Hello, fellow Sm4sh beginners, ATLTeemo here. All around the community, I found that most of the advice comes from people who are already either Intermediate or Highly advanced. My goal with this series is to present advice from the viewpoint of a fellow beginner. In this guide, I’d like to present a Training regiment since lot of articles offer an overview, but not anything to give you a format to work with for your personal use.
One of the things I like to do when trying to accomplish something is to first find an agenda for it This makes it so that it’s easy to measure, understand,do, and refine. My current training agenda is broken down to three days so it’s not a lot on me. You could take this same plan and adjust it to the needs of your character and time constraints to help it better fit you.
This is my Training Regiment for my Peach:
Monday: Movement & Recovery Options day (30 Of each)
This is my Movement & Recovery regiment. This helps me get my core movement options defined and helps keep them fresh in mind during playing. If you noticed, I don’t have rolling on there. Rolling isn’t too much of a good movement option, so it’s best to not add it into practice, so that in a real game you’ll utilize your other movement options and not compulsively roll. Lastly, how I practice recovery is that I use the custom stage above, and jump back and forth while grab the edges then on the first one I roll, on the second I jump and on the third I get-up attack. This gets you used to your options of getting on the ledges.
Addition: The Smashboards user Krokoza added some great advice. You can put the CPU on Level 9, and make it either run or attack you, so that you can utilize these movement options in a live situation. Also what you could do is have a friend practice with you who's better than a level 9 Cpu and have them practice with you.
Tuesday: Moves & Spacing (30 Ct each)
(Within Vs. The opponent appears on the top, but in Training both fighters are inside the box.)
Wednesday: Combo Day (30 ct)
This is my Combo Day Regiment. I took inspiration from the Avoid the Puddle article about formulating a game plan where he stated to choose a certain number of moves and after learning them thoroughly then expanding on the list. I chose to learn 3 combos for right now, so it doesn’t feel like it’s too much to take on at one time and gives you some variation that you have some combos in your pocket when the time comes. The best way to do this is go on SmashBoards and find your character forum and choose 3 combos (One for ground, air and platform based), and practice these on different boards and against a character with a different weight class each week. This will help you get use to different weight classes and reaction times. The best board I use to do this is Smashville since I can get a feel for comboing with a platform, but not having it always there like in stages like Battlefield.
Thursday: Setups Day (30 Count each)
This is my Setups Regiment. One of the hardest things that I find with being a beginner is that it’s difficult to kill. This keeps me focused on looking for the opportunities to look for kills. Sure, having only 3 set-ups makes me readable at high levels, but right now for my skill level this allows me to get something solidified before I branch out into finding more ways to take out my opponent. I use Smashville for this also because the ability to use for more of the board and slightly incorporate the platform into the training at times.
Friday: Freestyle Day. (10-30 counts)
I like to have a freestyle day. I use the freestyle day to make sure I fine tune things that I particularly didn’t like during my matches. This allows me to work on a lot of things without having to wait for next week and it keeps me focused on my personal advancement as a player. What you can also do for your freestyle day for is finding new combos, finding new setups, and researching ATs that have been found out for your character. It’s this day that makes the whole regiment no feel so rigid and lets you keep the fun factor.
Time Based Vs. Counter Based
One of the things I’ve looked at for advice during my SF days was Justin Wong’s “Training Room” article on Eventhubs and I tried the time based training, but what I’ve noticed is that when you’re already at an high level, which Justin Wong is, then it’s easier for you just to maintain your skillset using time based training. Count based training helps because during the 10-30 counts you get immediate results on what you were working on since you’re in and out of your training because the time you spend is based on each time you perform it right. This makes sure that you don’t feel burn out/boredom during training and allows you to personalize the regiment where you can feel comfortable.
I hope that this guide has been a help to you all, and if you would like to get more advice from a beginner mindset please let me know on twitter @ATLTeemo. Also let me know anything that you would like me to write about.
Update: Advice from Krokoza that needed to be added.
References:
Justin Wongs Article on Training Room: (http://www.eventhubs.com/columns/2011/sep/08/step-your-game-chapter-1-training-room/)
Avoid the Puddle: Iron Fist 101 Lesson 2: Game Plan
(http://www.avoidingthepuddle.com/news/2012/8/26/iron-fist-101-lesson-2-game-plan.html/)
One of the things I like to do when trying to accomplish something is to first find an agenda for it This makes it so that it’s easy to measure, understand,do, and refine. My current training agenda is broken down to three days so it’s not a lot on me. You could take this same plan and adjust it to the needs of your character and time constraints to help it better fit you.
