Practical Practice

#1: No Distractions
It’s pretty simple. The less distracted you are, the more you’ll get out of your practice.

Put your phone on silent, close your laptop, shut down your computer, remove or turn off anything that is a potential distraction. If distractions come to mind while you’re practicing, especially if they’re thoughts about the game, write them down quickly in a notepad and continue practicing right away. After your session is done you can review what distracted you so you can adjust your next session accordingly, or use those thoughts about the game for other things to practice on in the future.


#2: Keep It Specific
Practice that is too general or has too many things going on will leave too many openings to mess around and, essentially, waste your time. “Work on edge-guarding Sheik” vs “KO a recovering Sheik after she lands on stage while I’m on ledge, she’s below 40% and I’m above 100%”; or “study the Peach vs Marth MU” vs “study what Peach can do with her throws on Marth at low percents on Yoshi’s” [Note: practicing with others make super specific goals tough, so you can be more lenient at times in that context, meaning “work on edge-guarding Sheik” is a pretty decent goal]


#3: Preview
Even before warming up, think over the purpose of your practice session. What is your goal, and how are you going to do it. Prepare yourself for the task at hand, and get ready to focus.

#4: Interval Training
To get the most out of your practice, it’s best to do your sessions in intervals of intense focus and pure relaxation.

The goal is to do a focused interval of about 20 minutes and a resting interval of about 5 minutes (this is known as the Pomodoro Technique, and you’ll see hints of it throughout these practice rules). This can be varied, but a good general rule is for ever 5 minutes of focus have 1 minute of rest.


#5: Intentional Focus
The goal is to be very intentional about what you’re doing. Focus on the inputs needed and the inputs you’re actually doing. Focus on the results you want and adjustments you need to make. Be mindful of your practice, since the purpose is not only build the techskill but also build the mental habits and connections. Focus, focus, focus. No distractions.


#6: Rest
When you rest, that is all you are doing. No distractions. No occupying your mind with Reddit or whatever else the kids are addicted to these days. Sit or lay down, focus on your breathing, and rest. It’s good for your practice.


#7: Overview
After you’re done with your practice session and your final resting period, think over your session. Contemplate on what you worked on and why? Did you feel like you were successful?
This will help habitualize you being mindful of your goals and your play.


#8: It Never Ends
There is always something to improve on, therefore there is always something to practice.

Skill plateaus only really exist because people simply try to improve passively.
Make your practice sessions habit. Improvement is a lifestyle.

Inspired by this Reddit post: Getting Better at Smash

By scheduling what you practice in a specific session, you allow yourself to focus more on the practice itself. As mentioned above, the Pomodoro technique is the way to go.

Everyone’s practice session will look different.

Here’s an example schedule by yourself (with a 5 minute break between each one):

1. Warm-up (20 minutes
2. Techskill practice (20 minutes)
3. Combo-Game (20 minutes)
4. Shadowbox (20 min)
5. Match-Analysis (20-60 min)

Note: Your practice session doesn’t have to include multiple things to practice. It can be the same specific thing for each focused interval.

Before getting into your practice sessions and playing the game, it’s good to warm-up properly. [You can find a more in-depth guide to staying healthy on SmashBoards]

• Basic warm-ups:
  • Hand shake
  • Thumb sweep
  • Abracadabra
  • Wrist circles
  • Cascade Out
  • Cascade In
  • Finger circles (5 rotations each finger, including thumb, clockwise and counter)
  • Finger pull (gently pull on each finger for about 5 seconds)
    • these latter two help with blood-flow into the fingers

When you’re done warming-up, it’s time to get warmed-up in-game.

If it’s your first time playing that day, try to get about 10-15 minutes of warm-up in-game before getting into your practice session.

• Examine, clean, and reset your controller (X+Y+Start). You don’t want your apparatus of input to hinder your play.
• In game, start with basic movement and tech, and gradually move into more advanced and demanding inputs
• When you reach your max speed and/or techskill, spend 30 seconds to 1 minute inputting commands at/near that max.
• Rest, doo a few more of the ergocise warmups from above, then do your max for another 30 seconds.
• Exit the game, reset your controller, and start practicing.

