Crashday S23 - B

11:14 AM achievement 0 Comments

Due to another challenge from my friend, I had set my target to get A for this song. But it seems getting A is still too early for me although I think if I get around 60 misses, I should be able to get A. I do know that getting A with around 60 misses is really too much and it's pointless because most of the part I still get hell lots of misses and can't play really well.

Good thing about this S23 song is that it give me lots of chances to accumulate combo. Compare to other S23 song, I won't be able to play like this one. The only killing part is the stair in the middle and run+drill part before the stair. As for me, another hard part is the drilling in the beginning and ending part. That's make me miss too much.

I'm going to try a little bit more and try to get A for this one, and then I'm not going to play this level until I feel more stable at songs above level 20.

Unique D16 - A (1 miss)

11:08 AM achievement 0 Comments

I actually had full combo on this song quite some time ago but didn't thought of taking pic of the result that time. Now I'm trying to get full combo again but mess up a few parts in the middle of the song, and this time I mess up on the last quick twist part.

Not really a tough song in overall but just need to be careful of a few parts throughout the song. It's quite easy to miss if not concentrating enough.

Lucid D20 - A

10:20 AM achievement 0 Comments

Due to my friend's challenge me on this, I gave it a tried last few weeks ago. I had a terrible result that time because I just recover from fever and the best result I can get is B. Now I'm manage to do so much better in many parts especially the drill and run as I feel more energetic to deal with those notes.

Still, the drill are really killing me since my drill is really bad. And there are several parts that make me drill really fast and drill a lot. Those parts make me miss so much that I might not get A for this one. The only fun part drilling part is the continuous middle blue keys for around 10 seconds. At least I'm still can manage in the beginning.

As expected, this song is really great because it consist of twist, run, drill, a bit of triple, and a few stair in the middle and end of the song. One song that consist of all five skills. I can see that my drill and stair is really bad for such level. I won't play this for some time until I get much better in my drill.

Easy Entry level: Every level has a few easy song

5:29 PM speedertrain 0 Comments

Last Updated: 23th October 2014

After experiencing many different level and songs, you probably know a few songs that is quite easy in a certain level. Sometimes when you finish with a song, you might think to yourself: “Is this **** level? This is so easy!”. You probably played a song that is really easy in that level.

The songs are just there. We don’t know how the stepchart difficulty is being rated and determined. There is no surprise that you can play well on a song of a particular level, but can’t play another song in the same difficulty. It’s just the stepchart complication and overall difficulty of the songs that do the talk, unless you put aside the level and experience the real difficulty on your own.

Regardless, there are quite a few songs that are quite easy in each level. The good thing about these type of songs, are for people who want to enter into a new level to train and adapt to its difficulty. Although this type of easy entry level can’t guarantee that you definitely able to play songs with higher difficulty in the same level, but it can give you a good start on that level. At the very least, all easy entry songs in each level require you to have a certain level of stamina and skill in order to play and pass. If you can pass the song but couldn’t do really well, you can keep training with the same song to build up your skill, then get ready for another harder chart for that level. But if you couldn’t play well on the easy entry level songs, you probably need to reduce your level and train on lower level songs.

As usual, the song list below are based on my own experience and it’s not depending on any vote. I label the songs below as easy entry level by comparing the songs with other stepchart in the same level and analyze on the difficulty depending on the comparison. The songs below are easier to get A, and the overall stepchart difficulty is not that complicated compare to others.

Level 15

Heart Breaker (Fiesta 2)	A little bit of twist that you can find in level 10, or even much easier than level 10, in a few part of the song is not any big thing. The main thing through out the song is the triple notes and triple hold before the last part. Basically if you are fine with twist in level 10 and triple notes, then this one will be easy.
Nobody(Fiesta 2)	The only difficulty for this song is the freeze that is entirely based on the beat of the song. It might takes some time to get used to the beat but it's not a big deal. And then the last part will require you to twist a little fast to end the song.
Unique (Fiesta 2)	The only challenge in this song is the fast drilling notes. There are a bit of twists in the song but it's not that complicated and not really fast. So your main focus is the fast drilling throughout the song and the last part.
Fire (Fiesta)	Same like Nobody S15, you need to step according to the beat but this one is slightly easier. The only problem is the hidden notes that seems like you only need to step once, but the beats telling you that you need to step exactly according to it.
Good Life (Fiesta)	Since twist is a common skill in most songs, this one consists of many twists that allow you to test if your twist is good enough for higher level. The only tricky part is the middle part that make the speed really slow and you can only see a lump of notes all stick together. You need to read the notes properly and step fast, but not too extremely fast.

Level 16

Emperor (Rebirth - PREX3)	It's all about triple notes for a single mode. Usually you just need to deal with a long note with one leg, and deal with double notes with another leg. When you get used to it's pattern, you won't feel anything after playing this level 16 song. Just that the song is quite weird if you listen to the lyric.
Dr. M(Rebirth - PREX3)	It's about drilling from the beginning until the end. Just a little bit of fast twist in the middle and end of the song. This is good to train the basic drill that is required for level 16 and higher. Beware of the last drilling part, it's repeating for a long time (not that long, maybe 15 seconds) but it's fun to play and train.
Fire (Fiesta)	You are require to run for a little while in the beginning, and also minor twist and drill throughout the song. It can be a little tiring. The main thing is the flashing notes in the chorus that you need to read really fast when the notes suddenly jump up and you need to learn how to catch properly.
No.3 (Fiesta EX)	This one is a stamina killer. The overall stepchart is not so complicated, just some minor twist here and there. The problem is its forcing you to jump in various parts, and then make you run in the last part before you make a hard twist and end the song. It's a good song to train stamina and breath thou.
Pop the Track (Fiesta 2)	Several running parts in the song can worn you out a little, or maybe more. The part that could make your combo break is the drilling part in the chorus, unless you are good with those drills. it's not really a stamina killing song, but this one test more on your skills.

