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.
The chances of any male aged 15-39 starting for a team in their national domestic league - an analysis of 11 Leagues.
Yesterday I commented on how you had a 1.43% chance of starting for a domestic Icelandic side if you were a male aged 15-39 using quickmathsTM . It got me thinking about other small nations and the likelihood of starting for a team in your own national league if you’re a man of playing age.
The Assumptions
To get a rough estimate, I need to make several sweeping generalisations. Assumption 1) It’s just men. Despite exceptions like Yuki Nagasato and Ellen Fokkema, I’ll calculate solely from the amount of men in a nation that are between 15-39. Assumption 2) It’s every man. I don’t care if you hate football, if you’ve got a condition preventing you from playing football, or if you’re registered as a citizen of your country but live elsewhere, you’re getting included. Likewise, this means those who live in one nation but are a citizen of another won’t be included. Assumption 3) Starting XIs can only be comprised of 15-39 year olds. I know many 40+ year old players will be out there, but this demographic would match the general career of top footballers. I’ll use population pyramids to get the amount of men in this demographic. Pyramids tend to move in 5 year increments so 15-39 is the most fair range I can think of. Assumption 4) All teams are independent from each other. Inaccurate I know, but if I was calculating for Spain, I’d be counting Barcelona and Barcelona B as two separate clubs. If there is an easy way to separate the reserve teams from the rest, I won't include them (as you’ll see, I’m quite loose with this assumption).
Method
Find out how many men aged 15-39 are in a country. Divide that by the number of teams in their domestic league. Divide that figure by 11. 1 Divided by this answer and multiplied by 100 will give the % chance of a random male aged 15-39 being in the starting 11 for a team any given matchday. Formula: M/T=X X/11=Y 1/Y=Z Z x 100 = % chance. (M = men, T = teams)
Limitations
Lots. I’m not trying to be too serious here. As I’ve said, I’m not factoring in people who can’t play, people who have moved out of the country, players who have come in from a different country etc… Recordkeeping at lower league levels is hard so even the amount of clubs in a league system is a bit shoddy. Some of the population pyramids are marked poorly so I’ll have to guesstimate as best as I can.
Leagues to look at
These are the 11 domestic leagues I’ll look at. Each of these countries/territories are FIFA recognised. Why these 11? They were all on the lower end of FIFA rankings and population number.
Andorra
Faroe Islands
Gibraltar
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Monserrat
New Caledonia
San Marino
St.Kitts and Nevis
Tahiti
Turks and Caicos Islands
So, in order from lower to higher chance…
New Caledonia
Linguistically, New Caledonia is almost identical to Nova Scotia. Climatewise, they’re complete (but not polar) opposites. New Caledonia is neither an overseas region nor an overseas collectivity of France but lies in its own legislative niche in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The 70s was their golden age, with a win over New Zealand and scoring 3 against Bulgaria (only to concede 5). More recently they drew 1-1 against Estonia in 2017. Their top division contains 12 teams, with a secondary division which contains up to 13 teams in any given season. A 2019 population pyramid gives me an M number of 54032. M = 54032 T = 25 Chances of starting for a domestic team = 0.51%. My favourite domestic team: AS Magenta. They got to the Oceania Champions League Final in 2005, losing to Sydney FC.
Turks and Caicos Islands
A British overseas territory in the Caribbean, the wonderfully named Cockburn Town is it’s capital (pronounced cohw-burn like it’s Edinburgh Street counterpart). Horatio Nelson suffered a rare defeat of the coast of the islands in the 1780s and John Glenn landed near the islands in 1962 after his first spaceflight. Their national team hasn’t achieved much with only one World Cup qualifying win (which they lost on aggregate in the return leg). Their domestic league has had up to 18 teams in the past, but last season only had 6 in their premier division. This number is fluid so the T number will be between 6-18. A 2018 population pyramid brought the M number to c.12,200 M = 12200 T = 6-18 Chances of starting for a domestic team = 0.54-1.62% My favourite domestic team: If you think Red Bull is bad for corporate branding, 2-time league champions KPMG United FC were a strong team in the mid 2000s. In 2006 they changed their name, and won another league title under the new name PWC Athletic.