Stretching is meant for after warm-up, or after you're done practicing.

• Basic stretches:
  • Break at the Wrist
  • Stop! (and Underhanded stretch)
  • Like a Prayer (with Hand Push)
  • Also, this great post: https://playmorehurtless.gg/2017/01/13/smash-ergonomics/

#1: Techskill
Always, always, always practice the tech you use in tournament. Yes, this includes the innovative and interesting shine-grabs and shield-drops, but it also includes the simple and boring stuff like dash-dancing and wave-dashes. It’s pertinent that you keep practicing it all, so you can rely on it all when you play in tournament.

#2: Bread-n-Butter Combos
Everyone needs to know the one-two combos that they have to hit. These are the stomp-knees, the Ken combos, and the up-throw up-airs. This too can get boring, but if you can’t ftilt->fair a Lvl 1 Fox with Sheik, do you really think you’ll be able to do it against a human opponent that knows how to DI? Armada’s combo game is a testament to how much you can get by practicing combos (on CPUs)

#3: Mindfulness
This may seem out of place, but it may be the most important thing you can practice. Being mindful is a skill you can hone that will help you be more attentive and aware of what’s going on in your play. Mindfulness gives you the ability to point out problem areas much faster, and a key component for studying matches, observing habits in yourself and your opponent, and pivotal to adaptation. Here’s some stuff to get you started: guided meditations. Consider developing a habit of meditating as often (not as much) as you practice the game.

#4: Most Recent Mistake
After you’re done with a tournament, try to recall what was the most important mistake you made. It could either be a tech flub or a moment where you didn’t know what to do. Once you pinpoint the mistake, it should be on your practice schedule at least until your next tournament. What this does is make you practice precisely something that had a concrete impact on your play in tournament, and what is more practical than that?!

#5: Lowest Hanging Fruit
This takes a little bit of work but can help a lot. Observe your play and the play of good players of your character. List off things that they do (well) but you don’t. Out of that list, pick what would be the easiest for you to practice, and implement it into your practice sessions. Keep moving up the list to the more difficult things, and recreate a list when necessary.

#6: Taking Notes
Having a notes is pertinent to improvement. Put down thoughts, ideas, problems, questions, situations, etc. Bring it everywhere you go, and write in it whenever something pops up. But, most of all, every few weeks (or after study sessions), compile your notes into things that you can work on to improve, and then formulate that into things you can put into your practice sessions.

#7: Ask Questions
This is one of more important ways you can get feedback on your play, and what you can do to improve. General questions are hard for people to answer, so try to make them as specific as you can. And when you do get answers from people, always be sure to ask them “How can I practice that?” Try to find a group of people willing to improve together or simply that are willing to answer questions, and go the them when you need help.

You should probably download the 20XX hack pack

• Basic Tips
  • “Rubber ducking”
    Verbally explaining, out loud, your ideas to better understand them (usually at an inanimate object)
    • This works on two fronts:
      • Firstly, by trying to explain something, you are forced to conceptualize your understanding of it. By doing this, it forces you to connect things stronger or connect things that weren’t connected before
        
      • Secondly, by physically hearing the ideas, you have a different perspective of them than if they stayed in your head. It’s like how typing or writing something out can sound good as you’re doing it, but the moment you read it out loud it sounds awful.
    • Without having another pair of eyes to see your play, or someone else to bounce ideas off of, this is the best way to “double check” your work
  • Take Notes!
• In Game
  • Techskill Practice
    • General guideline: do 100 well-executed repetitions of a single technique before you move onto the next
      • Or: do 10-20 well-executed repetitions in a row before moving on
    • Examples of things to practice:
      • L-Cancels & Timing Actions after Lag
        • Use aerials and practice l-cancels. Practice acting out of l-cancel as soon as you possibly can.
          
