The Dreaded Plateau

Keep playing.

Honestly, I don't think "plateauing" is really a thing.

I just think you get confident in your abilities so you stop thinking as much.

When you're on offense and defense, ask yourself "why did I really do that?".

If you can't think of an answer, there you go.

If you have an answer, store that answer and try something new and continue that process.

@Broseidon Rex

Its complicated.

There are things that one can do but there is no easy solution...

I'll just list in number format the things one can do in my mind to overcome a plateau... Some are obvious few are easy:

1. Put down the flowchart. Everyone has one, and when you get comfortable in yours is when stagnation sets in.

2. Play against DIFFERENT players. Make sure to steal their tactics if you can apply them to your game. Case in point Arturo Sanchez or even nki going to japan and leveling up via the hyperbolic time chamber... Thats really pro talk for stealing other peoples advanced shit.

3. Record your matches. When i record my my matches i look for 2 different things: what did i get opened up by and why was i in the position to be opened up. After that i look at the opponents tactics... Does it work from a certain range only? Can i deny them that range? How can i space better against them?

Its also important to look at the opponents starters and see if they are punishable via pbgc... Remember that pbgc is rather easy of you are pbgcing into a jump, or into a qcf invincible move like a super. All i do is pushblock then mash qcf+pp like i was being combod... It works. In your case you could use your 360 against multihits, making sure to pushblock the multihit early so there is no pushback.

4. Work on your neutral.... Try and find more ways of moving around with your character, even if those ways arent necessarily optimal, just the threat of a new form of movement can open up other things in the opponents own neutral. Like i remember i said that the tactic of super jumping with bella then doing a max charge glide into coming down with an attack is good. It is but only of used a few times/once per round... But that means find out where you could use it to good effect... And that doesnt necessarily mean at obvious places.

5. Try and learn a use for moves you never use, or a new use for moves you already use, or optimize a combo that you dont yet have optimized. Work on 2 hit hitconfirms instead of 3 hit hitconfirms.
I'm always theory fighting up shit to use... Teams/assists/optimal spacings/setups/resets etc etc etc

6. Realize that much of the problem is you. The WAY YOU THINK. I'm not calling anyone out, but when a plateau is reached that means there is stagnation in thinking. Usually this is because people are thinking in terms of what will always work, or is optimal. But a lot of times what is inoptimal is actually optimal...

In other words simply breaking your own pattern is the optimal thing to do. Let's look at some easy math:

Your optimal thing wins in 90% of all situations.. Ok its good, very good. But what if your opponent see this and says "I'm going to live in that ten percent" well now your optimal thing is inoptimal.
Its at this point in time that you need to reassess and do things differently and thats where the recorded video comes in.

7.esoteric stuff like putting parasoul on record and just having her do f+lp overheads over and over and over again... Just practice blocking them in the correct timing over and over and over again and you will start to find that in game you will be better able to block them on reaction since you've trained your brain muscle memory to block high when given certain subconscious cues such as parasouls over head hands right before she strikes...

I've never done this cause i dont have the patience... It would take a looooooong time. But I'm not trying to break out of any plateaus... Yet.

And if none of this works:

8. Git good scrub

:)

Broseidon Rex said:

I figure at some point in everyone's experience in fighting games, they've hit a plateau in their abilities (currently my position). They can't read well, execution is off under pressure and all the fights seem to go against them. Anyone have any suggestions about getting past such a thing and how did you handle your plateau? I've tried to start playing with another character in training mood (Filia) but I feel that won't fix it.

Now to sit back and count the number of "Git Gud Scrub" posts

Pedantics: that sounds a bit more like slumping/tilting than hitting a plateau. if you mean just having a hard time with things you normally handle well, then that's a slump and it's time for a break, either long enough to cool off if it's short term or a few days/weeks if it's something more severe. Your execution and mechanics will come back to you, and/or problems in your ability will expose themselves much more clearly.

If it's a real plateau, i.e., literally feeling like you have nowhere to improve but feel you need to for results, my answer is to do/try uncharacteristic things and look at things from different perspectives. In video/fighting games changing ratios/characters/races/weapons etc. is usually a really good way to force yourself into a different mindset to learn to play under those constraints and advantages. Playing different people that force other constraints/advantages is also really good, as is watching other people's matches and trying to integrate parts of their game into yours.

If all else fails, write down everything you think you know and go over ways to either optimize it, deconstruct/beat it, or add to it. Record your matches and find ways to beat yourself. Keep records of your goals and what happened when you went for them, good and bad. Sometimes it's frustrating and you find you weren't as good as you'd hoped, and sometimes things work brilliantly and you strip away the bad elements of your practice and only the good remains.

I've always been very competitive (in that obnoxiously high personal standards way) and place a lot of personal pressure on myself to improve at all of my hobbies/interests. I've found that everything from weight lifting, kickboxing, fighting games, starcraft, to academics all have burnout periods where you need time off; to refresh and to let those "archimedes' bath" kind of moments come to you. Similarly, my skill in all of those things improved drastically with goals, record-keeping, and time/dedication.

PS: Not that i'm great at Skullgirls or anything. x_x7