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What tips have you found to improve your mouse movement and control?

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Jonny321321

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I've been a long time casual PC gamer. However, despite considering myself average/slightly above average in the things I do play (CS hsmod deathmatches, OW, PUBG) I feel that there's something fundamentally wrong with what I'm doing, rendering my control lesser than other people particularly in making fine adjustments)

First and foremost, I can never seem to have a consistent grip. My hands get a little sweaty and I let my grip slacken, so it usually ends up with me loosely holding the mouse and just nudging it about, it works but it's imprecise. I own a G303 and whilst this mouse is slightly more accommodating for that style of play than certain others, it's not ideal. When I'm consciously gripping it more tight my control is a little better though. I've been playing with the Ninox venator too and if I death grip it with my thumb, I can play pretty well, but it absolutely kills my wrist through the strain of gripping it so tight. So I can get a match in before my wrist feels like it's going to fall off.

I'm always switching between grips on my G303, from one which grips the mouse with the top half of my hand (fingers) and leveraging my thumb on the curve for support or a claw grip (which I find difficult to maintain). The claw grip is generally more precise but more difficult to maintain and need a higher sens, less ability to make sweeping motions with accuracy for me.

I've owned so many mice in the past it's ridiculous yet I've still never found one that fitted me like a glove. I feel like there's one out there for me but none of those on the market fit me, I certainly think I prefer mice with forward sensor positions since I use my fingers for fine movements a lot. I have above averaged sized hands, but equally I'm not sure if bigger would be of any help.

Also I think my monitor is too close and since I have intermittent exotropia (left eye is a little favoured by my brain) it doesn't help with the eyes working together. I should move it further back but desk is too small haha. My visibility is pretty poor, once I can see the target I'm usually pretty good. I also feel that my eyes respond well to an increase in hz/decrease in blur like with lightboost, I do have a 144hz monitor but I hear there's 240hz ones out there now.

Posture, chair height and arm positioning are also things I'm not 100% on. My chair is the highest it goes but I'm not sure it necessarily helps having it this high since resting my arm on the table is less natural.

Of course there is such a thing as natural ability and that's fine with me. I just want to maximise my own potential. So, what are your tips for improving mouse movement and control?
 
#2 ·
Well if your fingers are slipping that much consider washing your hands with warm water and soap then drying them well before your gaming session.

If you feel your hands are relatively dry then perhaps you're gripping the mouse too hard in which case a looser grip would be better. However you said you feel imprecise which means your muscle memory doesn't sound too strong.

As for your monitor, you want your eyes to be level with the top of the monitor. You also want both your arms in front of you with like almost a 90 degree bend or around that. As for improving mouse movement and control, this takes time and a lot of it. Many people give up too easily or get frustrated and swap to a new product and think it was the reason they were behind when really it was just the lack of good practice.

One thing to really work on is when practicing aim in whatever game is your preference is to try and flick to a target, if you miss don't just flick and try again but recall how much motion you used and then use less motion. Once you eventually hit the target with a flick try to repeat that same distance/motion a few times. Once you feel you've nailed it keep that in your conscious and when actually playing THINK about the distance you actually need to move to make that flick - if you stop thinking of it you might return to what you did previously and overshoot. Eventually you'll 'THINK' about it so many times and do it that it becomes your normal and you no longer think about it but muscle memory knows that distance.

As for tracking that just takes time, good tracking is more arm movement than wrist - it's a lot of arm movement and very small wrist movements, if you rely on your wrist you'll eventually hit your wrists limit of turning and won't be able to follow the target anymore - also be sure to have a lighter grip which gives way less stress and makes tracking much easier, hard gripping was one of the hardest things to 'un learn' for me so it'll take a while but improved my performance greatly. The rest is just time.. but you need to work at it and be conscious of how much you're actually moving the mouse then it becomes natural. If you really feel you need to make too little or too much motion to move your mouse consider making a one time sensitivity adjustment and then leaving it where you're comfortable. I personally like to have it so I can do at least one 360 degree turn across my entire mouse pad. Some people like 180 degrees or more/less

edit: Don't worry about your monitor, 120hz+ is enough
 
#4 ·
glued sandpaper to the sides of my mouse.
 
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#5 ·
Probably the most important thing is to find a mouse shape that works for you. It might not be the most comfortable shape (ie large palm ergo mice), but it needs to be the one you feel confident aiming.

