Why does Ash have difficulty with first gym leaders (meant for beginner trainers)?

Normally when trainers go up against gym leaders like Falkner, Roxanne, Roark, The Striaton Bros., Cheren, and Viola for their first badge, it means they are beginners who recently caught their first few Pokemon.

With Ash however, even though he never actually defeated Brock, he at least made it to the Indigo League. Five regions later, Viola mops the floor with him. So how is an actual beginner (like Serena) supposed to fare against an OP gym leader like her if Ash manages to lose to her on his first try?

Would they have to do five regions worth of training before they can defeat the first gym leader in their home region?

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

In the anime, levels do not exist,andbattles are essentially done for substance and plot production.This is clearly evident in Surskit using Ice Beam to freeze the battlefield and Vivillon using Psychic to trap Fletchling in a Sticky Web and leaving it defenseless to Solarbeam. Anime battle are a lot more… vivid.

Think about it. If Ash roflstomped Viola, would there be any motive to train with her/challenge her again? No, not at all. Viola would barely see character development, and her character would quickly be forgotten.

Would they have to do five regions worth of training before they can defeat the first gym leader in their home region?

Ash doesn’t always have the same Pokemon.Ash actually only had 2 Pokemon on handduring that battle, both of which were not fully evolved, to Viola’s Vivillon and Surskit.

So how is an actual beginner (like Serena) supposed to fare against an OP gym leader like her if Ash manages to lose to her on his first try?

Serena actually witnessed the battle, seeing Viola’s tactics used against Ashe. Since levels don’t exist, remember, Serena could easily use these tactics against her.Also, Serena has Fennekin,which has a type advantage over Viola.

probaly because he is not used to the new Pokemon from Kalos. Also in the anime, style matters too. Ash may not be used to the style of the gym leaders. Plus, pikachu sucks.

In all honesty Ash is a horrible trainer, he repeatedly hands over several of his Pokemon to be trained by others, then never sees them again. He refuses to evolve many of his Pokemon making there excess of levels worthless because there stats never reach there maximum potential. Also Levels do exist in the anime it season 6 they are referenced at least 4 times on separate occasions.If Ash was a good trainer we would see him thrashing every gym with Charizard, Sceptile, Donphan, Kingler, Muk and he would of evolved Pikachu a long time ago, these where all Pokemon Ash has and leaves in his boxes and could be using to actually win a league.Ash is a sub-par trainer he always looses at the first gym and generally looses at least three gym battles and has to try again or wins by fluke like how he won against Wattson.