now that i know that low bpm streams are more important

And low bpm stream maps are very effective actually...
Nice now i can work on it epacefully

learn tobe style

silmarilen wrote:

https://osu.ppy.sh/forum/t/99612

silma new green name pls
merge pls

Coffee (or any energy-boosting drink) = pro streaming :p

she wrote:

silmarilen wrote:

https://osu.ppy.sh/forum/t/99612

silma new green name pls
merge pls

merging won't work, it will just make jesus' topic in the middle of this one which would break everything.
we could just lock this topic if we no longer need it.

Espionage724 wrote:

Coffee (or any energy-boosting drink) = pro streaming :p

actually works.

well its true that being tired makes you worse and energy drink helps against that, but i doubt energy drink suddenly makes you able to stream faster

silmarilen wrote:

well its true that being tired makes you worse and energy drink helps against that, but i doubt energy drink suddenly makes you able to stream faster

it does for some people

The best thing I have learned for stamina starts first and foremost with your posture. Before you even press a button, you need to make sure that you are sitting up straight in your chair, have you shoulders relaxed, and your hand resting comfortably at a level even with your keyboard. Having good form and posture should be your starting point. My posture was good, but my form used to be bad. Now that I have corrected my hand placement and mechanics for streaming, my stamina feels like it can finally start increasing. It is pretty good now, much better than before. I cannot speak for mouse users or tappers, but this is how I practiced for keyboard only.

For the actual streaming, I started slower first. I cant remember which beatmaps I used, but I practiced on the slower BPMs, slow enough to where I could focus on accurately alternating fingers back and forth. I did this for a good week straight until I could feel myself deliberately pressing each key right on time with consistent tempo. This is important, because you want to be able to control the stream, and not have a feeling like you are just wiggling your fingers and following notes. You have to be patient. It will most likely be rough at first, but you will eventually get it down. You have to be honest with yourself about your progress. There is no reason to try and lie and convince yourself that you are getting better if you don't feel yourself focusing on your mechanics, posture, and technique. Start slow at first, and then slowly build up stream length. Remember to increase the length of the streams you are doing BEFORE you increase the BPM. This will improve your FOCUS before it improves your speed. Without the focus, you won't be able to go faster. It takes real effort to make improvements when you are bumping into your current limits. Be prepared for that.

So the three key points from me:

1) First and foremost, always have good posture/form before you start playing. This is the number 1 thing coached in all sports to athletes, and osu! is no different.

2) Start slow. Gain control of your fingers before you start pushing your limits. If you can't control your fingers at slower, what makes you think you can control them at your fastest speeds?

3) Increase stream length before stream speed. This will help with your focus. I see a lot of average and above average players who just lose focus on longer streams and maps in general. It takes a good amount of effort to focus for the long streams. This is why you must start slow and gain control of your fingers first, so that your focus can be directed at the stream, and not at pressing buttons. This was a huge issue that took awhile for me to realize was even a problem. Once you get control of the fingers, do longer and longer streams at the slow speeds to test your focus. Don't try and jump to faster streams right away. You will only hurt your progress. Start all the way from the bottom and work your way up all the way to the top without skipping any steps.

It will take time. A lot of time. If you REALLY want to get better, you have to be patient and willing to be uncomfortable. If you feel comfortable while trying to improve, you aren't trying hard enough. This might seem extreme and a bit harsh, but it's only for those small handful that are serious about improvement. It is worth the weeks and weeks that it will take once you finally get rid of bad habits and start to see progress.

^ best post in the thread

Am I the only one here good at slow streams but unable to do anything above 170BPM?... How do you guys do that out of the box??
Actually until 1-2 months ago I couldn't do anything above 150BPM, then I decided to give practicing a try, I was surprised that it actually works and my limit is a bit higher now... But reading this topic made this improvement seem tiny >_>

But anyway... Should I bother practicing further? I might get my speed a bit higher still, but is it ever going to match people who can stream high BPM without training?

buny wrote:

silmarilen wrote:

well its true that being tired makes you worse and energy drink helps against that, but i doubt energy drink suddenly makes you able to stream faster

it does for some people

I used to do that and it worked pretty well for me.
I even used to make soup bowls with extra strong coffee for fun every now and then but oh boy it sure didn't spare my accuracy.

theowest wrote:

merging won't work, it will just make jesus' topic in the middle of this one which would break everything.
we could just lock this topic if we no longer need it.

