An Inner Scorecard

Jim Loehr talks about Goldman’s dillemma. Starting in the 1970s, Robert Goldman ran a long-term study in which he asked elite athletes the following hypothetical question: “Let’s say I had a magic drug that was so fantastic that if you took it once you would win every competition you would enter from that point on, with the one drawback that it would cause you to die after five years. It is cheating, but I would guarantee that you wouldn’t be caught. Would you take the drug?” Without fail, from the very beginning until he stopped the study in 1995, more than half of respondents answered “Yes, I would take the drug.”

As Jim Loehr was speaking, I expected him to finish the story “without fail, from the very beginning until he stopped the study, the top performers answered ‘no’.” The actual ending caught me off guard.

Why the surprise? What caught me off guard?

If chasing a dream really really matters, if we’re willing to put our whole heart and soul into the pursuit, then we’re relentless. We do whatever it takes. In a whatever-it-takes way the story would make sense. “Whatever it takes” means you take the drug. Maybe the language or framing we use traps us in the perspective we take and ultimately the answer we give.

At the same time,  I saw myself myself caught in a similar trap. I’m so used to prioritizing pursuit, to listening to researchers and coaches for hints and clues for higher performance, that had I was waiting with baited breath for Jim Loehr to finish his anecdote with a golden performance-differenciating nugget. Maybe the perspective I take limits the answers I’m ready to hear.

Maybe the gap in expectation I experienced was precisely Loehr’s point: that we’re totally caught up in a dominant culture that could be fairly described as “blind to what it was for in the first place: building character and serving your community.”

We might not always be able to see or articulate it, but we’re never more than one click or thought away from putting the proverbial cart radically before the horse. Putting profit radically before value. Putting results radically before impact. Putting stress (or recovery) radically over development. Etc. Etc.

This isn’t even a moralistic chiding, it’s just a straight description of what's been called scarcity culture. Loehr describes how in sport, in school, in business, in hustle, in drive, in winningness — insofar as pursuit is primarily of "more," it is exactly a race to nowhere.

Loehr asks: can you take character-building as seriously as results pursuit? Could you imagine yourself as a coach, as your own coach, dedicated with the same dogged intensity that we imagine in the greatest coach in his greatest season? Researching, tweaking, optimizing, consulting, creating, augmenting, obsessively working on whatever aspects of the game could make the difference?

Loehr answers: Yes, it is possible to coach ourselves on an inner, character-based scorecard instead of an external results or process-oriented one. The kicker is that we already do. We aren’t immune to the impact and/or lapse of our own character; we’re just habitually blind to it.

A great character scorecard does meaningfully drive (or sabotage) performance. But to jump back to the prioritization of external results is to miss the point. You don’t engage in character work to drive results. You work on the character that can drive results because capacity of character is what matters first and last. For as long as we propagate a culture that doesn’t even know that, even and especially in our own mind/voice/body, we do ourselves and those around us an immense disservice.

Circadian Clock

The most powerful influence over your circadian clock is light viewing, not sleep times.

how to rapidly set circadian clock:

- Within 30 min of waking up, 2+ min exposure to outdoor sunlight
Optional: add exercise, food or social exposure
- Around sunset, take 2+ min walk and view low solar angle
- After sunset, use dim and horizontal (not overhead) lights

- lowest body temp occurs 2 hours before natural wake time (ex: 2 hours before 7:00AM is 5:00AM). Light exposure in the few hours before lowest body temp (ex: 3:00AM) will make you want to go to sleep later and later on the following days, light exposure soon after lowest body temp (ex: 6:00AM) will make you want to go to sleep earlier on the following days.

- Inconsistent clock/light/activity signals don’t just screw up sleep, it screws up all chemical systems, leading to cascading performance and mood disorder.

- You don't need 7-8hrs of sleep per night so much as 70-80hrs over any 10 day period.

Marth vs Puff: alternate kill setups

vs grounded puff at 45-60%, low dair combos to pivot fsmash.
If puff DI/SDIs too high then you can react with dash JC tipper upsmash.
If puff DIs over the ledge you can FH dair.

From 60%+ a smash attack isn’t guaranteed depending on her DI but you can FH/DJ ff dair then techchase.
On platform stages, over this % range whether she will hit the platform depends on her DI. As such, it's best to assume that she won't and simply switch to a techchase in the (somewhat rare) case that you see she will clearly hit plat.

Fox Ditto upthrow flowchart

 this is what I do

0-50%:
  any DI: JC grab  

50-65%:
  No/slight DI: uptilt->hard aerial->techchase (see end of chain grab)

65-85%:
  any DI: falling upair. If hard hit, FHDJ upair kills. //  If soft hit, grab. 

