Listen holy shit I’m getting tired of this fucking meme “if you want to get good at something just practice”. It’s true, sure. But it’s a lazy way of suggesting how to improve.

Every professional gamer keeps saying the fucking J.P. words and it’s the laziest possible answer. There’s more to just practicing. You need to know mechanics. You need to know match ups. You need to know when to pursue and when to back down. You need to learn how to predict. You need to know what characters strengths and weaknesses are. You need to look deep into your soul and question why you’re bad. You need to learn. I can go to college for years and practice for a degree but if I don’t learn anything it means jack shit. 

It’s the same thing with art. It’s why you see so many deviantart progression images where a person has been drawing for 10 years and has barely improved. They’re practicing but they’re not learning. Learning is a result of practicing but only if you can analyze your own feedback as well as others..

As an artist you improve by critically analyzing everything you can improve on and using that knowledge for future pieces. You look to artists that are better than you and try to decipher how they come to get this look if you cannot ask them directly. 

As a PVP gamer it’s different. it’s not just analyzing yourself but analyzing your opponent. You don’t get better just practicing on level 9 bots that read your button inputs and you don’t get better watching disrespect videos on youtube. Playing with a bunch of people worse at the game also doesn’t help you improve. You get your ass handed to you online and try to come up with a different approach next time you play against someone like that.And you keep analyzing what you can improve on, look up strategies and put your theories to the test. That’s learning from your mistakes. Putting “learn from your mistakes” under the blanket term of “practice” is fucking bullshit.

I’m sorry I was browsing videos and I see Zero’s scarf wearing face in recommended videos for “how to get better at Smash” and he just say “Just Practice :)” and it just pissed me off.