Well since the streaming thing is already in jesse's thread we could treat this as "duplicate"?

Posts, meet your new home: How to improve at osu!

If I don't do well I can't have fun and if I don't have fun I can't play good.

Mostly my accuracy that sucks anyway.

_tear wrote:

Am I the only one here good at slow streams but unable to do anything above 170BPM?... How do you guys do that out of the box??
Actually until 1-2 months ago I couldn't do anything above 150BPM, then I decided to give practicing a try, I was surprised that it actually works and my limit is a bit higher now... But reading this topic made this improvement seem tiny >_>

But anyway... Should I bother practicing further? I might get my speed a bit higher still, but is it ever going to match people who can stream high BPM without training?

I'm the same way. Keep practicing.

Oh yeah. I just noticed something. I heavily disagree with some stuff noted in this quote about mouse settings in the OP.

jesus1412 wrote:

Soly wrote:

I thought I'd offer advice on mouse since it's my speciality. Don't shy away from high dpi, in the end it helps your mouse movement a lot more allowing you to do some of the more insane jumpy songs/ar11. I use high dpi and also manage to do tiny hardrock maps aswell with little problem other than a bit of adjusting for snapping. I know low is good and all, but you gain much more of an advantage in the long run if it's higher. Below 2000 is generally a good rule to go by.

Some mouse essentials:
- http://donewmouseaccel.blogspot.co.nz/2 ... n-fix.html
- Windows acceleration set to 6/11
- Enhance pointer precision disabled
- osu x 1.0

ALSO Practicing hardrock to get better if you are a newer player is generally a bad idea due to it messing up your sight read.. you will gain permanent osu ADHD and only be able to play fast songs.. If you rush to get good generally your sight read and acc will get worse.. I am a living testament

- Taking breaks can sometimes improve your sight read and accuracy for some strange reason.
- The more you retry a song, the worse you will get at it DX

Except for the "take breaks" suggestion and the "mouse essentials" almost everything stated here is extremely subjective, and for some (amazing) mouse players just plain wrong.
First of all, high dpi will never be better than low dpi. At least not for me and other players, including pros like kriers. Many mouse players will want low dpi for higher precision, for the very same reason that many tablet players think a bigger area is better than a low one. I. e., a lower chance of missing/higher precision. This is explained in the OP as well, so why add such a contradicting quote about dpi? I'd like to have this explained a bit more thoroughly, including the fact low dpi is usually preferred, even tho there are always exceptions.

The other thing that bothers me is the thing about practicing HR. How would it screw up your sightread ability? All it does is training to deal with higher AR and OD as well as smaller circles. This seems like a problem Soly has, but it's not generally an issue when playing HR. Also, tips on improving Accuracy are given elsewhere in the OP already, no really need to put this there.

Zarerion wrote:

The other thing that bothers me is the thing about practicing HR. How would it screw up your sightread ability?

No, HR ruins sightread ability. This has been indirectly tested extensively by a lot of players that I talked to. If you play only high AR all the time, your readings get much worse. You have to mix it up all the time and play low ARs too.

If you want the reason why, it's simple: higher AR takes less planning-ahead. Reading is planning-ahead. Do something less, get worse at it.

Aqo wrote:

Zarerion wrote:

The other thing that bothers me is the thing about practicing HR. How would it screw up your sightread ability?

No, HR ruins sightread ability. This has been indirectly tested extensively by a lot of players that I talked to. If you play only high AR all the time, your readings get much worse. You have to mix it up all the time and play low ARs too.

If you want the reason why, it's simple: higher AR takes less planning-ahead. Reading is planning-ahead. Do something less, get worse at it.

It's not playing high AR that screws up your sightreading, but the lack of playing slow AR.

high AR doesn't ruin your sightread ability, unless you're playing by using your reaction rather than playing to the beats

also yes the lack of playing low AR is basically why a huge portion of the community can't play low AR since only easy maps use low AR, and most insane maps use high AR. People are only used to playing low AR on maps that are very slow since that's how you start out.