Now considering oil build up, I myself have had to abandon the g303 because the materials used on that mouse were to slippery for me to grip and the gloss top side bit made contact with my ring finger and touching gloss for me makes my hand sweat a lot more.

Also Zowie coating desont seem to work for me too well, its initially slippery in dry hands, then becomes really sticky during warm up but after 20-30 mins the surface builds up oil from my fingers and the whole mouse will start to feel like a bar of soap. From that moment on I loose control cuz my thumb has no ability to do micro adjustments.
 
#6 ·
It sounds like the g303 isn't the best fit for you. It's not typically ideal for large hands. When the correct grip isn't obvious when I put my hand on a mouse, I take that as a sign that this just isn't the shape for me.
Giving us more of your mouse history and when you like/dislike in mice could help us recommend stuff.

I'm going to focus mostly on CS since that is what I play. What in game sens and DPI do you use? I find lowing sens seems to help lower skilled players, however if you've been using the same sens for years it might be hard to relearn. Here are a couple workshop maps that I like to use to get my muscle memory back when it feels off:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=631839751&searchtext=training_aim_csgo
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=243702660&searchtext=aim+botz
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=368026786&searchtext=reflex
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=283144478&searchtext=warmup+bots

Spend 10-20 min on a couple of these maps before you go on a DM server. Goodluck!
 
#7 ·
how can u possibly be surprised that ur not doing well with the information u gave us? ur messy af bro. unnatural posture, monitor too close "haha", uncomfortable mouse grip, lots and lots of uncertainty. jesus.

1.

2. relax

3. use a mouse thats comfortable for gripping and lifting

4. find your style

5. balance ur life
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ncck View Post

However you said you feel imprecise which means your muscle memory doesn't sound too strong.

As for your monitor, you want your eyes to be level with the top of the monitor. You also want both your arms in front of you with like almost a 90 degree bend or around that. As for improving mouse movement and control, this takes time and a lot of it. Many people give up too easily or get frustrated and swap to a new product and think it was the reason they were behind when really it was just the lack of good practice.

One thing to really work on is when practicing aim in whatever game is your preference is to try and flick to a target, if you miss don't just flick and try again but recall how much motion you used and then use less motion. Once you eventually hit the target with a flick try to repeat that same distance/motion a few times. Once you feel you've nailed it keep that in your conscious and when actually playing THINK about the distance you actually need to move to make that flick - if you stop thinking of it you might return to what you did previously and overshoot. Eventually you'll 'THINK' about it so many times and do it that it becomes your normal and you no longer think about it but muscle memory knows that distance.

As for tracking that just takes time, good tracking is more arm movement than wrist - it's a lot of arm movement and very small wrist movements, if you rely on your wrist you'll eventually hit your wrists limit of turning and won't be able to follow the target anymore - also be sure to have a lighter grip which gives way less stress and makes tracking much easier, hard gripping was one of the hardest things to 'un learn' for me so it'll take a while but improved my performance greatly. The rest is just time.. but you need to work at it and be conscious of how much you're actually moving the mouse then it becomes natural. If you really feel you need to make too little or too much motion to move your mouse consider making a one time sensitivity adjustment and then leaving it where you're comfortable. I personally like to have it so I can do at least one 360 degree turn across my entire mouse pad. Some people like 180 degrees or more/less
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tips, I do have some muscle memory but I do need to pick a sensitivity and stick with it. I'm forever changing it (it used to be ridiculously low) and that can't be good for the development of muscle memory. I change it for perceived greater accuracy at further distances, though preferring low sensitivities is a byproduct of not being able to make fine movements properly. I do think this genuinely comes from the way I hold the mouse. I don't use my wrist for moving the mouse

In CS I'm roughly at 0.82-0.9 1600 DPI. I switched to 1600 from 800 DPI because why not.

I do have a habit of constantly changing my sensitivity trying to find the sweet spot, even though there's undoubtedly no such thing. The way my arm has been resting is having the lower-middle part of my arm on the mouse pad rather than my whole arm, I don't find myself as mobile with my arm fully extended.
 
#12 ·
On a whim I bought this product called gamer grip. It's a somewhat expensive antiperspirant for your hands. It does work. However, the downside is that only lasts for about 2 hours before I have to re-apply it. They say it can last up to 4 hours but maybe I'm extra sweaty.
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonny321321 View Post

Thanks for the tips, I do have some muscle memory but I do need to pick a sensitivity and stick with it. I'm forever changing it (it used to be ridiculously low) and that can't be good for the development of muscle memory. I change it for perceived greater accuracy at further distances, though preferring low sensitivities is a byproduct of not being able to make fine movements properly. I do think this genuinely comes from the way I hold the mouse. I don't use my wrist for moving the mouse

In CS I'm roughly at 0.82-0.9 1600 DPI. I switched to 1600 from 800 DPI because why not.

