Any optimal way to place your fingers on the controller? Should I not do it this way?

[Ting Sing]

I was just wondering if there was any way you should have your fingers on the controller, because People always tell me that I hold mine in a weird way. I agree, it is pretty weird, but it's what I'm used to and it's the only way I can comfortably dash-dance / moonwalk / generally play the game.

See the way I have both my thumb and index finger on the joystick? Yeah, that's how I hold the controller. It's weird, any left / up motion is done with my thumb, and any right / down motion is with my index finger... Like, not independently, but with one finger doing more work than the other. I hope that's understandable. And I L-Cancel with R, and jump with Y. Should I change any of this, switch to just only my thumb on the joystick, or should it not matter in any way?

 

[standardtoaster]

Use whatever is most comfortable for you. There isn't really a "best" way to hold the controller.

 

[LLDL]

A lot of people play that way, you're fine as long as you don't notice it hindering your movement.

 

[SAUS]

It's like a backwards claw! Anyway, as others have stated, just do whatever works for you.

 

[Acorn]

Looks like how I see people holding fight sticks. Seems fine. The only thing I like to offer my opinion about is that believe that Y > X >> Tap to jump.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

Use whatever is most comfortable for you. There isn't really a "best" way to hold the controller.

Trying to play with say a single finger for all inputs I believe you would agree is terrible compared to using both hands. There are better and worse styles each with varying benefits. I suppose in a way there probably is a most ideal configuration, but its negligible in many cases for some people.

As far this choice of style I see no immediate complaints. But mainly since I have never used a control stick like that before and I am not sure what benefits/downsides you get from it after much practice. The rest is probably just what character you play. In general, if you have a series of inputs you have to make its easier to string them all together if you can use multiple fingers whenever possible. For example, say you want to do short hop double laser with fox. You can attempt to do X -> B with a single finger, however, you have the A button in the way. Using Y -> B can work as well, but then you have to move said finger very quickly (2-4 frame window, I forget). It is faster to use the stick -> B since you break up the inputs into two fingers and the rest if timing. If you can move said finger very quickly it really does not matter what method you use. But, if there is more than one way to do something I suppose its worth sometime to simply iron out which way you want to perform said action. For me with marth, I'll do SH fair -> Uair with Y -> stick + A -> c-stick rather than Y -> c-stick -> c-stick.

 

[AceMan]

I like to put*
Left thumb: Control Stick
Left Pointer: L
Right Thumb: A, B, and C
Right Pointer: Y
Right Middle: R and Z
*Note: This is how I hold the controller when I play Fox, for all other characters I hold it similarly except I don't use right middle and assign right pointer to right middles places and also give right thumb the addition of the X button and also note that this is how I play, but this is just a suggestion, play whatever way you feel comfortable

 

[JKJ]

That is similar to the way Colbol holds the controller. IMO some form of claw is the best way to hold the controller (even though I don't hold it this way).

 

[Ting Sing]

Now that I've been to my first tourney (Smash @ Xanadu) after submitting this thread, I can say that some of the people there actually held their controller similar to the way I do. It's an interesting thing to see.

 

[MikeHaggarTHAKJB]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctBDQmZn-kk
other good players like ivp and rocky (swedes) use it aswell

 

[Bean Yak]

Generally, like most people say, do whatever is most comfortable. However, from what I can see, certain grips are more efficient than others and you can reach higher skill caps more reasonably with those grips. It seems like claw grip is one of the best because it makes things like multishining and early aerials easier.