A lot of new people recently...

[Adam M!]

First, I'd like to say, ABOUT FREAKIN' TIME!*

It seems like every area is getting new players recently. 949 always gets new people, the Riverside area (whatever their area code is), and even 818, too. So you know what that means...

The good players in the area need to encourage and train (by ****** the **** out of them, of course!) these guys! These guys are the future of SoCal smash. Tired of playing the same five players at every tournament? Then build up the skill level in your area! It amazes me how much an area like 949 plays the game yet never gets any better... What's up with that? Why hasn't Kira trained JDM?!?! Why haven't you guys prodded to get Wuwu to play the game more? Step it up!

I'm helping out my area -- by the end of the year Sherigami and Little england are gonna be beasts! But everyone needs to do their part!

So what do you say?

*All exclamations and excitement sponsored by Atlus.

Here's how I train people, for the record:

The first thing you have to do is know what your bad habits are. Like I told SuperRad over AIM, the general bad habits people have is:

-- Shield grabbing
-- Attacking from the ledge
-- Immediately double-jumping out of hit stun
-- Attacking your opponent from the air
-- Coming down from your second (or even first) jump with an aerial
-- Shielding after you come down from your second (or even first) jump with an aerial (i.e. you forward air with Marth, it slightly misses, and you shield because you expect your opponent to counterattack you)

There are more I think, but that's all that comes to mind. The simple fact is if you do one of these things, you will almost never beat someone who doesn't do these things, simply from the fact that you are giving your opponent free openings every single time.

Once you spot your bad habits, you can learn to change them. I know a lot of people do these things because they don't know what else to do, but if you don't know what else to do, ask! Experiment!

The most effective way to improve is to isolate one or two things, focus only on those one or two things in a match (that means stop trying your god**** hardest to win every single friendly and instead focus on these things!), and work on correcting them. Try to do everything at once and you will fail.

The other way to get decent is to get tech skill. That's all on you, by the way; no one is going to, or can, teach you tech skill. There are always little things you an be adding to your repertoire, and if you're not adding them on a constant basis, you're falling behind, because everyone better than you is!

That will get you started. I guarantee if you do these things you will get much better in a very short period of time. Once you accomplish that, I'm sure you'll develop a passion to get better and you'll start going out of your way to do so.

 

[Atlus8]

If you really want to encourage new people to play in your area, allisbrawl is the way to go!

Edit - I think I might start logging in to that very soon to get some new people in the valley!

 

[DJMirror]

Kira doesn't have time to train people cuz he's freaking busy as **** and people dont ask him to get training by him, I think JDM is always not available when we want to play him, WuWu....No one know his cell numbers to contact him, Stabbedbyanipple's parents are crazy. Connor is busy with school, Psychomidget is on WOW all the time, Zhu is always studying, Maple is busy sometimes, MacD is always working/studying as well and DC$ is busy sometimes.

 

[Little England]

*All exclamations and excitement sponsored by Atlus.

Best part of the post.

Time for that P training. <3

 

[Kira-]

I hope people know not to take jkun's posts seriously by now, less than half of that is true and the rest of it is easy to get around (not knowing WuWu's #? im sure i could get that any time lol)

he's just johning anyway


anyway some people don't ask for training, some people give up easily, not everyone WANTS to be trained either- some people are prideful and get offended if you give advice (it's obviously dumb but it happens)


in any case im trying to find another venue to do another (half)arcadian tournament,nobody will be banned




anddd if it was anything like the last one it will **** and get a lot more people coming.

AND i have a lot of things I want to do, like sponsored crew battles, announcements for future tourneys and information mid-bracket, contact cards and mailing/facebook/blog listings, leagues, etc

it's just a matter of how much i can afford and WHEN I CAN FIND A GOOD FREAKIN VENUE why is the most crucial part so **** hard

anyway we cant go back cause of all the complaints last time so we gotta find another one that's not over $500 cause that's ridiculous



BUT ANYWAY I agree with P

 

[Atlus8]

anyway some people don't ask for training, some people give up easily, not everyone WANTS to be trained either- some people are prideful and get offended if you give advice (it's obviously dumb but it happens)

I think newcomers are a bit intimidated to ask for a couple of games! Hell! The first few tournies I attended, I couldn't ask the better players for a couple of games! I dare everyone to play friendlies at tournies with new people or with people you have never played!