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in French Polynesia, but FIFA recognises it as a separate footballing nation. Lyle Lanley famously swindled the town of Springfield and fled toward Tahiti. Before he got there however, he was attacked by the inhabitants of North Haverbrook. Tahiti beat the Cook Islands 30-0 in 1971. You might remember Tahiti from the 2013 confederations cup where they played Spain, Uruguay, and Nigeria. They scored 1 and conceded 24 giving them the worst GD of any national team in any major competition. There are 2 tiers to the Tahiti domestic league, these contain 32 clubs (+14 reserve teams that I won’t count). A population pyramid for Tahiti is impossible to find, as it is a subregion of French Polynesia. Nevertheless, you can be from any of the other islands and still represent Tahiti. This calculation from a 2020 population pyramid gives me an M number of 52931 M = 52931 T = 32 Chances of starting for a domestic team = 0.67% My favourite domestic team: It is a tie between AS Excelsior and AS Dragon. Combining them would give the league a mythical allure.
Luxembourg
Luxembourg have been improving rapidly internationally. They beat Hungary in 2017 and they drew 0-0 with France less than a year before France became world champions. Real glory was bestowed upon them in 1980 they reached the semi-finals of the Indonesian Marah Halim Cup where they eventually lost to a Burmese XI. Luxembourg have 5 tiers in their domestic league. These 5 tiers are home to a massive 104 teams. A 2019 population pyramid shows Luxembourg having 109,701 males in the relevant age bracket. I clearly underestimated Luxembourg’s population. M = 109,701 T = 104 Chances of starting for a domestic team = 1.04% My favourite domestic team: FC Yellow Boys Weiler-la-Tour. What a name. 500pax capacity stadium. They play in the 2nd division which is also known as The Division of Honour. Their primary rivalry is with FC Blue Boys Muhlenbach and FC Red Boys Aspelt with a secondary rivalry against FC Green Boys 77 Harlange-Tarchamps.
Liechtenstein
One of the few double-landlocked countries in the world (they are landlocked as are their bordering countries), Liechtenstein squeezes in between Switzerland and Austria. Their national side signalled the beginning of the end of Jack Charlton’s Irish tenure when they held Ireland to a 0-0 draw in 1995. Ireland went on to get 3 points from a possible 12 and missed out on Euro 96. In 2011 it took until the 97th minute for Scotland to beat Liechtenstein. The 7 football teams that are based in Liechtenstein all play in the Swiss domestic league. This stretches from FC Vaduz in the top division, to FC Schaan who play in the 8th tier. The most recent population pyramid I could find was from 2015. No worries. I’ll calculate the M number from the 10-34 age range here instead of the 15-39. In this way it is a slightly more accurate, but still really flawed figure. This number comes to a suspiciously specific 5473 M = 5473 T = 7 Chances of starting for a domestic team = 1.41% My favourite domestic team: FC Vaduz. I’ve been to Vaduz. It was hot and expensive. While there, I caught a glimpse of Pak Kwang-Ryong, their star striker who has been the North Korean footballer of the year in 2013. Previously he scored against Spurs in 2011.
St.Kitts and Nevis
Saint Kitts and Nevis is a dual island nation in the Caribbean. Neil deGrasse Tyson takes his middle name from his Nevis born grandmother. Founding father of the USA, Alexander Hamilton, was also born on Nevis. As for St Kitts, Marcus Rashford has a Kittitian grandmother. St Kitts and Nevis got to within one round of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup and are the only Caribbean side to beat a European team, when they defeated Andorra in 2015. The Saint Kitts and Nevis domestic league is split across two tiers and I can find evidence of 14 teams. A 2018 population pyramid gives me a rough M number of 9,700. M = 9700 T = 14 Chances of starting for a domestic team = 1.59% My favourite domestic team: Village Superstars FC. The 7 times league champions have earned their title.
Andorra
Nestled in the Pyrenees, the Andorran national side are the perennial whipping boys of every European and World Cup qualifying cycle. In 2001 they took the lead against Ireland (but conceded 2 in the next two minutes). Albania and Hungary are among the teams that have lost to Andorra previously. Domestically, clubs play in the Primera and Segona Divisió. I found many defunct clubs but from what I can see, there are currently 18 active clubs in Andorra The most recent population pyramid I could find was from 2018. Using this data, I calculated that there are c.11,900 males aged 15-39 in Andorra. M = 11900 T = 18 Chances of starting for a domestic team = 1.66% My favourite domestic team: FC Andorra. The biggest side. Based in the capital. Named after the country but have never played in the domestic league. They play in Spain. They weren’t included in the calculation.