        • Method 1: 3 ICs
          • Friendly Fire Off
            
          • 3 Lvl. 1 ICs on one team vs you
        • Method 2: Super Bowser
          • Damage Ratio 0.5, Handicap On
            
          • Lvl. 1 Bowser, 9 Handicap
            
          • You: 1 Handicap
            
          • Final Destination
      • Dashdancing and Variations
        • From PPU’s “How I train by myself”
          • Full length dashdance in the middle of the stage
            
          • Do fast mixed up but controlled lengths of dashdance center stage
            
          • Foxtrot across stage
            • Then [full-dash -> short-dash back -> full dash forward] across the stage (looks like a foxtrot)
        • You can follow this formula pretty closely with wavedashing too
  • Shadow Boxing
    “Spar against an imaginary opponent as a form of training”
    • This is mostly used for visualization and theory-crafting, but is a very good warm-up tool too. Essentially, you are physically ‘playing’ with/against a visualization to foster improvement.
    • A plugged in controller to ‘play’ against is recommended (but a lvl 1 CPU can work too). An infinite-shield CPU in 20XX can be great too.
      • The other character is meant to anchor your visualization process so you have something concrete to work with. Switch up the character and stage to help anchor which MU you are visualizing.
      • And don’t forget to move the character around as well, to change up the variables
        
      • Playing against ‘nothing’ isn’t recommended until you have some practice with an anchor
    • Starting Off
      • Play out your visualizations
        • It’s not enough to just think and visualize these situations, you have to be playing them out in-game as much as you can
      • Keep moving
        • Unless you’re practicing very particular positionings and situations that require you to be in shield or to be standing still, you should always be moving - just as you would be in a regular match
      • It’s not about combos
        • This is much more about understanding spacing, zoning, and stage positioning, and experimenting with movement and approaches
        • When you do land/visualize a hit/punish, keep it bread-n-butter
    • Drills
      • Spacing & Zoning
        • Visualize the space that the character can hit from where they are, and space around it
          
        • Experiment with the positions you need to be in to hit the character
      • Approach & Attack Pattern Mixups
        • Test out basic approaches you have vs the character
          • Visualize the character’s counters to your approaches
            
          • Test out approaches to those counters
            
          • Visualize the counters to those approaches now
            
          • Repeat
        • Visualize approaches the other character has on you
          • Test out basic counters to each approach
            
          • Visualize the approaches that beat your counters
            
          • Test out counters to those new approaches
            
          • Repeat
      • Position Games
        • This is sort of a blend of the two above
          • Visualize the space that the character can take up from a certain spot, specifically one where they have stage advantage
          • Experiment with movements and approaches to give yourself stage positioning
          • Remember to visualize the counters and counter-counters the character and yourself have
        • Example:
          • Anchor the character in the very middle of Battlefield
          • Play around with the different movement options and approaches you have to get them out of center stage so you can control it
    • Remember, intentionally practicing the movement and actions you’re going to make is very important.
      • For example, you’re not going to be standing in place and then dash to a short-hop knee very often; you’re most likely going to be doing a bit of dash-dancing beforehand before the approach. You’re trying to visualize you’re playing a human opponent.
    • Rubber ducking
      • Essentially, when you’re shadow boxing, verbally explain what you’re visualizing and what your solutions (ie, approaches/counters) are.
• Out of Game
  • Studying
    • This is where your notebook becomes most handy.
      
    • I borrowed quite a bit from SSBM Tutorials’ video “How To Analyze Matches” for this
      
    • Resources
      • Character guides: http://www.meleelibrary.com/#character-guides
        
      • Videos: SmashVods and vods.co (for more popular uploaders/tournaments/players)
        
      • Your notebook should have a lot of stuff you can look over
    • Fundamentals
      • Studying is hard. Don’t expect instant revelations.
        
      • Be Specific
        • Go into studying with specific questions that you want answered
          
        • Pick something that you want to learn, then look for examples of on that particular subject (ie, getting back on stage as Peach, or what’s Fox’s upthrow-upair percents vs Puff)
      • Note Taking
        • Take notes every time the subject/situation you are looking for comes up
          
        • Summarize your notes after a video, you read a piece, or at the end of a session
    • Gameplay Analysis
      • Note taking
        • Take notes every time the subject/situation you are looking for comes up
          • What exactly happened? What happened right before? What happened right after? Where where the players on the stage?
            
