the real tech is realizing that sajam’s sage advice applies to mad different stuff in life and not just fighting games

There's a Japanese proverb I heard a few weeks ago. "The hand can never be faster than the eye." While it has some physical qualities to it, the bulk of that proverb is that you can never develop a technique faster than your own ability to see and realize the flaws in your current method. The longer it takes your "eyes" to see the issue, the longer it will take the "hands" to move.

Or just do what I do and get distracted by some other shiny new fighting game, climb a new mountain hit a new plateau wash rinse repeat

Man taking a break seems so counter intuitive when you plateau but coming back with a fresh mindset and rusty muscle memory is so invaluable. Gotta grind at your own pace so you don't burnout and get frustrated you know

I love when sajam switches shirts mid sentence. Such a ninja. Must be training Chipp with TastySteve on the side

After watching a bunch of these talking vids, I thought Sajam's optimistic, student-like mentality had infinite defense, but having now seen him play VSav vs. a Demitri, I have learned that he bleeds, too lol

That break advice is huge. I played SF4 regularly for years, and my biggest improvements usually came after a few weeks off. Even just learning combos, I would struggle with them for days, then play another char for a few days and come back and I'd somehow just be able to do the tough combo. Your brain really sees things in a fresh way after a break.

I mentioned during this stream that my current barrier was being unable to replicate combos I saw in high-level match videos; turns out Anji has an entire mechanic unique to him that where he can cancel his gatlings at varying windows, and I didn't pick up on the subtle differences in timing until I watched lots and lots of videos that showed off just how different these windows of time can be. It was a relief to find out that the problem wasn't execution but rather knowledge, and sometimes overcoming your plateau is something as simple as approaching problems with a different mindset or attitude, or in your case a different shirt mid-video. Outside of +R My problem is autopiloting into the old stuff rather than actively trying to work the new things I've learned into routine, so that's what I really need to work on.

I find playing a different game helps. Different games reward different skills so you end up taking that new mindset back to your main game

Kind of plateaued in fighting games and spent some time refocusing on space control, punishing, real basic stuff tbh and managed to get my first win in plus R (Baiken player for now) through just some whiff punishes, tatami pressure and spacing, reversal super, and some luck tbh! Practiced some combo improvements in training mode (still can't hit a basic Baiken bnb in match atm, but I'll get there) and watched some matches to see how to use her counters and it feels good to find these epiphanies of improvement :D

My plateau was more my mentality, I'm too competitive sometimes. So I've learned to use the discord of other GG characters to really learn how other characters work, and what a player's decisions would be in any given situation. It's made a world of a difference. My "forever struggle" against Millia, made me realize it was my state of my that was my plateau.

It's fascinating how sound this advice is. Recently it feels like I've been plateauing hard and hearing "Even though it'll lose you games, do the new stuff so that you'll get used to it, because long-term it'll make u better." was some powerful shit. I appreciate the quality content as always, Sajam!

My plateau is my mental. I cannot NOT get mad when I lose, or when I fuck up, or when I feel like I don't know something. It fucks me up something fierce.