Level 17

Elise (Fiesta 2)	As long as you are good with basic twist, you can accumulate quite a lot of combo and can easily lead you for an A. The bigger problem is the drilling notes appear several time in the song and also some run in the middle & last part of the song.
Unique (Fiesta 2)	The drilling notes in several parts of the song can make your leg tired and break combo. The running part with some drills is the challenge here. And also beware of sudden twist in the last part before the end of the song. Other than that, the overall stepchart complication is quite low.
Baroque Virus(Fiesta 2)	It's all about drilling (again). This song test a bit on your basic twist in the beginning, and then the last part is running that turns into twist drill which can be quite tough. But in overall, you just need to make sure you are good with the drilling notes.
Crashday (Fiesta EX)	This running with a bit of drilling notes during the run is not that tough in the beginning. The only challenge is the stair and fast twist in the middle of the song, and the long chain of drilling notes in the end of the song.
Toccata (NXA)	This one test a lot in your twist skill. It can be quite fun when you know the proper way to twist. The twisting is not that fast, but not really slow. So you need to maintain the similar stamina when you play throughout the song, which is good as you can maintain and train your stamina, but can be a little tiring after your finishing it.

Level 18

Cleaner (Fiesta EX)	The only level 18 song that you can accumulate all combo before the half of the songs if you put in a bit more effort. With the front and middle part more like a level 12 song, the probability of not getting A even if you play really bad in the last part is very low. It's fun to play once in awhile, but I recommend you to play to train seriously on the last part when you ready for it.
Xenesis (Fiesta)	The good thing (or could be bad) about this one is the sudden twist for you to train. The lots-of-combo long notes can help you easier in getting A. The only thing to beware is the running notes and fast twist in the end of the song.
Love is a Danger Zone (Cranky Mix)[Fiesta 2]	Lots of twisting with long notes is the fun part here, and they give you a good number of perfects and combo. The thing that can worn you out is the sudden and quick twist throughout the song and also some drilling notes before the last part.

Level 19

Ignis Fatuus	This is one hell of fast twist song in most of the part, and then some hell of drilling notes in a few parts. Oh, and also a few hell of triple notes. In this song, playing well on the twisting part is the key to get A because most of the twists are in long notes, so missing most of them can be disaster.
Accident	A slightly complicated twists in the middle of the song is the best part to accumulate combo and get enough perfects to ensure you can get A. You just need to listen to the music and twist according to the notes. Other than this, the front part can be a little tough but you shouldn't miss too much. As for the last part, that's truly some type of typical level 19 difficulty. Just try to step as much as you can.
Elise	Apart of more drilling notes that you can find in its level 17, you also need to twist harder and faster for this level. The challenging part is the middle, extremely fast twist-drill-twist-drill and also the last running and twisting part before the end of the songs. The overall difficulty is more like a level 19 style, but at least most of the notes are still readable and you can keep training on it to build up your skill for other level 19.

Level 20

The Devil	Same pattern with the S9 & S12, the speed eventually get faster and faster. Since this one is level 20, the stepchart difficulty is higher. But at least the front and middle part are manageable if you really ready for level 20.
Lucid	It's a fun combination of run, twist, and drill song. You just need to beware of the sudden twist, it's not that complicated but your combo might break if you lose your concentration. The drilling is just fine if you listen carefully to the music, just make sure not to miss to many of them. As for the running, just go according to the song but stay calm. In overall, this one test a lot in your skill and how well you can listen to the beat. The skill requirement isn't that high so you will be able to pass this one as long as you have sufficient amount of stamina.
Passacaglia	Other than the hard and quick twist in many parts of the song, and also the hard drilling parts, one of the challenges is that, this song can easily make your leg tired, and then you felt harder to step before the end of the songs. But in overall, you need to accumulate more combo in the front part where the running, drilling and twisting part to increase your chance to get A. Before the last part, there are some easy long notes for you to rest and accumulate combo, follow by the hard drill with twist in it. As long as you do well in those part, getting an A might be hard, but shouldn't be too much hard.

Playing with Barefoot

1:04 AM extra-thooughts 0 Comments

Many people prefer to play with barefoot. Well, the biggest advantage is obviously feeling free for running around the game pad instead of feeling like you are tied to a few grams of burden. Additionally, you can perform all the skills much better compare to wearing shoes in most case. Like able to run really quick when you need it, twist while reducing the risk that one of your leg might kick the other leg, able to drill quickly when your leg has no burden, and able to feel and step on triple notes better. That doesn't eliminate the need of playing with shoe anyway.

I used to be a barefoot player when I was just started. When I tried playing with sport shoe, not only that I don't feel comfortable, I felt like my legs heavier by a few kilograms and unable to step properly. I keep on playing with barefoot until one day, my foot begin to have callus and it torture me for nearly a month, to the extend that every step kind of like killing me when I walk. When it was gone, then it appear around two weeks later. This cycle goes on for a few session, then I decided to play with shoes. It was the same, uncomfortable and bounded feeling at first, I can't perform at my best. But everything is about being used to it and eventually I'm back and able to improve steadily.

