The Art of Warming Up

[voltimer]

Above all else, this thread asks a simple question: how do you warm up?

You might not do much, or you might have a whole routine you follow religiously... but what do you do? Why? Are there some insane secret tricks you use that guarantee you win after win once you hop into some games? Any weapon specific drills you want to share?

I also think some aspects of warming up are easy to overlook. For me it'd be warming up mentally too. You could do aim and movement drills for hours but if you're just aloof and unfocused you'll only be able to do so much in practice. I honest find Salmon Run a good place to do that and I always find myself sharper in pvp if I've done a bit of it first.

 

[sevenleaf]

honestly i'm still trying to figure out warmups, but my routine is basically just:

• wrist stretches while the game is loading and/or about as long as anarchy splatcast goes
• 2-5 minutes of aim drills in the lobby before i actually enter matchmaking

it's definitely not guaranteeing me wins. i think i need to spend more time with drills and probably do more than just the same aim drills over and over... i play dualies, so right now, a lot of my warmup drills involve dodge rolling and bringing my aim to the nearest target(s). also, dodge rolling around one target and trying to keep my aim on it. the big indestructible targets and the copy machine are useful for that one, since the standard ones might pop before i get to roll around them, lol

haven't really thought about the mental side of warming up. salmon run actually starts to make me feel brainless after a while (i think because i don't take it as seriously as i do PVP, i don't really study strategy for salmon run anymore like i do for PVP, so it slips into being my 'casual' mode), so that wouldn't work for me... not sure what would, though.

 

[Aiko.Octo]

Gonna keep an eye on this thread because I have been wondering what people do too. I've been hammering out a routine but I'm basically making it up as I go along and I have no idea how effective it actually is.

If it's the beginning of the day I'll go set off the shel-drone and then re-farm the eggs in Deadly Dance Hall. I have the pattern memorized so it doesn't really test my reaction time anymore but if there's something wrong or uncomfortable with my setup, or if I'm too jittery/tired, that level seems to be the quickest way to make those things apparent to myself so I can adjust accordingly beforehand. If I can get through it + grab all the power eggs without a struggle I'm probably good, and if not I can stop and figure out why not.

Then I'll put on an upbeat playlist and just kind of aim drill/practice in the lobby. I also keep a spreadsheet with notes on what I'm working on and how my matches go, so I'll pull that up and refresh myself on what I'm focusing on. The music helps with the mental aspect, I feel. I don't really drill for a particular length of time, I guess until I just kind of feel ready. If the maps in rotation aren't ones that I'm super comfortable with, or if it's clams at all (I always feel like I need extra warm ups for clams, lol) I'll usually take a few minutes and recon those maps too.

Then usually I will hop into one turf before I go into anarchy. This is more a habit to test my connection stability than anything because every so often my internet starts getting flickery and I need to reboot the modem to fix it. I'd rather find that out in a turf war than ranked, hah.

Most of my drills are just basic dualies-practice, so similar to above, but I really like drills that I can make little games for myself with. Like one of my favorites is to go into turret mode within range of several targets, stay still, and fire continuously, seeing how many I can pop before my ink runs out (I think my record is 11 but I get closer to 12 each time). To make it stricter on myself, if I overshoot any target I have to stop and start over. Usually I'll do this in three rounds-- in the first I can only use motion to turn and hit the targets, but I can hit them in any order. In the second and third, I have to hit the targets going in only one direction, using the R-stick as needed to turn, first going one direction and then the other. I'll sometimes do another little game where I'll start on one end of the lobby and work my way to the other end, trying to pop every poppable target as quickly as possible without missing any shots. (I guess by 'missing" I mean 'fired without having the target in my reticle(s)' not the inevitable RNG missing that happens sometimes regardless). I don't know how effective either of these games are for actually testing aim/mechanics since they're all static/predictable targets but they at least get my wrists loosened up and make me feel good/confident when I can pull them off well and that's part of the mental prep, I think.

All of that said though, my biggest struggle with warming up is that more often than not I spend way too long on it. Probably because there are so many days I never really feel ready and I'm anxiously-subconsciously procrastinating actually playing, even though I always have so much fun once I get started and I'll learn so much more that way(!!!). So sometimes I get so fed up with myself for Being Like This that I'll just throw myself in with barely any warming up just to try to get myself to actually play the game. And...honestly I'm not even sure I do much worse in that context, TBH.

 

[Madt123]

every big Splatoon related big thing comes I make a summoning circle to give me some luck its kinda weird but for some reason it works

 

[DzNutsKong]

To be completely honest? I guarantee you this isn't an optimal warm-up but it's still a huge deal for me if I get a few games of Open in before whatever scrim I have planned that day. Playing in voice calls is still pretty difficult for me so being able to ease my way into that by playing against usually worse players without having that extra thing to focus on and that extra info to put into my brain is very nice.

 

[QuagSass]

I play backlines, so I mostly just do aim drills for warm up. I focus on trying to keep my reticle steady and always on the moving targets. That alone helps me a lot since my hands can be a bit shakey in the first couple games.
I also like to squid roll back and forth as the game is matching me. Keeps the fingers warm in a way that simple aim drills can't.

 

[nineball]

my warm up routine consists of running straight into anarchy open and then doing the few stretches that i remember from high school gym class during my queue time. stretching really helps clear my mind and nerves, and the static plastic targets don't exactly help my aim that much for me, and i think we can all agree that the fleshy targets are more satisfying to pop than the plastic ones lol.

i also stretch in between x battles during the first 60 seconds (out of 80-120, screw me for accidentally picking tako div instead of ttek) of my queue time. i then spend the rest of the time mindlessly popping targets. they may not be as satisfying as fleshy ones, but i do like the popping sound they make!

 

[AKArien]

I too usually just play salmon run, because directly going in stakeless matches and losing them isn't great for my mental state and then i play worse