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Getting better at osu by playing...less?

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Maytheforce
11 posts
Joined March 2017
Topic Starter
Maytheforce
So strangely enough I've found that I've gotten better at osu! by playing less of it. I've been told over and over again "To get better you just have to play more" well I played a few hours a day every day for about a month without seeing any improvement whatsoever. Eventually I got burnt out and also frustrated with my lack of improvement. When I came back to the game another month later, after an hour of warming up I beat my highest PP play and found that I was just a little bit better at the game. Since then I've been playing the game for a week at a time, with breaks in between and every time I come back to osu I get slightly better.

Despite everyone's advice to "play more" I've found that the best way to improve is to play less so I was wondering if anybody else has experienced improvement like this.

Oh and during the week that I am playing the game, the only improvement I see is on the first and second day. The other few days are just me having fun or pp grinding, and I don't see improvement again until after I take another break from the game.

EDIT: In hindsight maybe I should have put this post in gameplay and rankings? Is there a way to change it? I don't usually use any kind of forum.
Last edited by Maytheforce , edited 3 times in total.
Darud3
33 posts
Joined June 2018
Darud3

Maytheforce wrote:

So strangely enough I've found that I've gotten better at osu! by playing less of it. I've been told over and over again "To get better you just have to play more" well I played a few hours a day every day for about a month without seeing any improvement whatsoever. Eventually I got burnt out and also frustrated with my lack of improvement. When I came back to the game another month later, after an hour of warming up I beat my highest PP play and found that I was just a little bit better at the game. Since then I've been playing the game for a week at a time, with breaks in between and every time I come back to osu I get slightly better.

Despite everyone's advice to "play more" I've found that the best way to improve is to play less so I was wondering if anybody else has experienced improvement like this.

Oh and during the week that I am playing the game, the only improvement I see is on the first and second day. The other few days are just me having fun or pp grinding, and I don't see improvement again until after I take another break from the game.

EDIT: In hindsight maybe I should have put this post in gameplay and rankings? Is there a way to change it? I don't usually use any kind of forum.

Same for me. It's something to do with resetting your muscle memory, I think. Say you play 5*s for 3 months, then wanna move to doing only 6s. It'll be a lot easier to go from doing nothing to 6*s without the muscle memory of easier jumps and maps. Happens to me every time I stop playing for a week or so.
im flat
im flat
taking breaks help
Penguin
319 posts
Joined August 2013
Penguin
I agree with this 100% It's very interesting to think about. I'm sure there's some sort of scientific explanation, but it just works for me.



You can see by my play history the amount of breaks I've taken. Every time I come back, my skills improve. Of course, it takes a day or two to de-rust.
DXPOHIHIHI
987 posts
Joined August 2017
DXPOHIHIHI
lmao true, been resting more than playing more.
I noticed that the more longer I don't play the higher chance I get of beating my highscore.



So.. New tip: Play less
lewski
1,250 posts
Joined September 2014
lewski
FWIW, "play more" refers to increasing the total time you've spent playing, not to playing more often or making your sessions longer. Breaks are definitely important.
abraker
Global Moderator
8,295 posts
Joined July 2014
abraker
Yea, you need to give the brain time off to organize the information as it's pointless to organize it while new information is still coming in. That's the period in which muscle memory degrades due to lack of stimulus, and the generalization of how to read maps is organized and transferred into longer term memory.
Tenpii
28 posts
Joined July 2018
Tenpii
It's called the spacing effect, I'm not a neuroscientist but when you have to recall something from memory that occurred awhile ago the connection becomes even stronger than before. This is why its a lot more effective to memorize things by spacing them out instead of writing it down a million times in one sitting. But you shouldn't space it out so far that you forget about it (becoming rusty at the game in this case).
UnnamedBeast
377 posts
Joined September 2015
UnnamedBeast

abraker wrote:

Yea, you need to give the brain time off to organize the information as it's pointless to organize it while new information is still coming in. That's the period in which muscle memory degrades due to lack of stimulus, and the generalization of how to read maps is organized and transferred into longer term memory.


Not pointless, just less efficient. Remember that not all improvement is mental improvement.
Carmlillball
129 posts
Joined April 2018
Carmlillball
I have the same and find that it's because I'm less stressed.
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