All in the Wrist

Posted by: DLight

Article by David "deLiGHT" Light

DISCLAIMER:

The following may leave one more susceptible to RSI/CTD complications. "The term 'repetitive strain injury (RSI)' and 'cumulative trauma disorder (CTD)' mean the same thing - a muscle that has been used so frequently, doing the same motion, that it has become injured." - http://www.julstro.com/what_is_rsi.html

INTRODUCTION

Through years of inhaling eSports and all that comes with it, the one thing that has always fascinated me is the way we treat a player's ability to aim. We act like it's just how things are; some people are good, some people are bad. Some people will even try to tell you that it doesn't matter - it's all about smarts. But, to me, that's an argument that has never made much sense. The ability to compensate for poor aim by superior play doesn't negate the fact that a player's aim is, indeed, poor. And surely would he benefit from some improvement. So the age-old question is, how can one consistently improve their aim? Is it possible? To the latter, yes, of course it is. But we knew that already. What is really uncertain is just how to go about it. It is in this article that I hope to not only change the way we - as competitive gamers - perceive aiming in gaming, but also open your eyes to your own true potential. Whether you're a first time starter, or a seasoned veteran working on your twentieth consecutive championship, it would be highly advantageous to keep reading. Yes, Ksharp and company. That means I'm talking to you too.

Over the next few sections we will attempt to gain a better understanding of what aiming is in gaming, and what it means at its very foundation to improve. Welcome to the first day of the rest of your career, my friend. There's no turning back now. You're going to get better by understanding this, and there's nothing you can do about it.

WHAT IS AIMING?

Most people in gaming will recognize aiming as the physical movement of a peripheral to track and execute an on-screen target. For professional console stars like Tom "Ogre 2" Ryan this comes in the form of the Xbox "dukes" controller, where as Counter-Strike mastermind Tyler "Storm" Wood of the Los Angeles Complexity makes full use of his IME 1.1 (Steel Series edition) optical mouse. Anyone can lay their hands on a peripheral and aim - but to be accurate and effective? That's when conditioning comes into play. Your Grandma can aim, but that doesn’t mean she’s any good at it. It’s all about conditioning.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO CONDITION?

To help you understand the concept of conditioned aim, let's take a step back for a moment and observe the competitive world around us. I love comparing competitive gaming to traditional and established sports, not because I feel the need to justify the fact that I, like many, spend hours on the day in front of a monitor, but because I feel as if we could all learn a lot from the comparisons. Let's look at the great game of basketball for a second. Ball control is an extremely important aspect of basketball that is not a native ability; Allen Iverson wasn't just born with a gift that made him at one time one of the most fluid players on the court. While it's true that not all people are born equal in terms of physical stature and innate intelligence, it's also true that any action learned can be conditioned for improvement. It's not uncommon to see coaches throughout all levels of basketball insist their players dribble multiple balls up and down the court in a method that was designed to condition better ball control. This works because of something called muscle memory, which is the body's ability to memorize, or perform automatically, a well rehearsed motion. So in essence, any action that can be improved upon can be done so through muscle memory. It's the reason players can hit a three with relative consistency from beyond the arc. It's the reason the word "practice" even exists on the individual level.

If you want to see muscle memory at its best, repeat out-loud after me: "David Light is the coolest guy ever." You've probably heard this a lot, it seems to be the popular thing to say these days. But believe it or not, you just utilized one of the most incredible products of muscle memory - speech. Language is an extremely difficult thing to master, which is why it can take years before a child mutters their first coherent string of words. It's only through mental repetition and physical conditioning that we are able to understand and regurgitate such complex tongue maneuvers. We do such so often nowadays, that we've actually conditioned our ability to speak articulately to instinctive levels. People like Bobby "Weenus" Hicks are so bloody good at it it's scary, in fact. But it just goes to show what we are all capable of through repetition if even something as beautifully complicated as eloquent oral dances can become second nature. Hmm... I just said eloquent oral dances. Ugh! Moving on...

A LITTLE BIT OF INSIGHT

As we've just discussed, any action learned can be improved upon through repetition, which is the heart of muscle memory (which is conditioning). Just as a point-guard in the NBA wasn't born with the ability to shoot proficiently, neither were you blessed with the talent to aim on a world-class level. We all know the most effective way to improve is through practice, though much of what is done today is without focus or organization. If you were to search one of the numerous threads on eSports forums about how to best practice aim, you would be met by a superabundance of well-intended but ultimately undeveloped ideas. These ideas commonly take a shallow look at what can benefit a player, without looking at the source that makes it all possible. These suggestions range from the highly generic to the mildly useful. From the insistence to play in deathmatch (CSDM) servers, to aim maps. From constant pugging, to quality scrimming. All of the aforementioned can improve your aim, but the results are inconsistent and borderline effective at best. There are much better ways to maximize the time you set aside for individual development, as I'm almost ready to explain.

Think back for a moment at the difference between aim, and conditioned aim. As we've already defined, aiming in gaming (in such a context) is simply the tracking of an object with a peripheral, where as conditioned aiming is the quality performance of a well rehearsed motion. Ever wonder why some angles are more difficult to efficiently aim at than others? Did you ever stop to think this might be because you practice the specific variable less often than? How about the way you change your resting
position ever so slightly from time to time to give you a more comfortable angle? You've probably hit a couple of "reflex shots" in your gaming career which no doubt left you as astonished and proud as your opponent was furious and complaining. While many will tell you otherwise - and you may think so yourself - this is not luck. There's a reason why we can distinguish reflex shots from lucky shots, obviously because one comes from a near instinctive response, where as the other is a product of incalculable variables.

What a reflex shot really is, is a glimpse at our conditioned aim at its best. It's our body calling upon our muscle memory to play out a finely rehearsed movement automatically. Think about what aiming means to you now, and consider what it will mean once you've trained your aim to act as accurately and automatically as reflex shots, and perhaps even speech itself.

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