Melee Fundamentals: A Comprehensive Index

How to use this guide:
People talk about fundamentals in melee, but no one really defines them concretely. Melee is a complex game with a lot of aspects to it, so it's helpful to have clear distinctions and definitions. Here’s my breakdown of each category (red), concept (yellow), and term (blue). Credits: I've been playing melee competitively for three years and have obsessively kept up with the scene since then. School and work has kept me from traveling to many tournaments but I'll still beat your ass!

Organized by category, each term has a definition, a catchphrase, and a summative bullet list. Categories are bolded, concepts are italicized and underlined, and their correlating terms are italicized and found below them.

It’s recommended you skip to the terms you’re unfamiliar with, or where your game is least developed, however you may find reading through old stuff to be informative as well, or it may help give you a different perspective. I made clarity and simplicity a priority.

Mindset is a tricky section, since each player’s journey will be different. I talk about how to approach the game not just in-game, but out of game as well, and that means different things for different people. I give personal examples for overcoming my own problems, which you may relate to or find a perspective that guides you to finding your own answers.

The Index:

• Neutral
  • Movement
    • Tech skill
    • Spacing
  • Zoning
    • Stage control (Positioning)
      • Keeping stage
      • Taking stage
    • Approach (Mix ups)
  • Baits
  • Crouch cancel
  • Momentum & Rhythm
    • Momentum
    • Rhythm
• Punish & Getting punished
  • Follow-ups
    • Combos
      • Comboing
      • Getting comboed
    • Edgeguard
      • Edgeguarding
      • Recovering
  • Mixups
    • Punishing
    • Getting punished
  • Execution
    • Punishing
    • Getting punished
  • Shield pressure
    • Offense
    • Defense
• Mindset
  • Mental warfare
  • Habits
  • Mood
  • Work
  • Body

Neutral - "What happens next?"

Consists of Movement (Tech Skill and Spacing), Zoning (Stage Control and Approach), Baits, Crouch Cancel, and Momentum

Neutral is a state of play in which both players have complete access to all their character's moves and have enough stage to be able to move around comfortably. The idea of neutral is to try and hit your opponent, and more specifically, open up your opponent and put them in a combo or an edgeguard situation. The dynamics of neutral consist of zoning your character in order to stay safe, and baiting your opponent into committing to a punishable option. In neutral, both players are trying to out-do each other. The player who gets opened up is the one who lost.

Movement - "Melee spoils you"

The movement in melee is unique in its complexity and precision, and aptly so because movement is what lets you do anything in the game. Movement is your tool to bait, zone, and attack. You want to develop as wide a range of movement options as possible, and you want the fullest control of your movement so you can position yourself precisely where you want to be. Movement is what allows you the options and speed to do everything you will need to do in order to beat the strongest opponents.

● Options
● Speed

Tech skill - "You did this from playing a video game?"

Tech skill is the mechanical aspect of movement, and the ability to do something. It's both knowing what inputs you need to short hop drill waveshine upsmash, and having the execution to pull it off. It's what gives you options in neutral and for combos. Simply put, tech skill lets you do more.

Tech skill by definition is also the most execution heavy part of the game. This means it's a good idea to practice tech skill frequently so that in tournament, you will be used to executing moves when you need to. It's important to note that in tournament, while your nerves are at a high, you will need to rely on your muscle memory and your subconscious ability to be able to execute what you want. This is the value of practice.

It's also important to remember that tech skill includes platform and ledge movement. It's easy to forget when you're practicing waveshines across stage that it's just as important to practice shine wavelands on platforms and ledgedashes. In a match, you will need to have good movement on platforms and near the ledge for when the situation inevitably arises.

● Options
● Execution
● Platforms
● Ledge

Spacing - "Full Control"

In this guide, I distinguish spacing from zoning, whereas others may mention them interchangeably. Spacing is knowing the distance that a certain action will put you and the timing for when to act. Good spacing is both choosing a jump and drift combination and knowing when to jump so you stay safe, but also bait people into whiffing. Spacing is the ultimate form of control over your character. Because you generally want to be close enough to be able to punish an opponent, but far enough to be able to avoid an attack, it's important to understand how to space your character using the character's movement options. Some commentators refer to this kind of spacing as "microspacing."

For example, Mango's falcon is known for his aerial drift off a neutral jump stomp. Most people choose to neutral jump and fade forward while focused on getting the hit, but because a neutral jump doesn't give falcon enough forward momentum to cross up an opponent's shield, he can easily be shield grabbed. Mango knows this and chooses a neutral jump fade back. This keeps him safe and because most people are used to falcon's fading into them, most opponents would try to shield grab and whiff, giving Mango a chance to punish.