I have an interesting story about plateau. In the beginning of SFV, I mained Ken. And all was fine and dandy, Unga Bunga-ing, having fun, cheesing wins, throwing random heavy tatsus from half screen away to cach unsuspecting players who expected me to play like a rational being, and confirming that into CA... y'know, standard Ken stuff. And it felt good. Then, I hit the plateau and I didn't know how to deal with it. And I was SO frustrated. Games weren't fun anymore. I stopped doing the random stuff and started trying to play optimally and safely (as safe as a Ken can play, at least), but it didn't help. I kept moving sideways in rank, and didn't know why. I slowly fell out of love with the game, to the point where I dropped it completely. Some time later, DBFZ gets announced and me and my best friends go like "Hey, let's play Guilty Gear to warm up for the way DBFZ will play!". And so we started playing XrdRev2. After trying a few characters, I ended up maining Ky. Playing Ky changed the way I viewed fighting games entirely. I realized that all this time, Rushdown was not my preferred style of play, and not one I'm good at. Rushdown, for me now is when I'm playing just for fun, like a party game. Like "If I lose, I lose, I just wanna laugh in this match.". If I wanna improve, and really try to play better, this way of playing makes me feel uneasy and I make bad decisions way too often. Playing GG, I learned that the thing I love learning and improving about fighting games is neutral and setplay. Characters with long, fast normals that can contol space and force mistakes. Get an opening from that, do your combo, get your knowdown, do a setup, a little bit of safe pressure, then step back and do normals again. And Ky, of course, being great at playing like that, connected with me. That character kinda taught me that I loved that kind of strategy. Turns out DBFZ came and went and I was in character crisis for the whole time I played the game(As I usually am in games where I have to play teams), and the biggest thing that game did for me (Besides watching the tournaments, because watching high level DBFZ is amazing) was that it got me into Guilty Gear. After all this time, I came back to SFV last week, with a whole new mindset and understanding myself a lot more as a player. I dropped Ken, and am now deciding between Sagat, Juri and Seth. Since I'm still learning these characters, and since I haven't played SFV in years, I lost a lot and fell down a ton of ranks, but I'm okay with it. I feel more comfortable with these three characters I'm trying than I ever felt playing Ken. And the most important part is that I'm having fun again and I don't get severe anxiety while waiting for matchmaking to find me a game anymore. Also, I can't WAIT to play Ky again when GGST comes out. I've developed a personal attachment to that character. TLDR.: I plateau'd SO HARD I dropped a whole game, then, while playing other games, I found out I was playing the wrong playstyle all along and then came back years later with a new mindset and can feel the improvement.

Just the over day I was getting semi-washed by my opponent, who’s character is capable of... let’s say executing brutal punishes if you’re being sloppy during your turn. I was feeling a bit loss, and didn’t know what more I could do, but recognized there something was missing in play. Later I watch a tournament where someone who was doing well with my character, and their main strength was their offence, which I lacked. I took mental notes and started practicing in training mode. Now I can say that I’m definitely leveling up my character and I have a new goal to focus on. TL:DR if you you’re low on creativity and nothing you’re doing is working, simply just analyze other people’s matches. No point re-inventing the wheel, just copy what others do that works

Yess I was looking exactly for this thanks a ton!

My problem is that I am lazy. I know that I need to optimize combos, refine blockstrings, and study frame data. However, I just can't bring myself to go into the lab and grind it out. One clear example is that my combos with Goku Black are not optimized, and in many instances I need to hit them 3 times to take a character instead of two. This has cost me so many rounds.

When I play other fighting games and come back to older one’s, I find I bring new knowledge to the game and overcome plateaus

100% agreed. I have been stalling with my dudley on fight cade. I realized I needed to work on my important hit confirms. 6HK into saIII and crouching LK 2x into super was something I saw pros doing that I was missing. now my matches im getting the low/highs with way more damage. I already had good mix and neutral. Next is just going to be match specific knowledge on punishing and parries, but that is coming along with more game time / specific training. (like ive been training agaisnt blocked tatsu punishes). I been playing fg since the 90s, you still have to do this stuff. its fun when you do it too.

Sajam the sage out here dropping LIFE knowledge under the guise of "fighting games" when in reality this is all stuff you can learn for every aspect of life

fkn love your brain man. Yup same thing happened with me, and my plateau was both combos, and strategies. I was too aggressive with any character I used, then realized that some characters I was using weren't rush down characters or aggressive characters at all. So i either had to change my play-style, or change my character to better line up with me, and i ended up doing both, and improved greatly. Now i gotta tackle the combo issue

Great video at a great time. Me and my homies all started GG recently and we all pretty much started fresh. In the beginning I was keeping up and then it was just like I got rocketed passed. Haven't really been challenged in this particular way in awhile. Time for me to take some time to overcome this new plateau.

I also find watching other players and seeing how their style of play differs with the same character is really helpful.

All of this applies excellently to any competitive genre. Shooters, MOBA, RTS. This is exactly what I had to do to break through that Platinum plateau playing Starcraft 2 years back. I couldn't get to diamond until I took a long, hard reflective look at my weaknesses and where I could improve, by watching my replays and watching other people play those tricky match-ups better than I did.

Been waiting for this one 👍👍👍

Breaking these plateaus is probably one of the most satisfying thing about fighting game. It's like that anime protagonist who's getting beat up over and over and then goes on a month of training and learns new technique that allows them to beat the bad guy. And then that victory is shortly met with another plateau, requiring you to acquire more knowledge and sharpen your skills again. Lab, learn the matchup, learn from masters..ect. it's the beauty of the journey. I feel like this feeling is no where near as present in any other competitive games and that's what makes fighting games so enjoyable to me.

i think one of the main mistakes people new to fighting games make (i made it myself when first starting out) is after learning all of their character’s combos, confirms and the like, they think they’ve learned everything there is to know and are ready to take on the guy that’s at +++S Rank and has 10,000+ played matches on his profile.