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands did the double over Greece in Euro 2016 qualifying. They’ve also beaten Iceland and Lithuania in the past. The beautiful rugged North Atlantic archipelago voted for independence in 1946 but this result was annulled by the Danes. 2 years later they were granted extensive home rule. Like Andorra, there are 18 official clubs (There are 4 divisions in Andorra with the bottom ones being exclusively populated by reserve teams. I’ve only counted non-reserve teams in brazen defiance of my 4th assumption). Again, the most recent population pyramid was from 2018. I found c.8800 15-39 year old males. M = 8800 T = 18 Chances of starting for a domestic team = 2.25% My favourite domestic team: B36 Tórshavn. A great run saw them reach the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League this season, eventually losing out to CSKA Sofia
Gibraltar
Gibraltar has been a FIFA member since 2016. They’ve beaten Armenia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, and San Marino since becoming FIFA members. Their 2 tier national league is currently home to 17 clubs (2 recently disbanded). Their 2018 population pyramid showed roughly 5600 eligible males living in Gibraltar. M = 5600 T = 17 Chances of starting for a domestic team = 3.34% My favourite domestic team: Lincoln Red Imps. They went 1,959 days unbeaten in the domestic league from 2009-2014. Followed up in 2016 with a win over Celtic. Not content with only one Old Firm scalp, they played Rangers this season but got smashed 5-0.
San Marino
One of two states completely enveloped by Italy, San Marino will be remembered for their 1993 match against England when they scored after 8.3 seconds and then went on to concede 7. On the other end of the 90 minutes, they scored an 87th minute equaliser against Ireland only to concede again in the 95th minute in 2007. Turkey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar, and Estonia are the only teams to have ever dropped points against San Marino. A 1-0 win over Liechtenstein in a 2004 friendly remains their only win to date. The league system in San Marino comprises of 15 teams in two conferences (there is no relegation/promotion). The Sammarinese league is rated 55/55 regarding UEFA Coefficients. I found a 2016 population pyramid, so like Liechtenstein, I shifted the data to 10-34 year olds for this M number. The number here was c.4800 M = 4800 T = 15 Chances of starting for a domestic team = 3.44% chance My favourite domestic team: A.S. San Giovanni. The only team from San Marino that has never won anything domestically. They have a downright wacky poorly translated history on Wikipedia which only endeared them to me more.
Monserrat
A volcanic British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. Due to huge eruptions that started in 1995, more than half of the island is uninhabitable. Many indentured Irish servants were brought to Monserrat which has left a noticeable impression on the demographics of the island. Riley, O'Brien, Farrell, Ryan, and Meade are some of the more prominent surnames on Monserrat. The 'Black Irish' of Monserrat is something that has often beenreported on. Monserrat routinely featured at the foot of the FIFA rankings for many years. On the day of the 2002 World Cup Final, Monserrat played Bhutan in what was called ‘The Other World Cup Final’ as it was between the two bottom ranked sides. Bhutan won 4-0 which was their first ever international win. Monserrat has had an unstable league system due to constant volcanic eruptions. Teams come and go quite frequently. There are at least 5 times and at most 12, so the T number will be 5-12 With a tiny population, the Monserrat M number is only 1240. M = 1240 T = 5-12 Chances of starting for a domestic team: 4.44%-9.68% My favourite domestic team: Oh the Montserratian team names are amazing. Montserrat Volcano Observatory Tremors or the Seven Day Adventists Trendsetters would be my top picks.
Bonus
The Vatican City
The not FIFA recognised, home to so many skewed per capita records, I thought I’d include the Vatican just out of curiosity. The Vatican actually has an internal domestic league, The Vatican City Championship, with 8 teams. The teams are comprised between the staff of the police, the newspapers, the library, and other administrative bodies. The pope is yet to line up for any of the sides. The league also has a cup competition, The Vatican Supercoppa The only population pyramid I found was poor and unsourced. As there are minimal women living in the Vatican, It’s safe to assume almost all of the 825 residents are male. As it’s difficult to find age breakdowns, I’ll include every person living in the Vatican as my M number. M = 825 T = 8 Chances of starting for a domestic team = 10.70% TL;DR
