good ways to improve dash dancing?

[Mr.Bonkey]

I know how to DD but alot of the time I feel like it's not very threatening . And also when im playing a fox they just do a running shine in the tip of my dash dance. any tips on what i might be doing wrong?

 

[NonSequtur]

Doing it really short and confusing yourself as opposed to really making use of every dash? You should probably give more detail, though fox shouldn't be getting in like that anyway.

 

[See Biscuit]

I don't know how you're dash dancing, but doing it short and really fast isn't really practical as Marth. Ken has a great instructional video that you can find here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCQIAnYUMM I would definitely take some time to watch it, I know in the first 20 minutes he covers the way that he prefers to dash dance, and I have to agree with him.

 

[mynameisdog4]

Yeah, what they said. Space it out. Mix it up too, you should probably alternate between the Ken ice skating thing, the max length you can get in a single dash, and shorter distances. Once you can mix those up consistently and switch quickly to one from another you should maybe even learn good situations to throw in a wavedash.

 

[Jiggle4Life]

yeah basically what they have covered, just find the last few frames you can turn around without going into pivot animation, and also try mixing some wavedashes in there, and if you get rushed by fox (or anyone) then you can just wavedash back or jump.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

I know how to DD but alot of the time I feel like it's not very threatening . And also when im playing a fox they just do a running shine in the tip of my dash dance. any tips on what i might be doing wrong?

Here is another view point from my understanding. If dash dancing is nothing more than moving the character left to right at different lengths, then why should anyone be worried at all that you are moving left and right alternatively. I'll just walk up to you and attack. Now, if all you are doing to counter this is to keep running away, I'll just keep walking up to you until you run yourself off the stage or you cannot run away anymore, then attack. In the case of your example, fox just runs faster than you can run away.

The movement without other actions is pretty meaningless. Although, some people who do not recognize that will still lose to a constant "I'll wait until they do something, then move out of the way strategy from marth". Here is a quick example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kREm4Bsw58M @1:11 - Marth first pushes forward and spaces with Dtilt after fsmash. From failing to connect Marth starts to DD and waits. But, recognize that Marth has the running room of about half the stage and is moving back and forth with long strides. On each pass forward Marth could potentially Dtilt or grab sheik at this moment from the dash. Thus, you see Sheik's spot dodge a couple of times. However, realize as well that Marth on each pass forward could potentially double back with short dash to retreat from Sheik's dash grab or dash attack should she choose to attack. This sort of illustrates the some of the benefits of a dash dance. You can switch between getting a hit in and waiting for an attack to come at you.

However, it really only works if you combine both elements I believe. If all you are doing is constantly retreating an opponent has no reason to fear any sort of retaliation from you and can advance forward unimpeded until you completely lose all stage to run away back from and end up on the ledge. At the same time if you are committing to an action too much such as grab you can get caught in your opponents ability to simply wait for you to mess up. Eventually, your opponent might realize that if they are not careful they could mess up and get ruined by a dash dance. At this point, a dash dance by itself becomes a bit threatening. From there a dash forward in itself becomes aggressive and can act as a push on your opponent. As in you are attacking your opponent with movement, but without fully committing to actually using any sort of move at all (shield, attack, jump, grab, etc.)

 

[xCardiac]

For technical practices on DDing, try going to Pokemon Stadium and dash across the different "Notches", if you will. The stage has a ton of different sized distances. For example, try dash dancing the distance of the Pokeball on the center floor. Then try the edge to one of the small yellow notches. You can even do it on platforms.

For the mindgame portion, think of dash dancing as bait. Try to weave in and out of the end of the opponents attack range. If the opponent runs in with an attack, you can simply react with a dash back, then punish appropriately while the opponent is in hitlag from their missed hit. It's more of a reaction time mixed with knowing your opponents attack styles. If they're approaching from the air, the same thing applies, just adjust the range in which your dashing in and out.