86%+:
 upthrow upsmash kills. You might have to shieldstop to get strong hit. (NO DI)  (DI IN) (DI OUT) 

115+:
  any DI: upthrow upair 

if at any point they DI off stage:
  SH off (double)shine

Optional:
0-20%:
  any DI: upsmash->techchase/regrab 

30-50%:
  slight/no DI: uptilt regrab/nair

40%+:
  1 pummel before the throw is fine, 80%+ you can do 2.

50%+:
  any DI: upthrow->hard aerial->techchase/regrab

Platform Stuff

0-30%:
  50/50 FH upair in place // FH WL down JC grab techrolls. 

30%+:
  upair missedtech spot // if techroll then dash JC grab. 

~60+:
  The edgeguard from upthrow FH bair is easier than a plat techchase.

If you grab on side plat:
  no DI: refer to FD chaingrab (50+ FH bair)
  DI off towards the middle: run off->ff->JC upsmash
 DI to top plat: run off->DJ upair
  DI off stage:
     <50%: (run off/SD fair->)SH shine // 20% shine  20% fair  // 50% shine
     50%+: FH bair

(general note, % ranges for followups off of upair are very similar to off of an upthrow)


If you grab on the top plat:
  any DI:upthrow soft nair->fair or shine  // (possible DI mixup low% backthrow fair uptilt / high % back throw upsmash)

Marth vs Puff: some Fair combo variations

 

Soft Fair -> Dair:
From about 30-40%, Marth can true combo FH soft fair to dair. After the dair, if puff DIs to the stage, marth can techchase grab, and then pivot tipper fsmash puff for a kill. That means that with good execution, a FH soft fair at 30% can equal a kill! He can even combo a low tipper fair or a sideB to a soft fair.
After 40%, the dair will no longer connect vs combo DI but will connect if puff DIs badly, so depending on the position it might be a mixup with a raw dair. Puff can get out earlier with good sdi.

Dash SideB:
When puff combo DIs down and away, instead of reaching for a tipper aerial and ending the combo, it is better to dash a small extra distance and then sideB. After the sideB, marth doesn’t get a true followup without bad DI, but he does keep puff within reach of his disjoint and can reaction punish a commitment, including with a soft fair, so the expected value is significantly higher.

The heuristic that comes from this is:
when comboing puff, it is best to repeat SH soft fairs until she either DIs too far away, at which point you dash sideB FH aerial, or until she reaches FH height, at which point you FH soft fair dair.

Resting Gettup Attack OoS

 

Because puff is light, CC makes you slide too far to rest confidently past low %s.

These numbers assume no shield DI so there is some jump travel time. If you shield DI in so that you are right next to them after shieldstun and can rest them right away it’ll be a little easier than what is listed.

Fox lying on his front
front hitbox ~8f window
back hitbox ~11f window (be careful to wait until he starts to stand up)

Fox lying on his back
front hitbox ~5f window (be careful to wait until he starts to stand up)
back hitbox ~4f window (be careful to wait until he starts to stand up)

Falco lying on his front
front hitbox ~14f window
back hitbox ~8f window

Falco lying on his back
front hitbox ~15f window
back hitbox ~5f window

Marth lying on his front
front hitbox ~8f window
back hitbox ~5f window (can dodge by crouching under it)

Marth lying on his back
front hitbox ~10f window but you have to shieldDI in
back hitbox ~7f window

Falcon lying on his front
front hitbox ~4f window
back hitbox ~9f window

Falcon lying on his back
hit1 have to wait for hit2
hit2 ~5f window

Sheik lying on her front
front hitbox ~11f window
back hitbox ~11f window (wait until she stands up)

Sheik lying on her back
front hitbox ~11f window (wait until she stands up)
back hitbox ~9f window

Peach lying on her front
front hitbox ~7f window (wait until she stands up)
back hitbox ~4f window

Peach lying on her back
front hitbox ~8f window
back hitbox ~10f window

Puff is too short to rest, should grab or dair.

Puff vs Samus OoS setplay

 

When samus pressures puff's shield, you can reliably profit provided you have a good reaction.

• dsmash = SH dair/rest 

• fsmash = SH dair/rest

• upB = upB has next to no shieldstun, so a direct punish depends entirely on if they can make it to a plat before you can after a reaction. With a good reaction and pursuit this is a rest.

• jab1= WD away (if jab2 hits you can asdi down fair/dair)
• jab2= rest 

• tipper ftilt = 50/50 WD grab/WD or shield in place and react 

• non-tipper ftilt = SH aerial 

• uptilt = SH dair isn't a true punish but gives a favorable position even on block