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I am 28. I live in Chicago. My salary is $60,000 as a Nonprofit Consultant. Come see how I spend my coin!
I actually cut out a lot yet this is still on the long side, so be warned. Sorry in advance. SECTION ONE: ASSETS AND DEBT Retirement Balance: ~$4,740. $4,450 in a Roth IRA I opened when I turned 26. I just recently started contributing more to it regularly. I was previously focused on building my emergency savings up. My last job didn’t offer retirement until the very end of my time there, and there was no employer match. I contributed the bare minimum to my 401k; it has about $300 in it. With my current job, retirement match is factored into the salary. Equity: $0. Not a home owner. Savings account balance: $15,765. $1,150 in a Chase savings account, $13,519 in a HYSA, $1,046 in my Qapital account. Technically I use Qapital to save for taxes, but I know I won’t owe anywhere close to $1,000 since my 2020 freelancing was infrequent. I doubt it’ll even be up to $250. Checking account balance: $2,227 (payday was today!) Credit card debt: $0. I use my credit card like a debit card so I can rack up cash back. I pay it off every day. Student loan debt: $21,417. I graduated in 2015 with a BA in French and English. Original debt was ~$33,000. Before the pandemic my interest was 4.5%. Interest is now 0%. -- SECTION TWO:INCOME PROGRESSION2015-2016 - $15/hr as a remote intern for a major website. This was my first paid position out of college. I learned a lot about web content and writing for online audiences. This was part-time at 25 hours a week. 2016 - $2,700/month as a Content Writer. I created scripts and training materials for various companies to train their employees. Started this job in March and was unexpectedly laid off in December. Sucked at the time but turns out it was a blessing in disguise...The work was soulless and I didn’t like it. 2017 - ~$850/month stipend as an Americorps VISTA. At the start of the year I got a Development position at a nonprofit I volunteered at, hoping to gain grant writing experience. I absolutely would NOT have done this had I not been living at home. I also collected an additional $400 a month in unemployment until July since I was technically a federal volunteer, not an employee, therefore still eligible for benefits. 2017 - $37,000/year as a Development Coordinator, primarily writing grants. The person in this position left and I was asked to step in. I didn’t get my ed stipend since I ended my VISTA year 5 months early. 2018 - $38,250/year - COL raise. 2019 - $43,000/year then $45,000. I was promoted to manager. 2020 - $47,000/year - COL raise. 2020 - $60,000/year. I had been job hunting hard when COVID hit and I subsequently became discouraged. I was desperate to leave my job...the people I worked with were wonderful but I felt like my growth was stifled, the amount of staff turnover was draining, and our pay was below market rate. I ended up finding my new job through my network. I was very excited to not work in fundraising anymore. The events of 2020 confirmed that I didn’t want to make a career out of coaxing rich white folks to relinquish a tiny amount of their wealth to support youth of color. My now-boss and I talked extensively over Zoom before I received my offer letter in July. It’s been a great learning opportunity, even though starting a new job remotely is strange and sometimes lonely. Having a cat helps :) Main Job Monthly Take Home**:** $3,846. This is after $50 is deducted for Vision, Dental, Medical. Side Gig Monthly Take Home: $100-$400. I write product guides for a website sometimes. These days I only take on work if I’m anticipating new expenses that month. This income is in addition to my 60k salary, since what I make from my side hustle varies. Last year I made $2,200, the year before it was over $5,000. Other: ~$250/year in cash back from my credit card -- SECTION THREE: EXPENSES Rent: $1,025 in a decently-sized studio that I share with my cat. Rent encompasses all utilities, including internet. This is dropping down to $975 starting April 1 - yay! Renters Insurance: $5 Savings (monthly unless it says otherwise): ~$300 goes into a High Yield Savings Account. I automate $50 a week then throw in an extra $100 - $200, depending on the month. I save $80 - $120 with the Qapital app. I got it before they started charging so my account is free. Retirement contribution: $315- $415 into a Roth IRA. Maybe I should up payments so I can max it out, really torn between that or boosting student loan payments. I throw an extra hundred dollars in there some months. Debt payments: All I have is federal student loan debt. Since starting my job in July I’ve been paying $500/month, throwing in extra when I have it. I’m going to increase this to $600/month starting in February. Would love to have it paid off by the time I’m 30, or during my 30th year. I’m not holding my breath for student loan forgiveness, but if it starts to seem like a real possibility then I’ll cut back on payments. Donations: $300 to my mom and dad. I come from a working-class background and make more than both parents combined. My dad was unemployed for a while, and as I write this has become unemployed again. I worry a lot about my folks financially. In our culture it’s expected that we take care of our parents as they age, so there’s that component too. Also $25 to a local nonprofit. $9 to a local theater company for which I’m a board member. Our board is very low-key and not a fundraising one. Then usually ~$500 more throughout the year for various causes. Electric: Included in rent. Wifi/Cable/Landline: Included in rent. Cellphone: $43 Subscriptions: ~$63. $18 for Patreon, $10.89 for Spotify Premium, $16.34 for HBOMax, $7.62 for Disney+, $9.71 for Netflix. Pet expenses: I spend roughly $80 on food + probiotics and $20 on litter, which I buy in bulk. The monthly amount really fluctuates though. I’ve spent about $1,500 on my cat since I adopted her in October. Including getting basic stuff like a litter box, a cat tree, toys, food/water bowls, a carrier, etc. along with the adoption fee. I took her to the vet earlier last month and that was $450. She was vomiting frequently :( Car payment / insurance: $0. Car free, baby. Therapy: $100 Paid hobbies: $120 annually for my personal website. -- FINANCIAL BACKGROUND Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it? Yes. I’m a child of immigrants and we place a high premium on education. Skipping college was never an option. Luckily, I’ve always done well in school and would have gone to college regardless. I think about grad school sometimes but there has to be a good ROI. Maybe one day. I borrowed 33k in student loans for undergrad, which isn’t that bad considering that I went to a private school that cost $200,000 over 4 years. I paid for the rest with work study, along with merit-based and need-based scholarships. Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances? We didn’t discuss finances too often. I did get an allowance when I was younger and paid for the things I wanted (mostly books and CDs from my local Borders) by saving that money. My parents always had the mindset that credit cards can work as emergency funds...as an adult I strongly oppose that way of thinking. My parents accrued a lot of credit card debt and I never wanted that to be me. Which is why I only use my CC now as a debit card. I never put anything on there that I can’t pay off in full. What was your first job and why did you get it? I was in this program where teens get paid to participate in arts programs. I did theater for three years in HS, I think the stipend was ~$400 every two months. My first real job with wages was working retail the summer before college. I was making $8.25/hr. Both jobs were for spending money. Did you worry about money growing up? I didn’t worry necessarily, but I was aware that there were people with more than us. My mom was out of work for a few years due to some chronic pain and we had a Link card then. I had free/reduced lunch growing up and got fee waivers for all of my college apps. I was also aware of my privilege as an American citizen. My parents regularly sent money home to poorer family members. I learned early that it’s better to be working class here than it is over there. Do you worry about money now? Yes. I know I’m luckier than many. But I also have no generational wealth to inherit. Sometimes I feel really behind when I see people my age or younger with six figures in their retirement, $50,000 in stocks, or money passed down from family. I worry most about taking care of my parents in old age. I have an older brother so it’s a relief that we can at least share costs, when the time comes. At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net? I became 100% financially responsible when I moved out at age 25. Before then I was contributing $400/month towards rent. If I fell on really hard times I could probably move in with my folks, but otherwise I'm my own safety net. Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain. My mom cashed out an $800 savings bond for spending money when I studied abroad in college, but otherwise nope. Day 1 - Wednesday morning Another dreary January day. It’s been consistently snowing for the past two days and very overcast to boot. I spend some time lazing in bed until my Mom unexpectedly calls to ask me if I can print out her worker’s comp form to see if she'll qualify for any. She contracted COVID from her job a few weeks ago and, thankfully, is recovering. I tell her I don’t have a printer and hang up, slightly annoyed, after telling her I’ll print it from the library later. This was the 4th day in a row of her calling me and conversations with her can be hard to cut short (I’m not an asshole, honest). I get up and feed my cat, E., her breakfast with a probiotic, take my gummy vitamins, and get ready for the day (brush teeth, moisturize face and hair, put on black skinny jeans and a navy and white speckled sweater with hoop earrings). I throw some sliced bananas, kale, frozen blueberries, honey, almond milk, and ginger into the blender for a smoothie. Once that’s poured into a glass I take a seat at my corner desk to begin my work day. Afternoon My foul mood lingers but I work through it. There’s a big deadline coming up soon so my days have been pretty full. E. climbs into my lap while I work and I give her some head rubs. I adopted her 4 months ago. There was a learning curve for me, as someone who grew up with 0 pets, but E.’s made it very worthwhile. She only recently began to "loaf" in my lap and I love it, even during inopportune moments like Zoom meetings. Lunchtime! Today it’s tomato basil soup I made over the weekend with open-faced grilled cheese on french bread. The bread is getting stale but it’s almost finished anyhow, and slathering it with cheese and butter works wonders. I put out the kitty’s lunch, too. E. eats some of it then jumps into my bed, curling up for a midday nap. Wish I could do the same. Sigh. I buckle down and get back to work, now doing somewhat-tedious data entry. After about an hour and a half I decide to walk to the library to print my mom’s forms. I order a Toasted White Hot Chocolate with almond milk from Starbucks ($4.60) so I have something warm to drink on my walk. I’m not a coffee drinker because of my caffeine sensitivity. Sometimes even a mug of black tea will make me lightheaded if I drink it too fast! Evening Work day is over. I outline my to-do list for tomorrow and cross off the things I accomplished today. My Dad is downstairs to pick up the forms I printed for my mom. After dropping off the forms I change into comfy clothes and assign myself a freelance assignment. I’m applying for a weekend writing workshop next month that will cost $300. I may not get in, but in case I do, I want to be prepared! The fun thing about my freelancing is that I get to choose the topics I want to write about. I select an assignment on skincare products. Time to make breakfast for dinner: smashed fingerling potatoes with sauteed bell pepper, red onion, and broccoli topped with a fried egg and half an avocado. Seasoned with Lawry's and drizzled with sriracha. I get cozy on my loveseat to eat dinner. I also send an email to a man I've been corresponding with daily, D, for the last month and a half. We met out of the blue on an online forum - not Reddit - and have been enjoying each other's online company :) I'm not rushing to label anything, especially since he lives a state away. We're just seeing where things go for now. For the rest of the evening I read my book while E. sleeps curled up next to me and Wendy Williams plays on TV. Then I get into my nighttime routine: smoke from my one hitter, put on some music and hop in the shower, where I also wash my face. Out the shower, I lotion up with shea butter and rub a gentle toner on my face. I make a mental note to re-up on weed soon. It's taxed to hell (welcome to Cook County. They tax everything here) but at least it's stimulating the local economy. I floss and brush my teeth before getting under the covers. TOTAL: $4.60 Day 2 - Thursday Morning My body naturally wakes me up around 7:30. I remain in bed, mostly browsing Reddit on my phone, before committing to getting out of bed. I feed E. her breakfast and daily probiotic, take gummy vitamins and clean the last of my dishes from the night before. The sun pours through my south-facing windows and my heart sings - yesss, let there be light! I brush my teeth, moisturize my hair with coconut oil and moisturize my face. I pick out a black ribbed turtleneck and black high-waist jeans to wear, but ultimately decide to rock my loungewear until I have to leave my apartment. I make a smoothie with the other avocado half from last night, frozen mango chunks, the last of my frozen blueberries, ginger, almond milk, and honey. I highly recommend avocados in smoothies. The creamy texture is to die for! I log into my work email and have a couple fires to put out. While I work, I polish off the rest of my Vitner’s Crunchy Kurls. IYKYK. I also reply to my email from D. this morning. Yesterday we were both in bad moods but this morning we’re doing better, mood wise. We talk about how rough our Januaries were - with my mom recovering from COVID and his dad in the hospital since the beginning of the year - and how we deserve a nice treat for getting through the month. We agree that lifetime supplies of books (for me) and movies (for him) would be fitting. afternoon My morning was full speed ahead but things are slowing down so I pause to read a Money Diary on here. I so admire this diarist’s conviction in language learning/maintenance! My French is dans la poubelle because I haven’t kept up in a long time. For a while I’d do Duolingo, watch French-language movies and shows on Netflix, and book trips to Francophone cities so I could practice speaking (last trip was Montreal in December 2018). When COVID blows over I want to go to Martinique. I remind myself to check out some French-language films soon. I’m open to any recommendations, especially media that focuses on Francophones outside of France, or those from immigrant communities :) I return to my data entry task. Giving away grants is fun. Tracking dollar amounts and grantee info with excel formulas, less so. I finish up the last of my soup and grilled cheese sandwich and give E. her lunch. I put on the student loan episode of Patriot Act as I eat. I’d truly be wowed if student loan forgiveness actually came to fruition. It’s either somewhat likely or not likely at all, depending on who you ask. Post-lunch, I’m craving cupcakes bad. Did I mention I have an unrelenting sweet tooth? I look up cupcakes near me and mentally bribe myself with a cupcake order if I get my work done. evening My cupcake craving has subsided. I'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow. I normally eat dinner around 7 or 8pm but opt for an early dinner today: my leftover Mongolian Beef and peapod tips in garlic sauce, yum. I ordered Chinese takeout on Sunday. While my rice cooks, I bundle up for a trip to Walgreens. When I'm there I get a big thing of Dawn dish soap, some antibacterial wipes that are on sale, a bag of roasted cashews, a Reese's Fast Break bar, and a small bag of Pirate's Booty ($16.83). By the time I get back my rice is nearly finished. My sink has some dirty dishes, so I wash those before