Advice on practice with more than 1 character.

[Lapze]

So I've watched a few videos and it's come up a few times that it is best to stick to one character only while you are learning. That makes a lot of sense to me but there is one thing that came to mind. Fox is the fastest character in the game right? I was thinking, If I can get decent at his short hops and wavedash timings, then I would essentially be mastering everyone elses short hops and wavedash timings. I'm of course struggling with the fox timings because he's so damn fast but I've noticed when I practice with him for a bit and then switch over to Marth, short hopping and wave dashing becomes much easier. Now I don't really want to invest myself in fox's advanced tech(not yet at least), but it can't be all that bad to utilize his speed for training purposes? Also, I do want to have "a fox" somewhere down the road, so putting some time on his basics can only help when I'm working on the harder stuff later right? Thoughts on that?

Also, serious question. Should I try to avoid playing games just for fun on other random characters while I'm trying to train my for my main?

 

[TOVL]

As far as using Fox to learn how to shorthop, this would work to an extent at getting you more consistent at shorthopping. However, exclusively using Fox's shorthop would be bad for you trying to learn your main better, as the more knowledge you have of your main the better off you'd be.

Now for wavedashing, it would be one of those "good to know" things, seeing as Fox, along with a few other characters, has the fastest jumpsquat in the game. This would throw off your timing when switching back to Marth, and like I said, you should focus on your main rather than other characters.

And as for picking up a blip blip toryah in the future, I do not recommend it, but it would be *useful* to know how to do it in the distant future (if just so you know better how he works).



When you're training your main, don't play secondaries, low tiers, or anything of the sort that isn't your main. You're training, you don't pause to play melee when you're weightlifting, now, do you?

 

[KirinKQP]

You do have the point that practicing something for wavedashing for one character helps with all other charactets with the same jump squats frames. The problem is having to adjust to frame, the character's archetype, etc. Characters with the same jump squat frames may have completely different weight and survivability; Falco and Jigglypuff for example (both have 6 jump squat frames). As Jiggs I never really worry about getting combo'd by, say, Marth. As Falco, I don't realize I can get 0-to-death'd on FD if I get grabbed until ot happens. My mindset isn't ready to change characters. Also, I like to mess around with Falco and then go back to Jiggs and sometimes I would try to go for a shine and just rest on accident and die.

You can play any character at any time, but if you are still mastering your main then you should focus all or at least most matches with them. Especially before a tournament.

 

[iAmMatt]

You should figure out who you want to main, then exclusively play as that character. Once you've mastered one character, expand your horizons so you have some sort of counterpick available.