● Stay safe
● Create Opportunities
● Different from zoning
● Knowing the distance, drift, and the timing
● AKA Microspacing

Zoning - "You first"

Zoning is spacing at a macro level, and it's different from spacing because the intent is different. When players are zoning, they are fighting for space and are waiting for an opportunity to push into their opponent's zone to get that open up.

When a marth spams short hop fairs, he is zoning. This means he is trying to establish a zone around him and he is trying to keep you out of his zone. Zoning can be achieved by putting up a wall of hitboxes that becomes unpunishable when the time between hitboxes is shorter than the time it takes for the opponent to reach you. These hitboxes can keep you safe while deterring sporadic approaches. However, while putting out hitboxes is sometimes necessary, doing so will make you vulnerable for a time.

For other situations, zoning with dash dancing can be very powerful if you have the range to do so. Dash dancing at a range where you can react to an approaching opponent while threatening with your own approach both keeps you safe and pressures the opponent. This ideal range depends on your character's dash dance length, your opponent's approaching range and speed, and the distance between your opponent and your position in your dash dance. You want to be far enough so you can react to your opponent's approach and dash back from within your dash dance, but close enough so you can put pressure on your opponent

When players zone, they are telling you, first, that they are reluctant to approach, and second, that you should be reluctant to approach. When an opponent zones properly, which usually means they are fading back with aerials or dashing away at a safe range, it means they can only hit you if you run into their zone. At this point you can bait them to approach, or zone back by holding your ground, pushing them back, threatening with your own zone, and punishing them when they do not zone properly. Note however that creating an impenetrable zone is practically impossible, especially when you’re applying your own pressure, so learning to spot or create improper zoning is a valuable skill that will lead to openings.

● Threaten space
● Stay safe
● Get in on an opponent
● Retreating aerials
● Dash dancing
● Find openings in their zone
● Throw off their zoning

Stage control - "Whatcha gonna do?"

Stage control is a condition. One player has it, so another player doesn't. When you have stage control, it is important to recognize that you have it and that you can use it to your advantage. Stage control is most prominently a form of pressure. It means you have center stage, which means your opponent is in the corner, which means your opponent cannot move as freely as they would like. Many players panic in this situation, which should lead to easy punishes. It is important to recognize both that the opponent wants stage, and that the opponent is more likely to panic. As a result, rolling toward center is the most common habit when a player is in the corner.

When you and your opponent are zoning, stage control becomes a prize both players are trying to win. Zoning becomes difficult the less stage you have since you have less room to dash back and retreat with aerials.

I don't have a section for positioning, since it is encapsulated within many other sections, but it's important to note... The goal of positioning is always to put yourself in a position where you can react to all of your opponent's options, while staying safe, while applying pressure. This is really hard and not always possible because melee is really fast and there are a lot of options. Reacting to an opponent's options applies not only in neutral but also while punishing.

● Pressure
● Positioning
● Option awareness

- Keeping stage

Hey, you have center stage! This means you don't have to commit to anything, really. You can wait as long as you'd like for the opponent to hang themself. A good guideline is to keep the stage that you currently have, to zone the opponent out and keep them in the corner, then punish them when they commit to something punishable.

● Zone
● Punish

- Taking back stage

Well crap, you're in the corner. You regret your life choices. But stay calm! Realize that you can stay in the corner for as long as you'd like; if they can't hit you when you're in the corner, then the corner's not so bad. Either wait for the opponent to commit to hitting you or bait them into committing, and take that opportunity to punish or just take stage. Suddenly, they're in the corner and you have stage control.

● Keep calm
● Bait

Approach - "With two AKs"

An approach is defined by its committal nature while zoning is defined by its noncommittal nature. An approach always come with risk: while it beats some options, it may lose to some others. Approaches can be calculated risks, designed to beat a majority of predictable options while losing to one or two uncommon ones. Understanding your opponent’s habits and predicting their responses can help you determine how to approach successfully. The goal of an approach is to straight up beat the opponent's defensive option. Trades are no good if you don’t come out on top.

This is what the decision-making process looks like. A move's priority is defined by how quickly it comes out, how long it stays out, and whether it’s big enough to avoid trades. For spacies, dair outprioritizes most attacks, covering well in front of them, cannot be crouch canceled, and shine lets them avoid a punish after hitting a shield properly. However, dair has 9 frames of l-cancel lag and can be dash dance grabbed with precise spacing. Dair also doesn’t cover above spacies very well and can be countered with falling hitboxes. Fox’s dair can also be smash DI’d. The opponent could also approach with shield, forcing the dair to connect high and unsafely. When choosing to approach with dair, you’re betting that they won’t do any of these things to counter it.