 

[Deleted member]

kira can play with you sometime when you're not busy

irvine's not that far for me i can drive

and P i wanna come over but you're like 2x as far as irvine. plus traffic is worse in your direction.

 

[Nasty_Nate]

Training not only depends on having a good trainer but also the pace at which the newbie learns. For example, i've been trying to train the manuals for a while now. They are WAY better then when they started, but they are also still huge noobs. So even though there are people in the area who could use training, them getting good enough to play competitively in tournament is more likely than not gonna be a loooooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggggg process (we cant all be s2j).

But this shouldn't discourage better players from trying to train others

John John John

fix'd

kira can play with you sometime when you're not busy

irvine's not that far for me i can drive

and P i wanna come over but you're like 2x as far as irvine. plus traffic is worse in your direction.

Get training from as many good people as possible

 

[Deleted member]

i plan on im'ing s2j when im visiting friends at ucla. i did once but he was busy and had to leave
alex19 is always busy with work/school
connor always turns me down
jkuns never been available
squid has been pretty cool about it
seng is almost always free, but has been busy as of late

believe me i try. i get the feeling a lot of really good players dont feel like wasting their time.

 

[Kira-]

well it kind of does take up a lot of time but tbh the best thing to do is to go to a tournament. even if you dont enter you'll gain TONS of experience since the best way to improve is to play as many different people as possible, although nothing is as important as tournament experience.

i'll talk to psychomidget, since that's where people in irvine usually play (i dont have a usable smash TV at my house)

 

[Incronaut]

i, too, would love to get some training in to improve my game...

i had some macd training last year, although he said i need to go to more tournaments to get to the next level.. and macd training doesnt really help me with technical stuff / small mistakes im doing since pressing the c-stick down can only be so difficult <3

although he did help me a LOT with DI and teching...

i played kira once and he's amazing at giving good advice (AND not sounding rude about which i find a fantastic quality)

but yeah.. experience does wonders i suppose

 

[SuperRad]

not playing friendlies at tournaments is dumb

ive been in this community for over three years and im still a huge noob for two basic reasons:
1) i didnt start really 'practicing' till recently. i would play against level one computers and just kinda mess around. i got down the fundamental techs eventually, but not much else.
2) i didnt play as much as i could. i would go to tournaments and spend a lot of time talking to people, spectating, playing blokus, etc. i never liked asking for next on a tv and i hate playing in rotations, so i often would just not play friendlies unless there was an open tv, if at all. getting better requires experience, play as much as you can.

 

[pockyD]

i had some macd training last year, although he said i need to go to more tournaments to get to the next level.. and macd training doesnt really help me with technical stuff / small mistakes im doing since pressing the c-stick down can only be so difficult <3

actually, getting whooped by cc dsmash and nair out of combos is a GREAT way to find your character's limitations and shore up your tiny mistakes

and yeah, it's more on the student to have the proper attitude than the teacher

 

[bbb]

not playing friendlies at tournaments is dumb

the opposite end of that spectrum is dumb too

the 8th and last rule of fight club is if it's your first time, you gotta fight

 

[WHA?]

8-bit train me!!!!!!
as a newbie, i can tell you that patience with who you are training is key, as well as being cool about stuff (like not making faces or seeming elitist like an a-hole)
ppl have been pretty cool about me askin for friendlies and advice, havent gotten any a-holes
like it was cool when atlus came over and played me for hours, i asked stuff n he answered, he might've gotten tired of playing me and he didnt show it, which is cool cause u dont feel like a burden

just try to be friendly about it

 

[LooksLikePit]

For a while when I was playing a lot I thought I was really good(sort of like marthpwnzer). Even though I played a lot I never got any better because I thought I had it figured out. Really you just need to find a way to get noobs to realize that they suck, and that they're not going to get better until they realize that they suck.