          • To help yourself in the future, be sure to label your notes with the title of the video you’re watching, and timestamps
        • Summarize
          • Form summarizations of what you noticed and learned
            
          • At the end of sessions, end of games/sets, and comparative summarizations after looking at different players or vs different characters
      • Understand the Choices
        • Try to understand the reasoning behind the action and why it did/didn’t work.
          
        • Compare and contrast the action to situations you’ve seen/analyzed before and to the players’/characters’ typical options
      • Intentional Visualization
        • Contemplate and visualize what you could have done instead in each situation, and what would have been better options
      • Rubber ducking
        • When you’re analyzing, verbally explain what you’re seeing
      • Dedication
        • Analysis is hard, and can be boring if you’re not focused
          
        • A 13 minute video took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to analyze just edge guards, and it took up 2 ½ pages in my notes (including my summary)
          
        • The time went fast and it was an intriguing process because I was focus
    • Study Application
      • Use your notes from studying to determine what you can work on, and how to implement it into your practice sessions or friendlies
        
      • Studying becomes pretty worthless if you’re not applying what you learned from it
  • Reading Comprehension
    • Watch a full game without stopping or rewinding
      • You can start with half-speed videos to make it a bit easier
    • Watch one player the whole time
      • Watch what they are doing and contemplate what their intentions are
        
      • Try to put yourself in the game
        
      • Try to predict and visualize what they could be going for next
        
      • Try rubber ducking
        • Explain what you think their intentions are and the predictions you have
    • This is to practice and habitualize watching and understanding your opponents
      • Most people try to practice this as they’re playing, which is doable but having a stronger foundation on your own like this can help out tremendously

You should probably get Netplay.

• General Tips
  • Take Breaks
    • When playing for a while or playing poorly, take a break for like 10-15 minutes (take a slow 5 minute walk if you can)
  • 4-Stocks Isn’t the Only Option
    • You don’t always have to play 4-stock matches
      
    • There is a lot of value in playing 10, 20, even 99-stock matches
      • Longer matches can push your mental and physical fortitude, as well as lessen the amount of down-time in a practice session
  • Intentional Visualization
    • When playing against someone else, watch them the whole time. Watch what they are doing and contemplate what their intentions are, visualize what they could be going for next.
  • Continual Dialogue and Explanation
    • Discussing and explaining the situations you come across with the people you’re playing is incredibly helpful.
      
    • Instead of trying to (somewhat) passively learn by simply playing, having this dialogue allows more input from various sources, thus more chances to assimilate new information
      
    • Essentially what “Rubber ducking” is based off of.
  • Use Your Notes
    • Playing against others is the perfect opportunity to test things you’ve studied or practiced on your own.
      
    • Be sure to have specific things you want to work on when playing against other people
  • Take notes!
• Playing With a Partner
  • Both of you should formulate a gameplan before practicing
    
  • Serious Training
    • Deep Training
      
      Spoiler

      Taken from: http://meleeiton.me/2014/03/06/how-to-the-deep-training/
      
      Deep training involves a rotation of 3 players*. Two of the players will play a normal best of 3 set (play all three matches even if one player 2-0’s the other). While the two players are playing, the third player will actively watch the matches and take notes on what they observe. Afterwards, break it down with the group. During this, the third person should be able to actively pick up tendencies, bad habits, strengths and weaknesses. As a group, discuss the following (or other things too)
      
      1. What were the strengths and weaknesses of each player?
      2. Were there any obvious habits in certain situations?
      3. Are there bad fundamental strategies to the matchup?
      4. How did the stages work out?
      
      Then rotate and allow for each player to play each other once, the total time it should take for everyone should be roughly 60 to 90 minutes. The post-game breakdown helps everyone because of the insight that you get from different perspectives and can quickly help a person improve rapidly in their mindset and neutral game.
      
      *This can also be done with 2 players, especially with a recording setup, where both players talk about the previous set and adjusts that can be made. Technically, this can be done with any amount of people. The point is to play, observe, discuss, adapt.
      
