HELP L Canceling (from ledge)

[Admiral Zhao]

Lately I've realized that I am having a hard time L canceling, mainly from the ledge. Here is an example and hopefully someone can tell me what's going on:

Hanging on ledge > hop onto stage with fair > attempt to L cancel into downsmash > will either miss L cancel and have no input OR will put up shield or spot dodge.

I've recently read that light pressing L can help with this, as I always do a full press when L canceling. Some questions are:
should I light press? Should I use R instead of L? Why is my shield coming up instead of an attack?

THANK YOU! hopefully someone can save me much pain and anguish hehe

 

[343]

I don't know what you mean by "miss l-cancel and have no input," but if you land on stage and shield it's probably because you doublejumped too late and landed (perhaps even no-impact landed?) before you input your aerial. no clue why you would spotdodge (trying to fastfall I guess?)

Light press L/R to l-cancel is only useful because it prevents you from getting locked out of your tech window (inputting digital L/R opens a 20 frame tech window and locks you out of teching for 40 frames.) Using L vs R to l-cancel should not matter.

I'd recommend just practicing a lot in 20xx and making sure you doublejump early enough.

 

[HolePuncher]

1. L-cancel timing for this can vary depending on many factors (hitting shield or not, fast fall or not, etc.). You really just have to watch closely and not rely on muscle memory
2. "Light press L/R to l-cancel is only useful because it prevents you from getting locked out of your tech window" This is only half of the story. The other reason light press is recommended has to do with letting go of the button. If you hold L/R too long when l-canceling, your shield will pop up. You want a light and quick tap of L/R.
3. If your shield is up and you hit down on the c-stick, you will spot dodge.

The good news is all of this is very easy to practice on your own. You don't even need 20xx. Just play vs a lvl 1 cpu. Work on fair to dsmash, fair to dtilt, fair crossup to fsmash, and fair to upB.