There’s an omnipresent mix-up game inherent in neutral, and it depends on the approach. Consider the following situations (and assume neither player will make tech errors). If both players approach at the same time, the one with the better priority or spacing wins. If one player approaches while the other is zoning, the approach will win if it counters that specific kind of zoning and will lose if it doesn’t. If one player expects an approach and counterattacks preemptively, then the other player will win if they don’t approach. Predicting what your opponent will do based on the context of the situation and mixing up your approaches accordingly defines how you win neutral.

While neutral between two TAS bots could consist of two characters forever zoning each other out and nobody approaching, that’s not the case between real players. Melee is too fast, and once you’re close enough, you can’t react to a good approach, so you'll have to do something. If you let your guard down, falcon will stupidly jump at you with a nair and knee you.

● Plow through their defensive option
● Understanding an opponent's tendencies and how to beat it
● Mixing up your approach options when they mix up their defensive options

Baits - "Tempting, I know"

What if I told you there was a way to win neutral without committing the way you do during an approach? Fortunately, approaching is not the only way to get hits! The safest way to land a hit, is to punish an opponent after they miss something. The idea of baiting is to not only convince the opponent to commit to something punishable, but to also stay safe the whole time.

Dash dancing is the most common form of the bait. You dash in to appear like you're going to attack, but you don't because they still have access to all their options. You dash out to avoid their counter attack, and now that they have committed to an option that puts them in lag, you dash in to punish the whiff. Other baits include whiffing an aerial from a safe distance, escaping, and punishing them when they try to punish you; or, conditioning an opponent to expect a grab in order to hard punish a spotdodge.

Baiting may be the most valuable tool in neutral. It takes advantage of a person's fear, biased judgment, and non-instant reaction time in order to create a safe punish. Understanding how to bait an opponent is understanding the highest level of melee.

● Safe
● Appealing
● Apply pressure for better baits

Crouch cancel - "Wow ok"

Crouch canceling is a unique mechanic in melee that adds another dimension to neutral. When you are crouching, knockback is reduced to 2/3 of what it would be and at lower percents, you can avoid knockdown all together. This means after taking a hit that's too weak to cause knockdown after reduced knockback, you won't get launched in the air and can counterattack right after. When you get hit and are holding down but you are not in the crouching state, you won't crouch cancel it to reduce knockback, and will instead ASDI down, which can still keep you from being launched, but only at lower percentages and from weaker hits. You have to be mindful of when to use it and when your opponent can use it, as there are counters to crouch canceling, too.

Playing with crouch canceling in your game means you should be more aware of neutral at lower percents. Dashing nairs are no good vs a peach at zero. Realize if you're having a hard time cleaning up a stock after losing your own, you can let the opponent hit you for a free punish. Also, know that crouch canceling doesn't work against spikes, meteors, and grabs.

● Loses to grab and certain moves
● Play the percentage
● Take hits to get an opening

Momentum & Rhythm - "Ebb & Flow"

Momentum is a condition that is determined from a number of factors. Either one player has it, the other player has it, or no one has it. Having the momentum means the pressure is on your opponent, either to make a move or continue to get bodied. Gaining momentum consists of outplaying the opponent, playing mind games, putting them on tilt, or overrunning them.

Rhythm is an observable phenomenon that is a factor of momentum. When a player with the momentum is steamrolling the other player, they are probably playing at a faster yet more comfortable rhythm than their opponent. A player getting run over may feel overwhelmed by the other player's rhythm because they cannot match that rhythm, either because they are getting stuffed, stuck in shield, or corner pressured frequently. On the other extreme, when a player with momentum seems to be in complete control, they may be playing at a slower yet more calculated rhythm. The player not in control is always getting their approaches stuffed, locked down in long punish strings, trapped at the edge, and unable to penetrate their opponent’s zone.

Momentum

Momentum, most prominently, is a feeling you can experience mid-game. When you're having trouble finding hits, when everything you do gets you punished, when you're getting caught in long combos, then you don't have the momentum and you need to play against it. On the flip side, when you have the momentum and you're playing against someone at an equal or greater level, learning to keep that momentum will help you win games and win sets. Momentum is a powerful atmosphere you can create to cast yourself over your opponent.

