Defining Game Sense (Patreon)

• LMA Curriculum

Game sense (also known as game intelligence, tactical awareness, or game "IQ") is a practitioner's ability to understand and read the flow of a game or match, make quick and effective decisions, and anticipate opponents' actions. It involves a combination of perceptual skills, strategic thinking, and situational awareness. Practitioners with strong game sense can analyze the dynamics of the game, identify patterns and opportunities, and adjust their actions accordingly to gain a competitive advantage. Game sense is a crucial aspect of high-level performance as it allows practitioners to rely not only on physical abilities but also on their mental acuity and understanding of the game. Ultimately, it is the practitioner's all-encompassing understanding of their game environment (which can include the match environment and the perception of the judges and referee).

The practice of isolated skills can improve mechanics, but game sense (sensitivity) can only develop from playing the game (i.e., sparring or having a match) or practicing games and tasks that closely model the actual game.

Game sense is exponentially more important than technique if the goal is getting better at the game. This truism has been a point of confusion for martial arts traditionalists for years but is the reason why someone who is "awkward" or not aesthetically pleasing but has a lot of fight experience (game sense or game sensitivity) can beat someone with better technique or mechanics who lacks game sense. Being a martial artist does not necessarily mean game sense, and though a street fighter may lack polished techniques or dexterity, if they have more game sense built from lived experience than a martial artist, they can beat the martial artist.

Being a martial artist does not necessarily mean live (or lived) experience, and when it comes to game sense, they can be the beginner to a street fighter. With a developed game sense, the street fighter can better predict, anticipate, and recognize opportunities than a trained martial artist.

Game sense is a better sense or sensitivity for the game, and in martial arts, a better sense for combat. Just because something doesn't look the way it ought to from a rigid, dictatorial, conservative view of martial arts does not mean it's ineffective.

Developing that sense for what's coming and the right path forward (the Way) comes from dwelling in the game environment. However, game sense is best with the proper foundation of movements and techniques. Game sense should develop through guided and safe discovery rather than trial-by-fire (street fighting). This allows for more games, a more developed game sense, and a passion for the game. "Game" means problem-solving, and only when seen as problem-solving, can one develop game sense to its fullest.

Game sense will not develop from isolated technique practice. Game sense and technique can develop independently—you can have one without the other. In Liberation Martial Arts practice, we prioritize game sense.

The "sense" in game sense is perception (or sensitivity). From constantly playing the game, you're training your eyes and other senses to perceive the game around you. Each game will always look different, so constantly playing the game fosters perception for every possible variation. You're collecting live data known as experience. The more data, the better.

In traditional training formats, you often center yourself: on what you can do, what moves you know, and your mechanics. This is relevant but only a tiny piece of the puzzle. The rest of the puzzle is the infinite variabilities you can face. The main crux of training should center the infinite puzzle rather than the finite you. But that's the game—that's the fun part. The fun part should naturally take up the most time.

For some, martial arts is a movie about themselves, and the camera is always on them. So it only matters how their techniques look and their own self-perception. They are their own audience, viewing the development of their own techniques, and that's the focus of their interest. It's third-person. They are the camera—the external eye. They are their own number-one fan, which can also be great.

But sparring is synced up to how we actually live our lives. Our eyes face out, not in. That's how we're designed to perceive the world. We can't actually see ourselves or what we're doing in sparring unless we film ourselves with an external eye. We can only see what's before us. Our experience is always first-person—our perspective, our view of the world. From the first-person, martial arts is about exploring the world and the techniques of others. We document all the various styles and practitioners we come across in our bones. That's game sense.

– Sam