So i have been playing osu! for a 2 years and a half and my god have i improved a lot. Aim is better, jumps, rhythm, accuracy, reading, speed, everything. But one thing has always been my issue ever since i started playing this game which was streaming. I was never able to stream notes ever. Till this day, i practice as much as i can on streams but after a year of practicing, no results. DragonForce maps, United, Uta, Freedom dive, Stream Practice maps. I play these maps everyday but i have never EVER been able to improve on my streaming speed. I know its my streaming speed because the hit error is always late, my aim is right on the notes, and my hands get tired really quickly. Right now, i can only stream up to 180 BPM and seeing all these new players that are like 88k-30k stream better than me brings me down a lot. I know its not good but still, seeing someone improving faster than you after only them playing for 8 months and than you playing for almost 3 years and still almost at the same level as them is really depressing. I have been considering on giving up but everyone says not to and just keep trying but is it really worth it at this point? I just got surgery on my wrist a few weeks ago and that held me back a lot now and at this point it doesnt seem to be helping.

Now I know people will say that you should just enjoy the game but when i play all these maps now, the streams show up and i fail the map. or im about to fc and a stream is at the end that i cant do. Its hard to have fun in this game when streams are everywhere and that most maps are 190-250BPM nowadays.

Any suggestions on getting better with streams? I have tried everything and Im up for anything at this point in just trying to get better at streams. Thanks

Disappear wrote:

[...]and my hands get tired really quickly

I don't know which hand you are referring to here - but I assume it's your tapping hand -
If it's indeed your tapping hand i think you might be able to increase your speed, while also reducing the strain on your hand if you were to tap the keys very gently instead of pushing them all the way down. I don't think you can push your speed while pushing down the keys very hard.

The following part is an excerpt from Korilak's guide on how to improve in osu!

The most important thing about learning streams is managing to hit each note the same. You're not here to stream 10 notes and then lose control of your finger movement. If you want serious streaming capabilities, you hold that bpm for minutes on end.

Starting from "I am terrible at streaming":
Play the Long Stream Practice Maps at ~120-140 bpm. Your objective is to FC the song. Accuracy isn't important at first but if you manage to get 97-100% on a play, you can move up to the next speed. The duration of these songs are anywhere from 2 minutes to 4 minutes and so you're expected to hold these for insane lengths of time. I'm sure you've played a high bpm song before only to find that your fingers lock up and don't move properly. This can be combated with playing these maps at low bpm. Work on fluid movement when you alternate between each finger. You WILL lock up eventually and your fingers will spasm, losing that sweet balance your fingers had on the first 10 notes.

As soon as you finished the song or fail it, immediately restart and play it again. Don't break. You want to aim for 5 play-throughs back to back. Now you earned your break. Break for 5 minutes and come back and play through it 5 times again. Repeat this process for a total of 3 times (or as long you want depending on how much time you have and how you feel -- make sure you stop if you feel irregular pain though). This does not mean that during this time you cannot change bpm. For example, if you manage to FC the 150 bpm song by your 2nd play-through after the 1st break (7th play-through overall), move on to the 160 bpm song. Now you will feel that struggle again. Fun, isn't it? If you do this every day, you will once again be able to look at your local scores and note that your accuracy increases with time. If you are struggling with an increased bpm after a while, feel free to step down to a lower bpm or stop practising your streams for the day.
As stated earlier, try to FC with good accuracy before you move on. We're trying to build speed AND control. You will find that if you are able to hold 160 bpm for 2 minutes you'll be able to then play short 170 or 180 bpm bursts much cleaner. This goes for all speeds as you improve. This is why it's important to consolidate low bpm control; it allows for higher bpm short burst control. Every now and then, go test your progress on Osu! ~ Deathstream Compilation - Marathon. If you get further and further, you're improving

- End of excerpt -

I highly suggest you read the entire article I linked you, it might prove useful even to a veteran such as yourself.

Disappear wrote:

I just got surgery on my wrist a few weeks ago and that held me back a lot now and at this point it doesnt seem to be helping.

Sorry to hear that, I hope it wasn't an osu related injury
Anyways, make sure your wrist is properly healed before you try to improve your streaming, you don't want to destroy it even further.

Anyways, I hope some of the stuff I posted helps, if not, then back to the drawing board I guess

Try playing with volume turned down low enough that you can hear both your hitsounds and your keyboard at the same time. If the two sound out of sync even when your hitting constant 300s then you're just making it harder on yourself trying to alternate your fingers out of sync with what you are hearing.

Also, stop trying to focus on stream speed. Streams aren't about speed, they are about consistent motion. It's like whacking moles to the metronome except using two fingers instead of one. If all you think about when you see a condensed set of circles is to panic, alternate fingers, and try to "hold out" until the end you are more likely to stutter/understream than if all you focus on is using a consistent motion.

In other words, it's all in your head. It's not that you can't do it. It's that you convinced yourself you cant.

Velura wrote:

Disappear wrote:

[...]and my hands get tired really quickly

I don't know which hand you are referring to here - but I assume it's your tapping hand -
If it's indeed your tapping hand i think you might be able to increase your speed, while also reducing the strain on your hand if you were to tap the keys very gently instead of pushing them all the way down. I don't think you can push your speed while pushing down the keys very hard.

The following part is an excerpt from Korilak's guide on how to improve in osu!

The most important thing about learning streams is managing to hit each note the same. You're not here to stream 10 notes and then lose control of your finger movement. If you want serious streaming capabilities, you hold that bpm for minutes on end.