I do have a habit of constantly changing my sensitivity trying to find the sweet spot, even though there's undoubtedly no such thing. The way my arm has been resting is having the lower-middle part of my arm on the mouse pad rather than my whole arm, I don't find myself as mobile with my arm fully extended.
Click to expand...
That's a pretty high sens for cs but the most important thing is you can't be changing it regularly. When I change my sense in cs i expect it to take over a month to get back to where I was aim wise. You're going in circles if you keep changing it.

I'd also recommend putting your full forearm on the desk and try to get use to it (if you have the desk space). I found that more support for my arm reduced that variance of my aim.
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Melan View Post

Proper posture, hand and arm exercises.

I've found my old doughnut shaped hand grip strengthener quite useful. Stopped me from deathgripping my mice.
Click to expand...
Cheers feel like this could help me.

Quote:
Originally Posted by FatalProximity View Post

That's a pretty high sens for cs but the most important thing is you can't be changing it regularly. When I change my sense in cs i expect it to take over a month to get back to where I was aim wise. You're going in circles if you keep changing it.

I'd also recommend putting your full forearm on the desk and try to get use to it (if you have the desk space). I found that more support for my arm reduced that variance of my aim.
Click to expand...
I found trying good posture helped me a bit rather than lazy slouching like I typically do. Thanks, what I do need to do is decide on an apt sen, I've got to say that I am better in the finer movements with a lower sensitivity so i'll probably go with 0.7 and stay with it... I dunno. I uploaded a small clip of hsmod perhaps from the footage you can tell i don't have quite enough mobility with this sens. This is my typical conundrum: low sens = consistency, finer movements, distance. High sens = *more ability to turn rapidly, slightly speedier if some dream world where everything is a headshot. But perhaps it is somewhat to do with the way I do rest my arm, but plopping the whole forearm down doesn't help.

 
#15 ·
I find somewhat opposite results, but part of that is the low sens I use. I'm at 400 dpi 1.5 in-game and put half my forearm on the mousepad and pivot off of that resting point. Most consistent method of aiming I've found, and allows hybrid arm/wrist aiming the best.
 
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Discussion starter · #16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by mjc12 View Post

I find somewhat opposite results, but part of that is the low sens I use. I'm at 400 dpi 1.5 in-game and put half my forearm on the mousepad and pivot off of that resting point. Most consistent method of aiming I've found, and allows hybrid arm/wrist aiming the best.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's what I do too. Whenever I put my forearm fully down it feels like I'm limiting so much potential movement (which is necessary due to a lower sens). With the middle of my forearm resting on the pad I get more control over the sweeping motions. Interestingly I kind of feel as if my Qck Heavy isn't big enough to support the way I move my mouse even more noticeably with when arm is fully on the desk.

I never played that low sens, that's insane! For me it requires too much force to move the mouse, perhaps that's a testament to my worn pad (but then I go down that rabbit hole again of blaming my gear ha!)
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonny321321 View Post

Yeah that's what I do too. Whenever I put my forearm fully down it feels like I'm limiting so much potential movement (which is necessary due to a lower sens). With the middle of my forearm resting on the pad I get more control over the sweeping motions. Interestingly I kind of feel as if my Qck Heavy isn't big enough to support the way I move my mouse even more noticeably with when arm is fully on the desk.

I never played that low sens, that's insane! For me it requires too much force to move the mouse, perhaps that's a testament to my worn pad (but then I go down that rabbit hole again of blaming my gear ha!)
Click to expand...
This sens doesn't feel low to me in everything but when I want to turn around. 2 ig at this dpi even feel too fast now because I've used this sens for so long, and that's the sens I used to use. I can snap aim just as fast as ever even with this sens, just turning around quickly is tough and I have to make sure I'm looking in the general right area more than otherwise.
 
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#18 ·
I would have thought that at that high of a sens that putting your whole arm on the mousepad and mostly wrist aiming would be more effective than putting half the forearm on the mousepad.
 
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#20 ·
Crank that thing to 16,000 and get use to it over time.

Im use to 7000 everyday and gaming.
 
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