5 Reasons Why your Aim is Inconsistent
May 31, 2021Let’s start with an often-overlooked reason, but in my opinion, the most common reason -- and that’s your ability to consistently position your body to your equipment. This includes how close you sit to the desk, your posture, arm position, and mouse grip.
The challenge we have as FPS gamers is every time we sit down to play, we have to figure out how to consistently position ourselves the same way time and time again. This can be a challenging and elusive task because it's difficult to realize when we’re just a little off in any of our alignments. And any minor misalignments could mean missing by a few pixels.
The second reason why your aim is inconsistent, which is the most obvious reason, but the one I know many of you are guilty of, is being consistent with your settings and equipment. Things like sensitivity, mouse, mousepad, resolution, crosshair, and aspect ratio.
I see too often gamers changing their settings every day looking for a quick fix. For example, if they are undershooting one day, they’ll raise their sensitivity, and another day if they are overshooting, they’ll lower their sensitivity.
Or on another day, they will change their mouse which feels fresh and new but then throwing you into that cycle of inconsistency.
The problem with this is that because as humans, we are naturally great at adapting and using our hand-eye coordination - so when we switch sensitivities, mice, and other settings, we can essentially play decent no matter any change. So this tricks us into giving us confidence if we happen to do well on the new change.
It’s fine to experiment with settings and equipment, but try working towards committing to a final choice - this way you can start building your muscle memory.
The third reason is you may need to create or revise your current warmup routine. Not even the best aimers in the world can instantly hop straight into the server and aim with their best ability. I wish I could provide some magical warmup routine that works for everyone, but there are just too many variables to consider. The major variables being which game you play and if it requires a large range of motion in the X and Y axis like Fortnite, or if the game is more horizontal like CS:GO, or more flicky motions required in Quake.
And other variables like in-game sensitivity, your playstyle, or if you prefer using a sniper gun or close-range weapon.
Some players are strict and regimented with their routine with every minute planned out with the same drills, while others only take a few minutes.
Work towards building a routine that replicates the most common range of motions that you use in your game and with enough time so that you awaken your hand so that you can feel the hand to mouse to sensitivity connection.
The fourth reason your aim is inconsistent is your energy level and state of mind. It’s no secret that less or bad sleep causes slower reaction and processing time, which heavily influences hand-eye coordination, but it also causes drier eyes which affects visual registration to see the crosshair and game models and textures. If you’ve had lackluster sleep the night before, you shouldn’t expect to play your best.
As for state mind, I mean things like if you actually are in the mood to play the game. I think we’ve all been there before, where we know we shouldn’t be playing, but we force it anyways, and most of the time, it doesn’t result in our best performances.
Before gaming, try and taking care of your real-life responsibilities and things that could be affecting your mental health first -- so that you can fully enjoy and focus on the game.
And the 5th reason, some days, you will face players that are simply playing amazing that day, and with the amount of gamers out there, you’re bound to face some that have practiced twice the time as you. And these players will make you feel like your aim is bad, but in reality, it’s because they know the stronger angles, timings, and positions - and these are the players you just have to tip your hat to.
