Helpful training exercises (With 2 players)

[Zodiac]

Alright so, I have been thinking a lot about how to improve my game lately, namely how to most effectivley develop area's i'm weak in. And for I while I just decided to try new things or play a lot of people, and playing a lot of people does work well but the problem is if you only have three or four people to play against (In my case just one) then you are limited to only developing yourself to deal with four specific styles of play. However I had an idea recently, and to skip to it go to the third paragraph.

So I do a lot of speed runs and for each game there are several category's and when the obvious ones are exhausted people come up with new ones (100% , Any%, MST, Low%, ten mask run) many times people take away specific advantages for an extra challenge in games I.E. A 3 heart run in Ocarina of Time or a Six heart no shield run of Skyward Sword in Hero mode. And I was actually complaining about sheik not being as good project m or SD remix because of the fact that her dthrow isn't nearly as good. and I thought "Well at least people will learn to use something other than grab....wait..." And so then it hit me, this little training exercise to develop specific part's of your game.

So what are these training exercises? Well basically what you do is ban something you do very often/ rely on as your go to move. For instance one of my mains is sheik and as such one of my go to moves to get the momentum turning in my favor is tech chasing of off grab's. So for me I would not be allowed to grab for the duration of the match, or for an entire night as sheik. This would force me to come up with alternative method's of racking up damage or putting the momentum back in my favor. As Marth I would also ban grabbing since its something I do very often, for my fox I would ban shining (Not something that really ever hurts my game but I do it to often)

TL:DR
The rules of these exercises are that you ban moves you use excessively, meaning YOU CANNOT USE THEM FOR THE ENTIRE MATCH. And it forces you to build and explore other aspects of your character and play style, Also, your opponent is NOT banned from using any moves.

I put together a ruleset for my sheik and fox as an example.

Sheik
-Down throw is banned
-Hanging on ledge's is banned (Edge guard differently)
-Throwing needles on the ground is banned

Fox
-Shine is Banned
-Down Air is banned

 

[Varist]

i do this all the time.

things I usually restrict:

falco's dair
fox's nair
jigg's bair

when I want to practice hitting with moves, i'll use that move and nothing else, or specifically try to set it up.

like with marth if i wanted to practice dair tippers i would do 4 stocks on like peach or whatever and just use dair whole match and try to 4 stock.

idk maybe it helps

 

[Gadiel_VaStar]

Yeah I try this w/ Pit and go arrow-less Pit. I'm sure training other areas in your game will help you see the "light" in other parts you could be doing better.

 

[standardtoaster]

lol, no shine fox.

 

[Dr Peepee]

I like doing this until I start comboing sometimes.

It's great for learning shield pressure and various counters to situations/opponent counters.

I'll add that to my training post, thanks! =)

 

[Cactuar]

I'm surprised you haven't added my cell # and aim sn to your training post.

 

[Dr Peepee]

stop hiding from me!!!!!

<3333

 

[Bones0]

I usually do this, but in reverse. Instead of banning things I rely on too much, I pick something I want to get better at and use it as much as possible. I guess I usually just brainstorm new stuff when I'm not playing, but maybe I'll try it this way to see if I come up with different stuff when I'm in the heat of the moment.

 

[Avalancer]

Isn't it a bad thing to learn yourself not to use your best attacks? If I'd learn my friend to stop using bairs with Jigglypuff I'd think he'll start becoming worse :/

 

[Varist]

There's no such thing as an overall best attack. Characters would be broken and boring were that the case. Bair might be good largely as a spacing move, so while it may be the move you see most often, it isn't necessarily the best. Attacks are directional, so you use the move that will hit the character near you. If you ban a move commonly used to approach, then you are forced to get creative and find a new move/find a new way to use a move to approach. This is how you create and innovate techniques and mix ups in smash.

One example is marth. Approaching with short hop fair is a good idea if you've conditioned your opponent to expect a dash dance into grab. If you're dashing at them and all of a sudden you short hop out of your dash and whack them with Fair, you've succeeded in mixing up your approach where a grab would have failed. You can further mix up your short hop if they start reacting quicker and jump later in your dash to land behind them while using nair.

It doesn't matter if your friend becomes worse in the short term with banned bair, because he will learn to use his moves creatively and appropriately. He'll find that he doesn't need to use bair for everything and will see that only certain weaves need bair included to be effective. I'm not advocating that you vary your moveset just because I think spamming is gay, I'm advocating it because using all the moves in your arsenal truly is an effective strategy.

 

[Bones0]

Isn't it a bad thing to learn yourself not to use your best attacks? If I'd learn my friend to stop using bairs with Jigglypuff I'd think he'll start becoming worse :/

You are right in the sense that you wouldn't want to learn how to play the game never using a character's best move, but you also don't want to learn how to play the game relying on a single move. The reason being is that it might work at low-level, but the better people you play, the more likely one move will just not cut it. So by banning your favorite moves, you can learn how to use the others you were ignoring. At the end of the day you should revert back to how you normally play, but now you have knowledge of situational uses for your less popular attacks.