      
    • Position game
      
      Spoiler

      Taken from: http://meleeiton.me/2014/03/28/training-position-battles/
      
      In sports, it is very common for teams to practice specific situations repeatedly. For example, basketball players will do fast break drills to understand what to do in different situations (3 vs 2, 2 vs 1). In football, the team may run certain plays repeatedly to learn how to properly execute it. In Melee, there are situations that come up repeatedly in a tournament that you can practice with a friend. I call this drill, “Position Battles”
      
      Highly underrated by newer players, stage position and control are one of the key skills that you need to learn to improve in Melee. The objective of this drill is to learn how to keep your stage advantage against an opponent that’s cornered or, alternatively, escape these situations if you’re cornered.
      
      We start the drill by doing the following:
      
      1. Pick Battlefield (technically you can modify this for any stage) and have you and a friend set yourselves up in the following position (1 = Player 1 and 2 = Player 2)
      
      

      
      
      2. From here, both players will have a specific objective.
      - Player 1: Prevent Player 2 from taking center stage or getting a safe advantageous position. As you prevent player 2 from getting position, rack up as much damage as possible.
      - Player 2: Obtain center stage with momentum (can’t be in shield or in an unsafe position) or kill player 1
      
      3. The round is over when…
      - Player 2 obtains center stage and is mobile (not shielding) and safe
      - Either player takes a stock
      - Player 1 loses control of stage
      
      When this happens, go ahead and reset positions and start again. Also experiment with different percentages and see how your options change at these given positions.
      
      4. Alternate Position Battles
      
      

      
      
      

      
      
      5. Debrief
      
      Discuss with your partner what you learned from the session.
    • Situation Training
      • Essentially a combination of the two above + shadow boxing
        
      • Players use different positions on stage (and percentages), discuss what each are visualizing what can happen, play it out, discuss again, play it out, continued.
        
      • Example: Peach on ledge, Fox right under platform, Dreamland, both at 0% - what can we do?
• Friendlies
  • Mango’s advice [reference]
    • Use friendlies for experimentation, not to tally up a mental win-loss count
      • Go into a friendly with a plan
        • Can be as broad as: figure out how to deal with Falco’s lasers
          
        • Or as specific as: figure out at what percentages you can knee to follow-up grab Fox with Captain Falcon
      • Ask yourself before/during a friendly: what do I want to get out of this friendly?
    • Take mental (or physical) notes on what works and what you can improve on
      • Between stocks, recall why you lost it. If you can't remember, you were autopiloting. If you get hit, ask yourself why you got hit and how you can avoid it next time
        
      • After an hour or so of friendlies, take a break (10-15 minutes) and review your notes, and contemplate what you need to improve on.
        
      • Go into the next hour improving an aspect that is lacking
    • Every time you learn something, you need to play frequently enough that you make it part of your game. (Otherwise you'll be relearning it every time you play)
  • Reading Comprehension
    • Inspired by Lucien’s video
      
    • Test how your opponent responds to specific situations
      • 1) Use an action or a stage position as a catalyst to get a reaction out of your opponent
        
      • 2) Take a mental note of what they did as a reaction
        
      • 3) Replicate the same catalyst, and try to punish the reaction you took note of with a safe move (don’t over commit or go for a KO move)
        • A) If they did the same reaction: replicate the same catalyst again, but read the reaction this time with a hard hit or big combo starter
          
        • B) If they didn’t have the same reaction: go back to step #2
    • The goal of this exercise is to improve your reading comprehension.
      • To practice taking mental notes of situations and formulate punishes to them
        
      • Everyone sees the same thing, but not everyone has the same take-away from the situation
    • Two Rules
      • 1 - People are stupid until proven smart
        • Never assume your opponent knows what they or you are doing, until they prove otherwise
          
        • By paying attention you can tell whether your opponent is stupid or smart, and play accordingly
      • 2 - History repeats itself
        • Every player has patterns they follow, this is where style comes from
          
        • You can abuse this if you’re paying attention