Anyways, I'm trying to get my friends interested in smash. Some of them want to start going to tournaments, but they don't want to travel very far.

 

[Little England]

For a while when I was playing a lot I thought I was really good(sort of like marthpwnzer). Even though I played a lot I never got any better because I thought I had it figured out. Really you just need to find a way to get noobs to realize that they suck, and that they're not going to get better until they realize that they suck.

Anyways, I'm trying to get my friends interested in smash. Some of them want to start going to tournaments, but they don't want to travel very far.

Why don't they want to travel? Traveling is the best part.

You and Fly should train Walton

 

[stabbedbyanipple]

Connor helps me like a champ, but he is younger than me anyway lol

 

[Lovage]

if any n00bies are playing me in friendlies please feel free to ask questions about anything, i love talking about melee. oh and for anyone in the 818 area, Dunskies house is the best place to train, it's pretty much open all the time, attracts a lot of players from a lot of skill levels, and is right next to the orange and red line stops in north holly so it's really easy to get to without a car

 

[Adam M!]

There's a right and a wrong way to train someone.

First things first: the noob has to want it. The last thing I want to do is foster a community where the bad players are looking up to the good players to get better. No, if you want to get better, you have to work. Be your own teacher.

You must humble yourself. You must say to yourself, "I don't know anything. Even if I do know something, there is always an opportunity to improve on what I know, or to better apply it." There is simply no way to be this good without a lot of dedication.

For the noobs, how do you show dedication? Ask questions! Stop being shy! Don't ask and you won't receive. I am known to help a lot of people, but don't assume that just because you're playing me means I'm going to try to help you. Like Kira (or someone) said, a lot of times me just blurting out **** for you to do can easily be wrongly interpreted. I don't know you like that, so I'm not going to go out of my way to help you!

The good players want to help you almost as much as you want to get better, because we're tired of playing the same people all the time. But it's tricky, because we're not going to go out of our way to help you unless you go out of your way to prove you want to get better. Otherwise it becomes a matter of who wants it more: me or you?

Another way to prove you want to get better is go over people's house and play them, or otherwise give them incentive to play you. Make no mistake: it's little fun playing someone you **** all the time. But it IS fun playing someone who is gradually getting better, who can improve over the course of a couple of hours.

and P i wanna come over but you're like 2x as far as irvine. plus traffic is worse in your direction.

Stuff like that is just showing me you don't want it! It's just up to you to decide the cost versus the reward.

Anyway, I put my basic training "method" in the first post. That's how I recommend training people, because it puts the onus on them. All you have to do is point out their bad habits, and maybe give them a couple of options of what else they can do. If they can't or won't improve from there, they probably aren't dedicated enough.

 

[Gishnak]

I once asked Lovage to train me and he said "Bend over"

I've been bleeding ever since, and I've never asked for help again.

 

[Lovage]

i hope you learned your lesson *****

gishnak is like the type of noobie other noobs should idolize in terms of his dedication and motivation for the game.

 

[Mr Physych]

lol i agree with the training method, i just got to uc merced and meet back up with some friend with where i come from (818) and now i play melee every day with bizzarro flame and those guys, its awesome

 

[cyclone248i]

I'm training a few, and thanks to dunskies gettogethers, I'm getting in the consistent play I need to stay fresh.

 

[ConnorTheKid]

If Wuwu really wanted to play with 949, he would've hit us up after the one time Zhu and I played him.

 

[joeplicate]

i want to state my opinion on johnny here



don't say "everyone can't be s2j" and then give up on improving like he has
his success should be an example, not something to enable you to go easy on yourself
the first tournament i saw him at, mango juice, johnny was already pretty **** good
he's been around smash for a while (64 forever), he didn't go from "couldn't short hop" to winning arcadian tournaments

in my opinion, the reason why johnny improved so fast is because he went balls deep
no ****ing around, no chitchat at tournaments, no beating around the bush
he enters every event, mms good people, plays friendlies, and travels a LOT for friendlies
one time he drove to my house all the way in the 805 even though i barely knew him at the time, played for hours on end with me and oscar, and stayed for like 2 full days
he just started off with the right idea and hasn't slowed down since

so my advice to noobs is, if you're gonna spend a lot of time on the game anyways, go all out!
being a noob forever sucks, don't do it. just jump in that ****
be as humble as you can and as honest with yourself as possible; think about your game when you can and try to realize where you can improve. if you asked someone what your errors are, and still aren't seeing them, try harder to see them
enter tournaments, get some bad losses to open up your eyes, develop a work ethic towards the game, and play a whole lot of friendlies with everyone you can

go balls deep

 

