Making Respawns More Productive Pt. 2

The post about respawn timers got good response, so it seems like a good topic for follow-up. What we discuss is for the sake of example and education, it’s not a solution for everybody.Dying in-game can happen for any number of reasons, but your interpretation of the situation is a catalyst for a multitude of emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.

If you notice a trend in your performance or thinking following a certain number of respawns, in dying during certain game situations, and it’s not desirable, you might do well with some self-awareness.

This means asking questions, like how am I feeling, thinking, and behaving. When does this tend to happen, how would I prefer it to be, and what’s getting in the way of that? As a very general example, a player who notices a pattern of becoming frustrated or thinking negatively and wants to change that pattern might use a respawn check-in for:

Breathing exercises, like counting breaths, inhaling and exhaling for an equal number of seconds, inhaling for a count and exhaling for twice that count, deep breathing with a focus on the breaths

Visualization to help you focus on something else, like calming images, tactics, strategy, what to do next time, things you’ve practiced

Certain words or short phrases that have significant meaning to you and remind you of what you’d like to be doing, feeling, and thinking.

Or, a combination of these things.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of defined solutions – it’s meant to get you thinking about how to optimize the time you do have ‘in the box’ and uses a frequent, general challenge many gamers face to do that. The Association for Applied Sport Psychology website has specific resources and tools. However, work directly with an experienced consultant is the best bet for pinpointing and refining challenges to your mental game. GLHF and be sure to practice mental strategies in ‘safe’ matches for a few weeks first.