How do some of you avoid being "salty"? - Super Street Fighter 4 Question - sf4answers

Like many other answers, I and most others would agree that being salty is what keeps you from being a better player (and the assumption is that you don't want to use saltiness as a venting mechanism because it's getting you nowhere in terms of improvement); instead of going over what could have been done better in the match, you direct negative energy to the next match (whenever that might be) in a way that will contribute nothing and can have an adverse effect on your future performance.

Of course, that's easier said than done.  Just saying you should use it as a path to improvement doesn't actually help you actualize it, so here are my thoughts on how to get yourself there (note, that these suggestions are in no way a direct statement about you, but rather based on experience and observation).

The very first thing is to be aware when you are being salty.  It sounds stupid, but a good number of people don't actually know they are being salty when they are; in most cases, it's instinctual/habitual.  They accept anger and frustration as a general response mechanism to loss and a way to vent.

To this end, you need to learn to control your emotions.  To start, after losses, at that point in time where you want to run down the street and go nuts, take a moment to just consider an alternate course of action.  Just pause.  You don't even have to do anything.  Practice at catching yourself.  Granted, at this point, you are still going to want to vent, but you have to learn to crawl before you can walk.

Once you've mastered being aware of your saltiness, think about alternate courses of action you could take, maybe you go into training mode and wail on the dummy.  Or maybe you could play one of your more scrubby friends.  Or maybe just do something non Super Street Fighter 4-related (I know, it's hard to believe, but it helps).  Maybe even watch the Sega Rally 2 Game Over video (props to Ray Manuta on that one, that was genius!).

The point is, work towards directing yourself to something that is non-negative; it doesn't have to necessarily be an action that will help you improve your gameplay, just something that doesn't allow that negativity to take root.  Like Jonathan Binkley said, it's just a game, but at the same time, it's a game you don't want to have resentment towards.

Now if you've reached this point, this is where you can really, really start doing work to improve your game; now you aren't letting the saltiness control your reactions on a loss.  Now that you have a mechanism by which you can control your course of action after a loss, start to direct it towards improving your game.

This is where another vital personality trait comes into play, the ability to be honest with yourself.  If you aren't honest with yourself, you are never going to be able to admit your mistakes; without admitting your mistakes, you promote the (false) image of infallibility in your mind.  Start to take notes about the situations where you found you were beat, ask questions if you don't know the counters to those situations; basically, start making adjustments.

As an example, I was playing a Ryu mirror match, and I tend to like to perform meaty cr.MK -> Hadouken on knocked down opponents if I am not going to cross them up.  It so happened that I was playing a mirror match and we were down to the last round, and I had about 30% life compared to my opponents sliver.  I had just knocked him down (it wasn't untechable) and I went in for my meaty.

And then he wakes up with an Ultra 2 (Metsu-Shoryuken) to beat me.  I was shocked.  In retrospect, thinking about my mindset during the match, I wasn't even aware of which ultra he had.  Even worse, I wasn't even aware that he had Ultra stocked.

It was ignorant and it cost me the game.  So now, I make it a point to always look at my opponent's Ultra on the vs screen before the match and to do a mental rundown of the properties of that Ultra.  Additionally, I make it a point to observe my opponents EX/Super and Ultra meters when I know I have time (e.g. after performing an untechable knockdown).

It's a small thing, but I'm (arguably) better because of it.

So to recap, here is what you might want to try:

• Be aware/identify when you are being salty at the point it happens
• Find alternate courses of action
• Move from those alternate courses of action to analyzing and improving your gameplay
• Be honest with yourself
• Make adjustments after making honest observations

Here's the really good part.  If you learn to do all of this, it will help you with the games you have after your losses, but why stop just there? Don't think of it in the context of just the next game.  Work towards making these observations and adjustments between rounds.  If you lose the first round, and you can see the reasons why, it will help you come back that much stronger in the second and third for the win.

And of course, it doesn't stop there. Ultimately, you will want to work towards making these observations and adjustmenets in the middle of your rounds.  It's the quality that you will find most people competitive in their field (this, or any other) have, which allows them to make adjustments on-the-fly and win in the face of new, unknown, and/or difficult situations.

i get frustrated when i lose.  i dont take it out on my controller or the person sitting next to me.  i just try to examine what i did wrong and correct it in the next match.  

man i fall into that trap EVERY DAMN TIME it happened in a couple of matches tonight im gunna post em heres a list of thing you should NOT do

1. DON'T s.hp your CRT truuust me it 's harder to play with hurt hands

2.dont beat yourself up and i know this is hard especially when you loose to bullshit i.e (bad execution lag or w.e)

3. if you feel your on a loosing streak DONT PLAY RANKED loosing is 1 thing but taking your pp from 2350 back to 1100 MUCH MORE PAINFULL!

4.for some reason playing ssf4 for an extended amount of time makes your hands really strong DO NOT TWIST THE CONTROLLER having 3 diff controllers to switch through can be stressful

now for a list of things i do to help myself perform better

1.if you find yourself on a loosing streak og back to training come up with a strat and return to try it out

2. turn music on i personally listen to (sf3rd strike) (sf alpha 2 gold) (sf hdr) (sf ex plus alpha 2) (MVC) and (ssf4 balrog cammy dan seth and blanka have the best music) (all can be found at www.shadowhaxor.net)

3. turn music off sometimes hearing the fighting sound effects helps with your timing

4. go into the fight with the intentions of doing your best but having a good time make jokes out loud it helps take the pressure off yourself

5. Get with a clique i have alot of people i've met through here shoryuken animeboston or just online who are tourny players we bounce ideas off each other it beats paying mike ross $40 an hour for lessons

6.youtube youtube youtube my 1st main was fei long thanks to justin wong (thanks just) 

I hope that helped but  even if it didnt