Literally though about this like 30 seconds before seeing this video on my feed lol

I recently hit a plateau very early on in GGXrd and i think this vid is just what i needed to reasses what i need to work on. Good video 👍

Extremely good advice

Good point on watching replays, good players, taking breaks, etc. Interesting how often plateaus can happen & how long they last. And if rank reflects that (my SFV rank has been the same for some years). There was a vid on Escaping the Plateau, but it's hard to tell if you do escape sometimes. And how little you climb til the next plateau. Solid vid.

occasionally, i come to fighting game tutorials for life advice

I'll watch this again when I hit the plateau in strive

Ur videos are a godsent thank u

I just reached a plateau in +R [particularly in my Millia movement in occasionally putting myself in bad situations and whiffing some buttons due to bad decision-making, which I'm finding very difficult to fix] so thanks for the timing of the vid :>

You really need to be rockin that Monk class for fighting games. Ironically enough, Monks specialize in fighting, as well as patience and discipline.

There also comes a point where for strategy shortcomings you need to watch some high end strategy guides for your character or watch pros play them. Because some times what you need is to know a setup or option select exists.

Yeah, the strategy of "playing to improve" is exactly how you improve at games. If you just play to win then you don't learn or take away as much. Some game archetypes don't present this option, but fighting games definitely do.

3:30 nice shirt mixup Sajam

I've been playing a lot of Rev2 lately and I've always been a Chipp player since the very first guilty gear never really touching any other characters but here lately I've been having so much fun learning Sol in Rev2

My plateau is when good competition that doesn’t lag runs out. So you know. Every single day.

plateauing execution wise is so tuff but prolly the easiest to fix. gotta grind

A couple of times the light bulb for me was picking up a new character for a short while. It can give you a new perspective on the different aspects of the game and give you new ideas for your main.

My hurdles have almost always been overcome by watching a shit ton of match footage of my character, and studying my own replays. And watching your own replays isn't always pretty but it's something worth doing regularly.

Great video :) keep it up

When I feel like I plateau in fighting games I always go and play a character that I view as a "not me" character. For me, it gives a different view of the game which in some cases I can use that mentality on my main, like going from grapplers to zoners. It also teaches me what my opponents are most likely looking to do against me.

I'm pretty sure I'm still struggling on the cliffside somewhere, as I likely decided to climb on a blustery day without any equipment when the cliffside's a 90° angle. Oh, and that day also happens to be everyday

Theres a good pat the flip video about why you lose in fighting games where he breaks it down to reads, reactions, execution and knowledge and you can improve the fastest by focusing on the category in which you are weakest

I think people really underestimate the importance of taking breaks. Often times I'll play a game for months and that's when I end up plateauing. And I find that after taking a break for a few days or even weeks I come back as a way better played overall.

Brian F upload? pog

Honestly, and this happened to me after I moved away from friends in Smash, I was never the best, but we'd always party and drink and Smash was so fun, I'd win and lose a lot. I moved and havent won a smash game since. I'm just now realizing that the game just isnt for me outside of that setting. Nintendo has garbage online, and the couple of friends who will play online just destroy me. at the end of the day some games arent for everyone. I'll never beat those guys in Smash. Im not passionate or interested in getting better. Without the party atmosphere, I dont enjoy smash. I actually hate it. Because I do like SFV, I like KOF, and I love UNIST. but with my buds online... I am truly garbage at smash and I dont care enough to get good.

Real talk Sajam!

I find that taking breaks helps me improve immeasurably. On haiatus, I don't think about the game, and do other things. When I come back, I find myself doing things differently and thinking a bit outside the box, because I took a break, I have to "relearn". Once I relearn, I discover that on my way from getting the rust off, I pick up new things while I was trying to relearn. It also helps shake off habits that you constantly do.

