What An Esports Training Program Should Include

 As a professional esports player or someone who aspires to become one in the near future, you probably have a weekly training program. If you don’t, then you should create one for yourself.

The Benefits Of Having An Esports Training Program

Chaotic training is far less effective and efficient than structured training. When you have a clear goal for your training session, your mind knows what to pay attention to and can make progress at a faster pace. And when your weekly training routine is well-planned, over several years you will get far more out of your hours than someone who does a bunch of random things and hopes for the best.

Remember that it’s not just how many hours you put in. It’s also how you spend those hours. In a worst-case scenario, you can run in a hamster wheel for 12 hours a day and make no significant progress.

Key Components Of An Esports Training Program

Here are 10 activities that you should include in your training program:

Solo Queueing

One of the best ways to learn something is to just do it over and over. In esports, solo queueing is what you’ll most often do to maintain and improve your skills. But the problem is that most people stop there, not realizing just how many other activities are required to improve at a faster pace.

Replay Analysis

If you don’t analyse your games and figure out what you did right and what you did wrong in every one of them, you might be making the same mistake dozens of times without even realizing it. If you want to become better, strive to get a deeper understanding of your strengths and weaknesses by watching your own games at 2x or 4x the speed. Discover your patterns and search for ways of improving them.

Player Analysis

In most esports, you have access to the matches played by the best competitors in the world. If you know your role within your team, find the best players who have the same role and study their playstyle. Watch replays of their games from their perspective and try to understand how they make decisions.

Taking Notes

Always take notes. Whatever you put on paper, you can easily read again or improve at a later time. Esports mastery requires you to assimilate hundreds or even thousands of lessons. Don’t keep everything in your head because it’s inefficient. Whenever you learn something new, write it down.

Coaching

Having a great coach is an excellent way of discovering your mistakes. You might not notice them on your own, but a coach will often analyse a replay with you and figure out immediately what you did wrong and what you should be working on to become a stronger player.

Physical Exercise

Physical exercise may not seem important when playing esports, but it actually is. Not only does it help you to prevent injuries, it also gives you improved energy and focus. The cumulative effects of having a bad posture and being sedentary daily should not be underestimated. When you do something for years, you want to make sure that you don’t engage in habits that can have negative consequences on your health. Even if you exercise for just 20 minutes a day, it’s still better than nothing.

Skill Training

Esports mastery is a sum of many different skills. Discover each of the individual skills that are needed to perform your role to perfection and then work on them. Trying to learn 10 things in parallel is often inefficient. Pick one and focus on it until you’ve reached a high level of competence. Then go to the next one.

Mind Training

Esports require you to make rational decisions in real-time, solve puzzles, strategize, and communicate with others. If you educate your mind in these areas by learning more about decision making, problem-solving, strategic thinking, and communication, you will become a better esports player without even realizing it.

Team Training

Most esports are team-based games, so it makes sense to train with your team as often as possible. You should discuss tactics, strategies, and everything else that improves coordination and communication during a game.

Meditation

Above a certain skill level, what differentiates good players from great players is attitude and presence of mind. If you learn how to meditate and work on your own attitude, you’ll be much more resilient in the face of adversity.