I have a problem where I cannot alternate properly and I end up using my wrist to tap while alternating as if I was single tapping. (possibly the alt tapping technique)

I've been playing this way since I was 500k. Slowly over time I found myself hitting a speed limit specifically when playing jumps. I would typically be falling behind and will miss often on higher bpms. I found it to be strange that I would be able to FC a 200bpm 6.7 star map for over 300pp but I cant even pass a 5 star map over 230bpm.

After researching for a while I learned that I have never been alternating properly and instead have possibly been using a technique known as alt tapping which makes tapping more deliberate but at the cost of speed. I would instead like to stream alt or a variation close to it to be able to hit up to 260bpm or more.


What can I do to fix this?


Ideas I haven't had any success with yet:

-playing alt maps to force myself to get used to tapping as if I was streaming (230bpm-300bpm)
-playing stream practice mapsets at super low bpm (110bpm-140bpm streams)
-playing DT or simply more no mod high bpm maps
-Playing stream practice mapsets and gradually moving down in speed

Information about me:

-Rank 57k no mod jump/aim player
-can play both ring/index and middle/index
-problem only on jumps and not on alt maps with flow aim
-problem started at 150-100k
-intense stress on hands when tapping due to the way I tap
-lack of finger control probably amplifies the issue
-cannot play anything past 210bpm
-cannot read DT (over AR10)

I hate to break it for you, but you have to leave alone 230bpm maps for a while. If I understand correctly you have the same issue as I had where I would aim correctly at the circle, but don't hit it or trying to hit it while moving on to the next circle.

For most of us, the thought of a player using wrist for tapping is ridiculous. Your issue is clearly that you didn't want to go to lower bpm maps and patiently go throught the retraining process from single tapping to duo tapping (or whatever two finger tapping is called).

So yeah I even recommend that you try practice on a 1 to 2 star map because that is slow enough that you can practice the more better alternative which is to tap with index then middle and repeat. And under no circumstance USE ONLY ONE KEY, BUT TWO FINGERS.

Before I answer:

Colder wrote:

If I understand correctly you have the same issue as I had where I would aim correctly at the circle, but don't hit it or trying to hit it while moving on to the next circle.

That doesn't seem like the issue that OP was having. Seems more like an issue with being unable to tap faster rather than a tap/aim sync issue. Because of this, idk if going back to practice on low star maps is really the best advice. It kinda just looks like they need to figure out a technique and they'll be fine, maybe low star maps will help with that but probably not much.

Colder wrote:

For most of us, the thought of a player using wrist for tapping is ridiculous.

It isn't? Using your wrist to tap, especially with the hard/singletap style of tapping is really common. There's even people that use their wrist to stream somehow, I don't really get how but they're better than me so what do I know. The real problem with wrist tapping is that you can't go very fast (ignoring the streaming thing), even with singletapping if you want to tap faster you need to go from bouncing your wrist to vibroing your arm. However, as long as you have a technique to hit the faster stuff, whatever you do to hit slower stuff doesn't really matter, you could be karate chopping your keyboard and that's not gonna make you any worse at low bpm stuff.




Ok on to my answer to Senbei:

I think trying to play high bpm jumps with stream tapping is the wrong way to go about it, I personally can't hit any jumps with stream tapping, but I can (kinda) play 300bpm jumps, with my main limit being my limit and my aim, not how fast I can tap (I can definetly tap faster).

I think the reason for this is because you need to tap with sharp, solid movements to be able to keep a firm rhythm to properly sync your tapping and aim when the circles are spaced apart and you are trying to snap to them. Streaming doesn't really have this problem because the circles are so close together and you don't snap to them, the tapping window for them can be more lenient.

You previously did this with your wrist in a way similar to singletapping, but it's not working for higher bpms, so you have to find a new technique that allows you to keep that firm/solid sense of rhythm while going faster.

I personally focus on tapping hard with my fingers, with a bit of additional help from my wrist, but as the bpm goes faster I focus more on my fingers and stop moving my wrist. It looks like Whitecat might be doing a similar thing in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0meggki0h5E&ab_channel=WhiteCatosu%21. The jumps are 260bpm.

I can also see merit in tapping while rotating your wrist so maybe try that as well.

If you already can play alt patterns faster than 230 bpm well, especially snappy ones and not flowy ones, good chance that whatever technique you're using to hit those alt patterns is also going to work for high bpm jumps.

As for how to practice this, maybe start by playing alt maps while focussing on tapping hard primarily with your fingers and snapping, and slowly work your way towards larger and larger spacings when you can play faster than 230bpm. The best alt maps for this would be the snappy ones, not the flow-aimy ones.

If you still can't figure out the technique, maybe try starting from even lower bpms and slowly work your way up until you can tap faster than the technique you were using before.

Also this is not to say you have to stop using your previous technique. As I said before, if you can hit the high bpm stuff, whatever you do to hit the low bpm stuff doesn't matter.

Start at a bpm you are comfortable at and slowly get faster

E.g. If you can comfortably tap 200 bpm jumps, then play 210 bpm jumps, then 220 bpm jumps, etc. (rate edit is very useful if you want to play maps at a specific bpm)

If the tapping speed increase is too much, then try 5 bpm increments rather than 10 bpm increments.

Eventually your tapping will get faster.

If you struggle to read DT, crank your gamma up and play with a DT skin

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

I personally focus on tapping hard with my fingers, with a bit of additional help from my wrist, but as the bpm goes faster I focus more on my fingers and stop moving my wrist. It looks like Whitecat might be doing a similar thing in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0meggki0h5E&ab_channel=WhiteCatosu%21. The jumps are 260bpm.

Thank you for the advice. This is something new and I will try purely focusing on fingers than to imitate streaming at a lower bpm.

For further context plays like this motivated me to try "stream like" techniques for jumps https://youtu.be/l3HovbNikKg?si=wlZ3CjKSiAJM3cS9

and information on stream alting and stream-tap alting (which I assume yours is a variation if it) was from Digitalhypno but I never figured out how people develop this kind of technique.

I also wanted to clear up two things you said just in case

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

If you already can play alt patterns faster than 230 bpm well, especially snappy ones and not flowy ones, good chance that whatever technique you're using to hit those alt patterns is also going to work for high bpm jumps.

I can only hit flowy ones

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

If you still can't figure out the technique, maybe try starting from even lower bpms and slowly work your way up until you can tap faster than the technique you were using before.

problem is that I automatically default to primarily using my wrist anyway if I play low bpm jumps. I was wondering if there is a easier way to transition into a new technique. I'll try focusing on hitting keys harder and more deliberately with my fingers

thank you and since your name says "DM for mutual" I'll dm if or when this method works