Domestic League
% chance
New Caledonia
0.51
Turks and Caicos Islands
0.54-1.62
Tahiti
0.67
Luxembourg
1.04
Liechtenstein
1.41
St.Kitts and Nevis
1.59
Andorra
1.66
Faroe Islands
2.25
Gibraltar
3.34
San Marino
3.44
Monserrat
4.44-9.68
The Vatican1
10.70
1 Not FIFA recognized.
Conclusion
Want your son to have the best chance of being in a starting XI? You better move to Monserrat. If you’re European and don’t want to move too far maybe San Marino is your best bet. Of course if you were just looking to get into a matchday squad,you could roughly double the percentage. There are around 200 countries in the world and I only looked at 5% of them. I’m sure there are other ones with better ratios out there but quite frankly, I’m too lazy. Thanks for reading! Sources: Population pyramids: https://www.populationpyramid.net/ https://www.theodora.com/ Club numbers: www.wikipedia.org for general info and then the citations on wikipedia for a more detailed look. https://int.soccerway.com/ www.FIFA.com
[Eurovision] Spain in the late 2000's: El Chiki Chiki and the next years, or how an internet meme became one of the most memorable acts in history and broke Spain's spirit forever.
Oh yeah. If you have seen the comments of my previous post, the most common comment in all of them is "Where is El Chiki Chiki?", and if you don't follow Eurovision you must already be wondering what the hell is that and why people request it so much. Buckle up, you're about to find out. Here's the usual glossary for those who haven't been following this:
Eurovision: The Gay Olympics An international music contest in which most countries in Europe and some not in Europe take part.
EBU: European Broadcasting Union, an international body made by many national broadcasters that organizes Eurovision and sets its rules.
TVE - Radiotelevisión Española, the Spanish national broadcasters that represents Spain at Eurovision.
Juries: Panels of alleged music experts who vote, both in Eurovision and in national finals.
Televote: Vote by the public, usually done by phone/SMS and in some cases by internet, both in Eurovision and in national finals.
National final: A televised show in which a national broadcaster selects their representative, usually with vote by the public.
The setup So I already told you how Spain is the only country with 100% victory drama in the sixties and a bit of miscelaneous drama in the next three decades. And then it came the early two thousands, and they got their hearts broken in 2002 when, after hyping themselves believing that Rosa would win or place very close to the top she only placed seventh and from then on the placements of Spain went steadily downhill, and the Spanish public became convinced that Eurovision was a big joke, that Spain would never do well and that basically it wasn't worth the effort. Here we will deal with the next three years, and if you want a heads up, what happened here was what would happen if the Trump electoral campaigns were an Eurovision country. 2008: Or why letting internet trolls pick your national representatives is not a good idea In 2008, Spain decided to hold a national final to chose their representative in Eurovision. The title was, Salvemos Eurovisión, which translates as "Miraculously we found a fuck to give but it's probably the last one" "Let's save Eurovision", just so you can gauge how their spirits were. And they decided to hold their national final, for the first time ever, via the internet. Now, you need to remember that 2008 was twelve years ago and the internet back then was radically different from what it's now. Reddit was less popular than Digg, Yahoo was worth money, Chrome didn't exist and this was the most watched video on Youtube. For social media, Facebook was still only a blip on the radar and TVE decided to use MySpace for the national final. (If you don't know what that is, ask your parents). TVE set up a platform on MySpace in which any artist could submit a song and anyone in Spain could vote. The five songs with the most votes and five more picked by a jury would qualify to a televised final. They received a grand total of 536 songs from all over Spain. (Amongst them La Revolución Sexual from La Casa Azul which is how I discovered Eurovision, so you can blame them for this post if you want). One of these online entries was El Chiki Chiki by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre. This is very blatantly a joke entry. Besides being intentionally performed badly, it parodies reguetón music that was pretty in at the time and mocks some iconic dance steps (el brikidans, el cruzaíto, el maiquelyaison and el robocó). But there's more: The lyrics make barely veiled references to the prime minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the opposition leader Mariano Rajoy, president of Venezuela Hugo Chávez and an the time the Spanish King told him to shut the fuck up in an international summit. In theory, this is all political commentary that is against the rules of Eurovision, and somehow TVE accepted it. Another point of controversy was that Chikilicuatre was a comic character (The real name of the guy is David Fernández and you're not going to remember it just like I don't) created for a late night show that promoted his song heavily and whose host called his public to vote for him. Other contestants protested, saying that he was getting an unfair amount of promotion, but TVE told them tough luck, maybe they should have thought of becoming friends with