Daily Practice Ideas?

[AirFair]

Been studying up on competitive play, and I wanted to keep some of my skills fresh by practicing for maybe 15-20 minutes a day, possibly more but I have school. What are some things you feel that should be practiced before anything else? what are the best things to practice daily if you know? Thanks!

 

[Espi]

The best thing to practice is movement. So things like dash-dancing, wave-dashing, wave-landing, shield pivots, shield pivot aerials, true pivots (these are really fracking hard). Practicing options from ledge are also important. So ledge-dashing (not just the full length, all lengths), aerial from ledge (Fair, Nair, Uair,), Hax Dash for baiting. SH Double fair, instant Uair. A lot of other stuff that I'm forgetting.

 

[AirFair]

The best thing to practice is movement. So things like dash-dancing, wave-dashing, wave-landing, shield pivots, shield pivot aerials, true pivots (these are really fracking hard). Practicing options from ledge are also important. So ledge-dashing (not just the full length, all lengths), aerial from ledge (Fair, Nair, Uair,), Hax Dash for baiting. SH Double fair, instant Uair. A lot of other stuff that I'm forgetting.

Out of all of those, can you maybe explain shield pivots, shield pivot aerials, true pivots, and the instant Uair? It would really help.

 

[Espi]

Shield Pivot: Dash > Dash back but instantly shield as you input the second dash. Example: Opponent getup attacks, you SP and then shield grab them.
Shield Pivot Aerial: Same as SP, but you jump instantly as you shield and do an Aerial. Once you get really good at it, you will barely even see the shield.
True Pivot (Also known Pivot, really just say Pivot): Do you know how during a dash-dance, there is 1 frame of you standing? Well a pivot is doing any standing action out of that. Pivot F-Smash and F-Tilt are both pretty good if you master them, same with D-Tilt. Pivots are much harder then SP, but it's more rewarding.
Instant Uair: Just doing a SH Uair as fast as possible.

Other people please correct me, because I probably could of worded a lot of stuff better.

 

[AirFair]

Thanks so much. I've been using my guide thread (more specifically the Marth Trials video) to help get me started this weekend and I was pivoting, but it wasn't easy. Hopefully soon I can write up some kind of 20 minute tech workout of sorts. I'd need some help but it would be worth it as I can't devote much time during the weekdays to melee.

 

[djmath]

one thing that I've been doing to practice my short hop double fairs is set the damage ratio to 0.5 and play against a lv 1 bowser with a lv 9 handicap on FD and just SH DF in both directions across the stage. from 0-160 bowser will approach you about as fast as your fairs knock him away, 160-250 he'll be pushed back slightly, and from ~300 and onward you can SHDF across the entire stage while pushing bowser. This will make you more consistent on your short hops, SPACING, aerial control, and L-canceling. it's also fun easy and mindless practice. While matchup knowledge and playing real people is more important than tech skill, solid, consistent tech skill can go a long way.

 

[townes]

Do what djmath said but do it with every single one of your attacks. Don't worry about pivot anything until you can L cancel all of your attacks at will. L cancelling is VITAL. When you are practicing with said bowser, also practice spacing simultaneously by tippering all of your attacks. To be sure you're L cancelling you can do a move afterward a gauge how long it takes to come out. Use something like jab, dtilt, or grab and use the same one to be sure you're L canceling.
Practice Dash Dancing until you never ever under any circumstances get stuck in the slow turnaround animation. Like Espi said, work on your wavedashing and play with the lengths. Start on one edge of a stage and WD to the other edge. When you find out the max distance WD length, it will take fewer WD's to get across the stage. This can be helpful for movement in general and taking the ledge quickly.
Spend time practicing getting to the ledge quickly with FH bair FF, SH bair, and WD back FF. Then practice recovering from the ledge. Marth's ledge recovery options are limited so you need to get those down. Practice ledgehop fair, nair, uair, and even dair. And practice L CANCELLING those. Also WD onstage from the ledge. Marth's ledge invincibility is negligible so don't worry about WDing on invincibly.
Also keep bowser on a platform above you and lock his ass down with uair L cancelled and utilt. You can stop him from dropping through once you're fast enough.
Lvl 3 fox and falco are likely best to practice uthrow chaingrabs on since they always DI behind you, but know that real spacies will not react nearly the same way CPU's will.
Finally practice movement. Go look up PPMD's matches especially against M2K's evil sheik. Look at how he combined WD and DD for godlike movement. Try to emulate it by moving around stages alone. Do this with a 2nd controller plugged in, a lvl 1 CPU and constantly be out of his range, or the 1 player mode glitch. You can also play around with fixed camera mode for this.
You can practice the basics alone but things that actual people do are neigh impossible to practice. I'd suggest practicing everything with time set to 8 minutes as this allows you a small break and simulates an actual match going the distance. You will never in your melee career need to play balls to the wall for more than 8 minutes with no break.