This is my Training Regiment for my Peach:
Monday: Movement & Recovery Options day (30 Of each)
- Fox Trots
- Perfect Pivots (F-tilts for me)
- Dash Dancing
- Floats (Entering floats regularly)
- Quick Float Release
- Recovery
This is my Movement & Recovery regiment. This helps me get my core movement options defined and helps keep them fresh in mind during playing. If you noticed, I don’t have rolling on there. Rolling isn’t too much of a good movement option, so it’s best to not add it into practice, so that in a real game you’ll utilize your other movement options and not compulsively roll. Lastly, how I practice recovery is that I use the custom stage above, and jump back and forth while grab the edges then on the first one I roll, on the second I jump and on the third I get-up attack. This gets you used to your options of getting on the ledges.
Addition: The Smashboards user Krokoza added some great advice. You can put the CPU on Level 9, and make it either run or attack you, so that you can utilize these movement options in a live situation. Also what you could do is have a friend practice with you who's better than a level 9 Cpu and have them practice with you.
Tuesday: Moves & Spacing (30 Ct each)
- All Moves (30 for each different move. Except counters)
- Turnip Tossing
(Within Vs. The opponent appears on the top, but in Training both fighters are inside the box.)
Wednesday: Combo Day (30 ct)
- Dtilt>SH Dair>SH Dair>Up B
- SH Dair>Float Upair
- Float Dair> Upair>Grab
This is my Combo Day Regiment. I took inspiration from the Avoid the Puddle article about formulating a game plan where he stated to choose a certain number of moves and after learning them thoroughly then expanding on the list. I chose to learn 3 combos for right now, so it doesn’t feel like it’s too much to take on at one time and gives you some variation that you have some combos in your pocket when the time comes. The best way to do this is go on SmashBoards and find your character forum and choose 3 combos (One for ground, air and platform based), and practice these on different boards and against a character with a different weight class each week. This will help you get use to different weight classes and reaction times. The best board I use to do this is Smashville since I can get a feel for comboing with a platform, but not having it always there like in stages like Battlefield.
Thursday: Setups Day (30 Count each)
- UpAir>Nair
- Jump toward>Turnip>Float>Fair
- Down throw Turnip> Fair
This is my Setups Regiment. One of the hardest things that I find with being a beginner is that it’s difficult to kill. This keeps me focused on looking for the opportunities to look for kills. Sure, having only 3 set-ups makes me readable at high levels, but right now for my skill level this allows me to get something solidified before I branch out into finding more ways to take out my opponent. I use Smashville for this also because the ability to use for more of the board and slightly incorporate the platform into the training at times.
Friday: Freestyle Day. (10-30 counts)
I like to have a freestyle day. I use the freestyle day to make sure I fine tune things that I particularly didn’t like during my matches. This allows me to work on a lot of things without having to wait for next week and it keeps me focused on my personal advancement as a player. What you can also do for your freestyle day for is finding new combos, finding new setups, and researching ATs that have been found out for your character. It’s this day that makes the whole regiment no feel so rigid and lets you keep the fun factor.
Time Based Vs. Counter Based
One of the things I’ve looked at for advice during my SF days was Justin Wong’s “Training Room” article on Eventhubs and I tried the time based training, but what I’ve noticed is that when you’re already at an high level, which Justin Wong is, then it’s easier for you just to maintain your skillset using time based training. Count based training helps because during the 10-30 counts you get immediate results on what you were working on since you’re in and out of your training because the time you spend is based on each time you perform it right. This makes sure that you don’t feel burn out/boredom during training and allows you to personalize the regiment where you can feel comfortable.
I hope that this guide has been a help to you all, and if you would like to get more advice from a beginner mindset please let me know on twitter @ATLTeemo. Also let me know anything that you would like me to write about.
Update: Advice from Krokoza that needed to be added.
References:
Justin Wongs Article on Training Room: (http://www.eventhubs.com/columns/2011/sep/08/step-your-game-chapter-1-training-room/)
Avoid the Puddle: Iron Fist 101 Lesson 2: Game Plan
(http://www.avoidingthepuddle.com/news/2012/8/26/iron-fist-101-lesson-2-game-plan.html/)
- Applicable Games
- Smash 3DS, Smash Wii U
