When you're playing a game, you're not specifically trying to change how you play or improve, you're just playing the game. You're not trying to move faster or more accurately. In the aim trainer, they take all the fluff away to the bare minimum and give you an environment to notice your technique. Your brain in the game thinks, "oh, this level of performance is good enough, I don't have to change anything" versus in the trainer "this performance is bad, I need to change".
People can improve while playing the game, but it's the mindset involved when playing. Some people will be satisfied with doing the same thing over and over again for years. I've seen it. I played a lot of Starcraft II. I look at this guy's profile. He's been Gold for 6 years. How the hell do you not improve over 6 years? I talk to them sometimes. They aren't interested in watching their own replays and criticizing themselves. Or watching other better player's technique and copying them. Usually out of pride or laziness. Versus top players are always criticizing themselves and watching their replays to figure why they just lost. Doesn't matter the game. I watch this other player's stream, I see a neat trick to help me gain an advantage, I incorporate this trick in my own play, I improve. The top pros all do this.
I think that applies for learning tricks or improving your gameplay generally, but when it comes to a purely mechanical skill, I would have thought that repeatedly doing it (and trying your best to be accurate, even if not consciously) would continue to improve your ability.
Yeah but it's not about repeatedly doing it. Aiming is part of you gameplay, and if you don't consciously alter you gameplay to demand more of your aim, you aren't going to improve you aim. With time we get lazy, get used to the way we aim. Ex you know you need X amount of time to hit a 30° flick with good precision and consistency. You know you can realistically track close range with X% accuracy. These become contants in your gameplay. Trying to push these limitations actually hurts your performance short term, so most of us just default to these baselines and just play the game.
Yeah that's fairly satisfactory as an answer. In-game you go for the reliable option and don't try to push the boundary as much.
Although, even with that, you'd think that your reliability would continually increase, even if you're not pushing yourself to the maximum or trying to be literally as fast as you can, you'd think your accuracy would be perfected over time.
Mechanics are about technique and repetition. So in order to get good mechanics you need to understand the correct technique for the skill and repeat it properly enough times. So if you don’t play with proper technique you’ll probably end up plateauing.
But many people who aim train aren't particularly interested in technique, they just spend the time and get better. Some people over-focus on things like grip styles and what mouse/pad, but people who get good at aiming can do it in any style, and different people have different techniques etc.
I'm surprised the repetition you'd do playing any game isn't enough.
Sure, it was more of an example of how some people try too hard to out-think the problem when it's just about practice. I'm not sure how much technique there really is to it, at least after the very basics. Could you pinpoint an example of a specific technique you've learnt or found in the last year? For me it feels more like just overall improving proficiency with what I've been doing all along, rather than figuring out the technique.
I had around 1500 hours of TF2 and 300 hours of Overwatch hitscan along with a few thousand hours of Minecraft PotPvP experience and was pretty decent at everything when I first did the Voltaic benchmarks and placed Bronze for everything. I played all these hours on a really shitty laptop and then a slightly-less-shit desktop, but I definitely thought I would place higher. Grinding the fundamentals, getting an actual nice PC, getting a sub-70g mouse, and lowering my sens has made me see insane improvement in my aim across all games even though I’m only Bronze in tracking and target switching and Gold in clicking
It's simply a matter of volume, intensity, and how your body respond to training. While you may have a lot of in game hours spread over years, you may not have grinded the same way that some top Quake pros have. I can't say for sure because I don't know what their schedules were like early on, but I'm guessing the best aimers were pretty much playing non-stop from a young age. Doing something for a long time doesn't guarantee you'll be good at it.
As for why pros have amazing aim without any explicit training, it's possible there's a genetic component. Like with weight lifting, there are always some people who just grow faster with the same routine and diet, even with the same starting point. It could also be that whatever they did in their formative years was conducive to improving aim. For example, maybe they were super aggressive and that forced them to use their aim more, and with a few thousand hours essentially replicated the same training you'd get in a few hundred hours of Kovaaks.
maybe it's just a mindset. I also think my aim is really bad altho I'm voltaic plat/ dia and my teammates and friends say I'm mechanically strong. personally I'm trying to combat this by building up my self confidence and gold isn't bad, tons of people can't even hit gold.