Good luck bruh.

 

[AirFair]

Thanks townes and djmath. I might start drafting a 15-16 minute practice (which would basically be 2 matches) tonight when I get back from school. I have a lot of hw so we'll see. Your support really helps

 

[AirFair]

I made this first draft of a schedule to follow. Should I make it a thread, and what suggestions do y'all have on it?
Thanks so much for contributing and helping me.

 

[djmath]

make sure you're fighting a lv 1 bowser with a lv 9 handicap, not a lv 9 bowser with a lv 9 handicap lol.

also SHDF across the stage is more suited for FD than yoshi's while short-hop upair practice on the platforms works best on yoshi's.

also this: http://smashboards.com/threads/technical-things.283211/#post-10954335
very useful practice tips

you should probs find a training partner too and play against real humans. Doesn't ARC live in texas?

 

[AirFair]

lol I messed up there lol. I'll think on how to modify it without making it too complicated.

Also, have you seen my tech/guide resource list? I put that post on there too (not meaning any disrespect by this) and if you have any other guides you can help me add them here
http://smashboards.com/threads/marth-tech-guide-resource-list.375984/

Also, I don't think my parents want random people coming over to play melee. I'm not even old enough to drive over to people's houses by myself. other than that, I don't really know anyone around my age to play melee on a competitive level with. Thanks tho

 

[Boomy]

lol I messed up there lol. I'll think on how to modify it without making it too complicated.

Also, have you seen my tech/guide resource list? I put that post on there too (not meaning any disrespect by this) and if you have any other guides you can help me add them here
http://smashboards.com/threads/marth-tech-guide-resource-list.375984/

Also, I don't think my parents want random people coming over to play melee. I'm not even old enough to drive over to people's houses by myself. other than that, I don't really know anyone around my age to play melee on a competitive level with. Thanks tho

Ah, the age-long conflict of your parents not approving on going to play video games with strangers. I used to have this problem, 'til my mom told me I could go if I kept an unfolded pocket knife in my pocket.

Srsly tho, nothing beats playing against real people. There IS a way to convince the powers that be, you just gotta do your homework and clean your room and all that. Believe me. Been there. Done that.

 

[AirFair]

I don't even know if I will be allowed to practice every day as short as it is. It will take same time for sure. In the meantime, it would be cool if you guys could leave some suggestions for the routine. Thanks.

 

[djmath]

practicing techskill and having a routine is good, but don't develop bad habits or instincts from playing alone. even if you never miss an l-cancel or can execute every technical marth aspect perfectly, that won't compensate for knowing how to play the game against a skilled opponent.

When you get to the point where you feel like you've improved considerably, you should find some people to play with. they don't even have to be good, they could just be your friends that also like melee. But the point is that you need to put your tech skill to the test by playing people and learning matchups. It's one thing to know that you should chaingrab spacies, but it's another if you can actually do it in real time. Techskill is shorthop nair as a zoning tool, matchup knowledge is knowing not to nair a grounded sheik. A lot of this you can read on the boards and learn from talking to people and keeping notes, but at the end of the day, the more you play people that are better than you, the better you'll get.

 

[dfrogman]

practicing techskill and having a routine is good, but don't develop bad habits or instincts from playing alone. even if you never miss an l-cancel or can execute every technical marth aspect perfectly, that won't compensate for knowing how to play the game against a skilled opponent.

does this come from playing alone too much relative to playing with people, or from focusing on the wrong things when playing alone? m2k and a lot of others have mentioned that they hate playing against level 9s because of the bad habits they get you into, and i've been hesitant to practice against level 9s since hearing that. but i worry that if i just run train on level 1s all day i won't be learning how to perform the tech i'm practicing under duress, which level 9s (esp spacies) simulate much more effectively. i know there's no replacement for head-to-head practice, i'm more wondering how i'll miss out by trying to practice certain things alone as opposed to with another player and vice versa

 

[djmath]

if you don't know what you want or need to practice, then play as much as you want against any cpus of any level. But when you get good enough to know what specific parts of your game are lacking, then adjust accordingly.

the problem with fighting against cpus is that they never learn; the same tricks will always work on them, they will always approach the same way, and playing against them for extended periods of time will cause you to develop bad habits that you think work because they always worked in practice.