a late night host too. And then, enter the next big player: Forocoches. Although its name is an allusion to cars, Forocoches was an internet forum with very little moderation and a high propensity for trolling, that kind of was the closest thing Spain had to a native version of 4chan (you already can see where this is going, right?) and they decided it would be a hilarious joke to vote the song and make it go to Eurovision. They started voting for Chikilicuatre en masse and between this and the tv promotion he shot up to the top of the voting. Then there was a fallout between the trolls. The users of Forocoches were expecting some acknowledgement from the show and its host (they were allies, after all), and when they didn't get it they decided to divert their efforts to an even more trollish act: Antonio el Gato with "La Bicicletera", which is either an amazing example of abstract dubstep or one of the worst songs ever. El Gato shot from 300 votes to over 80,000 in two days and TVE decided that maybe letting internet votes be manipulated was not a good idea. They disqualified El Gato, but they kept Chikilicuatre. So Chikilicuatre and Forocoches were pretty much stuck with each other. He won the online voting round and then he also won the public vote in the final and not even by a slim margin: In total he got 60 points versus 48 of runner up Coral. This wasn't just a TV show promoting him or just internet trolls voting for him. This was a majority of the public deciding to send him because they were done with Eurovision and sending a joke act to laugh at Europe and tell them how little they cared. They were not the first country to do that nor they would be the last, it's all part of the game. Now, the lyrics have a lot of politics which is is a big no in Eurovision, so obviously they would have to sanitize them for Eurovision. Of course. LOL, NO. The final version had some lyrics rewritten to add fake English, but the only political allusion that was removed was Hugo Chavez. Anything else was still there and somehow the EBU let it pass because it was in a language that a majority of Europe wouldn't understand. The rest of the act had been taken up to eleven, including playing a toy guitar at the beginning, a backing singer pretending to fall and flashing her underwear to the audience, a mock crucifixion with Chikilicuatre held in the air by his backing singers... He was going full force troll act. I personally don't like it, but I have to admit that as a joke act it's VERY effective. You don't need to understand the language to be in the joke, you just have to watch it, and it's pretty memorable. At that time the scores in Eurovision were 100% televote and the public responded... comparatively well to it, taking it to sixteenth place in a field of twenty-five. Is it a good place? Meh, not really. He was barely avoiding the lower third of the score table. But is it a good place for the expectations about him? Hell yeah! And not only that, it was the best place Spain had in four years and precisely when they were trying to avoid it. Just like Rosa's relative failure did six years before, Chikilicuatre's relative success had a big impact in the Spanish psyche and giving the same exact message: Eurovision was not worth taking seriously. Just look at this! A serious act with all their effort behind it had only placed seventh, while a troll act full of disdain had managed to place sixteenth! Why try hard or even try at all, if phoning it in you didn't risk disappointment and could actually end up in better spirits? (Since people recall better their feelings than the facts that caused them, a decade later some people actually believe that Chikilicuatre placed higher than Rosa) The top performers of the year didn't help: The winner for Russia brought his own ice rink and an Olympic skater to dance on it (And for reference, this is the same guy that two years earlier had brought a piano with a ghost woman and to ballerinas ) Ukraine managed to give boners to both gay and straight dudes wit a Swarowski-clad diva climbing a translucent wall (No, really, watch that. It's probably the ultimate 2000's Eurovision act. We PEAKED there, people) and Greece rounded the top three with a pop-up book slightly smaller than my living room. They're all very over the top, flashy acts with that are at least as focused on the show as on the song, if not more, and also Russia, Ukraine and Greece belong to strong voting blocs (Former Soviets and Balkans, respectively), so this continued reinforcing the perception of Eurovision as a joke. And... well, that's the story of how Spain lost the last fuck they had to give, by having a very successful joke that went better than expected. Positive reinforcement is a hell of a drug. And that, kids, is why internet trolls shouldn't be allowed to weigh in real world decisions. 