Reviewing Your Gameplay to Find Real Aim Problems

After a match you remember that a shot missed, but rarely why. A recording breaks a half-second fight into pieces: where your crosshair was, where it went, where it stopped and when you fired. After a few matches you usually find the same one or two mistakes again and again.

What and how to record

Many games have a built-in replay, and graphics drivers and operating systems usually include a screen recorder. Any of them works. What matters is a clear picture and a high enough frame rate to see the crosshair frame by frame when slowed down.

Frame rate: at least 60 frames per second, higher if possible. At low frame rates a fast flick is only two or three frames and you cannot see the movement.
View: first-person, what you actually saw. Third-person replays hide crosshair detail.
Scope: no need to watch whole matches. Pick 5 to 10 fights, both won and lost.
Sound: keep game audio so you can tell whether you set your crosshair before or after hearing footsteps.

Four points in every fight

Slow each fight to quarter speed or step frame by frame and answer four questions in order. Do not start with "did it hit?". Look at the process first.

Stage	What to look at	Warning sign	What to practise
1. Before the enemy appears	Where the crosshair is and its height	On the floor, the sky or far from the opening	Crosshair placement
2. Moving to the target	Straight path or curved	Up first, then sideways, in an arc	Flick path
3. Stopping on target	Stopped, or slid past and pulled back	Overshoot then correct, or stop short	Flick stopping, micro-adjust
4. Firing	When you fired, and whether you were moving	Firing before arriving, or while moving	Timing, counter-strafing

Note only the most common problem. After ten fights, count how often each stage went wrong. The stage with the most problems is this week's practice. Do not try to fix all four at once.

Common findings and what to practise

These are the situations that come up most in reviews, and what they usually point to.

You lift before you flick: crosshair height is off. Read Crosshair placement and focus only on height for a week.
You often flick past and pull back: not enough deceleration, or sensitivity is high. Focus on the stop when you practise flicks; see Flick training.
You arrive but fire half a beat late: confirming the target takes too long. Reaction drills shorten the gap between arriving and firing; see Reaction time.
The crosshair was on the head but the shot missed: you probably fired while moving, see Counter-strafing, or recoil got away, see Recoil control practice.
The crosshair jumps while following a moving enemy: tracking is not smooth, often from a tight grip or the wrist chasing alone; see Tracking training.

A simple review log

A few lines after each review are worth more than hours of footage with no notes. Here is the simplest format.

Date	Fights reviewed	Most common problem	This week's focus	Check next time
Week 1	10	Crosshair too low (6 times)	Crosshair height only	Height problem fewer than 3 times?
Week 2	10	Flick past and pull back (5 times)	Stopping on flicks	Fewer pull-backs?

A week later, review ten fights the same way. If the problem clearly dropped, move to the next one. If nothing changed, the drill may be wrong or need more time.

Review mistakes to avoid

Watching only the fights you lost. Won fights have problems too; the opponent was just slower. Watching only losses overstates some problems.
Blaming luck or the network. Sometimes it really is lag, but if the same thing keeps happening, the cause is usually you.
Forgetting what you saw. Without notes, the next review has nothing to compare against.
Changing too much at once. Five problems found, five fixed at once, none fixed well.

Not every lost fight is an aim problem. Sometimes you lost because of bad positioning, being attacked by several players, or fighting when you should not have. Those are decisions and movement. Note them, but do not try to fix them with aim drills.

Questions

How often should I review?

Once a week is enough: 15 to 20 minutes, 5 to 10 fights. Reviewing more often compares before any change has had time to appear, which leads to wrong conclusions.

Which is more reliable, trainer scores or recordings?

They measure different things. Trainer scores show whether mouse control itself is improving; recordings show whether that control shows up in real matches. For reading scores, see How to read your stats.

Can I learn from strong players' recordings?

Yes, using the same four points: where their crosshair sat before the enemy appeared, how it moved, how it stopped and when they fired. Highlight reels alone teach very little.

Once a review shows the problem, practise the matching mode for a week. Not sure which? Start with the skill assessment.

Start the assessment