Having momentum means your baits are going to be more persuasive, your punishes are going to seem more deadly, your zoning is going to appear more impenetrable, and your character - with all its energy it is exuding onscreen - will feel more intimidating. These appearances mean you don't have to commit to anything dangerous. It makes your opponent feel like if they are to win, they need to make a move. Momentum puts pressure on the player who is down, and different players will react differently, but most people tend to crack under the right kind of pressure. Some players may become foolhardy, some may become more passive. However, most players will be more likely to make mistakes, and most will fall back onto their habits. The key is knowing the counters to their adaptation, and being prepared to punish a mistake. It also helps that you're up in the game and you have the time and leisure to experiment, observe, and widen your lead.

If it's your opponent who has the momentum, it is important to stay composed and to be aware that you do not need to do anything hasty. Know that it is likely that your opponent is getting comfortable with their lead, that they may start playing to their lead, and that you should avoid giving them any freebies. If your opponent has a strong read on what you are doing, you may want to change up your style in neutral, whether it be playing more defensively or approaching differently. Know that you don't have to force anything right away that may be unfavorable for you, and take the time to get comfortable again.

When momentum is strong against you, you can drop stocks very quickly. One strategy is to switch your focus to playing evasively. Realize if you're having trouble getting hits in neutral, you don't have to go for anything that might get you punished. If you can avoid getting hit for a while, even if you aren't hitting them, you let your opponent's momentum die down, and you tell your opponent that you are not going to come to them; at which point your opponent will either think they have to come to you and are more likely to overcommit, or they will let you camp for a while as they hold stage, giving you the time to recompose, think about what situations are not working, and consider options they won't be expecting. This also forces you to be pickier about what you want to commit to. When you focus on avoiding hits, you stop focusing on getting hits, so you are less likely to rush into punishes that may not actually be safe. Instead, you will see situations where you know you can get a punish and assure yourself a safer commitment.

● Let it carry you and mix up your opponent
● Learn to create your own momentum
● Learn to fight against your opponent's momentum

Rhythm

Rhythm is the pace at which the game is progressing. There’s an idea that melee is all about speed and being the fastest. If two players are constantly approaching each other, the game moves very quickly, and if the players can both punish, the game ends very quickly. This means less time to think about what happened, less time to adapt your playstyle to counter your opponent, and less precision in decision-making and in execution. This is fine if you are convincingly the better player and you are able to brute force your way to victory, but it doesn’t help you practice the mental and strategic side of melee. The game becomes who can outspeed and outmaneuver the other player, and less about who can adapt the best and outplay the other person. Execution deserves practicing too, but it’s often not the main thing holding you back. When you get stuck in the mindset that you need to play fast, you stop thinking about your opponent as a smart player who is trying to counter your actions, because you are only focused on your own moves. Some people are amazing and can do the mental stuff intuitively, but most people need to slow it down to be able to see their options and their opponent's options.

Rhythm is a state of play. Most players have preferences of what speed at which they like to play. But melee is not a single-player game; it is not up to one player to determine the rhythm of the game. If you become comfortable with playing at varying rhythms, you can force your opponent into playing at a rhythm that's uncomfortable for them. Some players can't handle the rush-down style of fast pressure, and some players get antsy when forced to slow down. When you become aware of the game's current rhythm, you can change your approach in neutral to either slow things down or speed things up, thus creating new opportunities.

Rhythm can also be a form of conditioning. Just as your opponent thinks you are playing very slowly and calculated, you can change it up and rush them down. When your opponent starts thinking you are going to blitz them, you can bait out a defensive option and punish that. Learning how to disrupt the rhythm of the game can tilt your opponents and create your own momentum.

● Must be able to move at comparable speed
● Play at a comfortable pace
● Learn to control tempo
● Disrupt flow to tilt opponent

Punish and Getting Punished - "This could be a stock"

Consists of Follow Ups (Combos and Edgeguard), Mix Ups, Execution, and Shield Pressure

Punish game is the second half of melee. Where neutral game is focused on getting a hit or an opening, punish game is taking that hit as far as you can. The goal of a punish is to either kill the opponent, or to set up an edgeguard situation.

Follow ups - "Eye candy"

Follow ups are what make losing neutral really hurt. The difference between an upthrow and an upthrow then three upairs and a back air is about 50% and being offstage. Every character has different follow ups but the goal is always the same: to rack up damage and take the stock or set up an edgeguard. For the best follow ups, you need to know what to do in each situation. You need to know where to position yourself to be able to cover their options, you need to know what moves to use to best set up for more follow ups, and when you can't cover all their options, you need to know which reads to go for. On stage, you want to keep your opponent close to you so you can continue hitting them. Ideally, you only hit them with a strong move when it can kill. But if you find yourself unable to continue a combo, you want to set up an edgeguard situation by hitting the opponent off stage. You can learn how to follow up by analyzing matches to see where you could improve, and by watching top players to see how they follow up.