reheating the Mongolian beef and peapod tips on my stove top. I'm one of those weirdos without a microwave… don't miss it at all though. I dig into my leftovers and reply to a message from D. which is quite imaginative. In the sexual sense ;) D. has a very sensual way with words and as a writer of course I'm into it. I go back for seconds, finishing the rest of my takeout leftovers. After dinner and some more reddit browsing I do my evening shower routine. At 10:30 pm my upstairs neighbor is annoyingly doing jumping jacks (that’s what it sounds like) or something that makes it very hard to focus. Ugh. TOTAL: $16.83 DAY 3 - Friday MorningI fell asleep unexpectedly and woke up around 2am. This kind of thing happens a lot. I guess my cat has adapted too, she’s always bugging me for food in the early morning hours. I feed my cat, brush my teeth, crawl back into bed and fall asleep an hour or so later. I’m up again at 7:30, laying in bed before officially getting up. My mom calls me and I remember I promised to order her a Lyft to work. Her workplace has the COVID vaccine and she’s going to get the first dosage. She mentions that some symptoms are coming back - like shortness of breath, which she didn’t even have the first time - even though she’s been on the mend for the past week and just got the go-ahead from her doctor to work again. After I order my mom the Lyft ($31.46 incl. tip) I indulge in my nasty habit of googling medical stuff. I find an article about a woman who ended up in the hospital unexpectedly, 5 MONTHS after getting symptoms. Cue cortisol levels going up. I also have a work meeting this morning that I’m nervous about, having never led it alone before. I get out of bed, feed my cat her breakfast + probiotic, take gummy vitamins, and get dressed with a black turtleneck, black jeans, and small hoop earrings. I try to breathe and remind myself that all will be fine. I have a habit of catastrophizing and generally thinking in worst-case scenarios, if that wasn’t already obvious. My meeting ends up going perfectly fine though, and my mom texts me later to say she took the train home (my Dad needed the car for work this morning). She is feeling fine for now. Since I skipped my morning smoothie I make one now with pear, kale, frozen strawberries, almond milk and honey. Eh, I’ve had better. But it’s drinkable. afternoon My morning flew! I’m running low on food so for lunch, I throw some crinkle cut fries in the oven. Grab an avocado, red onion, and a roma tomato from the fridge to make a quick guac. I also make a side of sriracha mayo. Today is payday. It’s my rent paycheck so I’m not as excited tho. While my fries are in the oven I move some money to my Roth IRA. I watch one of my favorite Youtubers, King of Reads, while I eat my lunch. He has an interesting take on Gamestop Gate and basically says, abolish all this stock market shit. I do think there are a lot of evils in American capitalism, which was literally built off the backs of s colonized peoples. Like is this system even for us? After lunch I get back to work. I also do something I seldom do: order groceries off Instacart. The anxiety of the day has drained me and I don’t feel like lugging a bunch of groceries home. Plus, the store I order from is cheaper than the one closest to me. I get some jasmine rice, a family pack of Nongshim ramen, green onions, carrots, zucchini, sirloin steak, ginger root, yellow onions, chili paste, bell peppers, white mushrooms, yellow squash, bok choy, kombucha, bamboo skewers, grape tomatoes, a bottle of Apothic Red and some hazelnut cookies. Add $10 for tip ($74.48). I do walk to the local grocery store anyway to 1) get some fresh air while it’s still daylight and 2) pick up smoothie ingredients. From there I get a big bag of frozen mixed berries, frozen mango chunks, an avocado, three bananas, almond milk, coconut sparkling water, and a sweet Belgian waffle ($18.15). Evening I knock out the last of my work tasks just in time for teletherapy at 5:10. I love my therapist. Been seeing her for going on three years and she’s changed my life. We talk and I feel lighter, remembering the progress I’ve made since I first walked into her office crying in 2018. After we hang up I get an email receipt for the cost, which is accounted for in monthly expenses. I put away my instacart delivery and message a bit more with D. Even though we’re just emailing, I truly enjoy his company. He makes me feel incredibly attractive and soft. Glass of red wine in one hand, I play with E. for 15 minutes. Despite her age (over 10) she’s spry and will bug the hell out of me to indulge her. I spend the rest of the evening on the couch decompressing with my wine. I do my nightly shower routine but skip the weed because I know it'll make me fall asleep ASAP. Then I fry up the rest of my breakfast for dinner ingredients (minus avocado and egg) and eat them with sriracha. TOTAL: $124.09 DAY 4 - Saturday morning Oops. Fell asleep and woke up at an odd hour. Again. Go brush my teeth and floss. My kitty is very awake and bugging me for attention so I smoke, play with her a bit, and go back to sleep. Wake up a few hours later. I hear the unmistakable retching of my cat throwing up. Maybe she went too long without food...I mop up the small puddle with paper towels and spray my rug liberally with Nature's Miracle. When I feed E. her breakfast + probiotic she keeps it all down. I take gummy vitamins and get back into bed. From my phone, I go to my local dispensary's website to place an order for pick up, ultimately choosing a strain I've had before that's on sale. I log into my checking account to transfer money to my mom (accounted for in monthly expenses). Actually get out of bed for real around 9:45am. Scoop E.’s litter box and prepare to get some freelance work done. I make a mango, pear and avocado smoothie with almond milk and honey and sit down to work. Girls plays in the background. I never watched this show when it was popular and was surprised by how funny it is (albeit problematic for a number of reasons). Afternoon Snack break! I brew some black tea and have it with the hazelnut cookies I got yesterday. 90 minutes later, once I’m two-thirds through my assignment, I make actual lunch: ramen noodles spruced up with minced garlic and ginger, scallion whites, bok choy, and mushrooms. All topped with scallion greens. Easy and d e l i c i o u s. There’s another snowstorm, urgh. I’m walking to pick up my weed and from my window, it doesn’t look too bad right now. Preorder a Honey Citrus Mint from Starbucks for the long walk ($3.27) and bundle up. It’s an hour round trip but I love walking and don’t really work out so...I take my exercise where I can get it. Stop by the ATM to withdraw cash for flower ($70). On my way back from picking up I indulge in a carrot cake slice from a popular bakery in the area. ($8.13 incl. tip). Okay, I’m set on sweets for awhile. For now :) Evening I finally wrap up my freelance assignment and share it with my editor. Shower time. Take a hit from my one hitter and do my nightly routine. Once finished, I change my mind on dinner. I’d originally planned to make a quick "bibimbap" (air quotes because it's very much a knock off) and even steamed rice ahead of time, but carrot cake is sounding good right now. Carrot cake it is! I have some more hazelnut cookies for a well-balanced meal. Give the kitty her dinner and fall asleep with the TV on. TOTAL: $81.40 DAY 5 - Sunday Morning Woke up at an odd hour again. (around 4 am). E. is being a butt once again so I feed her an early breakfast with her probiotic. Brush my teeth, floss, and go back to sleep for a few hours. Get up and out of bed for real around 9:30 and clean up a bit, doing one load of laundry and vacuuming my rug and floors. I finally cook and eat the bibimbap meant for yesterday (minus the egg). I have a virtual date with a college friend I haven’t spoken to in a while, so we spend a few hours catching up! My friendship with her is ever-evolving. She was someone I put on a pedestal for a long time, until she disappointed me when I really needed her and hurt me deeply. I’ve worked to let go of that resentment and remind myself that 1) she is very much human, 2) she is not a better person than I am and 3) I can’t expect everyone to have the same heart that I have. Tough but necessary lessons to learn. Afternoon I really should deep clean E’s litter box today but ehhhh, not feeling it. I clean my bathtub, bathroom sink and mirror instead and wipe down some surfaces. I also sip some red wine blended with frozen strawberries (10/10, would recommend!) and start meal prepping for later. I’m making suya - West African meat skewers - so I thinly slice my sirloin steak while it’s semi-frozen and refrigerate the rest to fully defrost. I also chop up more garlic, ginger, bok choy, mushrooms, and scallions for ramen later. I know I’m going to get high very soon and won’t want to do too much, so I’m doing what future high-me will thank me for. Light an oudh incense stick, reply to a message from D., and submit my $250 invoice for freelance work. Put food out for E. The snow is still pouring in from yesterday. Maybe we’ll get those 10 inches of snow after all. I smoke a bit and cook the same ramen as yesterday but add a fried egg and some sesame oil. I inhale the whole thing and drink all the broth, either it's really this amazing or I'm just stoned. For dessert, I brew black tea and have it with the rest of my hazelnut cookies. evening Shower routine time! As much as I hate cleaning the bathtub, that first shower afterwards is the best. Wash my hair with Aussie Moist conditioner (I keep my hair very short and cut it myself) and moisturize with copious coconut oil. Listen to one of my favorite podcasts while in the shower, Say Your Mind with Kelechi Okafor. I love listening to her and her brother’s banter, it feels like I'm among friends. I've been eating throughout the day so I'm not too hungry come dinner time. I have some crinkle cut fries with sriracha mayo and crack open a kombucha. Rewatch more old episodes of Girls. Why is Adam Driver so attractive to me, even if his character on the show is awful (they're all awful, really)? TOTAL: $0 Day 6 - Monday morning Odd sleep hours strike again! I should mention that I also brush my teeth while I’m in the shower, lest you think I brush once a day only :) Take gummy vitamins and give my nagging E. her early morning meal after playing with her a bit. Scroll on Reddit until I fall back asleep. Get up and start the day for real at 8:40. Clean a few dirty dishes from last night and give E. breakfast, round #2 with her probiotic. Brush my teeth moisturize my hair, and choose an oatmeal, knee-length knit dress to wear with small hoop earrings. I make a smoothie with a navel orange, some frozen strawberries, frozen banana that I almost forgot about, and almond milk. It’s February now. Happy Black History/Present/Future Month. February is actually one of my least favorite months but after the January I’ve had, I’m ready to move on swiftly. E. is fascinated by all the snowblowing that our neighbors do outside the window. Chicago hasn’t been hit this hard with snow in 5 years - 9 inches! This is a very slow morning, work wise. Snack on cashews. Work on some excel data and open a tab for Girl Scout Cookies. It’s that seasonnnn. Note that there’s a four box minimum to get cookies. I’ll save my cookie order for next week. afternoon The sunlight is giving me life today. I’m getting my Vitamin D through the window, though a walk to the beach sounds lovely. After doing a bit more work, it’s lunch time. I steam some jasmine rice and fry carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, bok choy, and scallion whites in soy sauce and chili paste for my knockoff bibimbap. With an egg this time. Then I decide to bundle up and walk to the beach for additional vitamin D. I only live five minutes away :) . The sand and shoreline are all covered in snow but peaceful nonetheless. I've actually never been to the beach in the dead of winter before. God, I love Lake Michigan. Never understood the hype around oceans, especially because you can't drink the water. Have my phone check in with my boss. Message a bit with D. and round up my tasks for the day. evening D. encouraged me to follow my impulses and order the greasy pizza I’m craving right now. But I have food in the fridge. Sigh. Cut up my veggies and season them for veggie kabobs to go with the suya, which has marinated in a spice rub. Put the veggies and meat on skewer sticks and put it all in the oven. It comes out…okay-ish. The meat is a bit overdone and not as flavorful as I'd hoped. Not terrible for a first try, I suppose. Eat two veggie kabobs and two suya sticks. Fall down the Reddit rabbithole for way too damn long. Also check on my mom and how she's doing. She said she's okay now, taking things one day at a time. Feed the kitty her dinner. Do my nighttime routine (including brushing my teeth) and snuggle in bed to watch more Girls. Snack on graham crackers since I have no other sweets or candy handy. TOTAL: $0 Day 7 - Tuesday morningMe and my fucked up sleep schedule. No judgment, plz. Wake up at an odd hour again, brush my teeth, feed the cat, smoke a bit, and go back asleep. My mom calls me at 8 to tell me she might need me to call her a Lyft again - this is not a typical nor regular expense btw - because she has one of her work trainings and my Dad took the car for work. She asks if I still want to go to Nigeria this summer since she’s about to get tickets. IDK! I’m not comfortable traveling internationally...but my Nigerian passport also expires this year and it was a huge pain in the ass to get it in the first place. I enjoy visiting, though I always have a lot of personal shit to navigate while there. Being part of a diaspora is complicated. Also wake up to a steamy message from D. Steamy enough for me to get myself off, truly the best way to start any morning. My period has started...fun. I was expecting it though. Feed E. her breakfast with a probiotic, take gummy vitamins, brush my teeth, moisturize hair, and get dressed in a grey turtleneck, black Adidas soccer pants, and gold hoop earrings. Blend frozen mango chunks, a small banana, greek yogurt and almond milk into a smoothie. I also brew a cup of lemon tea. Pop two ibuprofen and start my work day with a staff meeting. afternoon Light a candle and keep working! Ok, I actually break for a few YouTube videos, one from MelinaPendulum about the Sex And the City reboot. To sum it up: why do one?? What’s the point if Samantha isn’t even coming back? I put out E.’s lunch. I also steam some jasmine rice to eat with the suya and veggie kabobs from last night. Damn I wish I had some steak sauce. Oh well. Eat lunch and call a Lyft for my mom. ($25.99, incl. tip). Work with more Sex and the City in the background. EveningThe work day has ended and I am desperately in need of snacks! I load $10 on my Starbucks app and then decide to not get anything. I planned to fuck up some hot chocolate but the way my cramps are fading and coming back, it’s best to stay away from a drink with 57 grams of sugar. Pick up some Lysol wipes, a bottle of club soda, Fig Newtons, Ritz Crackers to go with the block of cheese in my fridge, a Reese’s Fast Break bar, and some Haribo Happy Cola gummies. ($11.69) Get home, pour a small glass of Apothic Red and play with E. for a little bit. Then go down another Reddit rabbithole before making my dinner - ramen, minus the egg. Still delicious! Message D. for a bit and do my shower routine. I did not read very much this week, maybe it’s a testament to me not liking my book that much? Hmmm....my neighbor starts his incredibly annoying exercise routine and I fall asleep waiting for it to stop. TOTAL: $47.68 -- GRAND TOTAL = $274.60 Food + Drink = $133.37 Fun / Entertainment = $70 Home + Health = $13.78 Other = $57.45 All in all, this was an unsurprising week, especially since I’m already in the habit of tracking expenses daily. The two atypical things were the Lyft rides for my mom - an infrequent occurrence - and my weed purchase, which happens once monthly. I suppose I could have included that in my monthly expenses. Please don’t roast me for my sleep schedule! I know issa mess. Also, I feed my cat four times a day in case that’s unclear. Edit: Any and every time I left my home I wore a mask and then washed my hands thoroughly upon return.
