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What Are Aim Trainers and How Do They Work?
In the realm of first-person shooter games, aiming is the main technique that is always highlighted and is the easiest to notice. From flashy flicks to crazy team kills, having good aiming mechanics tends to be a key focus for a lot of players of the FPS genre, but a good question to ask is: “How do I even train my aim properly?”. You may see videos all over YouTube and think that these aim gods have pure talent, but it all comes from proper practice, technique and dedication. However, one easy way to get this training done is by utilizing an aim training software.
An aim trainer is a software that is focused on teaching and training mechanics that are found in first-person shooter games. They tend to mimic or simulate specific games and allow you to copy settings from your game of choice in order to train yourself in that specific game. Aim Labs and Kovaak’s are the most popular aim trainers currently as they are developed by players of the games that they help to train, which include simulations and training exercises based on scenarios in the games themselves.
The main focus of aim trainers is building and strengthening muscle memory through repetition. Taking a specific training exercise and repeating it over and over to improve that specific skill over time. This can help to either learn a new mechanic or improve on the mechanics you already know, which can include specific scenarios in the game of your choice. Speaking of which, aim trainers also use tools such as custom scenarios based on the game that you play, specific tasks focused on types of aim, which I will explain in a later section, and also give you data such as reaction time, which side of the screen is your weaker side and your previous scores to give an accurate tracker of progress. Overall, they can act as either a benchmark, trainer or both depending on how you use them.
While it’s easy to look at clips like this famous clip by pro Valorant player TenZ and think that you have to aim like that to be good, you can easily build consistent and clean aim without the insanely flashy flicks and crazy shots all the time. Aim training focuses on this consistency and, as previously mentioned, aim training uses repetition to train muscle memory, which makes you a more consistent player. If used effectively, it can also train things such as your reflexes, which can improve brain health as a whole outside of gaming. Training general aiming skills also makes each new game easier to pick up from the get-go, as you have the basic aim mechanics down, making transitioning between games much easier. Even if you don’t switch games though, aim training properly allows you to be more in tune with the game that you play, which can improve performance and even make it more fun to play. On top of that, you will guarantee long-term improvement just by training and playing consistently, which helps quite a lot when it comes to FPS games or gaming as a whole.
When it comes to aiming, there are two main types of aim that all players will train, which are flicking and tracking. Flicking refers to the fast movements of the mouse, flicking from one target to another or quickly flicking from one position to another. While this is the flashier of the two aim types, it tends to be the more inconsistent one as you rely on your speed and reactions every time you flick. Flicking is an important skill to have but you should not rely on just flicking in order to aim.
On the other hand, tracking focused on stability and holding your focus on a specific target, keeping your crosshair lined up with them perfectly. Tracking tests your hand-eye coordination as well as your focus levels, as you need to follow the moving target perfectly in order to achieve good tracking. The best aimers in the world have a good balance between good tracking skills and fast flicking reaction time, in order to adapt to any aiming situation that comes up.
However, there are a few other factors that affect aiming that also need to be trained and these aim trainers have plenty of exercises focusing on these factors as well. The simplest of these factors is clicking and reaction time, which is purely based on the speed that you can react to different things happening on screen and click in reaction to them. This tends to be targets popping up randomly, changing targets quickly or reacting to a change of environment. Reaction time tends to improve over time as your brain gets used to the types of information that it is processing, which leads to cognition. Cognition is actually processing the information that you see and knowing what to respond with.
A good example of exercise training is having both red and blue targets popping up and you are only meant to shoot the red targets. This trains you to react to the correct targets, making cleaner and easier decisions during gameplay and allowing you to be more efficient in the heat of the moment. When it comes to cognition, this is also trained by repetition naturally as your brain learns patterns and visual stimuli to process, but movement and strafing are something that requires practice. Movement is the only aiming factor that heavily depends on the game you play, as the movement speed and mechanics work differently from game to game.
This is why there are specific aim routines and exercises based on each specific game, in order to be the most accurate training possible. Movement is very important as you need to be able to coordinate your left and right hands at the same time so that you can properly get those kills in game while, well, not dying.
Simply put, the ideal way to aim train is to do it regularly, without overdoing it either. You should have a set routine or playlist that you use to warm up before playing and then maybe a smaller routine to do after you’re done for the day. I recommend using a warmup routine or playlist that has been tested by others as this will make sure that you are focusing on the right things.
The ideal warmup and aim routine tends to be based on the RAMP protocol. RAMP means Raise, Activate, Mobilize, Potentiate and the RAMP protocol is a warm-up structure that has been proposed by Dr. Ian Jeffreys, a sports scientist and author of “The Warm Up” book. According to Dr. Jeffreys, the “RAMP” protocol is designed to optimize the contribution of each element of the warm-up to the overall process and to improve both short-term performance and long-term skill development. You can find a full Google Document detailing this whole routine, in the context of Valorant.
The routine focuses on slowly focusing on slowly warming up each sector of aiming in your brain, starting with precision and accuracy, then speed, then warming up your cognition properly before testing them all at once. This is an effective warmup that helps to put your mind in the right place and be warmed up before hopping into your next game. Warming up regularly also helps to make sure your performance is consistent, which is why a warmup like this is ideal.
So, overall, aim trainers are a really great way to level up your gameplay and improve consistently. If you love FPS games, then the benefits aim trainers give you may be hard to ignore, considering that a proper warmup or aim routine only takes an extra 15-20 minutes before you play. Not only does it improve how well you do in the game but it can also make the game itself more fun, removing the frustration of doing badly every game. I hope this helped to break down the basics of aim trainers and maybe it will help you improve in games too! If you want to learn more about Valorant specifically, you can check out my basic guide to the roles of Valorant agents!
You can find my recommended aim training resources below:
Aim Labs, which is free to play and available either on their website or Steam page.
Kovaak’s, which is paid and available on their Steam page.
RAMP Valorant Warmup for Aim Labs
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