Excessive Dsmash

[Holychicken]

I have been playing quite a bit of netplay to practice my Peach. I'd say I win the majority of my matches, although when I run into a really experienced player I generally lose. The obvious reason is that they are just more experienced than I am, but a handful have mentioned that I spam Dsmash, which is something I already know. I feel like it's just my go to move when I'm getting school'd. It's gotten to be such a habit that I actually start using the move to bait people into coming down to get Dsmash'd. A lot of the times it works in my favor, but I really want to start being a bigger threat to higher caliber players.

Any advice on what I can do to fix my excessive Dsmash? The obvious answer is "well just don't Dsmash as often!", but I feel like that is my only advantage over other players.

 

[TimeSmash]

Well it really depends on what they're approaching with. If it's an incredibly obvious approach you could always shield grab, and don't forget Peach has high priority aerials like Bair and Nair that linger a little. You can float right on the ground, so that might help. Correct spacing is always helpful, and a lot of the time it's better to play defensive and get back into neutral. I hope some of this helps!!

 

[Holychicken]

Peach has high priority aerials like Bair and Nair that linger a little. You can float right on the ground, so that might help. Correct spacing is always helpful, and a lot of the time it's better to play defensive and get back into neutral. I hope some of this helps!!

I guess that's the highlight of my problem right there. I'm too reluctant to use Bair and Nair when fighting on the ground with my float cancel, because I feel like it takes so long to f-cancel and actually get the aerials attacks going that just dsmashing or dash attacking is so much quicker, so I would assume that's where the good spacing comes in?

 

[TimeSmash]

I guess that's the highlight of my problem right there. I'm too reluctant to use Bair and Nair when fighting on the ground with my float cancel, because I feel like it takes so long to f-cancel and actually get the aerials attacks going that just dsmashing or dash attacking is so much quicker, so I would assume that's where the good spacing comes in?

Well it doesn't have to be right on the ground haha. Even though Peach's wavedash is super short, it's a lot better to mix it up instead of going in for dash attack because your opponents will learn to shield it or react to it in some way and you will get punished, hard. I'm currently guilty of dash attacking when I get an opening on the ground, and you have to learn to restrain yourself. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by it takes too long to float cancel--if you mean initiating the float then I sort of get what you mean, but remember you can go into float from jump any time, and by being at certain heights you can limit the opponent's options. DSmash is a great, great move but you can't use it every time you get into trouble. This is akin to PM Zelda's Nayru's Love--it took a lot of people to get used to it as a panic button reaction, but people found its flaws and will get around it. That's not to say omit using DSmash entirely though, however. Just don't make it your go to move in a situation like that. DI'ing away from characters to generally get more room is usually nice, or DI'ing in a way that makes it hard for them to follow up on something is good too.

I play more PM than Melee, so take this with a grain of salt haha. But I hope some of it makes sense!!

 

[Holychicken]

I guess for whatever reason I have this expectation that I should be able to FC an aerial as I'm getting punished and the pressure is on. I'm guessing that's an unrealistic expectation?

What you are saying totally makes sense, and it's very reassuring to get some useful feedback! :D

 

[Nocki]

Make it a goal of yours to be able to FC aerial out of shield pressure. Because it is immensely useful. Also, from a frame perspective it is quite short to FC Nair or FC Bair, if you feel it is too slow you may not be that used to the motion so it's something that needs practice.