as Master Oogway once said, "One who practices [with big booba character] through and through, will not go through tournament 0 and 2"

Your wife cracks me up lmfao This is good, though. One thing I find difficult here is that it isn't always obvious how to improve your autopilot. I tend to mash a lot as part of my autopilot because I'm a new player who started off mashing. So even though I'm way more deliberate about what I'm mashing now, and turn it off sometimes appropriately, I still find myself for example buffering a suboptimal wallbreak cause I'm just blasting buttons. Think there's an additional layer here of having to deliberate train good habits in training mode or in long sets (which is what I've found most effective for me).

Diaphone with the lifstyle reversal I came here to learn how to get better at fighting games and I got life advice

One other aspect for "manual pilot" in combos is being able to recognize when you get a counterhit. If you just auto pilot you might do a basic BnB because you realize it's a CH too late. Another, of course, is burst baiting. If you just autopilot your way through your combo every time they'll burst for free. Gotta think about if they have burst and if you think they'll use it.

This is pretty true. ADHD makes the Other Crap section start to take over for me, but on the blessed days where I can avoid that I play so much better. I've been working on figuring out ways to control that better so I'm not just hoping it happens while I'm playing and can make it happen instead. So far exercise and being productive earlier in the day has seemed to have good results.

Pretty solid video! It's funny how simple and obvious this stuff is when you break it down. I think we all kinda know this stuff but we tend to push it aside and get into bad habits. Like, we are autopiloting our whole experience with fighting games. Play online, win some lose some, get frustrated, develop bad habits, get salty, don't sleep enough, improve via brute force, feel good, fight better opponents, get smashed, feel bad, repeat ad nauseum. If you break that cycle and think about not just how you are playing but how you are approaching the game and your playtime as a whole it can be really good for your overall skill. Also, pretty important, take occasional breaks. Playing every day is great, it's what you should be doing, but sometimes it can work wonders to take a day or week away from the game completely. Sure, the first couple matches might be rough when you jump in again, but I often find it brings a fresh perspective that allows you to be more thoughtful and break out of the cycle that might be hindering your improvement. The main thing is understanding that it's a journey. It's a long road, no one and I mean no one get's to be top level in a short time. Not Sonic Fox, not Daigo, not even Diaphone, they all put in years of work and dedication. Some people may have shorter roads to the top, some roads (most) never make it all the way to the top, and some have setbacks, speedbumps, detours etc. But enjoy the journey, don't get too focused on where you are now, try and think about it as you would grinding in an RPG. You wont always feel like you are improving but you are gaining exp towards that eventual level up, and it will come if you keep on putting in work. METAPHORS

I know this video is a few months old now but I just wanted to say this is one of the best videos you've made and one of the best fighting game theory videos I've seen. While you didn't go into it as much in the video the "Other stuff" including mindset overriding my focus is really a key area of growth for me. I kinda wish the title reflected that this is a video about the mental stack more than a tip for stopping mashing since mashing was never a problem for me (I just block forever and get thrown to death). It has really wide application.

I'm totally with you on player weaker players to help focus on something you're trying to develop the muscle memory for. Sometimes if you're playing against another good player, a round can be decided in something like three interactions and you never get the practice you want. But if you're playing against a weaker player, maybe around can last through five or six interactions. Just as an example, if you're practicing an oki mixup, you can just play entire rounds grounded and whiff punishing with your sweep into hard knockdown and setplay. It turns the time you spend into deliberate practice, which gives much better results towards mastery.

Thank you Mrs. Diaphone for reminding us about our good health. And thanks Mr. Diaphone for the video. I'm finding this a year after the fact but it's helping.

