[Apth]

Having Trouble Improving?
A lot of people have the motivation and enthusiasm to improve at SC2, but the best way to improve is often murky or disputed.

For anyone who already has a method or training regimen that's working for them - you're awesome. Keep it up. For anyone who wants to get better at SC2 but isn't sure how, read on.

NB: This is going to be a bit lengthy. You were warned.

Mistakes Are Fantastic
Mistakes are how we learn. If we don't make mistakes, it's very difficult to improve, because there's nowhere to focus our attention.

If you want to get better at SC2, don't treat your losses as failures. Your losses are opportunities to learn from your mistakes. If you aren't losing, you aren't learning.

How To Learn From Your Mistakes
It's all well and good to say 'That was bad, I shouldn't do that again', or 'Next time, I should do it that way'. Unfortunately, for most people, declaratory statements aren't learning. Learning is a process.

More specifically:

• Identify the mistake you have made
• Establish how to fix/avoid your mistake in future games
• Learn your solution

Different Types Of Learning
Before I get into the Learning Process I've outlined above, I want to briefly touch on learning styles.

The three most common types of learning are Aural, Tactile, and Visual. These are listening, physical interaction, and looking at stuff, respectively. There is often a bit of overlap, but by and large you will probably fit into one of these categories.

What Kind Of Learner Am I?
If you aren't sure, there are two ways to figure this out. The first is thinking about how you study for exams.

• My lawyer friend sits down and rewrites all her notes, but doesn't really read through them - she's a tactile learner.
• My economist friend reads through his notes out loud - he's an aural learner.
• I rewrite my notes into different boxes and draw lines between them - I'm a visual learner.

The other way to help identify this is your speech mannerisms. You will often unconsciously associate your learning style with how you speak.

For instance, being a visual learner, when I'm confused, I say things like 'I don't see how that could work'. The inclusion of the word 'see' is an indicator.

My lawyer friend, on the other hand, says things like 'I feel like you're not doing that properly'. The indicator in that sentence is 'feel', indicating tactile learning.

How you learn is important, and we'll talk more about how you can use knowledge of your learning style to improve at SC2 in a bit. First, we'll go through the Learning Process.

Identify Your Mistake
The easiest way to do this is by watching your replays, or have someone else watch them.

• Practice Partners
• Replay Feedback Thread
• Coaches

are all good for this.

Establish A Solution
Deciding on the best course of action to avoid a mistake or undesirable situation can be done on your own, but again I'd recommend one of the three options above.

The first two steps in the Learning Process are the easy part. The difficult part is actually implementing solutions to your mistakes in-game. This is where how you learn as an individual is important.

Learn Your Solution
This part of the learning process relates to how you will remember and accurately execute your solution. So often I watch people stream, see them go through a replay and say things like "I need to Chronoboost my probes more, instead of Chronoboosting other things." They've established a solution, but they're not learning it.

Depending on your type of learning, how you cement the solution in your mind will differ.

• As a visual learner, you might put a sticky note on your screen to remind you, or have a word document up on a second monitor - visual stimuli.
• As an aural learner, you might talk to yourself during the game, or set up an alarm to go off at a certain time - aural stimuli.
• As a tactile learner, you'll likely practice your solution over and over to commit it to muscle memory, or perhaps change your seating posture before engagements - physical stimuli.

Training Regimes
This doesn't just apply to correcting mistakes. Obviously you need to actually sit down and play SC2 to improve, but your training routine should be supplemented based on how you learn as an individual. We will take build orders as an example.

Learning Build Orders

• Visual learners will benefit from writing the build order down
• Aural learners will benefit from speaking the build order out loud
• Tactile learners will benefit from repeatedly practicing the build order over and over

Remember that everyone has muscle memory, and will benefit from repeated practice, but a Tactile learner will benefit from this type of training much more than a Visual or Aural learner.

Summary
Game knowledge isn't enough. To make use of that knowledge, you need to be able to retrieve it from your brain in situations where your brain is already performing a whole host of tasks.

Going through your replays and identifying problems is good, but if you're having trouble with something that you already know how to fix or avoid, you're probably not learning correctly. Have a think about how you learn, and then apply it to however you prefer to train.


Feedback and criticisms appreciated as always, any other suggestions on how people can learn or train better are most welcome.
Cheers yo

Quick Comments

	Asrathiel:	Some helpful stuff, thanks ^_^
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