Introduction: Barley is my favorite brawler and one that I feel doesn't get enough love from the community, so I decided to put together a guide for aspiring Barley mains. I’ll go over the basics, gadget and star power builds, best modes and maps, matchups, comps, how to use him effectively, and several other tips. Barley is an extremely fun brawler that is strong in almost every meta. I spent a long time on this, so hope you find it useful.
Basics:
(Note: Stats are at power 10.) Class - Thrower, Pseudo Support Health - 3360 Range - 7.33 tiles with main attack, 9.33 tiles with super Reload Speed - Normal (1 ammo per 2 seconds) Speed - Normal (720) Main Attack - Undiluted: Barley lobs a bottle, breaking it on the ground. Enemies take damage from the splash, and more damage over time if they stay in the puddle. Deals 952 per tick with 2 ticks, meaning you can deal up to 1904 damage (extra if using Extra Noxious). Super - Last Call: Barley hurls a flurry of fiery bottles, covering a huge area in flames. His super is essentially 5 of his main attacks at once. They cover and linger over a massive area for 4 seconds, allowing him to deal up to 3808 damage (even more if opponents are hit by two of the bottles at once. This is extremely unlikely but still possible). Barley charges up his super 17% with his main attack, so 6 ticks gets you a super, and 12.6% with his super, requiring 8 ticks.
Builds:
Star Powers Medical Use: Barley regains 400 health from each basic attack. I consider this star power S tier. It’s an extremely helpful star power and greatly increases Barley’s survivability, which is important considering his low health. Because it allows Barley to continue attacking while healing and maintain his position, it accommodates his control abilities very well. Extra Noxious: Barley’s main attack deals 140 extra damage, allowing Barley to deal 1092 damage per tick rather than his regular 952 (2184 in both ticks). This star power makes Barley a much more aggressive brawler and increases his DPS. It’s a solid B+ tier that should pretty much only be used in Heist for extra damage on the safe. Sometimes it can be used on other modes, but it's very map dependent and used as a counter pick against tanks. Extra Noxious is the higher skill cap star power, but even for very good Barley players I would recommend Med Use 9 times out of 10. Extra Noxious is still helpful but Barley’s focus was never really his damage output. Medical Use is significantly better for modes where control and area denial is more important (so pretty much everywhere, considering you’re playing Barley). This doesn’t mean Extra Noxious is unplayable, just that it’s not as useful anywhere outside of Heist. Extra Noxious is also the preferred star power against tanks, so keep that in mind. Gadgets Sticky Syrup Mixer: Barley drops a sticky concoction that leaves a puddle, slowing down enemies that walk into it. The puddle lasts for 4 seconds. This gadget is very useful for defense, and counters tanks/melee brawlers very well. SSM gets its best value on modes where mobility is important (primarily Brawl Ball and Heist), and maps where tanks are prevalent. Herbal Tonic: Barley throws a healing potion at nearby allies that creates an area that heals for 500 damage per second. This gadget is overpowered and definitely S tier. It synergizes extremely well with Medical Use, and allows you and your teammates to keep control and go on offense while healing. Like with the star powers, both gadgets are helpful and serve different purposes. I find Herbal Tonic superior to Sticky Syrup, but Sticky Syrup also has its uses. For instance, SSM might be the safer pick when playing with randoms, and it can dominate in Brawl Ball and Heist (although Herbal Tonic might still be better). HT is always better in Siege, Gem Grab, and Hot Zone, and usually better in Brawl Ball. So in conclusion, Barley players will find Medical Use with Herbal Tonic the most useful build. The second best, which I call the "Showdown Build" or "Randoms Build" would be Medical Use with Sticky Syrup. The third, the "Tank Destroyer" or "Use this in Heist Occasionally Build", is Extra Noxious with Sticky Syrup. The build with the least synergy being Extra Noxious and Herbal Tonic.
Modes:
Bounty - F tier. Do not play him there. Ever. I don’t care if there are walls. Barley may be one of the top 3 worst Bounty picks. Showdown/Duo Showdown - C- tier. Barley is generally an awful pick in SD, save for a few maps (namely Cavern Churn and Rockwall Brawl, maybe Stormy Plains, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves). Present Plunder - D tier. The playstyle and goal of Present Plunder just doesn’t suit Barley at all. He is too squishy to go on offense and not the best on defense. It doesn’t help that everybody can throw presents over walls, and maps with the tilting ship modifier are there to bully Barley mains. Gem Grab - B tier. Barley is good for keeping control of the middle. Unfortunately, he gets countered by a lot of brawlers that are meta in Gem Grab, and is generally overshadowed by Sprout. Graveyard Shift - B+ tier. With his healing star power and gadget, Barley has been the king of Graveyard Shift for ages. Simply camping in a bush while spamming attacks gives him enough health to outlast any other brawler without having to attack. Unfortunately, GS is currently dominated by Sprout and Tick, who counter Barley, making him not as great a pick as he used to be. Heist - A+ tier. Honestly the first thing that comes to mind when you hear "thrower" is "Heist". Barley is no exception as he is great on defense and can attack the safe safely from behind walls, only held back by his mediocre DPS. On several maps, such as Hot Potato and Pit Stop, he can be downright devastating. Brawl Ball - A tier. Barley is underrated on Brawl Ball. His area denial and control capabilities allow you to create space for your teammates to advance and cornetrap enemies. I personally main Barley in Brawl Ball and Siege. Hot Zone - B+ tier. Barley excels on a few maps, but overall outclassed by Tick and there are better choices. But maybe that's just me because I'm garbage at HZ. Siege - S tier. Barley is undeniably one of the best brawlers in Siege. I can't really add on to that. Keep in mind that the map can matter just as much as the mode (see the Best Maps section).
Barley's Current Meta Rating: B+
I don't think he's quite a top 10 brawler yet in this meta as some of the best brawlers, Edgar and Colt, kind of counter him. But the recent Brawl Ball maps really favor him and Herbal Tonic continues to be a beast so I'd say he is still very strong. Ranking him I'd say 12 or 13 15 or 16 wouldn't be too far off.
Technique:
Barley specializes in control and, with his new healing gadget, support. He is versatile in any meta and an all around very well rounded brawler. He is also a relatively easy brawler to play -- but with extremely high potential. In this section, I’ll go over how to play him in general. Aim: With Barley I use two main aiming “modes”, each serving a different purpose.
General. In this “mode” you want to target a specific enemy brawler and focus on dealing damage. This playstyle is aggressive and used to take down or force opponents to retreat. Remember that the main goal is separation. You want to break the enemy team’s stand by getting rid of a player, either by killing them or getting them to give up ground.
Against “critical players”. A critical player is someone who is about to create an immediate advantage for their team. For instance, a high DPS brawler on your safe, an enemy trying to collect bolts, or even something like a Gene with a super when your team has Countdown. You probably get the gist of it. Here, the main goal is deterrence. During this “mode” your focus is on trying to prevent their advance by throwing bottles in their path. Also use this when your opponent is trying to overwhelm you to take control of the middle.
In order to use Barley effectively, you’ll need to make use of both of these playstyles and usually a hybrid of both. It’s also extremely important to focus attacks on choke points when you’re not actively targeting someone. This keeps control and prevents your opponents from being able to advance. Always remember that Barley's forte is being a control brawler, so you shouldn't always focus on hitting every shot or getting kills. In order to play Barley successfully you should make good use of his lingering mechanic as well to block off pathways and deny control. Do not play him like Dynamike. Some other aiming tips:
Some very good advice from the Barley God himself, Olive Oil, is to aim half where your opponent is right now and half where they’re going.
Use auto aim on opponents (within range) that try to be tricky with their jukes. With Barley, just a bit of auto aim mixed with regular aim can be healthy! And always use auto aim on an enemy that’s slowed or stunned. This applies to all brawlers as well, but it’s very helpful alongside Sticky Syrup Mixer.
Concentrate on one opponent at a time. Since you're a thrower (and therefore relatively safe most of the time) it's helpful to target the most important player on the other team, whether it's the gem carrier or just someone that's hard carrying.
Against brawlers that outrange Barley or other throwers, use a more passive playstyle. Throw a bottle in their general direction at Barley’s max range, retreat from their return fire, and repeat. Use this to deal with brawlers such as Rico, Gene, etc. As you become a more advanced player you'll find that aiming at Barley's max range will become more and more important.
Since Barley’s projectiles move slowly, they’re not very difficult to dodge.
When enemies are clumped together, try to hit multiple with one shot by aiming at a spot between them but also in the general direction of where they’re moving.
Predicting shots with Barley can sometimes get difficult against experienced players who are good at dodging. Many players tend to walk in the same pattern when dealing with Barley. Barley’s projectiles are not hard to juke, so it’s important to keep this in mind. The most popular movement pattern against Barley (and many other brawlers) is to first walk in a certain direction, suddenly change direction as soon as the Barley throws their bottle, then repeat. The most important thing to remember is that people always have a target destination, whether to get close to you, pick up gems, damage your safe, etc. Always keep in mind that enemies will try to juke you so be prepared for sudden changes in direction. Once you get a sense for how they dodge, it’s much easier to hit shots consistently.
Last of all, the number one technical issue I see with Barley players is that they tend to use all of their ammo at once. Don’t do this (unless on the IKE or safe). Barley’s reload speed isn’t that slow, but it isn’t fast either. If you waste all of your ammo, you leave yourself vulnerable for the opponents to move in and attack.
Movement/Positioning: Barley's position in Siege, Brawl Ball, and Gem Grab is as a Lane. Stay to the sides, avoid the middle, and lob bottles at your enemies safely from behind a wall. As usual, if you're facing a tough lane opponent (see the Matchups section) sometimes it's better to switch with your teammate on the other side but continue to avoid being a Mid. A very simple rule of thumb is to almost always keep a wall between you and your enemies. This way you can take advantage of his thrower mechanic and ability to throw over walls. (By the way, this tip is from Tom’s “best tip for every brawler” video.) You can also sometimes engage out in the open when you're facing brawlers you feel confident in outranging or dodging. Another thing: keeping control of the center in modes like Gem Grab, Siege, and Brawl Ball can be vitally important as Barley. It’s also important to stay close but not too close to your allies, since Barley is a support and is relatively weak on his own. Try to stay in a position where you always have access to central control and an escape route as well as within range of your team to support them with Herbal Tonic, and try to prevent your opponents from doing the same. Using Super: Barley’s super is very versatile. It’s great for clearing out an area, finishing off opponents, dealing straight damage, area denial, keeping enemies away, and playing offensively.
In Brawl Ball, I often use the super as soon as I get it in order to flush out low health brawlers or clear out the zone near the enemy’s goal when our team is close to scoring.
In Siege, use it on offense when attacking with the Siege bot to clear away defenders, sometimes even just to get some extra damage on the enemy IKE.
In Heist, super the safe unless it’s critical for you to defend. Simple.
In Gem Grab and Hot Zone, use it to keep the enemies away from your team, declare a zone off limits, or push them away from mid.
Moving back while you fire the super and aiming it to its furthest range increases the spread of the super so that it covers a larger area. The super animation takes a while to complete, so make sure you have a good position and aren’t vulnerable to being attacked while firing the super. I also recommend firing your super at the area with the highest concentration of opponents. Hitting multiple opponents at once can shatter the enemy team’s formation and help you charge another super faster. Using Gadgets: Reserve Sticky Syrup Mixer for an enemy getting too close, or when you’re on defense. For instance, in Brawl Ball you can use it when the enemy thinks they can walk the ball into your goal, or when you're defending against a high levelled Siege bot. Another trick with SSM is if there’s an enemy right next to the wall between you and him, hug the wall and use the gadget, then auto aim for an easy kill. This gadget is great against tanks. However as I said before the second gadget is probably the better gadget most of the time. Herbal Tonic is a bit more ambiguous because it can be applied to almost any situation. This gadget is so good that you’re almost guaranteed to get value out of it, but I typically reserve it for high priority situations such as gaining control for the last siege, winning a critical battle against enemies, or just plainly to heal myself and allies. A good tip from u/AegislashStriker is to activate it when your teammates are at about 60% of their max hp.