As a new/learning player i really like this breakdown. Esp comment on healthy lifestyle. Matches a lotta my reflections so its good affirmation

Yooo CW6? I was at that regional running a side tournament for TvC lmao

This was a really interesting breakdown. I think it's a good, pretty universal analogy. There might be other things that could factor in that some people can control better than others. Like for me, I have a way better time learning and pickup up stuff if I can enjoy both sides of the game. Mine and my opponent's. If they're whoopin my ass all stylish, it can get really fun to watch. Having fun on the losing end kinda keeps frustration from clouding my learning, especially not having as much time for fighting games/labbing as I would like to have. Another side note to having more fun can be the game/devs fault. How fast can you find new opponents? If the game takes a while to find the next match (ie: first few seasons of SFV), you might struggle to retain new knowledge compared to games where you can get right back into it and it's frustrating to spend more time searching that playing. Also, well...don't forget to mash. Deliberately. You can kinda wear out some of the habit that way if you're consciously testing all the situations where you'd end up getting blown up the most. Are you really gonna mash in a high pressure setting if you've done it hundreds of times in that same situation and lost out most of the time while actively paying attention to the result? Sometimes you don't know how hot the stove is until you touch it. Might as well pay attention to how much it actually hurts.

Holy shit I remember watching that set of yours against Zeus. I never remembered the name of the Juri player back then, but I definitely saw this live. This is weirding me out LOL

more of these abstract concepts/breakdowns please. i feel like just watching this made me a better player

Super glad I found this video, I’ve been struggling with this exact problem a lot trying to learn strive. I’m still fairly new and not sure when to challenge etc and I can feel when my mental stack over flows and start doing dumb stuff lol. Gonna have to work on making that autopilot better and out in some more hours. Thanks for the vid!

My brain power is all over the place I always try to pay attention to this and try and do stuff to mitigate the effects of low brain power or in my case focus

never thought it like that huh! im going to apply it to my gameplan!

Great video. I’m still working on trying to get this kinda stuff in line

Downloading more ram as we speak.

So I think the way it makes sense to me is like having a computer that has a smaller SSD and then a really large HDD. You store your actively used knowledge on the SSD, and stuff you’ve practiced but are not actively using on your HDD, and then everything else is out there on the Cloud or Dropbox somewhere. SSD is your autopilot. You can retrieve that information at lightning speed with very limited effort. The HDD stuff takes longer to load because the wheels have to start turning again. Maybe you gotta find the exact file inside of your massive 4TB drive. While it’s hard to pull data from multiple sources at the same time, so your SSD information retrieval gets clogged up a bit. Only the smaller pieces of info can be recalled from the SSD while you’re finding that other specific file to move over to your SSD. And then inventing stuff on the fly you gotta go to Dropbox first. You have to locate the file and then download the whole thing before you can even use it.

This is straight out of Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow haha. By which I mean I think you’re into something

I wasn't expecting heath tips from this video. NICE.

"play worse players" If only I was good enough

Nice to see Dr K in your recommended videos!

>Diaphone used to play Juri You are the waifu fighter I always needed to follow

Would love to hear the Diaphone health journey story sometime

that was a cool video

My answer is to only do it when I can make it safe (RC/FADC). If the game doesn't have that, welp.

Sleep is godlike

I think mental stack is also alleviated through less anxiety - which means having less insecurity about who you are and what you are doing.

Wifeaphone with the assist on the video

I mash on plus frames

Hey Diaphone, I am new to Guilty Gear Strive and just recently Hit a wall, I been struggling to get in, and taking my turn as I attempt to take my turn, but end up getting hit after I get the hit, and I am not sure what to do. I been using c.k as my taking my turn option.

as an akatsuki main all i hear is "just b tatsu"

my main takeaway: play big boobie characters to improve mental stack

Tbf you were fighting Zeus lol

I think this mental stack theory is interesting but also not realistic. Even on days I got enough sleep, good nutrition, feeling great, I can lose fighting matches because my opponent is total random button mash hurricane. Or it is a highly trained sweat lord who just tramples down my patience. My mental health is more worth than the entirety of the FGC as it is now.

Your wife should do fight coaching

Hey Diaphone. Want to fight me in Xrd? Let's just see how much Guilty Gear has made you into a "Guilty Gear player" instead of turning into some generic, bland, homogenized fighting game with nothing special about it.

So if life has rendered you mentally fragile, does that mean that you're a loser who shouldn't even think about playing?