You might wonder, what's the good thing about wearing shoes other than preventing Callus or any other type of injury. First of all, it's not a good idea to get the skin under your foot expose too much on dirt and dust (unless you are playing at home and you clean your game pad all the time), the skin under your foot is very sensitive and thin. You can try to tickle it and see if you feel anything from that. In the long run, your might get some type of skin disease. It became worst if the skin got injured in the middle of playing and that particular area is full of dirt and dust.

But whatever mention above doesn't absolutely stated that playing with barefoot is a bad idea and you shouldn't do that. Just that you need extra careful when you play and you need to know how to take good care of your foot frequently. Some of the ways to treat your foot, as well as your leg, well is to have hot spa at home to relax and rejuvenate your leg muscle because barefoot playing apply lots of pressure directly to the leg. Massage is also another good method and natural way to treat your leg well. Just make sure you set up a schedule, don't get lazy and make sure you do what's good for your leg.

If you are too used to playing with barefoot, but you also want to participate in competition, especially international competition, it's better to train with shoes because the proper way of PIU is to compete and prove yourself NOT in a barefoot manner. You can still train with barefoot, but do remember that you need to balance up your skill between barefoot and non-barefoot at the same time.

'Push Yourself Harder' - How Hard?

1:14 AM extra-thooughts 0 Comments

There are always time when we want more & more, we can't ask enough. In PIU, we want to improve more, we want to be able to play like any top player in this world, we want to play really difficult songs that we currently can't play at all. So we push our self harder. We all do. Sometimes you might wonder, or you don't think about it all, but it's worth to consider this if you haven't: how hard should you push yourself?

"Everything that is too much or too little, is not good for you". That's the theory of balance. We want improvement, we want to be able to play really extreme songs that make us felt like we are superior like the others. Unfortunately, pushing yourself as hard as you could is definitely not the answer. You might be still trying or you sure that it's the right and only way because that's how you work it out so far. Even if you think that pushing yourself as hard as you can is the only way, I still insist on the theory of balance: Everything that is too much or too little, is not good for you.

If you used to push yourself so hard that you feel worn out after PIU session and experience something related to muscle soreness, minor injury/bleeding, feeling difficult to breath, feeling nausea or dizziness, cramp, feeling pain or sore in the muscle when you walk, and other negative impact that affect your daily life, that's what I'm talking about. Sure, you can get those even if you play easier song or play for fun, but the harder you push yourself, you get yourself expose to the chances of negative result.

Some people consider that they feeling totally worn out or really tired consider as improvement. Well, that's mostly correct. But you have to make sure that always pushing yourself at your limit is not the ideal improving method. Rest is a crucial key for improvement because it helps you to recover and replenish yourself with more energy for your workout next time.

I seen many people keep on challenging really difficult songs that they can't get A, or can't even get C. As far as I seen, that's what they do all the time. They only choose songs that they can't play at all. It's a belief that slowly building up their skill from highly difficult songs and as they receive more tough training by playing all these songs, they will eventually improve and manage to play those songs properly in the future. I won't say that this wouldn't work at all. Just that I haven't see anyone work that out. Rather, I always seen people got totally exhausted after the difficult songs and that's it, they can't play anymore.

So back to the question, how hard you suppose to push yourself? You need to push yourself not too little in the sense that you did sweats out, but couldn't feel any improvement at all in the long run; and you can't get yourself totally worn out every time and no matter how many years passed by, you still in remain the same level and difficulty. This is really hard to measure but the basic idea is: "Train hard to the extend where you felt it's hard, and stop before you really FEEL hell". When you felt like your throat can't breath in any more oxygen, stop playing at once. If you risk it and in case you damage your throat or respiratory system, it can cause serious issue for life. In the end of the PIU session, you feel tired but not really that exhausted, you might feel a bit of sore or a little pain but you are not injured badly, that's how you call training.

The more you practice in this way, the more you are going to improve. If you feel like it's okay to go a little more, make sure it's only a little more. Do bear in mind that having a strong urge to improve as soon as possible doesn't mean it's okay to force yourself to your limit all the time. Our body are only flesh and it has its own system that we need to follow.

Some people might take longer to achieve certain level, while some people take shorter time to achieve that level. Unfortunately, playing or training as much as you could, or as hard as you can is not the right way. Play or train in the right way is the key. That's talk about how you set up your training plan and how well you follow it, how often you train and rest, and other method to ensure that you are improving slowly but steadily.

Boss Level Songs: Every level has a few extremely difficult songs

12:50 AM speedertrain 0 Comments

Latest Update: 13th October 2014

If you played many different songs in the same difficulty, you probably know a few songs that are really difficulty in that level compare to other songs that is quite okay, or at least not that extreme.

For me, I spend quite some time to search for the songs that are really difficult in each level in order to challenge myself and see how well am I in each level. So I have a list of songs that I call it "Boss Level" in each of the level below.

The song list below are created based on my own experience and it's not based on any vote or people opinion. So you might not think that it's difficult from your own playing experience. If you have a much more difficult song to recommend or you want to share your list of Boss Level Songs with me, feel free to drop me an e-mail and let me know.