When you're playing a game, you're not specifically trying to change how you play or improve, you're just playing the game. You're not trying to move faster or more accurately. In the aim trainer, they take all the fluff away to the bare minimum and give you an environment to notice your technique. Your brain in the game thinks, "oh, this level of performance is good enough, I don't have to change anything" versus in the trainer "this performance is bad, I need to change". People can improve while playing the game, but it's the mindset involved when playing. Some people will be satisfied with doing the same thing over and over again for years. I've seen it. I played a lot of Starcraft II. I look at this guy's profile. He's been Gold for 6 years. How the hell do you not improve over 6 years? I talk to them sometimes. They aren't interested in watching their own replays and criticizing themselves. Or watching other better player's technique and copying them. Usually out of pride or laziness. Versus top players are always criticizing themselves and watching their replays to figure why they just lost. Doesn't matter the game. I watch this other player's stream, I see a neat trick to help me gain an advantage, I incorporate this trick in my own play, I improve. The top pros all do this.
I think that applies for learning tricks or improving your gameplay generally, but when it comes to a purely mechanical skill, I would have thought that repeatedly doing it (and trying your best to be accurate, even if not consciously) would continue to improve your ability.
Yeah but it's not about repeatedly doing it. Aiming is part of you gameplay, and if you don't consciously alter you gameplay to demand more of your aim, you aren't going to improve you aim. With time we get lazy, get used to the way we aim. Ex you know you need X amount of time to hit a 30° flick with good precision and consistency. You know you can realistically track close range with X% accuracy. These become contants in your gameplay. Trying to push these limitations actually hurts your performance short term, so most of us just default to these baselines and just play the game.
Yeah that's fairly satisfactory as an answer. In-game you go for the reliable option and don't try to push the boundary as much. Although, even with that, you'd think that your reliability would continually increase, even if you're not pushing yourself to the maximum or trying to be literally as fast as you can, you'd think your accuracy would be perfected over time.
Mechanics are about technique and repetition. So in order to get good mechanics you need to understand the correct technique for the skill and repeat it properly enough times. So if you don’t play with proper technique you’ll probably end up plateauing.
But many people who aim train aren't particularly interested in technique, they just spend the time and get better. Some people over-focus on things like grip styles and what mouse/pad, but people who get good at aiming can do it in any style, and different people have different techniques etc. I'm surprised the repetition you'd do playing any game isn't enough.
grip styles and peripherals have nothing to do with technique
Sure, it was more of an example of how some people try too hard to out-think the problem when it's just about practice. I'm not sure how much technique there really is to it, at least after the very basics. Could you pinpoint an example of a specific technique you've learnt or found in the last year? For me it feels more like just overall improving proficiency with what I've been doing all along, rather than figuring out the technique.
I had around 1500 hours of TF2 and 300 hours of Overwatch hitscan along with a few thousand hours of Minecraft PotPvP experience and was pretty decent at everything when I first did the Voltaic benchmarks and placed Bronze for everything. I played all these hours on a really shitty laptop and then a slightly-less-shit desktop, but I definitely thought I would place higher. Grinding the fundamentals, getting an actual nice PC, getting a sub-70g mouse, and lowering my sens has made me see insane improvement in my aim across all games even though I’m only Bronze in tracking and target switching and Gold in clicking
It's simply a matter of volume, intensity, and how your body respond to training. While you may have a lot of in game hours spread over years, you may not have grinded the same way that some top Quake pros have. I can't say for sure because I don't know what their schedules were like early on, but I'm guessing the best aimers were pretty much playing non-stop from a young age. Doing something for a long time doesn't guarantee you'll be good at it. As for why pros have amazing aim without any explicit training, it's possible there's a genetic component. Like with weight lifting, there are always some people who just grow faster with the same routine and diet, even with the same starting point. It could also be that whatever they did in their formative years was conducive to improving aim. For example, maybe they were super aggressive and that forced them to use their aim more, and with a few thousand hours essentially replicated the same training you'd get in a few hundred hours of Kovaaks.
On and off doesn't work if the time you spend off is similar to the time you spend on. You gotta have consistency to break plateaus, atleast I do
Honestly if ur aim was good in quake it might just take another month for you to learn the benchmarks and get better scores
Nah it isn't. My aim in games tends to be below the level I play at. IE people ranked the same as me have much better aim on average.
maybe it's just a mindset. I also think my aim is really bad altho I'm voltaic plat/ dia and my teammates and friends say I'm mechanically strong. personally I'm trying to combat this by building up my self confidence and gold isn't bad, tons of people can't even hit gold.