Blog: 3 Ideas to help Improve Your Gaming

I doubt I would be able to find an avid gamer who is willing to admit loosing is fun. Even the most non-competitive people have a hidden desire for success. Now don’t be fooled, I am by no means sitting here and saying that life is about the destination and not the journey.

Just that in the world of sports, competitions and skills, winning is the validation of the long path. The fact is that the hard work and practice of the victor, produces a tangible result that can never be taken away. So where does this leave the loser, does he simply try again? Does he analyze his mistakes, and practice to correct them? Or does he blame it on the variables and maintain his self-worth? There is no easy answer here, each circumstance requires different action. The gamer who finds the strength to try again in the face defeat is indeed improving.

The ability to take responsibility for past mistakes by analyzing and correcting them is also vital to improvement. And having an understanding that some circumstances are beyond control is a healthy way to develop a realistic perspective on your abilities. Below I will briefly discuss three areas I think are important in improving your gaming and I hope they are three you won’t expect.

 

Have you ever had a moment, where you felt very alive? Was it your first concert, a kiss in the closet? Or that spicy taco your friend’s mom made? Regardless of the trigger, this feeling was a result of your body adjusting to its environment. The blood was being filled with various hormones and pumped out to the regions of our bodies. As gamers, we must acknowledge that blood flow and brain health are very important to our success.

If you expect to roll out of bed, and perform 20 minutes later at your peak performance, I’m afraid you’re in for a disappointment. Many people suggest that there are peak windows in our day where we perform at our highest ability. Sadly, most gamers are forced to perform outside of their optimal windows. Generally it is because of difficult work schedules, difference in player time zones, or unconventional lifestyles.

But are there ways to help overcome our schedules verses our body’s performance? The quick answer is, yes. By taking active steps to promote healthy blood flow to our hands and brains, it is possible to increase in our performance. A simply 15 minute walk or small regiment of exercises prior to your game warm-ups has shown to have a number of positive results. These include: lowering stress levels, elevating moods and promoting new connections in the brain.

Also by feeling more awake, we are more likely to make the correct decisions in the heat of the moment scenarios. I must recognize that each of have different limitations physically, but we are all capable of increasing our performance. Starting with a walk around the block or a quick set of push-ups and jumping jacks, results will likely be immediately felt. Even the simply process of chewing a piece of bubble-gum prior to academic testing has shown to be fruitful.

I have no doubt that by this point in my blog post; most of you are near bored to death, in fact more likely asleep. But little did you know that was all part of my plan. Since we spend nearly 1/3 of our lives sleeping, it would naturally make sense that this would have huge influence over our successes. Regular sleep patterns and length are incredibly beneficial for gamers. By being rested and healthy, our brain is able to acquire knowledge and store it effectively, and by following that with another healthy rest, we are promoting brain growth, and the ability to recall learnt knowledge with ease.

If we are able to continuously practice good sleeping patterns, our ability to grow and develop is greatly improved. So the classical approach of the weekend warrior, is not beneficial. Spending long hours practicing in a sleep deprived state, indeed produces negative results. It is almost comparable to practicing drunk, your judgement is hindered and reaction times greatly decreased. We need our muscles to be well rested, and your brain neurons are no different. So instead of playing one more match, make the right call and go to sleep. Your team will thank you for it.

 

So now that we are wide awake and well rested, we need to address yet another key element to our success. This is our diets, or the lack of. Imagine your body as the sweetest custom gaming pc ever created. Capable of running any game, full settings, on huge numbers of display screens. What would it consist of: A huge power supply, massive motherboard, a processor envied by all, and the perfect video card? So much RAM that they are forced to rename the mountain sheep? Now I want you to imagine someone removing one the key components, the motherboard slot bare, and the system is unable to function properly, or even at all. What a shame that would be, the greatest system available, and the owner unable to utilize it because he is missing a basic component. This same concept applies directly to our bodies and diets.

Our bodily systems require certain components to function at their optimal levels each day. Yet sadly many of us deny this truth and rely on our bad habits to scrap by. I will not sit here demand that you all eat a perfect diet; you each must determine your daily needs with help of your doctor or professional dietician. But being an apprentice Chef, and attending Culinary Arts for two years, and I can’t begin to tell how important it is for us to eat properly. Since the beginning of time Mothers across the world have preached that their children should eat their fruits and vegetables, and I sit here today and ask the same of you. These ingredients provide us with essential nutrients found nowhere else in our diets.

I understand many of us have childhood issues around certain foods, but now is the time to become the man, and eat the spinach. At the bare minimum, consume a multi-vitamin. Yes, much of these are passed through our systems without use, but on the off chance you have been lacking a certain nutrient for years, this easy step may help you towards a healthier state. By practicing good eating habits, we can break the culture of energy drinks, supplements, and drug abuse that are so commonly accepted in our gaming world. Each culture varies on what is considered healthy, but I recommend taking a long hard look at your diet.

I hope someone somewhere takes away something that helps them as a gamer from this blog. There are many things we can always improve in our lives. And for this post I tried to take a different angle, I asked a few of my friends what they thought helped improved their gaming, and their answers were none of what I have talked about above. I was once told to try and learn something new each day, and so I continue to do so. Good Luck with your games.