2009: They stole our votes! The next year Spain organized again a national final, titled "Eurovisión: El retorno" (That translates as "Eurovision: The return" but pretend it doesn't. It was bullshit and everyone knew it). The format was pretty similar, with first an online round (With a whopping 978 songs) from which the public chose 20 and after adding more songs from a jury and three semifinals, twelve songs faced each in the final. This year there were no troll shenanigans and the national final was shaping up pretty smoothly until the first semifinal. At the end it came down to two rather similar acts: Soraya with La Noche es Para Mí and Melody with Amante de la Luna. (If they seem a bit similar to two of the top three of last year is because they are. Spain has talent to find what works in Eurovision after it worked). Melody was in a partnership with Los Vivancos, a group of dancers known for mixing Spanish folk dance with stripping onstage. The kind of things the Eurovision public likes. Four days after the first semifinal in which they competed and qualified, they decided that the stage was too small, the audio was bad, the video was bad, and that what was supposed to be an equal partnership between them and Melody was being treated in media as if they were only her backup dancers. With only ten days left to the final, they announced they were dropping out and left melody scrambling to find a replacement group of dancers. Which she did. And at the end her performance was not that bad. They even had the pecs and everything. Melody won the juries and placed second in the televote, and Soraya placed second in the juries and won the televote, and since the tiebreaker was the televote she was chosen as Spain's representative. Her song, by the way, had been composed in Greek two years earlier and had been rejected by three artists before she took it, had it rewritten in Spanish and released it, and urged by her fans she entered it to the online voting two hours before the deadline. (It was eligible since none of the other artists released it commercially). Now, I'm not saying anything, but maybe if three artists already rejected your song you should take a step back and reconsider if you really want it... The Spanish fans, of course, started hyping it because that's what they do. It was a powerful song, it would be rewritten to make it even more powerful, Greece would vote for Spain because the original composers of the song were Greek, Sweden would vote for Spain because Soraya's boyfriend was a Swede... and I'm not kidding, this is what some of them said, forgetting that the people who care about this kind of details is a minuscule fraction of the total voters who only care about the song and only hear it on Eurovision night. And Soraya fed them. She promised the fans an amazing show, in which they (I quote) "would see butterflies instead of eyes" and they would have "an amazing concept never seen in Eurovision". What did they get instead? Smoky eyes and a disappearing trick with a piece of orange fabric.. (You can click here for the part of the trick). It wasn't bad, but... ok, yes, it was bad. Particularly because of the fabric. You could see the seams, literally and figuratively, and at the end she just moved a couple meters to the left and the camerawork didn't help to hide it. In 2009 juries were back and left her dead last, while televote left her slightly higher and the combined votes put her in second last position, 24 out of 25. Spain had placed last before but it had been with less countries competing, and in absolute terms this was Spain's lowest position ever. But let's go back in time to several weeks before the contest: Spain was originally planned to broadcast the first semifinal on Tuesday and vote on it (although they were not competing in the semifinal due to being automatically qualified to the final), and because of some to some internal issues by TVE they requested to switch to the second semifinal on Thursday. This was already a problem because two of Spain's neighbors (Portugal and Andorra) were in the first semifinal and they would miss the chance of some sweet neighborly votes. Both countries protested but EBU accepted it, although with some reluctance. At the end Portugal qualified and Andorra placed so low that getting votes from Spain would have made no difference, but anyway... Now, the Madrid Open on tennis was also happening on Thursday a few hours before than the second semifinal and TVE was already commited to show it, and when one of the Thursday matches went into overtime and started eating the time on the semifinal, TVE decided to continue showing it because they gauged that Spaniards cared more about tennis than about Eurovision. They later played the semifinal with a one-hour delay, and instead of using public vote and juries they used only the jury votes. Most of the countries taking part on the semifinal complained and for very valid reasons: Semifinals are a way for the European public to get a first contact with the songs competing, and a lot of the Spanish public missed this chance because a rerun is not as exciting as a live event, so the countries that qualified to the final would miss an advantage on the final that they should have had (It's not THAT unfair: From the countries not competing in the semifinals, Germany and UK were showing the first semifinal, and France and Russia showed the second semifinal, so each semifinal's qualifiers would have an advantage with those particular countries). And it was even worse for the countries that did not qualify, since they missed the only chance to show to the Spanish public their songs (including these masterpieces about a shoe and a traffic jam because this is fucking Eurovision). Now, one of the purposes of Eurovision, particularly for small countries without that much tourism, is simply to remind their existence to the rest of Europe and increase their regional presence, so cutting the chance to do this in one of the biggest markets in Europe was a big deal and none of the countries in the second semifinal were particularly happy with