Also I was stuck in ultra bronze in sfv for a few months where i was just bashing my head against the wall and i restructured my practice (focused on learning enemies moves i lost to and anti-air dp practice) and now im in gold

This is definitely me in my game

You're at the stage where you'd be at 800-900 matches; you're doing fine

Usually in a fighting game when I hit a plateau I just switch to the most different character from my main and play them for a few weeks. After that I go back to my main and try to apply something fresh from the other character

that t-shirt change tech

I'm just getting into sim racing and the best thing I did besides tried every car in acc until I found one I was comfortable in was watch other people do laps in a similar car on the same track both irl and in game. Did wonders for my time and consisnrency

3:30 Nice tech

i play for fun and i quit playing when im done having fun.

I feel like I hit a plateau just learning hitbox but the process has been so fun -ex pad player

I plateaued in DBFZ and was perfectly fine with it because I found out that I just straight up didn’t enjoy playing the game competitively like I do other fighting games. It’s still a damn good game, just not one that I really want to spend my time really trying to become better in

Sometimes you just get too hung up on the little things and you gotta step back

I've a problems with these, especially because I don't recognize what I'm failing at, so it's hard to come up with a plan.

I think most commonly in new players, the mental level of the game is where they plateau the most. Fundamentals, Strategy, etc. are what they tend not to see at first glance and what will hold them back early. They just claim it's mechanical because it's easier to spot. Taking that time to sit back and think about WHAT you're doing and WHY you're doing it can be make the difference in elevating you to higher ground.

What you know, I'm watching a video right now whose subject is plateauing in learning foreign languages :)

I never experience learning plateau im just built different

Look at this caster changing clothes mid talking 👀

The problem is almost always you need to learn the matchups, one by one.

I was just thinking about this lol

I really need to do this with sfv... I've never really looked over why I'm stuck in silver other than I just don't have the execution skills to maximize damage with the character I use. and the only reason I ever win with Guile is because I play him like super turbo and that marginally works. but I can't do his damaging combos, or I forget the mechanics of sfv. I forget to v trigger because I never learned how to implement it into my game plan because I can't pull off the v trigger combos. I also have a problem breaking habits because my brain is RIGID. dunno if that's my autism or what... but the more I attempt deviate from my game plan, the more uncomfortable my brain gets. tl;dr I need to sit back and see what it is I can fix and how.

If you guys don't mind reading articles you should read Karl Anders Ericsson's work. He talks about deliberate practice which is important overcoming plateaus.

Life advice

Lately I’ve been having more of a mental plateau cuz in DBFZ i often get frustrated and bash myself for bad plays, bad reactions, bad decision making... And now I’m kinda on the verge of giving up completely on fighting game cuz i feel like nothing will get better. I decided to take a break from playing fighting games for now just so i can find a little peace with myself but I still am not sure on how to go about bettering my mental😔

The one problem I deal with is that I'm a huge sore loser. I play to win like 95% of the time. When Sajam talk about not caring about losing and try things, I just can't commit to it, even if I know that this mindset is stupid. (In a way, this also applies IRL.) If there are people here that dealt with this issue and found a way out of it, I take all advice ! On a different note, I feel like playing other FGs is quite useful since each one focuses on different aspects.

It also helps to just respect anyone who beats you (unless it’s super laggy obviously) and internalize the mistakes you made so that you make fewer either the next time, or in a general sense against everyone else. Your goal should be to take away at least one thing from the losses that you can focus on. But yeah the issue with most players is getting to a place where you can autopilot while making higher level decisions. Since you haven’t honed your play style to a point where you’re even doing most of the shit you do on purpose, it’s not possible to work on “one thing.” So really it comes down to just playing a lot. Playing better players while defending will make you better at capitalizing on the openings that you do get, and more importantly actually recognizing said openings since that’s more than half the battle. This all depends a lot on the type of game you’re playing/improving at. If it’s a decision-heavy game compared to an execution-heavy game (think sfv vs sf4) then you won’t be able to just grind your character’s stuff to improve as much as other sf titles. Then you have to grind your setplay vs whatever set of options each character has. But in sf4 you could overcome many plateaus just by practicing the same link with your brain turned off for an hour. So it’s different for every game, and every person. The plateau merely exists in your head, so just appreciate the fact that you have time to play said games, because the ultimate plateau is the limited time you have. tl;dr: seek out better players and recognize your openings to better capitalize on them, as well as covering up your own. Oh and lemme add this. The beauty of fighting games (or fighting) is in the infinitude of self-expression it entails (in good fgs at least), so at the end of the day, even if you aren’t improving at a perceptible pace, just express yourself. And if you don’t find joy in that, find something where you do.

