know not forward)
After observing a variety of conversations and other threads and personal experience, I have come to the conclusion that it is very important to focus on mentality.

By mentality, I am referring to many things. But I will get to that in a bit. Your eyes and ears pick-up signals, then your fingers execute an action. Either your body can skip conscious thought and purely react and rely on muscle memory, or you can direct your actions consciously.

Through sheer repetition, you can become a rather competent player. The moment someone attacks your shield with a move, your body knows how to punish it. This does have limitations. Your actions and reactions in this case become habits. Your opponent is a thinking being and can adjust to this. He can try to trick your body into making a reaction such as properly spacing an attack on shield and you miss a grab leaving yourself vulnerable.

Many of us I feel practice and practice to only build up reactions and muscle memory and completely neglect the mental aspect of game play. Mentality comes with time, but there must certainly be ways in which we can actively train it and abuse it to make us better players.

Mentality Defined(sort of)
Now, what do I mean by mentality? In the broadest sense, I mean anything with which you can use your brain to affect the match; mainly in decision making. As you should be able to tell, this should include a large list of things. My mind can play an active role in deciding: what punishes to use, what particular sequence of moves to use next, what I observe about the match, what basic strategy I focus on, and many other things. Our emotions are easily another factor we have to consider.

Problem ??
The problem I feel many of us have probably have is "What should I be doing?" Snake is a character that has tools at his disposal, but he is no Meta Knight who can throw out moves willy-nilly and be safe. Every time we had a match-up discussion, its always "camp and space", or "ftilt and use nade". None of us should be able to use Ftilt and nades without any regard to how and when we use them. Many factors make it more complex at when and how to use a move.

Each move Snake has its list of strengths and weaknesses and we need to somehow combine the knowledge of our character, the opposing character, the stage, our opponent, ourselves, and all the random things that might change as the fight goes on.

Solution (not 42)
But, how can we go about assessing all of these factors? I believe we have to actively use our minds and think about a scenario one at a time. We need to consider as much as we can and come to some conclusion about either a decision or course of action. Afterwards, we put theory to practice and test out our path of action. Then, you reassess the same situation with your new knowledge. If it works, continue to practice it until your body will start to do the muscle memory for you. Then, you can move onto another problem.

In a simplified format,
1) Theorize
2) Test
3) Evaluate
Repeat until solution found
4) Practice until muscle memory.

With this as a template, we need to be more specific. However, all possible things to consider in a match is really, really, large probably infinite.

Here is a quick list of all the things I have thought up:
-How do you deal with emotions in a match?
-How do you recognize when your habits are getting you into trouble?
-I am in a set for only three matches; How can I quickly figure out their habits?
-What should I be doing in the neutral position against X character?
-What are my recovery options?
-What should I do between stocks?
-What do I do against someone: in the air, on a platform, offstage?
-What do I do when caught in X sequence of attacks?
-Might there be other sports perhaps which are analogous to playing smash and help me out?
-Are there physics factors like sleep, food, drink, toxins which effect how I play the game?

Epilogue(Times New Roman Edition)
With all of this said, I think it would be beneficial for all of us to pick-out some scenario and analyze it. Pool our knowledge to gather of all our experiences and figure out something.

As quick conversation starter, How do you deal with your emotions?

For myself, I have noticed I have a couple of problems with being nervous at tournaments or getting cocky. Moments before a match my heart pace quickens quite a lot and it feels difficult to execute moves. Not entirely sure how to calm down. I have been considering thinking to myself over and over again something like, "calm down, calm down, calm down..." or taking deep breaths. It seems to work momentarily, but nothing long term.

Another issue is getting cocky. There is someone I am facing who I feel should be worse than me and I find out its a close match and start getting rather aggressive and I lose all patience. I believe a solution is to never get into that feeling that I am better than my opponent ever. Instead of thinking about how I should be winning right now, I need to focus on a few quick thoughts to myself "be patient" or think about something constructive for the match in order to deceive myself out of my destructive way of thinking.
 

Attila_

The artist formerly known as 'shmot'
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My biggest problem is doubt. If I ever think I'm in trouble, then I make matters a whole lot worse.

As a snake player, I have to keep telling myself, I'm snake, I live forever, and then I normally do.

That's the sort of mentality that we have to maintain. We're gonna get juggled. It happens. It's easy to lose faith in your ability to stage a comeback. Whenever I doubt myself here, the match is already over.