● Positioning
● Move selection
● Reads
● Option awareness

Combos - "Wombo!"

Combos exist because the hitstun lasts long enough between hits and keep opponents incapacitated for the full duration. But because melee's so fast, lots of combos aren't true combos. Many depend on grabbing a shielding opponent, or a tech chase, or a read to be able to convert a sequence into death. This means that the opponent has many options to be able to escape, that continuing combos can be very difficult and complicated, and that following up successfully sometimes requires a good understanding of what your opponent wants to do. Generally, you’ll want weak hits to extend combos and you’ll want to put people in a position where they’ll have limited options to escape like at the edge or on a platform. In some cases, it will be impossible to take a stock off a combo, in which case your last possible hit should aim to send an opponent offstage with a strong hit and set up for an edgeguard.

● Learn by watching and experimenting
● Should lead to death or an edgeguard
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Getting combo'd hurts, but you always have options to escape, and moreso than you might think. It's like a game in and of itself. Learn how to DI and smash DI against certain moves in certain situations. Learn to DI so you can tech on platforms, or better yet slide off platforms. When eating another hit is unavoidable, try to use the knockback to position yourself to be able to recover after the next hit. Can you firefox in a safe position above stage? Is randall lurking at the bottom of yoshi's story? Above all else, you want to stay calm. Even if you're down a stock and you get caught in a long combo, don't give up on the game. Leads can disappear quickly in a game of melee. Giving up mentally due to getting comboed makes it easier for your opponent to cover your options and outmaneuver you. As Mango puts it, you have to make them earn it.

● DI/SDI
● Using platforms as an escape
● Tech
● Positioning
● Stay calm

Edgeguard - "Just press L"

For some characters, because of their recovery's landing lag, you can cover every recovery option with a combination of holding the ledge and invincibility. For other characters, because they have so many options, you can't cover everything. However, you can still cover many options, and limiting the amount of recovery options your opponent has means you're more likely to take their stock. For example, if you cover a spacies' side b, you force them to up b, at which point you can either cover the ledge or cover the high option. Being able to limit a spacies' recovery down to two options means you can play a mini-game of rock-paper-scissors with their stock at stake.

● Cover every option if possible
● Limit their options as much as possible
● If forced to guess a 50/50, go for a read
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Getting edgeguarded can be stressful. Against a good player, many times recovering can be a gamble. Like everything else in melee, it's important to stay calm throughout the situation. Many times, players recover successfully but are so shocked or nervous being in the corner that they run into a forward smash and die anyway. If your opponent is good at edgeguarding, your goal should be to force them into taking a guess at your recovery. Sometimes this may be your only chance at making it back. In these 50/50 situations, you want to try to trick them into missing. Whether it be you mix up your recovery or you fade back ever so slightly or you fast fall after your up b. You should also be ready to tech their attack; if you end up getting hit, it may give you another chance at recovering. If you're at low enough percent and you can afford to take a hit, try to DI and SDI to be in a good position to recover the next time. If you get wrecked, consider how you ended up in an edgeguard situation in the first place and try to avoid falling into it again.

● Stay calm
● Trick them
● Tech
● DI/SDI to survive if a hit is unavoidable

Mix ups - "The triple mind games"

When you're getting punished, it's important to be aware that you have options, in how you DI and how you tech. Often times players are unaware that they always tech in or in place, or that they always hold shield, spotdodge, or roll after a tech. If the opponent is unaware as well, then I guess it's totally fine. But if they are calling out your habits, you need to change it up. The real fun begins when both players are aware and each are trying to predict when they think the other will change it up. Keep in mind that in high pressure situations, people tend to fall back on their habits, despite small adaptations through the set.

*Mix ups are not exclusive to just the punish game; they are important in neutral too. This means that you want to be aware of mixing up your defensive and approach options so you don't become too predictable.

When playing against an opponent who's hyper aware of how you tend to DI or tech, it becomes dangerous to form habits. In practice, you should be aware of how you tend to tech and DI, and actively try to pick a different option. This will help you avoid falling into habits that are hard to break out of in tournament. On the other hand, you should also be aware of what options they tend to cover. Do they tend to keep center stage and cover tech in? Do they tend to read tech in place? Being aware of what they prefer to cover can help you avoid a punish in clutch situations.