Just for your information, I have not tried every songs in each level below, so I can only list out difficult songs that I had played before. Unfortunately, I do not have much information about song level under level 15. If you need to look for any difficult songs below level 15, do let me know as I can suggest a few of them.

Single 15

Sorceress Elise (Fiesta)	The overall difficulty of this song maintain from the beginning until the almost-ending part. Twist and drill will appear several times with the similar pattern and there is any part that really allow you to rest. Unless you are able to rest with twist or run. The ending part make you perform two sets of stair from left to right and the other way round before a sudden hard twist to end the song. This is one stamina and breath killing song that need to have a good hard twist, drill and energy saving skill.
Hi Bi (Exceed - Zero)	A perfect song to train quick and hard twist in many ways. Rest is allowed in several part of this song. Other than that, you gotta give all out for really tough and quick twisting if you are going to perform full twist for this one.
Blazing (Exceed - Zero)	It's hard to expect an extreme type of run-twist available for a single 15 song. The hellish running part make you feel like you are playing a level 18 running song. Other than that, you just need to beware with some quick sudden twist to maintain your combo.

Single 16

Final Audition 2 (1ST - 3RD)	This song begin to make you keep repeating the run-twist method when the real part really started. The difficult part is the repetitive hard turning that you need to quickly twist your body to both side, right after you done performing a full twist. I lost count of how many times you gotta do that. You only know you can stop when the music slow down.
Destination (Fiesta)	With minimal rest, you need to give really tons of breath for twist, run and some stairs from the beginning of the song until the short and slow resting part, and then towards the end. A typical song that doesn't allow you to rest and you have to take this as a single 18 songs due to the amount of stamina it consume on you.
Overblow (Fiesta EX)	Running, running, running, and then some twists is not really hard, but not so when you need to perform numerous jump before that. And you have to perform two sessions on that before the last part require you to run much quicker and do a sudden twist to end the song.

Single 17

Solitary 2 (Exceed - Zero)	This song is awesome for many reasons. First is the music. Second is the minimum rest time for you: 8 seconds (Roughly). Throughout the entire song, there are parts that appear to be a short moment when you can take one whole breath, but it quickly kill that chances. Every time you finish one part and start on another, it's another bloody hard pattern that require you to perform another type of tough skills and it keep on consuming your breath while you doing that. Twist is the major thing here. Those drills, stair, and triple are there to make you waste a bit more energy and breath for a much harder twisting experience.
Reality (Fiesta EX)	The song make you begin with some fast running when the singer really start singing in good mood. Follow by some small twisting. Not long after that, without much resting time, you need to perform another hard twist-run that make you exhale heavily. But that's only half of the song. You gotta go on with more jump-twist that make you feel like fainting before you meet the final twist:- Hellish extreme twist like twisting in single 20 song.
Last Farewell (Fiesta EX)	Drilling is more fun now when you need to perform tons of twist and run at the mean time. When you are not twisting or running, your body have to keep on jumping for the drills. Oh yeah, you also jump when you are twisting. Just like the previous one, crazy twist awaits you before you have the last farewell for that part.

Single 18

Destination (Fiesta)	It's safe to say that this song has no resting moment at all. When the music became slow, you can grasp for a few breath but you still need to keep on stepping. What can I say? Non-stopping of twist and run for two minutes.
U Got 2 Know (Fiesta)	This entire song is in twist. But you won't be able to find any ordinary twist in this song. That is, every twist in this song make you feel like you gone to hell and just got back. But you have to repeat that again.
Sorceress Elise (Fiesta)	You can find some relaxing part in this song when you twist, and then it make you push yourself to twist a little. But the other parts will be ultra kill. Especially the drill and repetitive twist before the final run-for-your-life, with twist and stair, before the end of this song.

Single 19

U Got 2 Know (Fiesta)	You can see some ordinary twisting pattern in this level, but you won't be able to twist them properly after tons of tough time twisting harder parts and catching some tricky notes. As expected for a level 19 twisting song anyway.
Moonlight (Exceed - Zero)	Drill, drill, drill, drill.... (Repeat as many times as you want). If there is a comparison of the most drilling notes among all level 19 songs, this one definitely win. Not only that you need to drill on the slow part, the sudden twist also make everything harder.
Phantom Intermezzo (Fiesta)	The twists in this song is at least readable, although it doesn't reduce the difficulty and it's position as a single 19 extreme song. Imagine you gotta maintain the same, fast, twisting speed but with all different twisting method plus some quick drilling to make your twist harder to accumulate combo.

Single 20

Love is a Danger Zone (Cranky Mix)[Fiesta 2]	I consider all of the twists in this song is really fun among all love-is-a-danger-zone series. You feel that when you really know how to do the proper twist for this one. It's a great way to train your drill while you twist and make your hip more flexible.
Canon D (Exceed - Zero)	Apart of the great music, you gotta run like how the electric guitar sound. Sudden twist is very common throughout the song. You can imagine how fast the finger move when playing on electric guitar, just that the speed of the finger movement is apply on the leg. Twist is not the major deal here, crazy run with a sudden twist is the main challenge.
Dignity (Exceed - Zero)	If you are going to perform a full twist on this, then this will be the hardest single 20. All those messy and stick-together notes give you a tough time to figure out how to step in the correct order. And before you realize it, you ran out of breath for a long chain of stairs follow by some crazy run. Well, at least you can make this level a little easier. It's up to you anyway.