Barley Comps:
I’m gonna be honest, I’m pretty clueless when it comes to comps. So feel free to take this section with a grain of salt, but this is pretty much all I know:
Typical Siege comp - Barley, Lou, and Pam/Jacky (RIP Gene)
Don't play double throwers
Helpful to pair him with brawlers that cover up his weaknesses, like high DPS brawlers such as Spike, and tankier brawlers such as Jacky
I don't recommend using him with brawlers that focus on opening the map such as Brock or Frank but with proper communication you can make it work
Yes I know it's not a lot. Some good resources for finding actually good comps are watching BS Esports and stealing professional comps. You can also use Brawlstats or Starlist. If you're an expert at comps please help me out here.
Barley's Best Maps (for the modes he is viable in)
Gem Grab - Deep Diner, Cross Cut, Deathcap Trap (maybe) Brawl Ball - Penalty Kick, Triple Dribble, Substitute, Square Off, Sunny Soccer, Super Stadium (maybe) Heist - Pit Stop, Hot Potato, Twist and Shoot, Snowy Gems (maybe) Siege - Some Assembly Required, Olive Branch, Junk Park, Nuts and Bolts Hot Zone - Split, Dueling Beetles, Watch Out (maybe) Here's a list of win rates from u/yunogasai6666 although it is from a couple of months ago so the map rotation is different. A second, more recent one as well. You can decide whether Barley is good in a map for yourself with these criteria:
Less bushes, jump pads, or teleporters.
Is Barley generally good in this gamemode?
A lot of walls, especially near the center or areas of control. Choke points too.
How viable are Barley's counters?
Matchups:
Before you read this section, take into account that matchups are very ambiguous, particularly for throwers. Matchups vary wildly from mode to mode (for instance, Piper will be free kills in Siege as she's basically useless but will be tougher in Bounty). So for the purposes of this list I based them around probably the most average matchup, Dynamike, and in a ideal 1v1 situation assuming there are a few walls and both players play perfectly. Also note that matchups also depend on your personal play style, strengths, and weaknesses, as well as the mode. So this list is far from perfect -- but still helpful for knowing which opponents to avoid and which ones to target. Barley is best against brawlers with limited mobility, such as Frank or 8bit, and squishy brawlers such as Rico. His worst matchups are against other throwers, brawlers that can negate his wall advantage (like Surge), brawlers that can easily close the gap and get close to him (such as Mortis), and brawlers with a very fast movement speed that enables them to dodge his attacks easily(such as Bibi). S (Free Kills) - Frank, 8bit, Jessie, Shelly A (Easy) - Rico, Bea, Emz, Bull, Tara, Poco, Bo, Colette, Spike, Piper B (Favorable) - Darryl, Gene, Nani, Amber, Brock, Pam, Crow, Gale, Penny C (It depends) - Colt*, Sprout, Sandy, Dynamike, Carl, El Primo, Byron, Max D (Unfavorable) - Rosa, Mr. P, Tick, Nita, Surge*, Leon, Jacky F (Terrible) - Mortis, Bibi, Edgar* * = A matchup that might change in the future due to balance changes. Also the brawlers in each tier are in no particular order. And just because Barley doesn’t have a good matchup against a brawler doesn’t mean you automatically lose (unless it’s F tier, then you’re probably screwed); it just means that the opponent has an advantage and it might be better to switch lanes.
Other Random Tips:
Gadget to cancel Super - Barley’s long super animation often leaves him vulnerable while casting. This is helpful for dealing with enemies who take advantage of your vulnerability to get close. Here’s the link to the original post, from u/XxRazorwingxX.
Bursting - Unlike the other throwers, Barley is still strong at close range. Walking over squishy brawlers and spamming auto-aim can allow Barley to burst them down easily, especially with Sticky Syrup Mixer. Players tend to underestimate Barley’s close quarters damage simply because he is squishy. When an enemy brawler such as Colt or Jessie gets too close, catch them off guard and completely demolish them in a matter of seconds. Sometimes you can even bush camp with Barley and play him like Bull against low health low damage opponents. Of course, don’t try it on brawlers that can deal even more burst damage or easily 3 shot Barley, such as Spike, Brock, or Leon. And obviously don’t try it on tanks.
Line of Heals - This is a very simple tactic with Herbal Tonic. The main problem with Herbal Tonic, and practically the only thing keeping it from being broken, is that in order to get the most value out of it you have to stay in the restricted area of the puddle for heals. When all of your teammates are in range and you’re relatively close together (or lined up, as the name suggests), use Herbal Tonic. This will connect the healing puddles and allow you and your team to exercise much more mobility all while receiving maximum heals. It’s especially good if your team is lined up vertically in a mode like Brawl Ball, because it will basically be an advancing line of invincibility.
Wall Hugging - Back in the Technique section, I mentioned that you should always stay near a wall. This tactic takes that to a whole new level. Basically position yourself right next to a wall and stay there. When brawlers try to come around, play “Ring around the Rosie” with them, but stick to the wall. When brawlers get close to your wall, use the Sticky Syrup tactic to melt them from safety. This is a good style of very aggressive play for Barley, but it has several weaknesses; if multiple enemies decide to target you, a significant portion of the wall gets destroyed, or your matchup is against any thrower or Mr. P, it’s probably wise to abandon this tactic.
Barley Support - Always pay attention to your team’s situation. A lot of players, myself included, have a tunnel vision problem and tend to focus too much on our own matchups and lose sight of our teammates. As Barley when you see your teammates losing a matchup, it’s always good to use your healing gadget and help them stand their ground. If you’re close to winning your own lane, chuck your super over to put some space between your opponents and teammates while they recover.
Cornering - When using control brawlers like Barley or Tick, cornering is a very effective weapon. Use your area denial to nudge enemy brawlers into corners, then finish them off easily. If you can’t hit all of your shots and aren’t dealing enough damage to force them into retreat, don’t worry. This still works because people will often choose to sacrifice their footing rather than absorb your chip damage, and then end up trapped because of it.
Turrets - As a thrower, Barley hard counters turrets. Take advantage of 8bit and Pam's reliance on their turrets to take them down easily.
I might update this guide with a few more tips when I think of them.
Play Less, Climb More. Warning: Dense read, only for Tryhards
Preface: I'm a 4'th year medical student with a passion for self-improvement and optimization. This includes my IRL skills as well as my gaming. How to improve faster, how to be more efficient with my time, how to reach new heights, feel and play better; these are the things that interest me and I try to find ways to do it through science. Some of you may have seen my previous posts onMeditationandFlow. You might have also noticed that I post on multiple competitive gaming subreddits. I do this because these are games I personally enjoy, have coached and/or have competed in and also because these tips and tricks are not title dependent. Everyone can benefit and even apply it for things IRL. I want to keep learning so please hit me with your own discoveries, tips and tricks. I'm genuinely pleasantly surprised with the responses and the chance to meet like minded individuals! This post is particularly dense and took a lot of time to research. I'll try to make it as concise as I can. Practice makes perfect!You can do anything just practice, practice, practice! We've all heard this but I'm here to add complexity to the statement in the hopes that it actually makes your climb much easier. Spending more time playing does not mean you are making a good use of it. Research shows a chess grandmaster has anywhere between 1,000 to 14,000 hours dedicated to his game. Let's put this in perspective: 1,000 hrs = 41 days; 14,000 hrs = 1 year 218 days. You could say some people are just born geniuses but research also shows that the top 1% actually practices LESS than their peers. Also, for those of slightly advanced age (like myself at 28) frustrated with 13 year old's styling on us, this paper might help you feel better.
The Science of Accelerated Learning
A little biology (for nerds like me)
Mastering a skill requires learning. Learning is an incredibly complex process. It incorporates sensory, motor, memory, and cognitive processes. Learning can be seen even at the cellular level.
Our brain is made up of neurons and when we “learn” something neurons undergo synaptic changes, create new pathways, and increase myelination. Neurons work like electric cables where signals travel along and when we learn something new connections are made and existing ones become stronger and more efficient.
A stimulus causes a synapse to be sensitized and with enough input strength it can undergo changes through synaptic plasticity. This process requires genes to be activated and release proteins that alter synapse function through Long Term Potentiation. This encoding and learning take up to 3 hours. After six hours memories become cemented and impervious to processes that affect synaptic consolidation.
A stimulus should preferably be repeated, emotional, relevant, extreme and novel for it be properly received and encoded
I will only address purposeful practice here. Mind and Body are crucial. This includes things like mindset, motivation, exercise, nutrition, etc. There is a reason why Esport teams invest in physical trainers, nutritionists and psychologists. I will leave this for other posts. TL;DR Have clear and measurable goals. Break down the game to it's most important components. Find your OPT. Structure your practice. Be a one trick pony. Observe a master. Use Imagery. Incorporate variability and contextual interference. Always make it slightly more difficult. Practice in a realistic setting. Add risk. Use mornings and evenings. Intensity followed by rest for maximal learning. Repeat at increasing intervals. Measure and monitor your progress. Get feedback.
Purposeful Practice
Structure
Goal
Have a long, mid, and short-term goal. Use SMART goals (Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant and Time Bound).
Having a goal and reaching milestones increases dopamine release which acts as a buffer against increasing levels of norepinephrine (stress). Norepinephrine is needed for attention but levels that are too high actually activate the “Give up” response.
Have a goal for the immediate practice session. What will you focus on today? Use information from "Break Down" (read below).
Use social accountability. Tell a friend your goals (the measurement, the time/date, etc) so he can keep you accountable. Social accountability is a powerful motivator. We are naturally inclined to follow through with what we say.
Break Down
What are the most important components you need to master (aim, mechanics, game sense, movement)? Use the Pareto Principle (20% of the components give 80% of the results). For example, these guys show how you can play a vast majority of songs from just learning 4 chords (just a fun example but it shows what I mean).
Then break that one down into even smaller parts. For example Aim could be broken down into flicks and tracking. Even those could be broken down into vertical, horizontal, diagonal, 180, with/without movement, etc.
I'll add in this guide by Aimer7. It's worth checking out.
OPT
Optimal Play Time - We can sustain complete focus for a limited time. Practicing beyond that time is basically a time waster that could be better utilized for other activities. Remember that rest is CRUCIAL for encoding your learning into memory.
Take out your phone, but it on stopwatch, set it aside out of view and hit start when you start gaming/practicing.
Play as Tryhard and focused as you can.
When you feel your performance dipping, your reaction time slowing, headache, fogginess, exhaustion, or increased distractibility then hit stop on the stopwatch and see how long that was.
It's usually anywhere between an hour and 30 minutes to 3 hours.
My personal OPT is 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Use that time to structure your sessions.
One Trick Pony
Play just one or two characters. There is a reason one-tricks climb much faster.
This allows for rapid progression from mechanics to game sense. If you played different characters all the time then each time you would have to focus on learning different mechanics. What you want is to reach a level where you can autopilot the mechanics which allows your brain space to think of other issues like game sense. Things like game sense translate to any game, situation, or character. So acquiring these "higher level" skills early will actually accelerate your learning on other characters because then you just need to learn mechanics.
Imagine there are 100 levels to mastery. As you progress you need to focus on one level at a time. When you jump up a level it's because the previous level has become so easy to you that you can autopilot it. So for example if you're at level 75, it means you can autopilot all the previous 74 levels without putting much thought to it which allows your brain space to think about level 75. Let's say the first 50 levels are all mechanical. If you switch between characters a lot it means you have to re-do those first 50 levels for each one before attempting to go above.
Yes, autopilot is a very misunderstood thing. I will make a separate post on this.
Observe and Imagine
Observe the goal you are working for. Look up the #1 player at whatever it is you're practicing. Look at his movements and how he does it.
Our brain has mirror neurons which allow us to better imitate and learn through observation.
Use YouTube, twitch, whatever.
DONT start just watching a ton of videos as many of us do. Look at your specific goal, and look at an example of just that thing. Just enough information so you can self-evaluate your own actions and practice and correct yourself. More videos and guides do not equal faster learning. Watch one, and implement.
Imagery. Simply imagining yourself doing the desired action works almost as well as actually practicing it. Our brain cannot distinguish between physically doing it and mentally. Brain scans show the same pathways to executing the action light up. The key is to imagine it VIVIDLY. Feel your muscles, your reaction, heart rate, etc. A benefit is that you can use this technique almost anywhere (not while driving duh).
This paper shows that doing all three, observation, practice, and imagery, was more effective than any one together. It also showed Practice + Imagery was better than Practice + Observation (in the case you had to choose).
Practice Variability and Contextual Interference (Interleaving)
Contextual Interference. Imagine a baseball player. In one practice he gets pitched 10 fastballs, then 10 breaking balls, then 10 change ups. This is blocking. This is how most of us are taught to study as well. In another practice he gets pitched 30 times as well but the 3 types of pitches are thrown at random. Studies show that even though immediate performance decreases (you will feel like you suck), long term performance and learning increases.
"Task switching enhances learning due to constant reconstruction of the motor plan or elaborate processing of the motor plan. The forgetting-reconstruction hypothesis claims that high contextual interference causes the performer to constantly forget task-specific information between practice trials, therein necessitating the (re)construction of an action plan for every trial (Lee and Magill, 1983, 1985). Consequently, the performer is thought to become more adept in developing action plans, which subsequently facilitates greater skill retention (e.g., Kim et al., 2015). The elaboration hypothesis proposed a similar account; however, rather than ‘forgetting’ information between trials during higher contextual interference practice, proponents argue that the performer engages in more elaborate processing to represent the motor skill in long-term memory (e.g., Shea and Morgan, 1979; Shea and Zimny, 1983, 1988)".