● Avoid noob habits
● Avoid your own habits
● Be aware of their preferred punishes
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On the other hand, mixing up your punishes can be valuable as well. Because melee has so many options, if an opponent knows exactly what you're gonna do, then they have options to beat it. If you always go for an upair before you knee, then they can DI away and get out of your combo. But if you hit them with a knee when they expect an upair, you can take their stock early and give yourself momentum. When practicing, be aware of what punishes you tend to go for and are already comfortable going for, and actively try to pick a different punish option. Learn to cover multiple options but sometimes go for reads that could get you early KOs. Learn what your different options are in choosing a punish. Is there an optimal, inescapable follow up? Are there ways you can incorporate DI mixups, where you bait them into DI-ing for a combo? Are there ways you can increase their chances of missing a tech for a stronger punish? Doing analysis of your matches can help you learn both what you tend to do and what your other options are.

● Diversify your punishes
● Incorporate DI mixups and tech traps
● Be aware of your options

Execution - "Finger Flubs"

Execution is being able to hit the buttons you need to hit to be able to keep combos or pressure going for as long as possible. You can't get an up-air knee if you miss the L-cancel. You also need to know what you will need to execute and be aware of how the execution will change depending on certain factors. Not only do you need to know that you have to jump out of shine before you wavedash backwards or else you turn around and get stuck in shine, but you also need to know that you can't jump out of shine during the hitlag after a shine connects, and that you need to delay your jump timing in order to wavedash out. You will also have to learn the spacing of your jumps, your dash, and your hitboxes to be able to execute properly. How high does falcon need to double jump to be able to get the knee? How far will he have to run before hitting the jump button to reach the opponent? Will the knee hitbox reverse if you jump too late? Familiarize yourself with your character's movement, and also with the hitlag, hitstun, and hitboxes of your character's attacks. Learn to fastfall as soon as possible after hits. Learn the L-cancel timings when hitting the shields of two ice climbers. Learn the quickest timing for doing a smash-turn dash jump. These optimizations can be harder to execute but can open new opportunities for punishing.

● Timing
● Spacing
● Movement
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Underappreciated, but just as important is the execution required while getting punished. Hitting the proper DI to escape combos and to survive will let you live longer and do more damage. Smash DI and techs can also let you get out of combos in unexpected ways that can frustrate your opponent. Top players like Westballz will try to SDI everything to either get out of combos or make combos harder for their opponent. Even when you're getting punished, you still have a ton of options to get out of it. Make your stocks last.

● DI
● SDI
● Tech

Shield pressure - "Til he's crying"

Shields are a very interesting part of melee. The mechanics surrounding shields are so complicated and different across different characters that they deserve a category of their own. When your opponent shields, you need to be wary of several things. Know what their options out of shield are, know the range of their OoS options, and know what options you have to be able to pressure or beat their shield. You could empty jump grab, or space an aerial, or cross them up. Different characters have different options both to pressure shield and to counter out of shield. It is important to know these options, and be aware of what your opponent likes to do.

● Shield play
● Option awareness

Offense - "Oh yeahhh"

Shield pressure is an important part of punish/neutral because it forces your opponent to play defensively. When they are in shield, their movement options are limited. This means you can shield pressure to bait out a roll, spot dodge, jump, grab, wavedash, or aerial. If you know your opponent will shield in a particular situation, you can grab them to straight up beat shield. In shield pressure situations, do what you can to make them feel uncomfortable and be ready to punish when they overcommit. Possibly the hardest part of shield pressure is spacing yourself or getting the late aerial to avoid a punish. Shield pressuring with aerials or shine is something you should practice and be ready to use in tournament. Good shield pressure can net you many easy openings, while bad shield pressure will net your opponent many easy openings. You should focus on staying safe when pressuring shield, otherwise your opponent can turn your pressure into their pressure.

● Execution-heavy
● Stay safe
● Bait

Defense - "Oh nooo"

When you're the one shielding against someone who knows how to pressure shield, it's important to know what your options are and what options are good for certain situations. You should avoid panicking or choosing an option too hastily; many people roll in when getting shield pressured. Sometimes, getting out of shield pressure is as simple as waiting for your opponent to mess up. If a spacey, after multishining your shield six times, ends up getting stuck in shine, you can just grab. Look for habits in people's shield pressure, and exploit repetitive shield pressure to escape easily or to find easy punishes. At the higher level, you can utilize shield DI to space yourself for more opportunities.

● OoS options
● Punish opportunities
● Stay calm and be patient

Mindset - "Maybe I'll visit the sea"

Mindset is the least obvious aspect of melee, but probably the most important and most difficult part of your game to improve. Having a good mindset is being self-actualized in melee, and given the amount of time and energy one must invest into the game, maintaining good mindset in tourney without getting rattled can be insanely difficult.