Zarerion wrote:

Oh yeah. I just noticed something. I heavily disagree with some stuff noted in this quote about mouse settings in the OP.
Except for the "take breaks" suggestion and the "mouse essentials" almost everything stated here is extremely subjective, and for some (amazing) mouse players just plain wrong.
First of all, high dpi will never be better than low dpi. At least not for me and other players, including pros like kriers. Many mouse players will want low dpi for higher precision, for the very same reason that many tablet players think a bigger area is better than a low one. I. e., a lower chance of missing/higher precision. This is explained in the OP as well, so why add such a contradicting quote about dpi? I'd like to have this explained a bit more thoroughly, including the fact low dpi is usually preferred, even tho there are always exceptions.

The other thing that bothers me is the thing about practicing HR. How would it screw up your sightread ability? All it does is training to deal with higher AR and OD as well as smaller circles. This seems like a problem Soly has, but it's not generally an issue when playing HR. Also, tips on improving Accuracy are given elsewhere in the OP already, no really need to put this there.

Write your own section and I'll replace it if people agree.

"Find some old linear insane from 2008, set it to AR10 in the editor and play until you get a good hang of the whythm. Then lower it to AR9 and try to pass - once you pass, lower it to AR8, then AR7 and so on. You might think it's just memoriziation, and it is, but getting used to the slow approach circles and not being intimidated by them is a huge first step." (taken from Millhioires ask.fm)

This may be the best tip I've ever read, in regards to improving your reading ability. After playing easier (although non-linear) insanes on AR 5-7 for 2 hrs, AR9 felt like AR10. However, my ability to read AR9-10 was better than ever before.

Great thread. May I add that if you would like to get your accuracy up for a certain beatmap that you are already quite good at, try playing it on hidden a few times.

For some odd reason that tends to help my accuracy :3

x

I think it's important to have a warmup. Make sure to have something for consistency, if nothing else. Jumping and rhythm-based beatmaps are good too. My advice:

Consistency (Long beatmap that is a challenge [For example (all examples are for a player that plays hard maps)https://osu.ppy.sh/s/9183Pro])
Rhythm (an example of a rhythem you might want would be 1-e-and 2-and-a 3-and 4 [Example:https://osu.ppy.sh/s/28107galv x kriers])
Jumping (Farther than what would be warranted by distance spacing [Example:[url]https://osu.ppy.sh/s/28894[/urlJumping])

Of course, a good warmup isn't everything. A bad player could warm up all he wants and stilll wouldn't be able to play an insane beatmap.

So i got a serious question about what should i focus on right now. Short story first, i started playing about 4 or 5 months ago and i drilled the craziest maps until i racked up 20k playcounts. Now my aim with the tablet is pretty good and i can read AR10 with absolutely no problem but my problem is with my left hand. I drilled the freedom dive practice map like crazy but i cannot play slow maps at all and my accuracy sucks. Did i hit a point of no return and completely screwed up my chances of being good or can i still learn everything if i go back to slower maps and actually fix my left hand?

Antero wrote:

So i got a serious question about what should i focus on right now. Short story first, i started playing about 4 or 5 months ago and i drilled the craziest maps until i racked up 20k playcounts. Now my aim with the tablet is pretty good and i can read AR10 with absolutely no problem but my problem is with my left hand. I drilled the freedom dive practice map like crazy but i cannot play slow maps at all and my accuracy sucks. Did i hit a point of no return and completely screwed up my chances of being good or can i still learn everything if i go back to slower maps and actually fix my left hand?

You can always go back and fix your left hand.

I think I was in the same boat as you at some point, but it's not impossible to fix. All you need to do is increase your variety in maps.

It's good to play crazy maps so you can improve your speed, stamina, and aim, but it's not good to neglect slower maps. Otherwise you'll only be able to play hard maps comfortably, your reading will remain subpar, and you'll probably never learn how to accuracy properly.