"According to the Challenge-Point framework (Guadagnoli and Lee, 2004), learning is heightened when contextual interference is matched to the performer’s skill level for a given task. A practical example of this is the Win-Shift-Lose-Stay methodology (Simon et al., 2008). This concept suggests that contextual interference should only increase when the performer experiences success".
Practice Variability. Not only can you randomize the learning objectives but you can also increase the variability. For example if you are practicing your aim with strafing you could change the speed of character movement very slightly. It has to be small enough that it's barely noticeable. This forces your nervous system to make micro adjustments on a motor level which increases adaptability and sensory/motor connections.
"Practice variability consists of practicing variations of an action. While contextual interference addresses the natural interference that exists between two or more tasks that are practiced within the same context. Three aspects of practice can be varied – the physical contexts, movements that comprise the action (skill variations), and the situation in which the skill occurs. Using the long jump as an example, you can vary the runway surface (physical context), the angle of takeoff (skill variations), and whether the jump will be the last or the first of a series of jumps (situation)".
Note: I've thought about the variability of changing sensitivity very slightly in different scenarios. I know this goes against the standard of practice of using one setting to get muscle memory. As the research leads me to believe, even elite level coaches and players are not aware of the benefits. It seems to be a balance. For example take 3 slightly different settings into practice. One includes your primary sensitivity, one slightly slower and one slightly faster. Practicing all will increase skill acquisition in the long run. In your games you will primarily use your regular setting. All in all the actual time dedicated to the different settings is very minimal and will not disrupt muscle memory, the opposite. This is not unlike how you feel like an aim god when you warm up on a higher sense then come down to a lower one. Your muscles are more attuned to finer corrections. I would love to see specific examples you guys come up with.
This also promotes going into Flow State for even greater learning and performance.
Setting
Practice how it will actually be like. The setting, the difficulty of actually pulling it off in high pressure. I coached a top player who choked in live tournaments due to the noise from the audience. We would put audience noise from YouTube videos to play in the background of his practice sessions and slowly increase the volume as he got more used to it.
Specificity of learning hypothesis. The specificity of learning hypothesis suggests that learning is most effective when practice sessions include environment and conditions which closely resemble those required during performance of the task — replicating the target skill level and context for performance.
Risk
Even though top performers work less than their slightly lower elite counterparts, one thing that they did do more of was attending events, competitions, or challenges.
Signing up for high pressure scenarios will motivate you and keep you on track progressing.
Sign up for tournaments, 1v1 competitions, or even just set a date to challenge a friend.
Use loss aversion. We humans hate to lose more than we love to win. Put some risk to it. Bet a small amount of money, or do something embarrassing if you lose. Small enough to motivate you to win/accomplish but also not so big that it stresses you out.
Mornings are generally the best time to learn anything.
Brain waves are more stable and relaxed.
You have decreased cognitive load.
Teenagers tend to wake up later in the day around 8-10am. This is normal and physiologic.
Do not fall into the trap of thinking "I'm a night owl". Yes, chronotypes exist but a lot of us tell ourselves this simply because we are used to it due to societal schedules and our own inability to stop gaming until 3am. I thought I was this too but now I wake up at 4am and it's the best thing ever no lie. You don't have to be as extreme but maybe just try out a little earlier.
The best thing to do is practice in the morning for the time your OPT allows then rest/do something else for at least 3 hours (while your brain encodes the information) then have another practice session.
Example
9am - 12 Practice
12 - 3pm Workout, Lunch, Chillax
3 - 6pm Practice #2
6 - 9pm Dinner, Relax
Intense practice, short rest
Practice your objective really hard and focused for 10-30 minutes. Then take a break for 10 minutes. The break CANNOT be looking up YouTube, playing other modes, etc. It has to be a real break to let the brain reset. The best breaks are to just walk around, listen to music (do not scroll on your phone), do some exercise, or just lie down/meditate.
CREB-Based Spaced Learning (cAMP response element binding protein) is learning structure that maximizes information encoding. Studies show that intense learning repeated 3 times with an interval (non-stimulus or break) of 10 minutes showed increased LTP and LTM.
Spaced retrieval improves and solidifies information. There is a difference between spaced encoding (CREB) and spaced retrieval. Encoding and retrieval happen in different parts of the brain. Encoding is in the posterior temporal lobe and retrieval in the anterior temporal lobe.
Remember this is scheduled during your practice and OPT. You are hyper focused and the break should be relaxing. Do not consume YouTube, scroll through social media, etc. Those activities are still pouring information into your brain. Again, simply sit down, do some short exercises, meditate or do breath work. This works, I do it regularly.
Spaced Repetition.
Once you have practiced something sufficiently you can practice it with increasing time intervals. For example, you have mastered the fundamentals of aiming and are now focusing on practicing movement. Don’t stop practicing aiming altogether. Simply practice it with increasing time intervals. Practice it today. Then 24 hours later. Then 72 hours later. Then 1 week later. Then 2 weeks later. Etc. This counteracts the human forgetting curve.
This is even more important than actually having a goal. You need to see yourself making mistakes, and getting better. Not only does this accelerate behavior and action correction but it also keeps you highly motivated.
Tip: Keep a scratchpad next to you. While playing notice when you have questions, or dilemmas about the next action. Write it down as soon as you can with the time.
After the game go back to the replay and look at your questions and search for answers.
Immediate feedback > Delayed feedback > No feedback
Measure
Remember that your goal is SMART and the M stands for measurable. Video games are great for feedback because they usually have stat trackers. Use these and periodically write down or annotate the date and the stat to see if you're progressing.
Ask
Coaches are great for instant feedback but most of us can't afford one. Simply, come to this subreddit and ask for input. Simple.
I believe this to be a pretty good summary of most Purposeful Practice techniques. As stated I will make a post on Mind and Body to completely close out the Accelerated Learning topic. Please let me know what you thought and honestly congratulations if you actually read the whole thing. It shows you're an actual Tryhard and I'm sure this will help you become OP.
I've been teaching on Cambly (most months daily and full-time) for around 8 months, with 581 hours of talk time. This is my quick review with tips. TL;DR: After 8 months the ONLY drawback I can say with Cambly is the salary. The rest depends on what time of day you teach. Screenshot of earnings etc. at Cambly Cambly is currently my full-time job and I work every day of the week, 4-8 hours a day. I started out working 10-13 hours a day making an average of under 5 USD per PH hour (Column B = Hours worked that day, C = How much I earned total that day, D = what that meant in hourly wage): https://preview.redd.it/dkjsh6g4wqf61.png?width=567&format=png&auto=webp&s=2647dcaab2b5b5aa06a4982a3386bc38188920ce Now 8 months later I make an average of $7-8 per PH hour and work 4-8 hours per day. My goal each week is an average of $50 earned per day, meaning around $350 per week or $1,400 per month. I haven't gotten around to applying for Cambly Kids yet: https://preview.redd.it/qhq02pzdwqf61.png?width=332&format=png&auto=webp&s=fd9e5a69b9860643dc24a8c576fbee7b4ef70d4e I always work 3-4 hours then take a 1hr break. I've found that 4 hours on busy days will make my eyes start hurting and tearing up during the calls, even though I can in general (not on Cambly) use a computer for 4+ hours a day without that happening. Eventually I'll get an e-ink screen to avoid this problem. I find it's best to work literally every day even if it's just 1 hour, because it makes it a "habit" and then you don't ever get a feeling like The Mondays.
What's in your bio is REALLY important. Around half my new students choose me specifically due to us having the same interests or life experiences. If you speak another language you should also translate your bio to it because people whose English is bad will feel safer with you since you speak a language they do.
I've double-checked with Cambly staff, and it's allowed to teach a 2nd language (that's not English) or use Cambly for conversation practice of non-English as long as the student specifically requests it. Out of 1008 students, around 10 have called asking for practice of a 2nd or 3rd language I speak instead of English practice.
Second most important is the hours you teach. In my case, I've found that from around 8am to 4pm my time is when the best students are on - I get along with them well, they're not trial students, etc. After 4pm the trial students, joksters, and people whose personalities I don't mesh with come on.
Most regular students will book you via PH hours because they don't/can't plan ahead the minimum 6 hours it takes to reserve a timeslot, and you can book 2 hours in advance with a PH hour. AKA if I don't work PH hours I get significantly less bookings from my regular students as well.
Most students, even if they claim they want English "lessons", actually just want to talk and be listened to in English or they just want to get to know people from foreign countries. The way to win over a student is to have an actual conversation (no matter how basic that conversation is) with them about stuff that they're doing or stuff that interests them, and to reveal stuff about your personal preferences, history, experience and so on. If you naturally talk about yourself and your opinions you'll have an easier time getting regular students.
The main problems I've personally had, have been with people who constantly assumed things or people who extremely strongly wanted to live in America no matter what and who didn't listen to warnings. Sometimes there are problems due to someone's culture being really sexist or someone having a topic they really want to vent about.Example 1: I said someone who liked comics could read comics in English, they assumed I was talking about illegally reading them. I linked them to a Gutenberg book and they assumed it was illegal again - I told them in advance it wasn't illegal because it's out of copyright but they didn't listen the first time. Their English was extremely good so it wasn't a problem with their English. They never called me again.Example 2: One person really wanted to move to New York, I tried to warn them that NY is really expensive, the mafia is there and there's a lot of crime compared to many other places in America. I've had American-born-and-raised friends who ended up homeless in NY after their landlords did illegal stuff, etc, so be careful and know that this stuff is possible in advance. They got pretty upset and thought I was telling them to not follow their dream, and didn't call me again.Example 3: One person I really get along with and agree with in pretty much all topics, has been in a bad marriage for years and also comes from a really sexist country. So if the topic of the opposite gender comes up they tend to not only rant but also say stuff that, in my country, would get reported and they'd get a fine or could even lose their job over it. So I just learned to avoid that topic.
You should check out, at least a little bit, all the stuff that comes up in conversation that you don't know about. For example all the kids are playing Fortnite, Minecraft and Among Us - just go check them out on YouTube a bit because the next time you get a kid it will make the conversation easier.
I find that kids are the hardest to deal with because they're "self-centered" - they usually don't care about your opinions/experience or usually even cultural differences. They also don't know how to hold a conversation in general, for example they'll answer with just "yes/no" and then not continue the conversation in any way or bring up their own topic. They also typically have no interest in adult topics (which can range from cooking to politics) and don't know about older things (even if they like comedy movies they won't watch anything more than 3 years old, so you can't recommend them 90's comedy movies).
I don't care if someone has their camera turned off or if it's a kid who isn't with their parents. Some people have their camera off due to not wearing a headscarf and being religious, other people because they're in their pajamas or without makeup or something, other times I've gotten people with physical disabilities who simply didn't want to show that to the camera.
I have links to stuff I've found or learned from students over time that I use over and over: certain Speech to Text apps people use during business meetings, certain kid's cartoons you can watch on YouTube, certain kid's books on Gutenberg that are good for the first time an intermediate/advanced person reads a novel in English, etc.
You probably can't work this job if you can't talk about the same topic 10 times a day. If I just talked to Mark about an article I read, I'll say the same things to Bob who calls me right after Mark, especially if there's a lull in the conversation.
I take notes on every single student as the conversation goes on, even if it's a trial student: how old they are, where they work, how they use English in their free time, what foods/TV shows they like, do they have kids, what did we talk about, what Cambly lessons did we do, what's their style when they read on Engoo, what grammar or pronunciation rules have I taught them, etc. Students naturally don't like it when you talk about or teach them the same stuff multiple times, and i've found the younger students are way less forgiving of repeated topics than the older ones.
Most students really appreciate you writing down their mistakes during the free talk and then correcting them in the chat. Some don't however. So I normally start doing this from the 2nd or 3rd lesson and specifically ask them if they want it, unless they express that they want corrections or are studying for a test right from the get-go.
I use a $20 USD headset with old-style big ear covers (not earbuds) because I found it's the most comfortable when working for hours. The mic has sound isolation. There's a dial on the headset that can raise and lower the volume, which is useful, but another important thing is there's no mute button in Cambly chats but the mic has its own mute switch. I mute the mic when I take a drink, swallow, cough, etc and unmute right after.
Cambly DOES give you feedback. However in my case I've only gotten it about 3 times: Don't look down a lot during the call (in my case I do it when I'm typing), don't let there be long pauses in the conversation, and the student needs to talk (or be obviously thinking and trying to get their sentence out) at least 50% of the time compared to the teacher.
Know that Cambly is not the be-all end-all. You can write books or make youtube videos of the most frequent tips you teach students for example, and earn some passive income that way.
I'm really grateful for Cambly in a lot of ways and really like the job. If it weren't for Cambly I'd still be in school for the sole purpose of getting a student loan in order to have enough money to pay for rent and food. I didn't have huge social phobia when I started but talking to so many different people every day has clearly reduced my social anxiety in most situations in my life outside of work - for example a job interview just feels like another session at Cambly (and often asks a lot of the same questions!). I've gotten better at following the thread of a conversation and remembering everything someone has said. I've gained a ton of valuable customer service skills that will help me in all future jobs - I've literally built smile muscles and can smile through 60 minutes now, and the smile comes on automatically when I talk to people. This new smiling habit has actually improved my relations with people in my personal life such as my parents. I've met students who worked as international soccer coaches, who worked for NASA training astronauts, who worked as house painters, who have no arms, who are totally blind, who are otherwise chipper but suddenly reveal their dad died as a kid or they were abused. Some people use English for fun and some people are using it to escape a war or permanent poverty and unemployment. I would never be able to get such varied stories in such a short amount of time with another job. And hearing all those varied stories in turn helps me create interesting conversations with the next person I talk to. EDIT: Thanks guys! If any of you felt like you wanted to join Cambly after reading this, you can message me for my referral link if you want. You'll supposedly earn a little bonus money after teaching your first 10 hours if you were referred.