Destination S16 - A

12:59 AM achievement 0 Comments

Destination S16 is not an ordinary level compare to many S16 songs I played before. Single 16 nowadays don't really give me a tough time playing them, but Destination S16 is a level that make me think twice before playing it, because I had numerous experience getting really exhausted in the middle of playing it and couldn't hold up until the end of the song.

This song is like: Drill, drill, drill.... twist, stair, twist, stair, TWIST!, Run, Run, Twist. Rest.............. Run, Twist, Twist.... Jump Jump Jump, triple, End. I'm exhaled heavily during the resting part already, and I still need to push myself really hard to complete the whole song.

I don't really play this song often because I know it's really difficulty and breath killing. For my previous plays, I usually ended up with misses around 30+. I had 13 misses for this one, though the crappy 50+ great shows how unstable am I when playing this. I would recommend this to those who want to improve twist, run, and drill in one song, but it's gotta take me a little while before I seriously take this into my training list.

Be Alive S17 - S

12:48 AM achievement 0 Comments

My first try on this step chart. I saw someone playing the S15 one and I felt it's kinda okay, just a need to concentrate a little more in order not to miss. This one need slightly more concentration from the beginning until the after-middle part, and then in the end, lots of twisting and some stairs almost make me miss but it was kind of like a miracle that I got S for this one.

Will replay it again to get the final part more stable, especially the part where two stairs appear in the middle of twisting.

Is there anything I need to check before playing PIU?

3:56 PM extra-thooughts 0 Comments

Practically, when we feel like playing PIU, we can just reach the machine, put in some credits, and start playing any song or level you like. There is nothing wrong with that but if we want to talk about efficient training and ensure that you are in a proper condition before playing PIU, there are things you need to know and need to keep it as a practice.

Basically, you can think of yourself as an athletic. In fact, you are going to perform some tough workout unless you only intend to play some nice and relaxing songs with easy difficulty.

This is why, I always consider PIU as a sport instead of only as a game. Especially when I realize I had put down lots of weight after two years of PIU training. I used to wear clothes that are in L size which was quite suit to my size. But now I can wear clothes in S size or M size.

So, keep in mind that you are going to perform some exercise or workout, and try to practice what people usually do before they are going for their workout. Below are some general things you can practice to ensure that your workout could go on smoothly and nicely, as well as making your training more efficient.

1. Make sure you had your meal about 1 to 2 hours ago, and NOT 10-20 minutes ago. Do not attempt exercise if you still feeling full because this might cause serious internal problem to your stomach and digestion system. You might or might not notice it when you workout while your stomach is in the process of digesting lots of food, but it might causes unwanted problem in your stomach for the long run. It's not worth risking your health for the sake of playing PIU faster isn't it? But, you don't need to wait until your stomach is totally empty because that's result in you feeling hungry and don't have any energy for PIU.

2. Make sure your are in a fine condition for both physically and mentally. This is usually quite basic and without needing anyone to tell you this, but I still need to emphasize on this because sometimes people think that even thought they are feeling something not right, but it's not that serious so it should be fine. However, being fine means you are totally appropriate to perform tough workout and it's not causing you any problem at all. Make sure your breathing is smooth, no pain or anything around your throats; Make sure you don't feel dizzy or nausea because performing any exercise can cause such symptoms really bad (personally experienced on this one); Check and ensure that you have no external injuries especially around your leg and hand. Do not think that any sort of injury or sickness is fine until it get worst.

3. Make sure you perform warm up before you begin your actual training. Start with some simple stretching exercise, or begin with simple songs that allow you to slowly awake your body muscle and cell for at least 5 to 10 minutes. This would help to give proper signal to your body to react slowly and give you more energy as you goes on, so that you could go on training for longer period of time. Training without proper warm up can make you worn out really soon because you did not give your body a proper preparation and signal for exercise. For more information,in the importance of warm up, you can refer to "The Importance of Doing Warm Up Exercises before Working Out" By FitDay Website.

4. It’s not always necessary but sometimes you may want to check on the condition of the pads and the bar to see if they are functioning properly. Especially the bar, if it is loose or shaking a lot, give it a fix because you don’t want accident to happen when you are playing while holding bar. If you found anything not right, do contact the staff immediately to give a fix before continue with training.

5. Playing/Training PIU with a hungry or starving stomach will greatly lower your performance. Even though playing/training when you just taken meal is dangerous, playing with empty stomach not going to make you get any better. Make sure you had proper meal because food will became the source of energy before you proceed with playing/training.

Pavane D16 - A

12:52 AM achievement 0 Comments

Pavane D16, I'm unsure if I should say this is an easy or hard song for a Double 16. The good thing is that, the song give you quite a lot of long notes so that you can accumulate more combo and increase the chance to get an A. But in the end of the song you gotta go through a quick hell of Running steps and can make me a little tiring.

When I'm finally managed to get A (which is quite some time ago, I couldn't remember well), I got around 30+ misses. Those long notes are the key that give me the A. But I always get messed up on the last running part even until now.

In overall, I consider this one quite good to train your stability for Double 16. Try to get all combo for the parts until the drilling part before the running begins.

Hope I can get more stable on the running part and full combo this one.

Two Guys S15 - S

12:43 AM achievement 0 Comments

Single 15 is not really a difficulty level for me but playing it now kind of allowing me to measure how much I had improved compare to around six months ago or so.