That's the biggest thing for me.

Other than that, trying to finish off a match that I'm winning is always terrible. To win, you need to keep doing whatever it was that put you in that position in the first place. Changing up a winning tactic will quickly lead to one's demise.

:phone:
 

Ralph Cecil

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I generally try to go into all of my matches accepting that I could lose to whoever i'm going against to keep myself from getting too cocky. I heard this phrase that everyone is stupid until proven smart, and I generally try to use that mindset vs well known players. I kind of do the opposite against players I don't know as well or that I may think i'm better than. Also as far as nerves go if i'm given too much time to think about a match my nerves get to me, but if I can just go from match to match i'm usually not that nervous.
 
Joined
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That's the sort of mentality that we have to maintain. We're gonna get juggled. It happens. It's easy to lose faith in your ability to stage a comeback. Whenever I doubt myself here, the match is already over.

...trying to finish off a match that I'm winning is always terrible. To win, you need to keep doing whatever it was that put you in that position in the first place. Changing up a winning tactic will quickly lead to one's demise.
What you just said about "we're gonna get juggled. It happens." sort of rings a bell. I recall when I first started playing the Brawl that I always felt insecure about my opponents approaches. "Are they going to: dash attack me, roll behind me, or dash grab me, or run up and spotdodge?" I spent so much time worrying about being hit that I was not paying attention to my opponent. Now, as you said, **** happens and you can't really dwell on it. If you do, you start to doubt yourself, you miss out on things happening in the match.

For the 2nd bit... so you feel that you should be abusing whatever works in a match instead of suddenly trying to change things up? That seem like it would be useful to try out a couple different things in a match. Say you go all aggro with Snake, if it works, keep doing it. Or you have a steadfast snake. You don't approach period. Maybe Snake could walk/dash around without using projectiles trying to abuse his ground game. Trying up different strategies your first match agaisnt someone to find what works.
I generally try to go into all of my matches accepting that I could lose...

...as far as nerves go if i'm given too much time to think about a match my nerves get to me...
I have tried this before. Going into a match thinking I will lose. Lots of times I find I end up doing better than I thought I would, get cocky, then get a depression when it all goes sour. I've been thinking its probably best to go into a match without giving a **** about what happens. Just keep getting my head in the game. I recall my tennis coach always telling the team something sort of similar. "Never worry about the total score, only care about the point your fighting for. Fight for every point"
 

Ralph Cecil

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When I first started I heard someone say that they think being nervous is a good thing before a match, because you'll be trying harder not to mess up and you'll take your opponent more seriously. Also I tend to have an easy time coming back after becoming complacent with a match. Worst case scenario it cost me a stock luckily. Also I tend to be able to make comebacks fairly well, but that's probably because when I first started playing I had to play against a D3 and Falco all the time so I can be pretty patient at times.
 

Attila_

The artist formerly known as 'shmot'
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tbh i find cockiness a good thing. i think it closely to confidence. its pretty rare that i disrespect anyone in tourney sets, so i generally play safe, dont go for anything crazy. i tell myself 'this guy is nowhere near my level', and if i genuinely believe that, my playstyle becomes much more freed up. if i question my ability to win, even if only slightly, then im playing that match at a disadvantage. respect your opponent, but believe that you are the better player.

For the 2nd bit... so you feel that you should be abusing whatever works in a match instead of suddenly trying to change things up? That seem like it would be useful to try out a couple different things in a match. Say you go all aggro with Snake, if it works, keep doing it. Or you have a steadfast snake. You don't approach period. Maybe Snake could walk/dash around without using projectiles trying to abuse his ground game. Trying up different strategies your first match agaisnt someone to find what works.
i was more so referring to the point when my opponent in on high percent last stock, then just takes my second stock, essentially giving me a full stock lead. i will often find myself say, 'just one utilt' or 'just a lucky bair', at which point i try to prematurely win the match. and this mentality has cost me plenty of matches. whatever i was doing up until that point put me in a winning position, and already claimed 2 and a half stocks. the last should not be any different.

of course, mixups are always a good idea, and its important not to let your playstyle stale. but aiming for a quick kill when you're in a position of power is a change that is never worth doing.
 