Play Less, Climb More. Warning: Dense read, only for Tryhards
Preface: I'm a 4'th year medical student with a passion for self-improvement and optimization. This includes my IRL skills as well as my gaming. How to improve faster, how to be more efficient with my time, how to reach new heights, feel and play better; these are the things that interest me and I try to find ways to do it through science. Some of you may have seen my previous posts onMeditationandFlow. You might have also noticed that I post on multiple competitive gaming subreddits. I do this because these are games I personally enjoy, have coached and/or have competed in and also because these tips and tricks are not title dependent. Everyone can benefit and even apply it for things IRL. I want to keep learning so please hit me with your own discoveries, tips and tricks. I'm genuinely pleasantly surprised with the responses and the chance to meet like minded individuals! This post is particularly dense and took a lot of time to research. I'll try to make it as concise as I can. Practice makes perfect!You can do anything just practice, practice, practice! We've all heard this but I'm here to add complexity to the statement in the hopes that it actually makes your climb much easier. Spending more time playing does not mean you are making a good use of it. Research shows a chess grandmaster has anywhere between 1,000 to 14,000 hours dedicated to his game. Let's put this in perspective: 1,000 hrs = 41 days; 14,000 hrs = 1 year 218 days. You could say some people are just born geniuses but research also shows that the top 1% actually practices LESS than their peers. Also, for those of slightly advanced age (like myself at 28) frustrated with 13 year old's styling on us, this paper might help you feel better.
The Science of Accelerated Learning
A little biology (for nerds like me)
Mastering a skill requires learning. Learning is an incredibly complex process. It incorporates sensory, motor, memory, and cognitive processes. Learning can be seen even at the cellular level.
Our brain is made up of neurons and when we “learn” something neurons undergo synaptic changes, create new pathways, and increase myelination. Neurons work like electric cables where signals travel along and when we learn something new connections are made and existing ones become stronger and more efficient.
A stimulus causes a synapse to be sensitized and with enough input strength it can undergo changes through synaptic plasticity. This process requires genes to be activated and release proteins that alter synapse function through Long Term Potentiation. This encoding and learning take up to 3 hours. After six hours memories become cemented and impervious to processes that affect synaptic consolidation.
A stimulus should preferably be repeated, emotional, relevant, extreme and novel for it be properly received and encoded
I will only address purposeful practice here. Mind and Body are crucial. This includes things like mindset, motivation, exercise, nutrition, etc. There is a reason why Esport teams invest in physical trainers, nutritionists and psychologists. I will leave this for other posts. TL;DR Have clear and measurable goals. Break down the game to it's most important components. Find your OPT. Structure your practice. Be a one trick pony. Observe a master. Use Imagery. Incorporate variability and contextual interference. Always make it slightly more difficult. Practice in a realistic setting. Add risk. Use mornings and evenings. Intensity followed by rest for maximal learning. Repeat at increasing intervals. Measure and monitor your progress. Get feedback.
Purposeful Practice
Structure
Goal
Have a long, mid, and short-term goal. Use SMART goals (Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant and Time Bound).
Having a goal and reaching milestones increases dopamine release which acts as a buffer against increasing levels of norepinephrine (stress). Norepinephrine is needed for attention but levels that are too high actually activate the “Give up” response.
Have a goal for the immediate practice session. What will you focus on today? Use information from "Break Down" (read below).
Use social accountability. Tell a friend your goals (the measurement, the time/date, etc) so he can keep you accountable. Social accountability is a powerful motivator. We are naturally inclined to follow through with what we say.
Break Down
What are the most important components you need to master (aim, mechanics, game sense, movement)? Use the Pareto Principle (20% of the components give 80% of the results). For example, these guys show how you can play a vast majority of songs from just learning 4 chords (just a fun example but it shows what I mean).
Then break that one down into even smaller parts. For example Aim could be broken down into flicks and tracking. Even those could be broken down into vertical, horizontal, diagonal, 180, with/without movement, etc.
I'll add in this guide by Aimer7. It's worth checking out.
OPT
Optimal Play Time - We can sustain complete focus for a limited time. Practicing beyond that time is basically a time waster that could be better utilized for other activities. Remember that rest is CRUCIAL for encoding your learning into memory.
Take out your phone, but it on stopwatch, set it aside out of view and hit start when you start gaming/practicing.
Play as Tryhard and focused as you can.
When you feel your performance dipping, your reaction time slowing, headache, fogginess, exhaustion, or increased distractibility then hit stop on the stopwatch and see how long that was.
It's usually anywhere between an hour and 30 minutes to 3 hours.
My personal OPT is 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Use that time to structure your sessions.
One Trick Pony
Play just one or two characters. There is a reason one-tricks climb much faster.
This allows for rapid progression from mechanics to game sense. If you played different characters all the time then each time you would have to focus on learning different mechanics. What you want is to reach a level where you can autopilot the mechanics which allows your brain space to think of other issues like game sense. Things like game sense translate to any game, situation, or character. So acquiring these "higher level" skills early will actually accelerate your learning on other characters because then you just need to learn mechanics.
Imagine there are 100 levels to mastery. As you progress you need to focus on one level at a time. When you jump up a level it's because the previous level has become so easy to you that you can autopilot it. So for example if you're at level 75, it means you can autopilot all the previous 74 levels without putting much thought to it which allows your brain space to think about level 75. Let's say the first 50 levels are all mechanical. If you switch between characters a lot it means you have to re-do those first 50 levels for each one before attempting to go above.
Yes, autopilot is a very misunderstood thing. I will make a separate post on this.
Observe and Imagine
Observe the goal you are working for. Look up the #1 player at whatever it is you're practicing. Look at his movements and how he does it.
Our brain has mirror neurons which allow us to better imitate and learn through observation.
Use YouTube, twitch, whatever.
DONT start just watching a ton of videos as many of us do. Look at your specific goal, and look at an example of just that thing. Just enough information so you can self-evaluate your own actions and practice and correct yourself. More videos and guides do not equal faster learning. Watch one, and implement.
Imagery. Simply imagining yourself doing the desired action works almost as well as actually practicing it. Our brain cannot distinguish between physically doing it and mentally. Brain scans show the same pathways to executing the action light up. The key is to imagine it VIVIDLY. Feel your muscles, your reaction, heart rate, etc. A benefit is that you can use this technique almost anywhere (not while driving duh).
This paper shows that doing all three, observation, practice, and imagery, was more effective than any one together. It also showed Practice + Imagery was better than Practice + Observation (in the case you had to choose).
Practice Variability and Contextual Interference (Interleaving)
Contextual Interference. Imagine a baseball player. In one practice he gets pitched 10 fastballs, then 10 breaking balls, then 10 change ups. This is blocking. This is how most of us are taught to study as well. In another practice he gets pitched 30 times as well but the 3 types of pitches are thrown at random. Studies show that even though immediate performance decreases (you will feel like you suck), long term performance and learning increases.
"Task switching enhances learning due to constant reconstruction of the motor plan or elaborate processing of the motor plan. The forgetting-reconstruction hypothesis claims that high contextual interference causes the performer to constantly forget task-specific information between practice trials, therein necessitating the (re)construction of an action plan for every trial (Lee and Magill, 1983, 1985). Consequently, the performer is thought to become more adept in developing action plans, which subsequently facilitates greater skill retention (e.g., Kim et al., 2015). The elaboration hypothesis proposed a similar account; however, rather than ‘forgetting’ information between trials during higher contextual interference practice, proponents argue that the performer engages in more elaborate processing to represent the motor skill in long-term memory (e.g., Shea and Morgan, 1979; Shea and Zimny, 1983, 1988)".
"According to the Challenge-Point framework (Guadagnoli and Lee, 2004), learning is heightened when contextual interference is matched to the performer’s skill level for a given task. A practical example of this is the Win-Shift-Lose-Stay methodology (Simon et al., 2008). This concept suggests that contextual interference should only increase when the performer experiences success".
Practice Variability. Not only can you randomize the learning objectives but you can also increase the variability. For example if you are practicing your aim with strafing you could change the speed of character movement very slightly. It has to be small enough that it's barely noticeable. This forces your nervous system to make micro adjustments on a motor level which increases adaptability and sensory/motor connections.
"Practice variability consists of practicing variations of an action. While contextual interference addresses the natural interference that exists between two or more tasks that are practiced within the same context. Three aspects of practice can be varied – the physical contexts, movements that comprise the action (skill variations), and the situation in which the skill occurs. Using the long jump as an example, you can vary the runway surface (physical context), the angle of takeoff (skill variations), and whether the jump will be the last or the first of a series of jumps (situation)".
Note: I've thought about the variability of changing sensitivity very slightly in different scenarios. I know this goes against the standard of practice of using one setting to get muscle memory. As the research leads me to believe, even elite level coaches and players are not aware of the benefits. It seems to be a balance. For example take 3 slightly different settings into practice. One includes your primary sensitivity, one slightly slower and one slightly faster. Practicing all will increase skill acquisition in the long run. In your games you will primarily use your regular setting. All in all the actual time dedicated to the different settings is very minimal and will not disrupt muscle memory, the opposite. This is not unlike how you feel like an aim god when you warm up on a higher sense then come down to a lower one. Your muscles are more attuned to finer corrections. I would love to see specific examples you guys come up with.
This also promotes going into Flow State for even greater learning and performance.
Setting
Practice how it will actually be like. The setting, the difficulty of actually pulling it off in high pressure. I coached a top player who choked in live tournaments due to the noise from the audience. We would put audience noise from YouTube videos to play in the background of his practice sessions and slowly increase the volume as he got more used to it.
Specificity of learning hypothesis. The specificity of learning hypothesis suggests that learning is most effective when practice sessions include environment and conditions which closely resemble those required during performance of the task — replicating the target skill level and context for performance.
Risk
Even though top performers work less than their slightly lower elite counterparts, one thing that they did do more of was attending events, competitions, or challenges.
Signing up for high pressure scenarios will motivate you and keep you on track progressing.
Sign up for tournaments, 1v1 competitions, or even just set a date to challenge a friend.
Use loss aversion. We humans hate to lose more than we love to win. Put some risk to it. Bet a small amount of money, or do something embarrassing if you lose. Small enough to motivate you to win/accomplish but also not so big that it stresses you out.
Mornings are generally the best time to learn anything.
Brain waves are more stable and relaxed.
You have decreased cognitive load.
Teenagers tend to wake up later in the day around 8-10am. This is normal and physiologic.
Do not fall into the trap of thinking "I'm a night owl". Yes, chronotypes exist but a lot of us tell ourselves this simply because we are used to it due to societal schedules and our own inability to stop gaming until 3am. I thought I was this too but now I wake up at 4am and it's the best thing ever no lie. You don't have to be as extreme but maybe just try out a little earlier.
The best thing to do is practice in the morning for the time your OPT allows then rest/do something else for at least 3 hours (while your brain encodes the information) then have another practice session.
Example
9am - 12 Practice
12 - 3pm Workout, Lunch, Chillax
3 - 6pm Practice #2
6 - 9pm Dinner, Relax
Intense practice, short rest
Practice your objective really hard and focused for 10-30 minutes. Then take a break for 10 minutes. The break CANNOT be looking up YouTube, playing other modes, etc. It has to be a real break to let the brain reset. The best breaks are to just walk around, listen to music (do not scroll on your phone), do some exercise, or just lie down/meditate.
CREB-Based Spaced Learning (cAMP response element binding protein) is learning structure that maximizes information encoding. Studies show that intense learning repeated 3 times with an interval (non-stimulus or break) of 10 minutes showed increased LTP and LTM.
Spaced retrieval improves and solidifies information. There is a difference between spaced encoding (CREB) and spaced retrieval. Encoding and retrieval happen in different parts of the brain. Encoding is in the posterior temporal lobe and retrieval in the anterior temporal lobe.
Remember this is scheduled during your practice and OPT. You are hyper focused and the break should be relaxing. Do not consume YouTube, scroll through social media, etc. Those activities are still pouring information into your brain. Again, simply sit down, do some short exercises, meditate or do breath work. This works, I do it regularly.
Spaced Repetition.
Once you have practiced something sufficiently you can practice it with increasing time intervals. For example, you have mastered the fundamentals of aiming and are now focusing on practicing movement. Don’t stop practicing aiming altogether. Simply practice it with increasing time intervals. Practice it today. Then 24 hours later. Then 72 hours later. Then 1 week later. Then 2 weeks later. Etc. This counteracts the human forgetting curve.
This is even more important than actually having a goal. You need to see yourself making mistakes, and getting better. Not only does this accelerate behavior and action correction but it also keeps you highly motivated.
Tip: Keep a scratchpad next to you. While playing notice when you have questions, or dilemmas about the next action. Write it down as soon as you can with the time.
After the game go back to the replay and look at your questions and search for answers.
Immediate feedback > Delayed feedback > No feedback
Measure
Remember that your goal is SMART and the M stands for measurable. Video games are great for feedback because they usually have stat trackers. Use these and periodically write down or annotate the date and the stat to see if you're progressing.
Ask
Coaches are great for instant feedback but most of us can't afford one. Simply, come to this subreddit and ask for input. Simple.