Just play slower maps. At first play simple maps that are around 150 bpm. Even better if they have streams (like Eiji Kuinbii). You'll probably overstream a lot at first, but don't let that discourage you. Try to play some AR 8. Older maps, usually from 2011 or 2010 tend to use AR 8. Work your way up to 160, then 170, and so forth. If necessary, kriers suggested one ought to push their wrist onto their keyboard so that you can only use your fingers to stream, which immoblizes the wrist. This will force you to stream slower.

It's never too late to go back and fix it. Just try to make your first warmup maps slow maps and then make your way up to faster ones. Keep it mixed.

having a high speed doesn't mean you can't do slow speeds
just practice lower bpms and you'll be good at both of them.

also learning how to alternate higher bpm maps helps with slow streams too

Antero wrote:

So i got a serious question about what should i focus on right now. Short story first, i started playing about 4 or 5 months ago and i drilled the craziest maps until i racked up 20k playcounts. Now my aim with the tablet is pretty good and i can read AR10 with absolutely no problem but my problem is with my left hand. I drilled the freedom dive practice map like crazy but i cannot play slow maps at all and my accuracy sucks. Did i hit a point of no return and completely screwed up my chances of being good or can i still learn everything if i go back to slower maps and actually fix my left hand?

Make yourself play Nyancat like 100 times. I am still playing this map daily, and the better that I get at it, the better I get at everything else. I make a point to play it every single day while warming up. You will feel muscles you didn't know you used to play in your forearm because of how slow and deliberate the stream speed is. It was hard to aim and follow the streams at first as well. I, too, have this problem where I can read AR10 better than any AR. Nyancat is AR8 and that approach rate is highly uncomfortable for me, because I can't just play with reflexes. I have to actually READ the map, and follow it. And I can't just wiggle my fingers really fast and get the streams right, either. The streams are slow enough to where I could probably single tap, but that would obviously get really tiring really fast. The song is VERY consistent, and once the melody gets drilled into your head, you will be able to start following with your left hand a little bit better. I made a post a page or two back about starting slow, and this is an example that I think would help you specifically. Here is the map: http://osu.ppy.sh/s/31419 if you are unfamiliar with it. If you are, then I highly recommend that you use it to train. Spend like a whole playing session on it one day, and then keep playing it at least once a day all the way through for a good two weeks. Turn on nofail if you have to (you probably will need it at first). Hope this helps!

Wow that's actually a really good map for practicing streams, thanks ;D


Now to build finger stamina...

Tablet came in the mail today, so much easier its crazy

Passed my first insane with a C 10% on my performance bar at one point, really sloppy but still made me happy

I feel like i'm not getting good fast enough, picked up this game because irl friends play it and they are so much better ;_;

Fenarth wrote:

Tablet came in the mail today, so much easier its crazy

Passed my first insane with a C 10% on my performance bar at one point, really sloppy but still made me happy

I feel like i'm not getting good fast enough, picked up this game because irl friends play it and they are so much better ;_;

It's always good to have friends you can challenge with. It gives you insanely strong motivation to get better, amaze friends and surpass them. I'd really like to have some.

I've found that I've become worse at streaming than I was when I first tried a stream-compilation, and I don't know why.

Sotodashi wrote:

I've found that I've become worse at streaming than I was when I first tried a stream-compilation, and I don't know why.

I don't like that map for stream training. There are very random patterns, too many different speed variations, too many note length variations. It is not a very good practice map. You are better off picking a map that has only one style and practicing that. The less variables present, the better. Try playing nyancat like I suggested earlier, or Mendes. Nyancat has insanely consistent 16th notes as well as Mendes. Nyancat will help a lot with spacing, and Mendes has notes that are compact enough that you can focus on tapping, since the streams are a lot easier to follow. Play these maps over and over and you will be able to get control of your fingers. After that, you will have enough command to adjust to the stream speed of most songs within a couple plays.

Thatgooey wrote:

I don't like that map for stream training. There are very random patterns, too many different speed variations, too many note length variations. It is not a very good practice map. You are better off picking a map that has only one style and practicing that. The less variables present, the better. Try playing nyancat like I suggested earlier, or Mendes. Nyancat has insanely consistent 16th notes as well as Mendes. Nyancat will help a lot with spacing, and Mendes has notes that are compact enough that you can focus on tapping, since the streams are a lot easier to follow. Play these maps over and over and you will be able to get control of your fingers. After that, you will have enough command to adjust to the stream speed of most songs within a couple plays.

