How to Train Like an Esports Pro: The Psychology Behind Effective Practice

After working with professional esports teams across Europe for several years, I've noticed a pattern that tends to separate the truly elite level players from those who plateau despite countless hours of practice. It's not necessarily all about talent, game sense, or even mechanical skill, it's actually about how they approach training itself.

Discussion of esports training practices at Bett 2023

I've watched players grind 12+ hours a day only to see minimal improvement, while others might practice for 4-6 focused hours and still consistently climb the ranks and secure professional contracts. The difference isn't really the quantity of practice; it's the quality and intentionality behind every session.

This isn't just anecdotal observation. Research in psychology and even my own published work with League of Legends professionals has shown that many esports players are unknowingly delaying their improvement through inefficient training methods. But there's a better way, backed by decades of research into how humans actually develop expertise.

The Science: What Research Tells Us About Expert Performance

The foundation for understanding effective training comes from psychologist K. Anders Ericsson's groundbreaking research on deliberate practice. Ericsson's 1993 study found that "individual differences, even among elite performers, are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice" and that "expert performers continue to strive to attain more refined mental representations, which provide increased ability to control performance."

But here's the key distinction: deliberate practice isn't just "practicing a lot." It requires that "participants attend to the task and exert effort to improve their performance" with specific goals, immediate feedback, and sufficient recovery time.

This maps perfectly onto what we see in esports. In a comprehensive study of 1,835 esports players across multiple games, researchers found that training occupied 38.85% (7.75 hours) of total playing time on average, yet many players can struggle to distinguish between productive training and simply playing games (Nagorsky & Wiemeyer, 2020).

My own research with professional and semi-professional League of Legends players revealed an even clearer reality. Players described how "there was never any sit-down workshops. There was never any lectures, there was never any classroom sessions where we were like let's approach this in a structured way." Instead, they followed standardised schedules without always understanding the reasoning behind them.

What I've Seen That Works

In my work with teams competing at the highest levels across League of Legends, Rocket League, and other titles, I've seen first-hand how the best players structure their practice differently from those who can struggle to improve.

The struggling players sometimes follow what my research identified as "grind culture"; the belief that more hours automatically equals better performance over time. Which is of course partially true up to a certain level, however it’s once we get beyond that level that we really start to see a difference. One player described the prevailing mindset: "it's basically said that you should… like spam the game like 12 hours a day, you should play like every waking hour, you should play like 15 games, of solo queue per day, if you want to be the best."

But players who consistently improved and stayed at the top level often approached training differently. They understood that "if you're gonna play like three games of solo queue a day, which are like fully focused, and you're actually like being a bit more cognisant, then they're actually going to be 10 times better than just spamming 15 games a day, aimlessly."

So how did this actually look in reality? Well, elite players would set specific objectives before each practice block, review their performance systematically, and take deliberate breaks to maintain focus.

The Four Pillars of Pro-Level Esports Training

Based on deliberate practice principles and insights from my research with professional players, effective esports training  can rest on four key pillars:

1. Goal-Oriented Practice Sessions

The most effective training sessions were "where you had a goal in mind, like, 'Okay, let's try and let's try and work on this part of our game' and then actually have some sort of key, some sort of way of measuring that part of your game after."

For example if you’re a League of Legends player wanting to improve: Instead of jumping into ranked games hoping to climb, set a specific objective like "improve CS efficiency in the first 10 minutes." Use practice tool to drill last-hitting for 15 minutes, then play one ranked game focused solely on that metric, regardless of win/loss.

Or if you’re a Rocket League player wanting to improve: Create custom training packs focused on specific skills. Set performance gates like "hit 8/10 aerial shots within 2 minutes" or time gates like "complete this dribbling sequence in under 30 seconds." Only move to competitive matches once you've achieved your training objectives.

2. Focused Skill Isolation

Professional players understand that complex skills need to be broken down and practiced in isolation before being integrated into full games. As one player explained: "if you're playing a new champion, going into practice tool and just learning all their combos and making it muscle memory, that's super valuable. Because you can't play the game, if you have to think about your champion, it's impossible."

3. Performance Review and Analysis

Elite players don't just play, they also study. One professional noted how a top player "after every single solo queue game, he'll review it quite intensely compared to most people." This systematic review process allows them to identify patterns in their mistakes and track improvement over time.

4. Mental Skills Integration

The research shows that mental skills training can support performance, so it’s no surprise that professional esports players increasingly incorporate psychological skills training alongside mechanical practice.

The path to esports excellence isn't just about grinding harder, it's about training smarter. By applying deliberate practice principles used by expert performers across all domains, you can accelerate your improvement and build the sustainable training habits that separate professional players from everyone else.

As my research with League of Legends professionals revealed, sometimes the difference between those who make it and those who don't comes down to one simple question: Are you practicing, or are you just playing?

If you’d like to learn more or work with me to improve your esports game and train like a pro, then get in touch at abbottsportpsy@gmail.com or here.

References:

Abbott, C., Watson, M., & Birch, P. (2022). Perceptions of effective training practices in league of legends: A qualitative exploration. Journal of Electronic Gaming and Esports, 1(1). https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jege/1/1/article-jege.2022-0011.xml

Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363-406. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-40718-001

Nagorsky, E., & Wiemeyer, J. (2020). The structure of performance and training in esports. PLOS One, 15(8), e0237584. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237584