Two Guys S15 by Baechigi is not that really that easy compare to other Fiesta 2 K-Pop songs, that's what I recall before I play to revise the stepchart again. I remember it used to be quite tricky for many parts as I will miss a few notes when I was new to this level. And it was quite tiring as I need to perform sudden twist many times.

After such a long time, I'm a little surprised that I could get S for this song. It still a little tricky as I almost miss one or two notes in certain part. Glad that I didn't and good to feel that I can play a lot better than before.

Gargoyle D20 - A

12:23 AM achievement 0 Comments

This result was taken at December of 2013. I did not realize it had been such a long time since I got my first A around that time. Me and my friends used to get really work up in order to get A for this song but it was really hellish to go through this one. I still remember I got a D for my very first try. I wasn't that good in such level that time. I seen people play this song and I could only wish I can reach this level but well, I somehow reach it.

I remember I used to get totally K.O after playing this song. If there is a 3rd song after this one, I will get my friend play it or I just play easy single song because I still remember how much I felt like I'm going to faint soon. At least I don't feel that tiring by now as I'm more used to where are the notes and where I need to go next. Better than that time when I usually spent extra tons of my energy to catch all the times.

Ten months had passed since I got A around that time, this song still make consider twice whenever I feel like playing it. At least I'm getting better to have the chance to get A as long as I'm in good condition.

Definitely make this my stamina training song when I reach the level where I can deal with such torturing D20 songs. And also, the song is really awesome.

Setting up Training Plan

1:16 AM speedertrain 0 Comments

Training plan, just like the sounds for it, is like setting a path for yourself to follow instead of keep walking without any direction. Of course, keep walking usually make you reach somewhere but you might not really feel motivated or you are just unsure where you are heading to. So training plan could be a key to allow you to think and try to figure out where are you heading to, and make sure you have a proper plan of improvement instead of keep playing/training and somehow wish that you will improve. I mean, usually you will improve but, when and how?

Probably you already following a training plan or you just have a thinking in your mind but a bit of deep philosophy, human mind is always unstable and we can’t ensure we will follow the decision we made from last time until now, and we won’t know or we just don’t care if the decision we made now will definitely last for a long time. So creating a physical and proper training plan can at least make you remember that you had made one decision and you need to follow it instead of forgetting. Therefore, a training plan can be very crucial and affect how well you improve in the long run and the only things you need to do after creating it is to follow and execute the plan without giving up in the middle of the plan.

As for the way to have a training plan, it vary according to how you prefer. You may get some papers and pen to write down how you want to train, what you want to train, and write a list of songs that you want to play to achieve your plan. So at the very least, you will need set a type of training method and also list of songs.

Beside this, you can also have more than one type of training plan so that you can switch training plan according to different situation like certain training plan might make you more tired at a particular day and you don’t want that, so you can use a training plan that is less energy consuming. But note that too much of training plan is like having too much of things to complete and you take slow amount of time to complete each of them.

Another point you need to remember is that, creating a training plan does not mean you definitely have to execute it until the very end. When you realize the training plan is not as good as what you thought, you can always abandon it and create a new one. This method is to experience many different ways to find out a method that works well for you through your own understanding. But make sure you don't change it all the time because that is not going to get you to any where.

Below are not all but a few training plan you can refer to, as you are welcome to create your own training plan according to your desire, in what way you wish to improve, or what you wish to achieve as soon as possible through pump training.

Steady/Stable Train

Consider as the most steady and fine training plan because this is usually planing for a list of songs that are suitable for your level. In terms of suitable level, it’s usually level or songs that is few level lower than the maximum level you can play. For example, if the maximum level you can play is level 15, the steady/stable level could be around level 12 or 13.

But this is also depends how well you play between level 12 to 15. You can consider stable to be less than 5 misses, less than 20 great, or getting at least silver S This training plan is to basically play the songs that you can play well and not too difficult, not to the extent that you felt really tired and wish to stop training, but allowing you to keep going on longer and improve your endurance better. Therefore, you can have a list of 10 or 20 songs and try to go on with the list and you can set a target, like changing the entire list when you achieve a golden S or SS for every song in the list.

Advantages:

• Less tiring
• Considered as not-too-extreme exercise that might damage your body
• Allow body to slowly adapt and improve in several aspect
• Ensure improvement of stamina and endurance in the long run
• Stabilize skills and accuracy

Disadvantages:

• Slower improvement in terms of skills and overall stamina & endurance
• Slow in increasing your maximum song’s level

Stamina Train

Stamina train can be very similar to Steady/Stable train but note that this is mainly focusing on improving your stamina. So basically the list of songs can be the same with Steady/Stable train but you might want to consider songs that could help in improving stamina instead of being stable.

In terms of training method, it’s best to include double and no-bar training because these two styles require you to put more breath and energy to play, thus relevant to improving your stamina in overall. Therefore, you can create a list of 10 songs and try to play all of them continuously to consider yourself succeed with this training at one time and keep track of how tired are you every time you successfully completing this training.

Advantages:

• Improve stamina and overall body system
• Gain better stamina to deal with higher difficulty songs in the long run
• Better tracking and measurement of your improvement if you execute a continuous training style using this training plan

Disadvantages:

• Might get yourself further away from the original idea of game play like improving accuracy and skills
• Lack of performance tracking and list of songs for stamina improvement might damage your health and lower your stamina & performance
• Require more time and study to understand the suitable songs that related to improving stamina because you only know if certain songs that suitable when you actually play it

Full-Combo (FC) Train

One of the good traits of a well trained Pumpers is the capability to full combo songs. Getting at least a silver S means you are improving in your playing/training ability because you are achieving zero miss and of course, you want to achieve zero bad with very little amount of great and good at the same time.