I believe this to be a pretty good summary of most Purposeful Practice techniques. As stated I will make a post on Mind and Body to completely close out the Accelerated Learning topic. Please let me know what you thought and honestly congratulations if you actually read the whole thing. It shows you're an actual Tryhard and I'm sure this will help you become OP.
Play Less, Climb More. Warning: Dense read, only for Tryhards
Preface: I'm a 4'th year medical student with a passion for self-improvement and optimization. This includes my IRL skills as well as my gaming. How to improve faster, how to be more efficient with my time, how to reach new heights, feel and play better; these are the things that interest me and I try to find ways to do it through science. Some of you may have seen my previous posts onMeditationandFlow. You might have also noticed that I post on multiple competitive gaming subreddits. I do this because these are games I personally enjoy, have coached and/or have competed in and also because these tips and tricks are not title dependent. Everyone can benefit and even apply it for things IRL. I want to keep learning so please hit me with your own discoveries, tips and tricks. I'm genuinely pleasantly surprised with the responses and the chance to meet like minded individuals! This post is particularly dense and took a lot of time to research. I'll try to make it as concise as I can. Practice makes perfect!You can do anything just practice, practice, practice! We've all heard this but I'm here to add complexity to the statement in the hopes that it actually makes your climb much easier. Spending more time playing does not mean you are making a good use of it. Research shows a chess grandmaster has anywhere between 1,000 to 14,000 hours dedicated to his game. Let's put this in perspective: 1,000 hrs = 41 days; 14,000 hrs = 1 year 218 days. You could say some people are just born geniuses but research also shows that the top 1% actually practices LESS than their peers. Also, for those of slightly advanced age (like myself at 28) frustrated with 13 year old's styling on us, this paper might help you feel better.
The Science of Accelerated Learning
A little biology (for nerds like me)
Mastering a skill requires learning. Learning is an incredibly complex process. It incorporates sensory, motor, memory, and cognitive processes. Learning can be seen even at the cellular level.
Our brain is made up of neurons and when we “learn” something neurons undergo synaptic changes, create new pathways, and increase myelination. Neurons work like electric cables where signals travel along and when we learn something new connections are made and existing ones become stronger and more efficient.
A stimulus causes a synapse to be sensitized and with enough input strength it can undergo changes through synaptic plasticity. This process requires genes to be activated and release proteins that alter synapse function through Long Term Potentiation. This encoding and learning take up to 3 hours. After six hours memories become cemented and impervious to processes that affect synaptic consolidation.
A stimulus should preferably be repeated, emotional, relevant, extreme and novel for it be properly received and encoded
I will only address purposeful practice here. Mind and Body are crucial. This includes things like mindset, motivation, exercise, nutrition, etc. There is a reason why Esport teams invest in physical trainers, nutritionists and psychologists. I will leave this for other posts. TL;DR Have clear and measurable goals. Break down the game to it's most important components. Find your OPT. Structure your practice. Be a one trick pony. Observe a master. Use Imagery. Incorporate variability and contextual interference. Always make it slightly more difficult. Practice in a realistic setting. Add risk. Use mornings and evenings. Intensity followed by rest for maximal learning. Repeat at increasing intervals. Measure and monitor your progress. Get feedback.
Purposeful Practice
Structure
Goal
Have a long, mid, and short-term goal. Use SMART goals (Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant and Time Bound).
Having a goal and reaching milestones increases dopamine release which acts as a buffer against increasing levels of norepinephrine (stress). Norepinephrine is needed for attention but levels that are too high actually activate the “Give up” response.
Have a goal for the immediate practice session. What will you focus on today? Use information from "Break Down" (read below).
Use social accountability. Tell a friend your goals (the measurement, the time/date, etc) so he can keep you accountable. Social accountability is a powerful motivator. We are naturally inclined to follow through with what we say.
Break Down
What are the most important components you need to master (aim, mechanics, game sense, movement)? Use the Pareto Principle (20% of the components give 80% of the results). For example, these guys show how you can play a vast majority of songs from just learning 4 chords (just a fun example but it shows what I mean).
Then break that one down into even smaller parts. For example Aim could be broken down into flicks and tracking. Even those could be broken down into vertical, horizontal, diagonal, 180, with/without movement, etc.
I'll add in this guide by Aimer7. It's worth checking out.
OPT
Optimal Play Time - We can sustain complete focus for a limited time. Practicing beyond that time is basically a time waster that could be better utilized for other activities. Remember that rest is CRUCIAL for encoding your learning into memory.
Take out your phone, but it on stopwatch, set it aside out of view and hit start when you start gaming/practicing.
Play as Tryhard and focused as you can.
When you feel your performance dipping, your reaction time slowing, headache, fogginess, exhaustion, or increased distractibility then hit stop on the stopwatch and see how long that was.
It's usually anywhere between an hour and 30 minutes to 3 hours.
My personal OPT is 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Use that time to structure your sessions.
One Trick Pony
Play just one or two characters. There is a reason one-tricks climb much faster.
This allows for rapid progression from mechanics to game sense. If you played different characters all the time then each time you would have to focus on learning different mechanics. What you want is to reach a level where you can autopilot the mechanics which allows your brain space to think of other issues like game sense. Things like game sense translate to any game, situation, or character. So acquiring these "higher level" skills early will actually accelerate your learning on other characters because then you just need to learn mechanics.
Imagine there are 100 levels to mastery. As you progress you need to focus on one level at a time. When you jump up a level it's because the previous level has become so easy to you that you can autopilot it. So for example if you're at level 75, it means you can autopilot all the previous 74 levels without putting much thought to it which allows your brain space to think about level 75. Let's say the first 50 levels are all mechanical. If you switch between characters a lot it means you have to re-do those first 50 levels for each one before attempting to go above.
Yes, autopilot is a very misunderstood thing. I will make a separate post on this.
Observe and Imagine
Observe the goal you are working for. Look up the #1 player at whatever it is you're practicing. Look at his movements and how he does it.
Our brain has mirror neurons which allow us to better imitate and learn through observation.
Use YouTube, twitch, whatever.
DONT start just watching a ton of videos as many of us do. Look at your specific goal, and look at an example of just that thing. Just enough information so you can self-evaluate your own actions and practice and correct yourself. More videos and guides do not equal faster learning. Watch one, and implement.
Imagery. Simply imagining yourself doing the desired action works almost as well as actually practicing it. Our brain cannot distinguish between physically doing it and mentally. Brain scans show the same pathways to executing the action light up. The key is to imagine it VIVIDLY. Feel your muscles, your reaction, heart rate, etc. A benefit is that you can use this technique almost anywhere (not while driving duh).
This paper shows that doing all three, observation, practice, and imagery, was more effective than any one together. It also showed Practice + Imagery was better than Practice + Observation (in the case you had to choose).
Practice Variability and Contextual Interference (Interleaving)
Contextual Interference. Imagine a baseball player. In one practice he gets pitched 10 fastballs, then 10 breaking balls, then 10 change ups. This is blocking. This is how most of us are taught to study as well. In another practice he gets pitched 30 times as well but the 3 types of pitches are thrown at random. Studies show that even though immediate performance decreases (you will feel like you suck), long term performance and learning increases.
"Task switching enhances learning due to constant reconstruction of the motor plan or elaborate processing of the motor plan. The forgetting-reconstruction hypothesis claims that high contextual interference causes the performer to constantly forget task-specific information between practice trials, therein necessitating the (re)construction of an action plan for every trial (Lee and Magill, 1983, 1985). Consequently, the performer is thought to become more adept in developing action plans, which subsequently facilitates greater skill retention (e.g., Kim et al., 2015). The elaboration hypothesis proposed a similar account; however, rather than ‘forgetting’ information between trials during higher contextual interference practice, proponents argue that the performer engages in more elaborate processing to represent the motor skill in long-term memory (e.g., Shea and Morgan, 1979; Shea and Zimny, 1983, 1988)".
"According to the Challenge-Point framework (Guadagnoli and Lee, 2004), learning is heightened when contextual interference is matched to the performer’s skill level for a given task. A practical example of this is the Win-Shift-Lose-Stay methodology (Simon et al., 2008). This concept suggests that contextual interference should only increase when the performer experiences success".
Practice Variability. Not only can you randomize the learning objectives but you can also increase the variability. For example if you are practicing your aim with strafing you could change the speed of character movement very slightly. It has to be small enough that it's barely noticeable. This forces your nervous system to make micro adjustments on a motor level which increases adaptability and sensory/motor connections.
"Practice variability consists of practicing variations of an action. While contextual interference addresses the natural interference that exists between two or more tasks that are practiced within the same context. Three aspects of practice can be varied – the physical contexts, movements that comprise the action (skill variations), and the situation in which the skill occurs. Using the long jump as an example, you can vary the runway surface (physical context), the angle of takeoff (skill variations), and whether the jump will be the last or the first of a series of jumps (situation)".
Note: I've thought about the variability of changing sensitivity very slightly in different scenarios. I know this goes against the standard of practice of using one setting to get muscle memory. As the research leads me to believe, even elite level coaches and players are not aware of the benefits. It seems to be a balance. For example take 3 slightly different settings into practice. One includes your primary sensitivity, one slightly slower and one slightly faster. Practicing all will increase skill acquisition in the long run. In your games you will primarily use your regular setting. All in all the actual time dedicated to the different settings is very minimal and will not disrupt muscle memory, the opposite. This is not unlike how you feel like an aim god when you warm up on a higher sense then come down to a lower one. Your muscles are more attuned to finer corrections. I would love to see specific examples you guys come up with.
This also promotes going into Flow State for even greater learning and performance.
Setting
Practice how it will actually be like. The setting, the difficulty of actually pulling it off in high pressure. I coached a top player who choked in live tournaments due to the noise from the audience. We would put audience noise from YouTube videos to play in the background of his practice sessions and slowly increase the volume as he got more used to it.
Specificity of learning hypothesis. The specificity of learning hypothesis suggests that learning is most effective when practice sessions include environment and conditions which closely resemble those required during performance of the task — replicating the target skill level and context for performance.
Risk
Even though top performers work less than their slightly lower elite counterparts, one thing that they did do more of was attending events, competitions, or challenges.
Signing up for high pressure scenarios will motivate you and keep you on track progressing.
Sign up for tournaments, 1v1 competitions, or even just set a date to challenge a friend.
Use loss aversion. We humans hate to lose more than we love to win. Put some risk to it. Bet a small amount of money, or do something embarrassing if you lose. Small enough to motivate you to win/accomplish but also not so big that it stresses you out.
Mornings are generally the best time to learn anything.
Brain waves are more stable and relaxed.
You have decreased cognitive load.
Teenagers tend to wake up later in the day around 8-10am. This is normal and physiologic.
Do not fall into the trap of thinking "I'm a night owl". Yes, chronotypes exist but a lot of us tell ourselves this simply because we are used to it due to societal schedules and our own inability to stop gaming until 3am. I thought I was this too but now I wake up at 4am and it's the best thing ever no lie. You don't have to be as extreme but maybe just try out a little earlier.
The best thing to do is practice in the morning for the time your OPT allows then rest/do something else for at least 3 hours (while your brain encodes the information) then have another practice session.
Example
9am - 12 Practice
12 - 3pm Workout, Lunch, Chillax
3 - 6pm Practice #2
6 - 9pm Dinner, Relax
Intense practice, short rest
Practice your objective really hard and focused for 10-30 minutes. Then take a break for 10 minutes. The break CANNOT be looking up YouTube, playing other modes, etc. It has to be a real break to let the brain reset. The best breaks are to just walk around, listen to music (do not scroll on your phone), do some exercise, or just lie down/meditate.
CREB-Based Spaced Learning (cAMP response element binding protein) is learning structure that maximizes information encoding. Studies show that intense learning repeated 3 times with an interval (non-stimulus or break) of 10 minutes showed increased LTP and LTM.
Spaced retrieval improves and solidifies information. There is a difference between spaced encoding (CREB) and spaced retrieval. Encoding and retrieval happen in different parts of the brain. Encoding is in the posterior temporal lobe and retrieval in the anterior temporal lobe.
Remember this is scheduled during your practice and OPT. You are hyper focused and the break should be relaxing. Do not consume YouTube, scroll through social media, etc. Those activities are still pouring information into your brain. Again, simply sit down, do some short exercises, meditate or do breath work. This works, I do it regularly.
Spaced Repetition.
Once you have practiced something sufficiently you can practice it with increasing time intervals. For example, you have mastered the fundamentals of aiming and are now focusing on practicing movement. Don’t stop practicing aiming altogether. Simply practice it with increasing time intervals. Practice it today. Then 24 hours later. Then 72 hours later. Then 1 week later. Then 2 weeks later. Etc. This counteracts the human forgetting curve.
This is even more important than actually having a goal. You need to see yourself making mistakes, and getting better. Not only does this accelerate behavior and action correction but it also keeps you highly motivated.
Tip: Keep a scratchpad next to you. While playing notice when you have questions, or dilemmas about the next action. Write it down as soon as you can with the time.
After the game go back to the replay and look at your questions and search for answers.
Immediate feedback > Delayed feedback > No feedback
Measure
Remember that your goal is SMART and the M stands for measurable. Video games are great for feedback because they usually have stat trackers. Use these and periodically write down or annotate the date and the stat to see if you're progressing.
Ask
Coaches are great for instant feedback but most of us can't afford one. Simply, come to this subreddit and ask for input. Simple.
I believe this to be a pretty good summary of most Purposeful Practice techniques. As stated I will make a post on Mind and Body to completely close out the Accelerated Learning topic. Please let me know what you thought and honestly congratulations if you actually read the whole thing. It shows you're an actual Tryhard and I'm sure this will help you become OP.