Eh, I don't think I'll be able to pass that.

So, after playing Freedom dive and Mendes every day for 2 weeks, I don't see any improvement for myself on left hand stream speed. Spaced note streams are easy for me but when it comes to mendes or freedom dive I land a ton of X's 50's and a few 100's. Is there any other way to improve this or is the only way just to keep playing?

Don't waste your time grinding one map if not for a high rank on it particularly. Your muscle memory needs to know more than two maps to become good overall and not only on said maps in particular. Spend a bit of time practicing certain patterns if you like, but doing nothing but freedom dive all day quite frankly wont teach you anything.

How to learn reading maps like these?
https://osu.ppy.sh/b/135804
https://osu.ppy.sh/s/50131
https://osu.ppy.sh/s/45306
https://osu.ppy.sh/b/120030

I'm trying to read and play these maps like usual AR9 TV-size maps, but it doesn't work. I'm looking at approach circles and objects in general, but there are too many circles on my screen at the same time and I don't understand how to play the map(I can play with HT, but after turning HT off I'm still the same low-skilled toucan).
I know that it is unreal to learn something by not doing it, but Retry-kun doesn't help me.

some of my tries:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9XxTIFlb8A (passed, but I'm not able to repeat it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98iSnvqQ7bQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYg9hH2bxqY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFJIaR3qvKw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6cToLjsL3k

Sorta feels like I've run into into a wall, even though the probability of that being true is not really that high.

TocoToucan wrote:

How to learn reading maps like these?
https://osu.ppy.sh/b/135804
https://osu.ppy.sh/s/50131
https://osu.ppy.sh/s/45306
https://osu.ppy.sh/b/120030

I'm trying to read and play these maps like usual AR9 TV-size maps, but it doesn't work. I'm looking at approach circles and objects in general, but there are too many circles on my screen at the same time and I don't understand how to play the map(I can play with HT, but after turning HT off I'm still the same low-skilled toucan).
I know that it is unreal to learn something by not doing it, but Retry-kun doesn't help me.

some of my tries:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9XxTIFlb8A (passed, but I'm not able to repeat it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98iSnvqQ7bQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYg9hH2bxqY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFJIaR3qvKw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6cToLjsL3k

Try to play maps of lower BPM and less complex patterns as a starter. For example Nordic Stars - Crying In the Rain.

One usually learns faster when one plays something that is just beyond his/her level, so expect to Fail every song. It's important to gain experience at this stage so make friend with NF and just keep playing.

Don't spam just a single map though, I find having a variety of maps helped me improve faster. Once you get used to reading AR9 in maps like the example above, you can move onto faster/more complicated maps. One thing at a time

Sotodashi wrote:

Sorta feels like I've run into into a wall, even though the probability of that being true is not really that high.

I feel like I hit a wall as well as well ;_;
I have a really hard time FCing maps because I miss random easy notes in the middle of the song
Its a really consistent problem and really annoying

Also I had no idea how osu worked and I played for fun so for my first 500 plays or so I did really hard songs I liked with no-fail on and killed my accuracy rating with 50-70%ers

I also have a really big issue when songs change tempo because the approach circles get funky


However by far my biggest problem is when notes appear on notes that are still there. I fail these every time and I usually have to go into edit mode and view the parts at 0.5 speed and memorize it or it just wont happen

Fenarth wrote:

However by far my biggest problem is when notes appear on notes that are still there. I fail these every time and I usually have to go into edit mode and view the parts at 0.5 speed and memorize it or it just wont happen

Here's a tip for dealing with those stacked notes: learn to read the approach circles like counting ripples on water surface.

Whenever you see a bunch of notes stacked together, pay attention to the approach circles and you'll find them coming towards the centre of the stack, as if you're watching ripples in a pond after someone drop a stone into it (well.. the reverse of that). The distance between each "ring" corresponds to the hit timing. The denser the rings, the faster you have to hit them and vice versa.

Once you get the hang of the first few stacks in a map, you should be able to do the rest without too much effort. See if that helps.