FC train is very ideal for people who want to have a good game play experience and getting better high score for better playing pleasure. Aside of that, as achieving higher score directly indicate that the player is improving his/her skills so it’s much like a result oriented way to tell if you are improving or not, rather than you just feel or observe from how many misses you had after several attempts on the same song. So you can comes up with a few songs, like 3 to 10 songs you think you can FC, or 3 to 5 songs you really want to FC, and then set a target whether you want to get silver S, golden S, or SS to consider yourself completing this training.

But of course, everything mentioned above will be useful only if you consider PIU is just a game.

Advantages:

• Better game play experience when you had a list of FC-ed songs
• Better pleasure of achieving higher score
• Indirect improvement in overall skill and capability
• Improve in concentration during game play

Disadvantages:

• Need to spend more time and efforts in a song rather than improving in other aspects and with other songs
• Might be much more tiring due to excessive energy to be spent to ensure you are able to FC the song

Achievement Train

When you have a dream, you will look forward to achieving it. Achievement train is very subjective depending on you desire because the terms “Achievement” here is defined by yourself and this training plan can be very easy or very hard depending on what you want to achieve. It can be vary but not limited to getting SS, golden S, silver S, able to play no-bar of certain level, able to play double of certain level, able to perform good twisting skill, able to perform good running skill, able to complete songs with one leg, completing all tricky songs, completing all music train, completing all skill up zone, completing all mission zone, and etc.

The difficulty of this training plan is fully determined by the thing you want to achieve, so you need to have a clear idea of that particular thing you wish to achieve and consider what you will be able to get or benefit after achieving it.

And depending on your desire achievement, you need to set the amount and difficulty of songs by yourself because you are the one that knows what songs are suitable for this training plan.

Advantages:

• Flexible difficulty
• Able to practice unique idea for personal preferred achievement
• Cover a wide range of improvement rather than focusing on single type of improvement

Disadvantages:

• Lacking of clear idea or unthoughtful ambition in the beginning could lead to waste of time and efforts
• Require great amount of time to think for your desire and figure out a list of relevant and useful method to achieve your goal

Skill Train

Skill train is basically cover the types of playing pattern as we experience or seen how other people play. If you look into Skill-Up zone before, you will see there are basically 5 types of skill, which is Twist, Run, Triple, Drill and Stair. This skill basically define how good you are as a PIU player because all of the songs basically cover these skill types especially in the high difficulty songs, you must be good with these skills to play the song well.

Most of the level 8 songs begin to test on your twisting skill, and 99% of the songs after that require you to twist and do some running and when the level go higher, you have to be good at all of the skills.

As for the songs arrangement, you can have entire list of songs that are concentrating on either one or two of the listed skills, like 10 songs to train twist and another 10 songs to train drill, or all songs to train twist. It’s alright if you want to include a list of songs that cover all 5 skills but it depends how quick you want each skill to be improved. The difficulty does not matter here as the main objective is to ensure you improve in one or few of the skills.

If you are serious with skill training, it’s good to always play Skill-Up zone and keep improving yourself in it because the songs in that mode are all specifically made for a particular skill.

Advantages:

• Concentrate to Improve in particular or overall skill to handle notes complexity
• Indirect improvement to stamina and game play experience
• Able to achieve higher level songs and much difficult or complex stepchart in long run

Disadvantages:

• Certain songs that concentrate on a particular skill might be tiring and might not improve too much on other aspects

Target Train

In general terms, the word “Target” sounds the same with “Achievement” but in the training plan, target plan is focusing on one of few level higher difficulty from your current level. It’s the same concept of look higher and bring your ambition into another level instead of staying in your safe zone. Many people has the will to go further and further because they want improvement, and they want higher improvement therefore, they need to set a target on somewhere they won’t be able to reach yet, then they will have to spend effort and find ways to reach it.

The fact that we will think about training plan actually means we have a target where we can’t reach yet, and we want to reach it so we need to do something to surpass our limit to reach there. It’s the same when we able to play level 10 songs, then we want to play level 11, and then level 12, level 13, level 15…. and the list go on. So target train is to set several songs that are consider tough or really difficult but we know that when we achieve it, the result is very rewarding.

So you need to create a list between 3 to 5 songs that you couldn’t play now, or you really wish you could play in the near future, and you need to spend a great amount of energy, time, and efforts to achieve the desire result. The difficulty can be 1 to 3 level higher than the maximum song level you can play. For example, if you able to play level 15 songs, create level 17 or 18 songs for this training plan and go with it. But bear in mind do not set song level higher than 3 because too much doesn’t mean better in this training plan.

Advantages:

• Faster improvement in terms of stamina and skills through hard training and adapting to higher difficulty
• Improvement in high difficulty eventually bring improvement to lower difficulty song
• Quick adapt and experience in higher difficulty song
• Better desire and motivation for improvement
• Better pleasure for achieving on higher difficulty or level

Disadvantages:

• Might face the risks of damaging health or bring down overall performance
• Body condition such as tiredness and various inconvenient will greatly interrupt this training plan
• Usually focus only on passing the songs instead of improvement in various aspects

Accuracy Training

12:06 AM speedertrain 0 Comments

Accuracy is mainly related to scoring system and the key to determine the total score you could get in a song. In case you don't think of it as a big deal, accuracy affect how much score you got in the end of the song and that's determine your position in all type of PIU competitions and tournaments, as well as world ranking.

