Help with L-Cancelling landed aerials

[Vi[c]]

I think the title should make sense, but if not, I'll go more into what I'm trying to figure out.

So I understand what L-cancelling is. I get that if I do a Ganon dair and cancel, the frame difference is significant.

However, I only seem to notice this when I do it towards the stage and without hitting an enemy. When I try to replicate this by hitting an enemy with a dair and cancelling, I fail to get the same result every single time. I know it's possible, as we've all watched people like Bizzarro and Kage chain dair after dair. Despite that, no matter what I do, I just can't seem to figure it out. I'm not sure if I'm messing up the timing or not, but I've never been able to perfect it.

If anybody has a video or can offer any words of advice, I'd really appreciate it, seeing as this is the first time I haven't been able to figure something out in smash on my own. :-(

 

[TehGuitarLord]

Honestly, it just takes practice. Go into training or fight a lvl 1 and tech skill grind until you get it. Nobody finds it easy at first, but when you get it, it becomes second nature.

 

[Xyzz]

When hitting an up opponent you will land later than if you hit nothing but thin air (due to hit sun / lag / freeze frame (never learned what to call that :D)). Be sure do delay your l cancel appropriately for aerials that hit (that can of course be hard to realise in the beginning), or simply try to l cancel at both times (using both shield buttons maybe?).

 

[Vi[c]]

When hitting an up opponent you will land later than if you hit nothing but thin air (due to hit sun / lag / freeze frame (never learned what to call that :D)). Be sure do delay your l cancel appropriately for aerials that hit (that can of course be hard to realise in the beginning), or simply try to l cancel at both times (using both shield buttons maybe?).

I may actually try doing it at both times. However, I know that can interfere with the actual L cancel because there's a buffer between each attempted cancel, right?

I guess I just have to grind against CPU's and learn it for each character. It's just so tedious, but I'm sure it'll become secondhand within time.

 

[Xyzz]

Actually, trying to l-cancel doesn't invoke a period of "lockout" where you can't do it if you fail in the initial window (like teching does), so if you were to hit shield every six frames you would l-cancel for sure.
While we are at teching vs l-cancelling: You don't need to do full presses for l-cancelling (the z button works, same as getting the lightest of shields on L/R), whereas for teching you need the full press. So you can l-cancel without full presses so you don't mess with your teching window.
And yeah, I would definitely recommend practicing aerials against CPUs, so you get used to the freeze frames.

 

[AirFair]

L cancelling isn't like a tech where if you miss it, you can't do it for a certain frame window. Just grind it out and practice hitting aerials on shield and off of it. Make sure to lightpress so you don't miss tech windows on accident. Basically, if you get hit after fullpressing, you can't tech it, so just lightpress for L cancels.

 

[Vi[c]]

Was messing around trying to figure it out last night doing fox dair into shine and managed to get it consistently. Tried with other characters too and I'm able to chain ganon dairs and such. I'm not perfect yet, but I've definitely got it figured out.

Thank you Xyzz! And AirFair for the knowledge regarding tech windows. I appreciate it, guys. :-)

 

[Cho]

If you have access to the 20xx training hack: there is an option which makes missed l-cancelled aerials clearly visible. Imo the best way to get it done reliably. However if you just practice it for a while you will "feel" when you missed an l-cancel eventually - good luck

 

[AirFair]

No problem! soon L cancelling will be something you can see, instead of learn