09-03-2011, 09:08 PM
(I'm not sure if this is the right place for this thread, since it refers to much more than solely competitive battling.)
Hello everyone, I'm back with a thread I've wanted to make since a lot of months ago but have always postponed for various reasons. I'm going to waste your time, but I hope there will be some discussion beneficial for everybody. If you're going to spam this thread, please don't even bother reading it. I'm not so sure everything at all will make sense, because I'll try to talk about so many different things about psychology, associated with but not limited to Pokemon.
First of all, I 'd like to share a personal experience, something I realized yesterday out of the blue. I have for a long time wondered why I suck so much at battling, despite some early success. And it seems that I have found an answer after all this time. It was because of this success, coupled with my "perfectionism" and mostly my atychiphobia.
What I'm trying to say is I've always wanted to be perfect. Or to be more precise, I've unfortunately cared more about looking perfect. That's why I've preferred having a good W/L record on my Trainer Card to having lots of exciting battles, even if I have to lose. That's why I haven't taken up all the challenges I could have all these years playing Pokemon (or doing everything else in my life for this matter). This includes not battling regularly and not taking part in as many tournaments as I "should" have, all because of the stupid fear of losing and trying to live on the backs of my old wins. I could be thought by many as a good player, without actually being any better than average (or even worse than this at times).
I now acknowledge this as my mistake, and hope I'll be able to make myself a better player and person by fixing this in the near future.
Moving on, I'd like to talk about the psychological factor in battle. What predominantly influences a person's playing "level" (as in one's skill exhibited in a particular battle), is stress. Your all know what stress is, and it is in Pokemon battling generally caused by one of two things.
First, by the feeling of importance of a specific match. Speaking again of personal experience, my worst displays have been in the most important matches of my "career". I can explain it in two different ways. Either because I suck, or because of stress. But I feel it should be credited to both factors. When playing in important matches, especially on wi-fi (which generally makes me more anxious compared to simulator matches), I become very hesitant, can't take risks and constantly have second thoughts about everything. This can't be good, because of three (or more reasons). One, you can't follow your plan and execute your strategy. Two, you can't take risks, and by not taking risks you usually can't fix early mistakes and get back to controlling the flow of the match. And three, you can't predict well, or you end up overpredicting.
As mentioned before, stress in battles is also caused because of another reason. That's not being in control of the match. When the opponent seems to be outplaying you every turn, you begin to think you've got no luck in the match and end up being predicted and falling in traps over and over. (Think of it like playing versus Barcelona's passing game
) This is however not as common, and almost exclusively happens ofter when playing against top level opponents, especially when the 're using teams which they know inside out.
Last but not least, I'd like everyone's comments on intuition, which according to wikipedia is the "thoughts and preferences that come to mind quickly and without much reflection". Doe anyone tend to follow these thoughts when battling? I've "felt" at times that I should make a move, but due to reasons outlined above didn't make it and often paid for this, while at other times I've followed my intuition and been rewarded by netting free kills etc.
To conclude, I'd like to repeat some major facts. Of course, everything in this post is subjective and criticism is highly encouraged, as long as it's productive.
1) The fear of failure limits yourself; in order to push yourself to your true limits, you have to fight this fear. This applies not only to games, but also to life. (Thanks to Blue for pointing out to me a long time ago that life's like a video game in a sense)
2) When battling competitively, your emotional state is a huge deal. Only play matches which you feel winning is important when you are in a good mood and can concentrate yourself on battling.
3) Get out and battle; humanity has evolved due to trial and error, do the same.
Well that's all, I apologize to any of you who has taken the time to read the whole thing. I hope some discussion can be sparked.
PS.Now you all know why I suck.
PS2.Posted in english, didn't want to keep this only for Greeks.
Hello everyone, I'm back with a thread I've wanted to make since a lot of months ago but have always postponed for various reasons. I'm going to waste your time, but I hope there will be some discussion beneficial for everybody. If you're going to spam this thread, please don't even bother reading it. I'm not so sure everything at all will make sense, because I'll try to talk about so many different things about psychology, associated with but not limited to Pokemon.
First of all, I 'd like to share a personal experience, something I realized yesterday out of the blue. I have for a long time wondered why I suck so much at battling, despite some early success. And it seems that I have found an answer after all this time. It was because of this success, coupled with my "perfectionism" and mostly my atychiphobia.
What I'm trying to say is I've always wanted to be perfect. Or to be more precise, I've unfortunately cared more about looking perfect. That's why I've preferred having a good W/L record on my Trainer Card to having lots of exciting battles, even if I have to lose. That's why I haven't taken up all the challenges I could have all these years playing Pokemon (or doing everything else in my life for this matter). This includes not battling regularly and not taking part in as many tournaments as I "should" have, all because of the stupid fear of losing and trying to live on the backs of my old wins. I could be thought by many as a good player, without actually being any better than average (or even worse than this at times).
I now acknowledge this as my mistake, and hope I'll be able to make myself a better player and person by fixing this in the near future.
Moving on, I'd like to talk about the psychological factor in battle. What predominantly influences a person's playing "level" (as in one's skill exhibited in a particular battle), is stress. Your all know what stress is, and it is in Pokemon battling generally caused by one of two things.
First, by the feeling of importance of a specific match. Speaking again of personal experience, my worst displays have been in the most important matches of my "career". I can explain it in two different ways. Either because I suck, or because of stress. But I feel it should be credited to both factors. When playing in important matches, especially on wi-fi (which generally makes me more anxious compared to simulator matches), I become very hesitant, can't take risks and constantly have second thoughts about everything. This can't be good, because of three (or more reasons). One, you can't follow your plan and execute your strategy. Two, you can't take risks, and by not taking risks you usually can't fix early mistakes and get back to controlling the flow of the match. And three, you can't predict well, or you end up overpredicting.
As mentioned before, stress in battles is also caused because of another reason. That's not being in control of the match. When the opponent seems to be outplaying you every turn, you begin to think you've got no luck in the match and end up being predicted and falling in traps over and over. (Think of it like playing versus Barcelona's passing game
) This is however not as common, and almost exclusively happens ofter when playing against top level opponents, especially when the 're using teams which they know inside out.Last but not least, I'd like everyone's comments on intuition, which according to wikipedia is the "thoughts and preferences that come to mind quickly and without much reflection". Doe anyone tend to follow these thoughts when battling? I've "felt" at times that I should make a move, but due to reasons outlined above didn't make it and often paid for this, while at other times I've followed my intuition and been rewarded by netting free kills etc.
To conclude, I'd like to repeat some major facts. Of course, everything in this post is subjective and criticism is highly encouraged, as long as it's productive.
1) The fear of failure limits yourself; in order to push yourself to your true limits, you have to fight this fear. This applies not only to games, but also to life. (Thanks to Blue for pointing out to me a long time ago that life's like a video game in a sense
)2) When battling competitively, your emotional state is a huge deal. Only play matches which you feel winning is important when you are in a good mood and can concentrate yourself on battling.
3) Get out and battle; humanity has evolved due to trial and error, do the same.
Well that's all, I apologize to any of you who has taken the time to read the whole thing. I hope some discussion can be sparked.
PS.Now you all know why I suck.
PS2.Posted in english, didn't want to keep this only for Greeks.
,but it takes me enough time to think about it so I dont delete it...Enjoy!!!!!!!!
Bu then again i guess , as long as you're having fun , why even care about other peoples opinions? Well anyway about the tour stuff........when it comes to big ones , i tend to get a little anxious. but i think that sort of adds to the excitement , right? 