At this point, I'll be talking about type of accuracy in PIU fiesta 2 only.

The very basic type of accuracy (duh~) consists of Perfect, Great, Good, Bad, and Miss. There is no official information about how to define the differences between each type. Most players know what it is and how each accuracy is achieved when they have more experience. Below is the basic concept an description of each accuracy:

Perfect - Step with really good accuracy when the note reach the note bar (the static grey note skin on top of the screen where you know you need to step when the note reach that place. That's how I call it). Like more than 90% accuracy,

Great - Step with good accuracy and lesser compare to Perfect. Approximately around 70%.

Good - Consider fine. You are still manage to step on the note but slightly off from the beat. Maybe around 50%.

Bad - Not good. You step on the note when it reach near to the note bar but it's not reaching the note bar or it's passed the note bar.

Miss - Totally miss the note.

*Disclaimer: Above description are totally based on own thinking and experience, as there is no official info about this (Or I just failed to find it). You will understand it as you play often anyway.

Next, you need to know how to get a good accuracy in order to get a chain of perfect and good grade.

Accuracy and Grade

Grade basically consists of SS, S, A, B, C, D, and F. Obviously, SS is the best and F is the worst. When you are playing in full mode, get A and above maintain your life point which determine how many songs you can play. Other than affecting the life point, grade also give your extra points if you get S or SS.

Grade SS - Get all Perfect only. Which means zero Great, Good, Bad and Miss.

Grade S - Get any amount of Perfect, Great, Good and Bad but with zero Miss.

Grade A - Get small amount of Bad and Misses with high number of Perfect, Great, and Good.

Grade B - Get more Bad or Misses with slightly low amount of Perfect, Great and Good.

Grade C - Get tons of Bad and Misses although you also get tons of Perfect, Great and Good.

Grade D - Manage to get some Perfect, Great and Good but Bad and Misses are too much.

Grade F - Well, you know.

*Disclaimer: Well, you know. (Duh~)

Now, enough with the basic. Let's talk about the training for getting better accuracy.

Training for Better Accuracy

First of all, I can tell you that I'm not a player with good accuracy. I start off with doesn't care too much about accuracy, all I care was combo. Even now, the max level I can get SS is level 12. However, that does not disqualify me from telling people how to train for better accuracy.

Accuracy training is a long term training. Let's say, you can get less than 5 great and a golden S grade for numerous level 10 songs, you can invest all your money and time in getting SS for all level 10 songs before you move on with level 11. I can't say that's a bad idea, I won't suggest it's a good idea either. If you are capable of playing level 15 well, let's say you can get S but more than 20 greats, you should focus on this level where you can train. Because training on higher level give you more benefits for improving your skill and stamina. Just remember that, the key is to train based on the level that suit you.

Another important thing that improve my accuracy rate to another level is this thing call "Beat". People who learn the music theory or play instrument should this well. This doesn't mean people who don't know music theory or instrument won't get it thou. For the details of listening to beat in music, you can refer to How to hear the beat of music by James Joseph. It's not a must to under the details of beats anyway.

Basically, when you listen to a specific music or song, you can try to tag your feet according to the rhythm. That sound that your feet tap according to is basically known as beat. Same thing in PIU music. You need to listen carefully to the music. Most of the stepchart of music and songs in PIU are really good because the step chart and notes follow according to the beat. Which mean, most of the notes required you to step according to how the music and rhythm goes. Getting yourself familiar with the music allow you to know when to step as long as you can see the note.

This is not always true because there are music that sounds quite messy, and you might also found some extra notes that are not following to the beat. Therefore, you can't expect every note is follow exactly to the beats and rhythm.

So, listen closely to the beats can help you not only to step at the correct time but also enjoy the music or songs. The main thing you need is "Focus" on the beat, and also see clearly how the notes cope with the beats in order to achieve good accuracy. Oh, and careful with some extra notes.

Additionally, listening to the beats is one great way to improve accuracy but not necessary the only way. If you found any great way that work your self, feel free to drop me an e-mail to let me know.

Overview: Speeder

12:22 AM speedertrain 0 Comments

"Speeder" is a commonly used term to describe PIU player who focus on playing and training on difficult songs to train different stepping and leg skills. The information belong is very basic and commonly understood by all players but I will try to cover some advance knowledge as well.
In terms of game play, speeder can train according to the following method. Note that I'm categorized each of the item below as with bar and no bar.

In case you are wondering, bar is the metal stick attached behind you when you standing on the game pad. It took me quite a long time to wondering what people meant by no bar when I was still new to PIU.

Beginning of BadKitty: Road to Fiesta

10:45 PM 0 Comments

"Beginning of BadKitty: Road to Fiesta" is a journal of improvement for me, IGN: BadKitty, in Pump-It-Up Fiesta 2. The word "Beginning" is just to indicate that it's the beginning of this blog as a record of my improvement and experience in PIU Fiesta, does not mean that I'm new to PIU Fiesta. In fact, I started PIU approximately at July of 2012, which is roughly 2 years plus by this date.