How can I improve my shield pressure?

[x After Dawn x]

I've been stuck in a rut lately. I've been trying to further my tech skill and overall fluidity of my Falco, but I have issues against pressuring other people. Normally, I try laser camping as much as possible, but as soon as I try approaching with any sort of shield pressure, I always get shield grabbed.

I don't really know what I'm doing wrong. I often practice against level 1's with 0.5 damage ratio, me at handicap 1 and the CPU at handicap 9. I can shffl dairs and nairs to shines and pressure them, but when I put it in practice in a match vs a human, I always get shieldgrabbed and *****. It's a huge problem vs Marth and Fox because I get punished from upthrows. I've been trying to figure out what I've been doing wrong, but I just can't seem to figure it out.

When you approach a shield with a dair / nair, are you supposed to activate the aerial ASAP from a short hop? For example; my opponent is shielding, and I short hop dair towards him. Am I supposed to dair at the peak of my short hop, while I'm fastfalling the short hop, or as soon as I initiate the short hop? I usually approach with a shffl where I pull off the aerial immediately, then fastfall into an L-cancel, but even though I can do that into a shine vs a computer, I can't seem to do it vs a human opponent. I always get grabbed before I can pull off the shine.

I don't know exactly what I'm doing wrong, because I'm pretty sure my shield pressure is fast enough. Somebody help?

 

[JPOBS]

a few things to know

1) sheild pressure isnt about speed, doing old school super fast sheild pressure isnt necessarily better than slowing down and doing late nairs/dairs into their shield.

2) every form of sheild pressure has a bonus and counter your opponent could take. Regardless of whether you do rising aerials, falling aerials, late aerials, early aerials, your oppoent can grab you before/after the aerial or before/after the shine.

this happens when you're either predictable with your approach or you do the same pattern. i.e. you always do rising dairs out of the shine so they just grab you on the way down.

also, dont miss l-cancels or fast falls. your problem could be just as easy as you're missing ff's and l-cancels and not noticing.

 

[Ocho(*8*)]

I try to notice whether my opponent is better at grabbing after or before the shine when I'm pressuring and I try to adjust the timing of the aerial accordingly.

 

[TresChikon]

Getting grabbed out of your pillar isn't a problem with your technical skills, it's a problem with predictability.

A perfect pillar can still be punished.

There's three variations of the pillar, each with their own ups and downs.

Early, late, normal; it's up to you to use each one depending on the situation.

Late dairs can't be SGed or hit by anything OoS, but it is possible to be countered by your opponent if they predict your approach and hit you preemptively.

Early dairs can punish a preemptive strike as mentioned above and also catch an attempt to escape the shield, but can be SGed or hit by an OoS option.

Normal dairs are punishable by both SG and OoS options. However, the sheildstun is more evened out since the timing of shine and dair is more spread out.

Also, I've noticed many players are tilting their shield upwards during pillars in order to throw off your timing, be sure to adapt to that.

 

[Hypethug]

If ur getting grabbed then u must b missing l-cancels or they got the hitlag down of when 2 grab...so mabye u should change it up alittle..I prefer 2 pressure with naïr because I never miss l-cancels...and if they figure out my shield pressure and I keep getting grabbed I approach with lasers and shine when I reach them and then JC grab out of shine so they will Stop grabbing my shield pressure...but I always change my shield pressure up because I find something will always hit when I change it up...I really think your problem is that your missing l-cancels because I rarely get grabbed...and I used 2 have that same problem against my friends marth....

Oh yah.....and I practice my shield pressure the same exact way that you do and I seem 2 not have any problems with shield pressure.....

 

[x After Dawn x]

That's what I'm saying; I'm pretty sure I have L-cancelling down, I guess it's just me not switching it up and being too predictable.

 

[AprilShaw]

My best advice, which you will probably hate, is to just not shield pressure so much.

If you manage to get off that first shine, you have a grab lol, so take it, especially if they're above ~50%. Shield pressure is great, especially if you can get behind them, but it's not unbeatable by any stretch of the word and sometimes just playing it smart and trying to work around their shield can work better. If you're in a position to shield pressure, you have control of the match, and shield pressuring won't give you (much) more control. If they predict you though, then you just handed them control of the match, and probably a stock too depending on your percent.

 

[TresChikon]

Even if you L-cancel perfectly, you still can get punished, it's all about mixing it up.