is it normal to start out bad?

im 15 and i just started playing chess 3 days ago and ive been playing around 3-4 hours each day, on chess.com and irl. I really enjoy the game but i feel like even for a complete beginner im abnormally bad. I'd really like to get good and maybe join a club, but i feel like with each game i make 0 improvement. I just make the same mistakes over and over. How should i improve, and is it normal to start off badly?

No, you're not abnormally bad, it's just that chess takes some time to improve. You have to learn the basics first, then apply them in your games. Your board vision will get better over time. I recommend you read a good beginner's book where all the basic concepts are explained. Check out, for example, Peter Giannato's "Everyone's first chess book", either paperback or on chessable. Have fun and keep playing!

#1
Play a 15|10 time control and take time to think carefully about your move. Always check your intended move is no blunder before you play it. Whenever you lose a game, analyse it so as to learn from your mistake.

Welcome to chess! I'm certain Rome was not build in a single day or a few days.

Of course you cannot expect to improve chess within such a short time frame. Take time to appreciate each piece and their relative usefulness in each game. You should first play to understand their abilities, and once ready (which will probably be a few more days), you can delve deeper into the game to see how the pieces coordinate together and how the game should proceed.

It's similar to how we learn basic additions in school before realising that these numbers suddenly evolve into trigonometry and calculus.

Hi there,

I had a look at a couple of your games. The big thing I have noticed is that you don't ever castle your king in a lot of your games. At your level, castling the king as early as possible will make a world of difference to the quality of your games, as it ensures that king is very safe and not exposed to enemy attacks. In general for the opening you want to push your central pawns (the ones in front of your king and queen), develop your knights and bishops and then castle your king. And once you have castled your king, don't push the pawns in front of the king. The king should be guarded and surrounded by pawns when possible. Glad you are enjoying chess, I am sure you will like chess even more when you notice that you are improving.

Well, he might not even be aware of what castling could be (I haven't looked at his games though), considering that it's his first week of getting into the game.

I took a look at your last game. It was a 15 minute game, but you took only seconds for each move, and the game ended with you still having 14 1/2 minutes of time left. I think you could have improved your performance by taking more time to consider your moves.

True, in which case the number one priority would be to learn how to castle. I am sure the easiest way to do this would be to look it up on google, or on youtube. The opponents in the games were consistently castling so I am sure valleyso has seen the move before.