Okuser

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tbh i find cockiness a good thing. i think it closely to confidence. its pretty rare that i disrespect anyone in tourney sets, so i generally play safe, dont go for anything crazy. i tell myself 'this guy is nowhere near my level', and if i genuinely believe that, my playstyle becomes much more freed up. if i question my ability to win, even if only slightly, then im playing that match at a disadvantage. respect your opponent, but believe that you are the better player.
THIS. the quality of my play is highest when I adapt this mentality. I'll often find myself cowering in my shield half the time if I'm intimidated by my opponent or something, but if you just tell yourself that you're just as good or even BETTER than them the fear goes away and all of the sudden you can control the match.
 

Ralph Cecil

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I get complacent for thinking i'm better than someone and that never works for me personally lol, but that's just how it works for me.
 

JTsm

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I don't think this has been said, if it has, I'm sorry, but one mentality that works for me at least is to think that your opponent is equal to you and you basically have to treat them like a rival. Whether your opponent is worse or better than you never underestimate your opponent and always try to learn new things to get better. Hope this helps. This is a nice read.

I'll read the rest of the posts after my class :p

:phone:
 

Lof

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I always think to myself "hey one of is us going to win, lets see who it is!" and even if you lose hey you might of learned a thing or two, tis the life of a Brawler :p but even the occasional metaknight does make me cringe at time...
 

KMFBrawler

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Good read.
When I want to play really focused and at my best, I'll just focus and try to think that I have to win, while remaining as calm as possible
 

ZTD | TECHnology

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I agree with this post.

I also believe, that you simply just need to focus on what's happening on the television in front of you.

Don't focus on who the player is. Don't focus on whether he's beaten you the last 5 times you played.

Don't think about whether you think you're better worse than he is.

Simply focus on what's happening and what patterns you can see. Ask yourself the important questions and go from there. Keep your emotions in check and hone in with a laser like focus. If something "stupid" happens..accept it, shake it off, and keep playing.

I've been keep these things in mind and its been working wonders for me. The hardest aspect of the game to overcome when transitioning into a new skill level is the psychological game. The psycholgical barriers that you can place on yourself can break you if you aren't careful. The technical and mental aspects are incredibly important. But the psychological aspect of the game is what dictates how well you can control those.
 

PhD H

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I always play in fear - I cannot seem to get rid of it.It makes me scared to do bad options but then again I won't use bad options,I'll usually miss a controller input.I'm always pressured basically.
 

VenomaShockwave

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Old thread but I wanted to post anyway :/

I don't think this applies specifically to my mentality playing Snake, but I find that I perform better in matches where I play cautiously once I'm a stock up. To me, being a stock up means your opponent is going to try even harder to come back, putting my stock in more jeopardy than ever. If I'm never a stock up, I have to remind myself that I'm Snake and as was said earlier, it takes a lot to kill Snake. That being said, I used to play more recklessly and not really care about my percent during a match, but I tend to play better when I stay away from risky percent trades or aggressive (cocky) gameplay.

I've never gotten over the nerves of being at a tournament. I just try and breathe slowly before a match and tell myself "I can do this." Chewing gum sounds like a good idea though, I'm going to try it.
 

Jackson

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Old thread but I wanted to post anyway :/

I don't think this applies specifically to my mentality playing Snake, but I find that I perform better in matches where I play cautiously once I'm a stock up. To me, being a stock up means your opponent is going to try even harder to come back, putting my stock in more jeopardy than ever. If I'm never a stock up, I have to remind myself that I'm Snake and as was said earlier, it takes a lot to kill Snake. That being said, I used to play more recklessly and not really care about my percent during a match, but I tend to play better when I stay away from risky percent trades or aggressive (cocky) gameplay.

I've never gotten over the nerves of being at a tournament. I just try and breathe slowly before a match and tell myself "I can do this." Chewing gum sounds like a good idea though, I'm going to try it.
True... I also seem to play better when I'm at kill percent, as it forces me to be careful. Although I should, I don't really have the same mindset when my percent is lower.
 

Taytertot

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Well I've heard Zero say that he always assumes that the opponent knows how to do such and such a technique and I think that based on that the best thing to do would be to assume that your opponent knows how to deal with everything you throw at him/her. If you do an action and you find out your opponent actually doesnt know how to handle it then no harm no foul as to be safe afterward. its much worse to not be safe after the action and then find out that your opponent knows how to punish you for it.

Once you've tried out something things that are safe you can begin to judge whether or not your opponent can handle themselves then you can decide to make some more rash reads.
 
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