[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 ^_^
	FSBenAD:
	Rockstar:
	xGKingdelete:
	FaDePressureTest:
	neon:
	nirvAnA:

[Rage]

Personally I derive a great deal of benefit from writing down my replay analyses in a notebook. I don't often actually re-read this, but just the act of writing it down helps.

I encourage everyone to give this a go, even if you think you're a different kind of learner, because you never know.

Quick Comments

Cute:

I've just started doing this too. It's suprisingly helpful

[Asrathiel]

I always thought I was a visual learner in the way that I picture thigns in my head a lot... for instance if I'm trying to remember when some event is on, I visualise my calendar and where it's written down. But I think I do all of the things that you mentioned... I write build orders on pst it notes, I say them repeatedly over a few times, and then doing them often sticks them in my head.

However, I think the most important point there for me to remember is that losing is helpful too. I get very unmotivated when all I do is lose... I shall try and use it in a helpful way ^_^

[Bugalugs McScruffin]

Originally Posted by Asrathiel

However, I think the most important point there for me to remember is that losing is helpful too. I get very unmotivated when all I do is lose... I shall try and use it in a helpful way ^_^

This, this and this again. But (and there's always a but isn't there) it is only helpful when you decide you want to learn from your loses. And you can learn something from every loss. And every win if you really want to improve quickly.

Just a quick something to add for everyone. See what you guys think.

The saying 'Practice Makes Perfect' is actually incorrect. Practice makes permanent. Perfect Practice Makes Perfect. This is not to say that bad habits are permanent and you must be perfect when you practice, but that the longer you practice a bad habit the harder it will be to unlearn said bad habit. If you have a bad habit that you know is there, but you can not be bothered dealing with it now, just remember it is going to be worse later. The closer you can get to 'perfect' play in a match the easier it will be to get there next match. If you get lazy and ignore things and you will learn how to play badly. Food for thought.

Love the post Apth. You really seem to know what you are talking about.

Quick Comments

Apth:

[Maynarde]

Asrath is right, losing is the number one barrier for a lot of people mentally when they're trying to improve at the game. You can imagine that going on a 4-5 losing streak can kill the urge to click that Find Match button. More than 5 or so losses in a row and you're ready to rage quit and play a different game that you'll never lose at to make yourself feel better.

It's PURELY mental, and it's an issue sooo many people have. I've had it before, and I think having a forum for discussion or just a group of people to discuss my losses with helped more than anything. It's a really large step towards realising that you learn from your losses. BE INTROSPECTIVE! Don't blame balance or whine about how you "can never f*cking kill BLAH cause BLAH IS OP" cause you can. It's not constructive, what is constructive is going to a friend of a similar level or higher and saying; "Hey <friend>, struggling with <blah> any pointers?" It's not hard, and it feels good to talk about losses.

The other day I did a bit of a ladder session. I lost to a player, and I was soooo heartbroken that is a league that I should never be losing to, I thought his MMR must be through the roof. Checked his profile, the guy was in every league except 1v1 and he had close to 1000 wins this season. I just lost points to a smurf terrorizing my league. I should've been mad! BUT he was very mannered during the game and he initiated a chat afterwards. He admitted that he's actually a Masters player, and apologized said he felt bad and asked me to add him to talk about ZvZ any time I wanted. I went all the way from shattered to really happy because I NEARLY beat the guy, and now have a bunch of links and good builds to use for future games.

My point is the community is filled with helpful people who are more than happy to chat about their losses, and it is the best way to get over the bad feelings of losing streaks and the fastest way to eventually train your brain into realising losing is good for your learning process. Just keep it manner and stay introspective

Quick Comments

Apth:

I'm being cuddled with knowledge

[FSBenAD]

Very good post, the different ways of learning is very important to remember.

Once you learn that and know your own, it also helps you help other people, as you can suggest the same methods for people who seem to learn like you, whilst work out different ones for those who do not.

Thanks for taking the time to write it.

[Apth]

Originally Posted by Asrathiel

I always thought I was a visual learner in the way that I picture thigns in my head a lot... for instance if I'm trying to remember when some event is on, I visualise my calendar and where it's written down. But I think I do all of the things that you mentioned... I write build orders on pst it notes, I say them repeatedly over a few times, and then doing them often sticks them in my head.

There are some lucky people - yourself included, by the sounds of things - that can tangibly benefit from several different kinds of learning. Most of us mere mortals are limited to one or two.

That said, using different parts of your brain while you learn can help not just with the learning process, but with mental acuity. I highly suggest brief exercise between ladder or training sessions, not just to clear the backlog of adrenaline your body has built up, but also because activating different parts of your brain is just a helpful thing to do.

Originally Posted by Bugalugs McScruffin

The saying 'Practice Makes Perfect' is actually incorrect. Practice makes permanent. Perfect Practice Makes Perfect. This is not to say that bad habits are permanent and you must be perfect when you practice, but that the longer you practice a bad habit the harder it will be to unlearn said bad habit. If you have a bad habit that you know is there, but you can not be bothered dealing with it now, just remember it is going to be worse later. The closer you can get to 'perfect' play in a match the easier it will be to get there next match. If you get lazy and ignore things and you will learn how to play badly. Food for thought.

Mmmmm, knowledge.

For anyone who hasn't had coaching already, I'd recommend it - coaches will be able to identify bad habits in your gameplay that you likely didn't know you had.