Spain. So, the Spanish fans came up with an alternative explanation for their low placing: All these countries were angry and agreed not to vote for Spain to punish them and... No, I'm just kidding. THAT would have made sense. The explanation they created was that Soraya had actually placed in the top 10 but EBU wanted to punish Spain for the delayed broadcast and had lowered their score by a hundred points. Never mind the fact that this would require rewriting the votes of at least a dozen countries and probably more, while the vote was happening, that it would have affected the standing of all other entries in the final, and that this could be solved simply with a fine. Hardcore fans who are more privy with how Eurovision works will say this ironically, but some of the average Spaniards honestly believe this. And a second explanation, that made so much noise that it was even echoed by one of the major TV channels in Spain, was that this was all on purpose. Spain knew that Soraya had high chances to win and they didn't want to deal with the expense of hosting the contest next year, so they had intentionally delayed the broadcast of the semifinal to make other countries angry at them and force EBU to punish them to make sure they didn't win. (Nevermind the fact that Alexander Rybak with Fairytale had been the red hot favorite for months and basically had the victory in the bag since he was selected to represent Norway, and that the winner hosting is a tradition but not mandatory) 5D chess, everyone! Then Spain sued Norway in the Supreme Court of Europe asking to remove their win... wait, wrong year and continent. My bad. 2010: Because having internet trolls influence your choices once was not bad enough. In 2010, Spain did again a national final in two parts, first an online selection titled OH GOD WHO CARES THEY CHANGE THE NAME EVERY YEAR "Eurovisión: Tu país te necesita" (Translates as "Eurovision: Your country needs you") and then a televised final. The online process was rife with irregularities. Even if TVE said that joke entries would be avoided because they didn't want another Chikilicuatre, there was a lot of them. The frontrunner of the votes, Karmele with Soy un Tsunami, was disqualified in late January. I think this is the song and if it is, it probably was disqualified for having lyrics mentioning the Spanish claims over Gibraltar, for mentioning commercial brands and for plagiarizing an old francoist song. She threw a tantrum, but there was not that much she could do. Chimo Bayo, who was in third place in the votes with La Fiesta del Fuego was disqualified as well for having been released in pubs before the required deadline of October 1st. Although another most probable reason was because he had close ties to competitor channels to TVE (some other songs with limited releases have been able to compete). Two other acts were also disqualified. Then El Pezón Rojo (That translates as "The red nipple") shot to the top of the votes with Y yo tan sexy, and twelve days later they were disqualified as well because their song had been aired in a podcast two years earlier. Three other acts were also disqualified. The online voting phase ended three days later and ten songs passed to the televised final, Destination Oslo. A lot of things have been gone from the internet in these ten years, so please excuse me for getting third hand reports about the whole thing, but apparently what happened here is that Forocoches had originally supported Chimo Bayo, and when he got disqualified they decided to boost the worst act they could find and their pick was John Cobra with Carol. I don't really like Chikilicuatre, but I have to admit it's a well conceived comedic act and it requires a lot of talent to successfully pull it off. John Cobra was just not that at all. It's not well conceived and it doesn't require or show any talent. Despite TVE's assurances that they would not allow troll acts, somehow John Cobra slipped through their filters and when the online voting finished he was on second place and passed to the televised final. And he made an absolute shitshow then: Allegedly, some members of Forocoches in the public booed him because they had asked him to wear a t-shirt with the logo of Forocoches and he failed to do it. The rest of the public booed him simply because he was just awful. His response was grabbing his crotch and shout at the public to suck his dick, on live TV. The presenter spent several minutes scolding him like a kindergardener and trying to get him to shut up just so she could continue with the show while he alternated between aggressively requesting a blowjob from his haters, aggressively thanking Forocoches and aggressively interrupting the judges when they were giving him their opinions, until one of the judges shut him down and told him that his attitude disqualified him to be in music forever. This got probably the loudest applause of the night. The presenter had to apologize twice for his attitude to the public and the viewers, once in the moment and another before announcing the winner, calling him "shameful". You can see the whole nine minute shitshow here or a highlight reel here. Even if you don't speak Spanish it's worth it. Unsurprisingly, he placed last. The winner and Spain's representative was Daniel Diges with Algo Pequeñito, a ballad of a man asking for a small show of love from his partner. The 2008 runner up Coral placed second again just to rub salt on her wounds. The song got a