Improving in melee means putting in the time, practicing frequently, going to tournaments, thinking about the game, analyzing your play, researching information, watching good players, digesting everything and applying it to your own gameplay. The process is draining and there is no shortcut to putting in work. Performing in tournament adds an entirely different kind of challenge. Executing tech, analyzing opponents, adapting your play, dealing with a crowd, maintaining your focus, keeping up your energy, and making calculated decisions, all at rapid speeds for the entirety of a tournament. Competing in melee tests not only your resolve to improve, but your ability to perform in high-stress situations. If you want to be successful in melee, you have to have good mindset. Otherwise, you'll quit or you'll crumble, and no one would blame you for it.

● Melee is hard

Mental warfare - "Get out of my head, Charles!"

The idea of mental warfare is based on the belief that an opponent’s mental-game weaknesses is worth exploiting. Even top players have matches where they are "uncharacteristically" shaken and their play suffers. Some sets are won by wearing the other player down mentally, jeopardizing their typically solid play, and making them doubt themselves. The art of mental warfare is being able to apply effective, player-specific pressure and abusing your momentum to get inside your opponent's head. In my opinion, it's worth going for mental damage because many players are easily defeated, and crushing someone's mentality is a very reliable way to win a set. If you can defeat someone's mentality, they will have worse execution, pick simpler options, put less effort in winning, and practically hand you the win. And by playing the mental warfare game, you push your opponent to improve their mentality for the future.

● Abuse your momentum to be more evasive and to bait out punishable options.
● Look for ways to apply mental pressure or to tilt your opponent
● Hide your own nerves

Habits - "Double laser"

Habits are patterns that develop as players improve in the game. As you develop a style, and you develop preferences, and you ingrain these answers for certain situations, your play becomes habitual, and therefore exploitable. Especially if you play with the same kinds of players, whether it's your training partners or a smaller region, many options you begin to rely on may not actually be safe. The problem with developing habits is that it becomes difficult to switch them off. If you run into someone who can easily recognize and exploit your habits, and you are unable to deviate from those habits, you're gonna have a bad time. Whether it be during a punish or in neutral, it's valuable to explore your other options when coming across a fork in the road. You can do this through analyzing your matches or watching several top players and observing what they do differently. Learn to experiment with newer options, work on perfecting them and mixing them into your game. I heard that Lord got really good despite mostly only playing weaker players by trying different options. As a result, Lord got good at converting off crouch cancels, mixing in regrabs on platforms, and doing nutty stuff off of techs. When playing lower level players, you're less pressured and can try experimenting in a more relaxed environment.

● Do not sustain them
● Explore other options
● Avoid repetitive options

Mood - "Be like water"

Mood, mentality, mindset. Whatever word you want to use, your mood is simply your mental state during a set. I use the word mood because it emphasizes how your mindset can be fickle from set to set and the fact it's your thoughts, feelings, and nerves in the moment that affect your gameplay. How you feel, what you're thinking, and your emotions are all factors you must be aware of and be able to work with. In a game where you have to react as quickly as possible, to dissect your opponent's playstyle, and to execute tech and movement that you constantly practice, you must have a high level of focus, concentration, and faith in yourself. Believing in yourself translates to trusting your muscle memory in order to execute properly and staying in the game mentally rather than thinking about external factors like your reputation, the crowd, or anything else other than the game. Understanding your mental vulnerabilities then acknowledging them means you can improve them. Taking care of your mental state is essential to maintaining the composure to win tough sets and long tournaments.
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Asking how specifically to improve your mental game is a difficult question. Every player has a set of mental struggles unique to them and would require different approaches to overcome them. I can give a few general tips that I think could help a majority of players.

First, expect to get bodied. After entering tournaments and weeklies here and there, even if the player's unranked I always expect a strong possibility that I get bodied by my mindset, a matchup, or a player who's on point. Even though I go into every match with the intent to win, I am never surprised when I lose and I usually know what was missing from my play that contributed to my loss.

Second, melee is really hard. If I mess something up, fail to react to something, or get hit by something stupid, I try not to dwell on these mistakes and instead focus on trying to understand what my opponent wants to do and adapting around them. If I SD, and I am down significantly, I don't lose hope because I know that if I get a number of open ups and convert off them, I can even things up very quickly.