I think what's hit me the most recently is that I have no concept at all of timing. I don't know when I can take my turn, I don't know when I should back off, and I don't know when I should go in. All it ends up doing is leaving me frustrated because it feels so often like the people I fight know this stuff really well, even though I can't even begin to grasp it. Maybe I should stop playing people so much better than me idk

My issue would be that I play on instinct and reflexes, so if my actions are not been negated why would I change my gameplay, when my oppontent figures put my gameplay, then I search for another alternative, but only for that oppontent, others I would just do the same thing

Mmm yup. Overcoming platanos can be a bitch. But you focus on reading them to pick them off at the perfect amount of green, not mashing too thin, hit confirm the perfect golden brown on the 2nd round, make sure you double P for the perfect amount of salt, and then one day....BAM.....perfect tostones.

0 Dislikes keep it up!

if only i could do half circle back forward motions id be a god damn animal lol

I found myself in this situation with dbfz, since I cannot play offline with anybody, and plsying ps4 online SUCKS, I feel like I am not improving at all, playing always at 4 frames minimum, and with the ps4 native delay (4 frames) its like playing 8 frames, I cannot react to a single 6m or dragon rush, its like everythin is a fucking 50/50.... Any advice?

hey sajam I know your not probebly gonna look at this message but I am the one Yoyo . I am stuck on this plateau , I am raging everytime I lose and I don't think i am learning anything with my bnidget can give me any suggestion.

Did you learn dustlloop yet

Man my biggest issue is that I'm a very tactical player I can beat high level guys but put me vs a bot or a new player and ima just get slapped

Uhhhh the thumbnail just makes me wonder what kinda mechanics they could do with an angled stage. Imagine the countless shit over who has the high ground

I've invested 600 hours in Tekken and got burned out so I hopped over to SFV. There is no carry over whatsoever. I find myself frustrated with just learning basic inputs or combos. The learning is fun but the matches are frustrating because my brain and hands aren't functioning together. Now I'm afraid if I go back to Tekken I'll have lost all what I've learned.

i plateaud in: dbfz: can't block vanish for shit and there are no videos or anything surrounding it, i practiced and hit a point that i dont know how to solve the problem so i gave up tekken 7: cant tech for shit, matchups and character knowledge never stuck with me oh you challenged a paul for 5 fights, learned the match-up and back out? fight a kazumi for 3 matches then forget about everything you learned cause my brain is smooth :( i can never find the solutions so im just stuck in this pateau :(

0 dislikes.

FADC shirt change

dude im screaming about what your saying with the whole 9000 hours in training mode i have never once spent time in training mode when it comes to 2d or 3d fighter games since its so straight *foward hit your target* i feel like im freiza never training before going gold just mopping people up in demon rank dbfz or 1000 rank sfv players when im 8000000 rank lol im about to get disrepectful with these training dummies

Why do people play fighting games to exclusively win? It's like when Sekiro came out and all the people who knew how to beat Dark Souls blindfolded got pissed because they died to Genichiro once. If you can't have fun while you're losing, I'm sorry but maybe fighting games aren't for you. "Oh but you're probably a good player" I have a training partner, even if our partnership is a little one-sided. We usually play each other for hours on end, and he wins 4 out of 5 matches. And yet every time he calls me I don't hesitate to answer. Because it's not the win, it's learning how to deal with this specific thing, it's getting the healthbar to a certain amount, or even taking a round. That's your progress, and that's part of the fun of fighting games.

Just dont get hit

i ran into that with smash ultimate. i cant improve at a game that doesnt exist anymore.

I get bored, First fighting game ever. GGST im celestials, freakfy player 320 hours. SF6 im Masters, 230 hours I can get good, but it gets boring. I dont know what my problem is. ive played smash bros and other games, it just gets to the point tht it isnt fun anymore

I don't think I ever seen ANYONE Plateau on Smash. It's a game of tag, of neutral. Like don't invest into fighting games like that. It's such a huge time waster. No reward for winning neutral. just reset back into it.

First, maybe who really cares. Great video Sajam!

Fighting games are impossible to learn. Bison can do df.HP all day and it frame traps everything. It's impossible to escape without meter... If I say more stupid stuff, can I get a twitter video, too?