[SuperRad]

sup mike haze

---

i reject the notion that everyone has the ability to improve at the rate johnny did. mostly because it makes me feel better, but i really do think that not everyone can learn that fast. its among the same intangibles that keep the good from being great.

 

[Adam M!]

If Wuwu really wanted to play with 949, he would've hit us up after the one time Zhu and I played him.

everyone needs a push sometimes. why would you let a talented player who lives next door get away? it's the smash COMMUNITY for a reason

and joe, wrt johnny, his smash 64 experience helped him a LOT (he didn't have the shielding bad habit for example)

brian, johnny improved at a rate equal to his dedication. he got a head start because he played smash 64, and skill from any fighting game transfers over, but that doesn't mean he didn't put in a ****load of hard work. EVERY SINGLE TOURNAMENT he money matched me -- multiple times. and he still does. did not care if he lost. only cared about getting better. that's an attitude very few have.

 

[joeplicate]

i know lol, i said that adam


in my opinion, "talent" or how fast you improve, and all that, is 90% of having the right mindset
if you have a great mindset and dedication from the beginning, you can improve very quickly
unfortunately, for most players, the first year of playing is spent figuring out the right way to think in order to improve

 

[NintendoKing]

Here's my training list.

-L-Cancel
-Dash Dance
-Wavedash
-Watch Videos
-Ask questions on, or find out how to do something and do it.

The only people that become great are the ones that perform the last part.

Everything else is useless.

 

[Adam M!]

i know lol, i said that adam

ya i was only talking to you for the first line

the rest i edited after brian's post

that's why his name begins the sentence

 

[SuperRad]

i know lol, i said that adam


in my opinion, "talent" or how fast you improve, and all that, is 90% of having the right mindset
if you have a great mindset and dedication from the beginning, you can improve very quickly
unfortunately, for most players, the first year of playing is spent figuring out the right way to think in order to improve

yeah
johnny wouldn't have improved as fast if he didnt show up to his first tournament as good as he did [and he wouldn't have shown up to his first tournament that good if it wasnt for playing 64].

i was going to post about how starting out at the bottom of the ladder makes someone less motivated
but i can only really say thats how it was for me.

 

[pockyD]

not everyone is cut out for getting their *** whooped for 6 hours and 1) getting more out of it than just the thought of "wow I suck" and 2) having the feeling of 'can't wait to do it again'

 

[Lovage]

johnny is still a big noobie he just has a lot of tricks

jk that doesnt mean anything i just felt like posting something

 

[Deleted member]

financial johns

nah im just broke and have no income. its just about gas money. if i find job im coming over at every opportunity. no joke about that either i ***** LOVE this game.

but i might be able to next weekend if i spend nothing this weekend (im planning on saving). until then im practicing at home everyday, avg 5-6 hours (not consecutive, ive noticed plenty of breaks in between are helpful. its as if my brain defragments or something)

the edit to the op helps thanks.

 

[ConnorTheKid]

Johnny *****. I remember back in June when I beat his Falcon pretty solidly. Now he ***** me.

 

[Nashun]

Once before the Arcadian tournament S2J came over and we played like 3 hours of friendlies.

I think from the time he entered my house to the time he left, we did not say a single word to each other.

 

[pockyD]

that's a little weird

 

[MacD]

Johnny *****. I remember back in June when I beat his Falcon pretty solidly. Now he ***** me.

40% he got better

60% you're a peach main

 

[ConnorTheKid]

I'm talking about my Fox. he and I go really even when I go Peach otherwise he wins.