Starting from "I am terrible at streaming":
Play the Long Stream Practice Maps at ~120-140 bpm. Your objective is to FC the song. Accuracy isn't important at first but if you manage to get 97-100% on a play, you can move up to the next speed. The duration of these songs are anywhere from 2 minutes to 4 minutes and so you're expected to hold these for insane lengths of time. I'm sure you've played a high bpm song before only to find that your fingers lock up and don't move properly. This can be combated with playing these maps at low bpm. Work on fluid movement when you alternate between each finger. You WILL lock up eventually and your fingers will spasm, losing that sweet balance your fingers had on the first 10 notes.

As soon as you finished the song or fail it, immediately restart and play it again. Don't break. You want to aim for 5 play-throughs back to back. Now you earned your break. Break for 5 minutes and come back and play through it 5 times again. Repeat this process for a total of 3 times (or as long you want depending on how much time you have and how you feel -- make sure you stop if you feel irregular pain though). This does not mean that during this time you cannot change bpm. For example, if you manage to FC the 150 bpm song by your 2nd play-through after the 1st break (7th play-through overall), move on to the 160 bpm song. Now you will feel that struggle again. Fun, isn't it? If you do this every day, you will once again be able to look at your local scores and note that your accuracy increases with time. If you are struggling with an increased bpm after a while, feel free to step down to a lower bpm or stop practising your streams for the day.
As stated earlier, try to FC with good accuracy before you move on. We're trying to build speed AND control. You will find that if you are able to hold 160 bpm for 2 minutes you'll be able to then play short 170 or 180 bpm bursts much cleaner. This goes for all speeds as you improve. This is why it's important to consolidate low bpm control; it allows for higher bpm short burst control. Every now and then, go test your progress on Osu! ~ Deathstream Compilation - Marathon. If you get further and further, you're improving

Perfect example as to why high-ranked players don't necessarily give the best advice. I doubt that guy did something like that when he was a streaming nub, nor did he have the ability to do so himself.

TL;DR
Stupid advice imo. You won't be able to stream for minutes straight when you're at beginner level. Just playing a Stream practice map for every BPM once per day is already sufficient to improve. No need to destroy all fun and motivation you have by playing stream practice maps for 1h straight. Especially not for a single kind of BPM.


I learned to stream 175-185 BPM way before being able to stream / play low BPM. It's just a different kind of muscle memory. You don't have to have the ability to stream 125BPM to stream 175-240BPM.







I would agree with chainpullz. That mental block is pretty common in a lot of people. They think they "just can't stream", even though they are perfectly able to play stacks and sets of triples effortlessly, but the moment they realize a stream is coming up or they notice "oh im streaming" they mess up.


If some sub2k PP players can stream, so can you. Just stop forcing yourself into thinking you can't.


I myself just play a lot of DJpop / Saten / generally tap-intensive maps and the basic ability came over time. I resorted to Stream practice maps when I noticed how terrible I was at any stream below 170 BPM.

Streaming is basically just singletapping with both fingers. Think about it like that.

Rayne wrote:

Stupid advice imo. You won't be able to stream for minutes straight when you're at beginner level. Just playing a Stream practice map for every BPM once per day is already sufficient to improve. No need to destroy all fun and motivation you have by playing stream practice maps for 1h straight. Especially not for a single kind of BPM.

But Disappear has been playing for 2 years.. And I assume it's for practicing stamina/endurance which is certainly as important, as it correlates to accuracy.
But I'd rather do 30-minute sessions instead of whole-hour, because I'm not that good yet, and it equals no RSI for me, and that's what my piano teacher told me. Sure applies to me. xD
Well, if improvement is your fun and motivation, I suppose that works. But one's attention span is usually limited to 20min, so I don't recommend 1hr.
I'm sure BPM is also muscle memory when it comes to streams. You simply cannot react fast enough and stream accurately enough without memorization.

Rayne wrote:

I learned to stream 175-185 BPM way before being able to stream / play low BPM. It's just a different kind of muscle memory. You don't have to have the ability to stream 125BPM to stream 175-240BPM.

chainpullz has a better point though. Learning how to stream accurately is more important than learning how to stream faster. You cannot learn how to stream accurately at 220-260bpm without learning to stream accurately at 170bpm or less. Mistakes that aren't corrected before moving on to higher play can turn into habits, and habits are hard to change.

Another bad practice that I see players make is stopping at "good enough". Gets an S, forgets about that song; streams accurately at 170bpm once, moves on to higher bpm. And then isn't as good when he goes back to 170bpm streams as a result.

It seems that its mainly my mindset that is a huge wall for me right now, i will try to fix that.

Also, I looked at Korilak's guide and yeah it does seem to help me a bit since i have been trying that the past week, but that 1hr part is kinda too repetitive...
I can do triples and doubles certainly just fine but it is just streams. My stamina is very bad and i cant stream for more than 10 notes. The part where Korilak says to play 160bpm long maps i think has helped me gain some stamina but my left hand where i got surgery limits the amount of time i can play those maps.

Velura wrote:

Sorry to hear that, I hope it wasn't an osu related injury
Anyways, make sure your wrist is properly healed before you try to improve your streaming, you don't want to destroy it even further.

no it wasn't osu related, my hand had an infection that caused a bump in it and it had to be removed. Started making muscles on its own O_o

also could it be because i have a membrance keyboard? i use the Logitech G105 and it has been holding up pretty well ever since my gf got it for me for my birthday... could it be the keyboard?

Thinking that it might be your keyboard is just being in denial. Unless you are doing non-osu related typing and notice double presses or dropped presses you shouldn't even consider it.

I guess so. Thanks for the advice!

You mentioned your hands getting tired. I'm not in a position to give you advice, but try to notice if you leave your hands too flat against the table, because that would require more energy to tap. Just throwing that out, maybe someone more experienced here could confirm that.