Finally, if you're feeling nervous or you tend to choke, be more aware of your situation. When it comes to last hit last stock, both players tend to get nervous and both are making many mistakes that aren't getting punished. In this situation, it's important to realize that your opponent is also nervous and that you don't have to force anything if your opponent is likely to make an unforced error. This means you can just position yourself just outside their range, wait for them to mess up, and punish them for the win. In high-pressure situations, people's gut instincts tell them they need to do something, but if you have the discipline to resist this urge and just wait, it is likely that you will get the opening and win.
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The next few things are things that affect me and may be more specific problems. Hopefully, some of the things I do to help myself may help some of you as well. Personally, I struggle with going into autopilot, becoming apathetic toward winning, and getting cold hands due to nervousness before playing.

First, for fighting the autopilot, I go into friendlies picking one or two key things to work on. I have noticed that I often go into autopilot when I get complacent and subconsciously feel like I don't need to try as hard; as a result I tend to stop adapting and the games become less fun. So whenever I catch myself slipping, I tell myself to focus only on adapting to my opponent. I try to avoid getting hit at all in neutral by playing around their offense, I try to understand their tech habits or their preference coming down from above, I try to mix up my tech options and get out of combos by predicting what they want to do. Actively trying to do all these things can usually break me out of autopilot, bring me back into the game moreso than before, and make the game feel more fun rather than like a chore.

Second, in order to avoid feeling apathetic about winning, I sometimes go into tournament sets thinking that my opponent is bad and doesn't deserve to win, that I could easily beat this guy, and that I can't give him a free win for playing a common braindead, bread-and-butter style. In game, I'll sometimes convince myself to play with a kind of hate that leads to a burning desire to beat the **** out of the other player's character. It tends to make me lean in, focus more closely, react more quickly, and pay closer attention to what my opponent is doing, so I can beat their ass. Nothing's more satisfying than kneeing a stupid, lasering falco in the face and watch him fly off screen. Playing with hate can make me play better, and it's totally not weird (although it may not work so well for others).

Finally, for warming up my hands and staving off the nerves, before I play a tourney set, I like to hop around like a boxer entering the ring to get my body active and to get the adrenaline going. As I unroll my controller and sit down, I like to shake the hell out of my controller as if I'm mashing out of a wobble. This gets the blood to my hands, warms them up, and also gets me hype entering the first game.

So these are my mentality issues, but everyone has their own weaknesses, and while these tactics work for me, they may not work for everybody. Melee is a solo journey, and at the end of the day, it's up to you to figure out what your weaknesses are and how to improve them. However, never be afraid to ask for help as others could offer a valuable, outside perspective.

● Stay calm
● Focus on taking the game
● Avoid tilting thoughts
● Acknowledge your mental weaknesses
● Actively work on improving your mental game

Work - "The hardest thing"

Putting in the work - to analyze yourself, to practice your tech, and to learn different options - may be the most difficult thing in playing melee competitively. Once you know what to improve and how to improve it, you then have to do it, usually a lot. Every player has things that they can work on. The question is, can you sit yourself down and dedicate yourself to improving specific aspects of your play, then take the time and energy to actually do it? Practicing often and consistently takes a kind of discipline and foresight that eludes most players. Hell, I spend more time writing and thinking about melee than I do playing melee, and I say I'm trying to get good. In solo practice or in friendlies, you ought to play with the intent to improve one part of your game at a time before bringing it all together in tournament. Practice tech skill frequently, and get it consistent, or they will fail you in tournament. When nerves are on the line, you're going to have to depend on your muscle memory to be able to carry your execution, or you're going to choke really hard. Work also includes analysis. Either watch yourself to find mistakes, look for alternative options, and realize the opponent's gameplan, or watch good players to see what they like to do, to encounter more situations, learn matchups, and understand the range of your character.

● Improve your weaknesses
● Keep up tech skill
● Study yourself and consider what options you could have chosen

Body - "Sponsored by KFC"

Having sufficient stamina is important for tournaments. While there could be mental reasons you're losing focus, there could also be physical reasons. You need to have the physical energy that rest, exercise, and nutrition will give you. Close sets can be draining, and tournaments last a long time. Make sure you eat well and rest well before big tournaments, because it's going to be worth it the next day. Staying in shape will also help you feel better at events where you're going to be doing a lot each day. While you're practicing, keep in mind that you shouldn't play for several straight hours at a time and that you should incorporate breaks and stretches in between long sessions. If you've been on the grind for several weeks, consider taking a break from the game to let your mind reflect on all that you've learned and what you can improve.

● Tournaments are physically draining
● Must have enough energy to keep focus through the day
● Stay fit, Eat healthy, Get rest
● Don't overwork your mind, body, or hands.

Understanding these fundamentals means you're well on your way to climbing the ranks of competitive melee. Good luck soldier!