rather meh reception from the Spaniards. It wasn't seen as bad, but it was definitely considered cheesy and boring. But hey, at least it wasn't John Cobra and that was a pretty good quality. (Can anyone say Biden?). And most people disliked his staging, with backing dancers dressed as circus performers (kinda like childhood keepsakes) and pretty nonsensical dancing. But hey, he wasn't John Cobra! The dancing has it's merits, though: Imagine standing in one leg without moving at all during the first minute of the song. Now imagine doing that but in a handstand. That was difficult. But yes, it was creepy. His backing dancers are pretty much out of a child's nightmare. During his performance in Eurovision, a Catalan professional invader that had entered the field of soccer and tennis matches and even the track of a Formula 1 race and had already been arrested for assaulting Roger Federer jumped on the stage and joined the dancers, wearing a traditional Catalan headwear. (I'm intentionally not linking his profile or writing his name, btw). He was onstage for around half a minute until security chased him out, but you can still see him get dragged out in a couple takes after he jumps off the stage. Then when Daniel's backing singer entered the frame as it was planned, some people thought it was the streaker again and were very confused until they realized what was happening. Here you can see the whole thing. In hindsight, this played in Daniel's favor because of how professionally he and his dancers handled it. They didn't miss a beat of the performance even if they had no idea what was happening and this could actually have been dangerous. They were allowed to perform again at the end of the show and this second performance went without interruptions, and Spain eventually placed fifteenth. (This was one position higher than Chikilicuatre, but I bet you no one in the Spanish public remembers it). So yeah, 2010 was the year where trolls had a second chance and almost got it, but in the end, they didn't and everyone gave a sigh of relief. Some other stage invasions, just because. I'm not sure if this was the first stage invasion in Eurovision, but it certainly wasn't the last. Some people asked for this and since it wouldn't merit a post of its own, I will take the chance to write about two other notorious stage invasions: In 2017, when previous year's winner Jamala was performing as an interval act in the final, an Ukrainian guy drapped in an Australian flag jumped onstage and bared his ass and was actually tackled out the stage. He probably was treated much more roughly because political tensions in 2017 Ukraine were much higher than in 2010 Norway and he was deemed a much more serious threat. EBU later uploaded her performance on the rehearsal the day before as the official version. I watched it twice waiting for the mooning moment before realizing what was happening. Shame on me. And in 2018, a British political activist interrupted the performance of Surie, representing United Kingdom, to demand press freedom. They cut to shots of the public while security reduced him and gave Surie back his microphone. I was watching this contest live on a square in Lisbon, btw, but at right that moment I was too busy trying to get into some Irish dude's pants and missed it happening. And I didn't even get the dude. Shame on me. Just like Daniel, Surie was offered the chance to perform again but she declined, saying that she was proud of how she had handled it. (A year later she revealed that it had been pretty traumatic, though, and she actually had to deal with PTSD because of it). And just like Jamala, EBU uploaded the version in the rehearsal of the previous day as the official version, but BBC decided to keep the version with the invasion. Just so we don't miss a year, 2011 2012 was a turning point for Spain, so I want to write about 2011 here to tie things up. There wasn't much drama this year. They changed the format to a show to pick first and foremost artists. Three acts made the national final with each of them being given three songs, and then the most voted song by each artist would go to a final round to be chosen by the public. The winner was Lucía Pérez with "Que me Quiten lo Bailao", a song she really didn't want to perform (She was much more keen of Abrázame, another of her songs). Still, she was stuck with that song and tried to do her best. At the end, Spain placed third from the bottom with 50 points. This is actually a very high score for such a low placing and 2011 had the most even final ever, with the winner scoring only 221 points. As a comparison, in the most uneven final ever in 2015 both songs in the top 2 passed 300 points, a score of 50 would have put her in 12th place, and the third song from the bottom scored only 4 points. Germany was hosting in 2011 and they took LED screens in the background to a new level, and there is an urban legend that Spain didn't specify what they wanted on the screens and when they were shown a stereotypical palms and fireworks background they protested, only to be told that it would be either that or exploding pigs. I don't think that's true, but I decide to believe it because it's hilarious. So that's it. I hope you enjoyed it and stay tuned for the 2010's: How Spain kind of got their mojo back and lost it again.
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.
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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