Play Less, Climb More. Warning: Dense read, only for Tryhards
Preface: I'm a 4'th year medical student with a passion for self-improvement and optimization. This includes my IRL skills as well as my gaming. How to improve faster, how to be more efficient with my time, how to reach new heights, feel and play better; these are the things that interest me and I try to find ways to do it through science. Some of you may have seen my previous posts onMeditationandFlow. You might have also noticed that I post on multiple competitive gaming subreddits. I do this because these are games I personally enjoy, have coached and/or have competed in and also because these tips and tricks are not title dependent. Everyone can benefit and even apply it for things IRL. I want to keep learning so please hit me with your own discoveries, tips and tricks. I'm genuinely pleasantly surprised with the responses and the chance to meet like minded individuals! This post is particularly dense and took a lot of time to research. I'll try to make it as concise as I can. Practice makes perfect!You can do anything just practice, practice, practice! We've all heard this but I'm here to add complexity to the statement in the hopes that it actually makes your climb much easier. Spending more time playing does not mean you are making a good use of it. Research shows a chess grandmaster has anywhere between 1,000 to 14,000 hours dedicated to his game. Let's put this in perspective: 1,000 hrs = 41 days; 14,000 hrs = 1 year 218 days. You could say some people are just born geniuses but research also shows that the top 1% actually practices LESS than their peers. Also, for those of slightly advanced age (like myself at 28) frustrated with 13 year old's styling on us, this paper might help you feel better.
The Science of Accelerated Learning
A little biology (for nerds like me)
Mastering a skill requires learning. Learning is an incredibly complex process. It incorporates sensory, motor, memory, and cognitive processes. Learning can be seen even at the cellular level.
Our brain is made up of neurons and when we “learn” something neurons undergo synaptic changes, create new pathways, and increase myelination. Neurons work like electric cables where signals travel along and when we learn something new connections are made and existing ones become stronger and more efficient.
A stimulus causes a synapse to be sensitized and with enough input strength it can undergo changes through synaptic plasticity. This process requires genes to be activated and release proteins that alter synapse function through Long Term Potentiation. This encoding and learning take up to 3 hours. After six hours memories become cemented and impervious to processes that affect synaptic consolidation.
A stimulus should preferably be repeated, emotional, relevant, extreme and novel for it be properly received and encoded
I will only address purposeful practice here. Mind and Body are crucial. This includes things like mindset, motivation, exercise, nutrition, etc. There is a reason why Esport teams invest in physical trainers, nutritionists and psychologists. I will leave this for other posts. TL;DR Have clear and measurable goals. Break down the game to it's most important components. Find your OPT. Structure your practice. Be a one trick pony. Observe a master. Use Imagery. Incorporate variability and contextual interference. Always make it slightly more difficult. Practice in a realistic setting. Add risk. Use mornings and evenings. Intensity followed by rest for maximal learning. Repeat at increasing intervals. Measure and monitor your progress. Get feedback.
Purposeful Practice
Structure
Goal
Have a long, mid, and short-term goal. Use SMART goals (Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant and Time Bound).
Having a goal and reaching milestones increases dopamine release which acts as a buffer against increasing levels of norepinephrine (stress). Norepinephrine is needed for attention but levels that are too high actually activate the “Give up” response.
Have a goal for the immediate practice session. What will you focus on today? Use information from "Break Down" (read below).
Use social accountability. Tell a friend your goals (the measurement, the time/date, etc) so he can keep you accountable. Social accountability is a powerful motivator. We are naturally inclined to follow through with what we say.
Break Down
What are the most important components you need to master (aim, mechanics, game sense, movement)? Use the Pareto Principle (20% of the components give 80% of the results). For example, these guys show how you can play a vast majority of songs from just learning 4 chords (just a fun example but it shows what I mean).
Then break that one down into even smaller parts. For example Aim could be broken down into flicks and tracking. Even those could be broken down into vertical, horizontal, diagonal, 180, with/without movement, etc.
I'll add in this guide by Aimer7. It's worth checking out.
OPT
Optimal Play Time - We can sustain complete focus for a limited time. Practicing beyond that time is basically a time waster that could be better utilized for other activities. Remember that rest is CRUCIAL for encoding your learning into memory.
Take out your phone, but it on stopwatch, set it aside out of view and hit start when you start gaming/practicing.
Play as Tryhard and focused as you can.
When you feel your performance dipping, your reaction time slowing, headache, fogginess, exhaustion, or increased distractibility then hit stop on the stopwatch and see how long that was.
It's usually anywhere between an hour and 30 minutes to 3 hours.
My personal OPT is 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Use that time to structure your sessions.
One Trick Pony
Play just one or two characters. There is a reason one-tricks climb much faster.
This allows for rapid progression from mechanics to game sense. If you played different characters all the time then each time you would have to focus on learning different mechanics. What you want is to reach a level where you can autopilot the mechanics which allows your brain space to think of other issues like game sense. Things like game sense translate to any game, situation, or character. So acquiring these "higher level" skills early will actually accelerate your learning on other characters because then you just need to learn mechanics.
Imagine there are 100 levels to mastery. As you progress you need to focus on one level at a time. When you jump up a level it's because the previous level has become so easy to you that you can autopilot it. So for example if you're at level 75, it means you can autopilot all the previous 74 levels without putting much thought to it which allows your brain space to think about level 75. Let's say the first 50 levels are all mechanical. If you switch between characters a lot it means you have to re-do those first 50 levels for each one before attempting to go above.
Yes, autopilot is a very misunderstood thing. I will make a separate post on this.
Observe and Imagine
Observe the goal you are working for. Look up the #1 player at whatever it is you're practicing. Look at his movements and how he does it.
Our brain has mirror neurons which allow us to better imitate and learn through observation.
Use YouTube, twitch, whatever.
DONT start just watching a ton of videos as many of us do. Look at your specific goal, and look at an example of just that thing. Just enough information so you can self-evaluate your own actions and practice and correct yourself. More videos and guides do not equal faster learning. Watch one, and implement.
Imagery. Simply imagining yourself doing the desired action works almost as well as actually practicing it. Our brain cannot distinguish between physically doing it and mentally. Brain scans show the same pathways to executing the action light up. The key is to imagine it VIVIDLY. Feel your muscles, your reaction, heart rate, etc. A benefit is that you can use this technique almost anywhere (not while driving duh).
This paper shows that doing all three, observation, practice, and imagery, was more effective than any one together. It also showed Practice + Imagery was better than Practice + Observation (in the case you had to choose).
Practice Variability and Contextual Interference (Interleaving)
Contextual Interference. Imagine a baseball player. In one practice he gets pitched 10 fastballs, then 10 breaking balls, then 10 change ups. This is blocking. This is how most of us are taught to study as well. In another practice he gets pitched 30 times as well but the 3 types of pitches are thrown at random. Studies show that even though immediate performance decreases (you will feel like you suck), long term performance and learning increases.
"Task switching enhances learning due to constant reconstruction of the motor plan or elaborate processing of the motor plan. The forgetting-reconstruction hypothesis claims that high contextual interference causes the performer to constantly forget task-specific information between practice trials, therein necessitating the (re)construction of an action plan for every trial (Lee and Magill, 1983, 1985). Consequently, the performer is thought to become more adept in developing action plans, which subsequently facilitates greater skill retention (e.g., Kim et al., 2015). The elaboration hypothesis proposed a similar account; however, rather than ‘forgetting’ information between trials during higher contextual interference practice, proponents argue that the performer engages in more elaborate processing to represent the motor skill in long-term memory (e.g., Shea and Morgan, 1979; Shea and Zimny, 1983, 1988)".
"According to the Challenge-Point framework (Guadagnoli and Lee, 2004), learning is heightened when contextual interference is matched to the performer’s skill level for a given task. A practical example of this is the Win-Shift-Lose-Stay methodology (Simon et al., 2008). This concept suggests that contextual interference should only increase when the performer experiences success".
Practice Variability. Not only can you randomize the learning objectives but you can also increase the variability. For example if you are practicing your aim with strafing you could change the speed of character movement very slightly. It has to be small enough that it's barely noticeable. This forces your nervous system to make micro adjustments on a motor level which increases adaptability and sensory/motor connections.
"Practice variability consists of practicing variations of an action. While contextual interference addresses the natural interference that exists between two or more tasks that are practiced within the same context. Three aspects of practice can be varied – the physical contexts, movements that comprise the action (skill variations), and the situation in which the skill occurs. Using the long jump as an example, you can vary the runway surface (physical context), the angle of takeoff (skill variations), and whether the jump will be the last or the first of a series of jumps (situation)".
Note: I've thought about the variability of changing sensitivity very slightly in different scenarios. I know this goes against the standard of practice of using one setting to get muscle memory. As the research leads me to believe, even elite level coaches and players are not aware of the benefits. It seems to be a balance. For example take 3 slightly different settings into practice. One includes your primary sensitivity, one slightly slower and one slightly faster. Practicing all will increase skill acquisition in the long run. In your games you will primarily use your regular setting. All in all the actual time dedicated to the different settings is very minimal and will not disrupt muscle memory, the opposite. This is not unlike how you feel like an aim god when you warm up on a higher sense then come down to a lower one. Your muscles are more attuned to finer corrections. I would love to see specific examples you guys come up with.
This also promotes going into Flow State for even greater learning and performance.
Setting
Practice how it will actually be like. The setting, the difficulty of actually pulling it off in high pressure. I coached a top player who choked in live tournaments due to the noise from the audience. We would put audience noise from YouTube videos to play in the background of his practice sessions and slowly increase the volume as he got more used to it.
Specificity of learning hypothesis. The specificity of learning hypothesis suggests that learning is most effective when practice sessions include environment and conditions which closely resemble those required during performance of the task — replicating the target skill level and context for performance.
Risk
Even though top performers work less than their slightly lower elite counterparts, one thing that they did do more of was attending events, competitions, or challenges.
Signing up for high pressure scenarios will motivate you and keep you on track progressing.
Sign up for tournaments, 1v1 competitions, or even just set a date to challenge a friend.
Use loss aversion. We humans hate to lose more than we love to win. Put some risk to it. Bet a small amount of money, or do something embarrassing if you lose. Small enough to motivate you to win/accomplish but also not so big that it stresses you out.
Mornings are generally the best time to learn anything.
Brain waves are more stable and relaxed.
You have decreased cognitive load.
Teenagers tend to wake up later in the day around 8-10am. This is normal and physiologic.
Do not fall into the trap of thinking "I'm a night owl". Yes, chronotypes exist but a lot of us tell ourselves this simply because we are used to it due to societal schedules and our own inability to stop gaming until 3am. I thought I was this too but now I wake up at 4am and it's the best thing ever no lie. You don't have to be as extreme but maybe just try out a little earlier.
The best thing to do is practice in the morning for the time your OPT allows then rest/do something else for at least 3 hours (while your brain encodes the information) then have another practice session.
Example
9am - 12 Practice
12 - 3pm Workout, Lunch, Chillax
3 - 6pm Practice #2
6 - 9pm Dinner, Relax
Intense practice, short rest
Practice your objective really hard and focused for 10-30 minutes. Then take a break for 10 minutes. The break CANNOT be looking up YouTube, playing other modes, etc. It has to be a real break to let the brain reset. The best breaks are to just walk around, listen to music (do not scroll on your phone), do some exercise, or just lie down/meditate.
CREB-Based Spaced Learning (cAMP response element binding protein) is learning structure that maximizes information encoding. Studies show that intense learning repeated 3 times with an interval (non-stimulus or break) of 10 minutes showed increased LTP and LTM.
Spaced retrieval improves and solidifies information. There is a difference between spaced encoding (CREB) and spaced retrieval. Encoding and retrieval happen in different parts of the brain. Encoding is in the posterior temporal lobe and retrieval in the anterior temporal lobe.
Remember this is scheduled during your practice and OPT. You are hyper focused and the break should be relaxing. Do not consume YouTube, scroll through social media, etc. Those activities are still pouring information into your brain. Again, simply sit down, do some short exercises, meditate or do breath work. This works, I do it regularly.
Spaced Repetition.
Once you have practiced something sufficiently you can practice it with increasing time intervals. For example, you have mastered the fundamentals of aiming and are now focusing on practicing movement. Don’t stop practicing aiming altogether. Simply practice it with increasing time intervals. Practice it today. Then 24 hours later. Then 72 hours later. Then 1 week later. Then 2 weeks later. Etc. This counteracts the human forgetting curve.
This is even more important than actually having a goal. You need to see yourself making mistakes, and getting better. Not only does this accelerate behavior and action correction but it also keeps you highly motivated.
Tip: Keep a scratchpad next to you. While playing notice when you have questions, or dilemmas about the next action. Write it down as soon as you can with the time.
After the game go back to the replay and look at your questions and search for answers.
Immediate feedback > Delayed feedback > No feedback
Measure
Remember that your goal is SMART and the M stands for measurable. Video games are great for feedback because they usually have stat trackers. Use these and periodically write down or annotate the date and the stat to see if you're progressing.
Ask
Coaches are great for instant feedback but most of us can't afford one. Simply, come to this subreddit and ask for input. Simple.
I believe this to be a pretty good summary of most Purposeful Practice techniques. As stated I will make a post on Mind and Body to completely close out the Accelerated Learning topic. Please let me know what you thought and honestly congratulations if you actually read the whole thing. It shows you're an actual Tryhard and I'm sure this will help you become OP.
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