How do I get better at predicting people?

[Knightmare369]

About 10 months ago I was a casual player and had been ever since 2012~. I've played every SSB Game so I have lots of knowledge about how the game works. Ten months ago I discovered that playing casually wasn't the only way to have fun and I loved to win so I decided to train myself to play competitively, I watched lots of videos and trained A LOT on advanced techniques and now the only two things that I can't do are Wavebounces and Extended Dash Dancing. I even recently began doing Perfect Pivots pretty consistently about a week ago, although I don't do it perfect every time and I don't know if I will for a while.
I didn't come here to boast about my progress so I'll get straight to the point. During the time I was practicing my technique I didn't play much with anyone except my friends and family who are very casual. Due to this I can't predict anything my opponent will do let alone have the reflexes to counter it. How can I improve my ability to predict and counter?

 

[FamilyTeam]

Broad question. Most people here would give you a broad answer here, but I will try my best to help you.
This whole process of reading, predicting, planning ahead of time is not something that's gonna come anytime soon. it takes time for this to really develop. Simply put: You won't be doing any of this stuff until you have experience - at least some. You need to be able to recognize predictable patterns and situations and have the knowledge in your head about what is the right answer to the situation presented. The only way you can really achieve this is by playing a bunch of matches and living these repetitive situations and knowing what to do in all of them. This is how Top Players are so good at punishing, or how the Perfect Shield so many moves in a row. They know what is coming and when it's coming because they've been through that situation many times in the past, so they plan ahead and do what will yield the best result in that situation.
This already happens on a smalelr scale inside matches, where if you are playing against a repetitive enough opponent, you can use their predictability against them and counter whatever they are doing in advance, like, for example: If you're playing against Mario and you notice everytime you two run against each other, he does a RAR Bair and kicks in you in the face. You can use that against him and hit him with an anti-air move before he has this chance.

TL;DR - You don't learn this, it comes with experience and knowing what to do in whatever situations you are presented. Play as many matches as you can against many different people, and try to see if you notice any of them doing similar things and see if you can plan ahead of time.

Unrelated: Doing tech or working on your execution really shouldn't have been your focus if you just started competitive. If you managed to learn all of that stuff, cool, but knowing how to do tech hardly matters. At the end of the day, you're very rarely gonna lose or win a match and say "Wow, all of those advanced techniques that happened in the match, they surely changed the flow of it, I definitely won/lost because of them". Working on other things like options in neutral, MU knowledge, stage knowledge, basic movement and how to best apply it, combos/mixups and mentality are far more important.

 

[Knightmare369]

Yeah I discovered that the techniques I worked on weren't paying off when it came to competitive battles...except I discovered it way too late.

 

[FamilyTeam]

Really, if you wanted to learn Wavebouncing and Extended Dash Dancing quickly for whatever reason:
- To Wavebounce, just set your to Attack, and then, while you are walking, running, or in the air, flick the CStick in the opposite direction you are going, and at the same time, press your Special button to wavebounce. (Something like +, or +. You can and you probably should set another button to Special if you plan on doing this, a button like or R in the Pro Controller would be my choice).
- To Extended Dash Dance, get familiar with exactly how far your character's Foxtrot is, and how long it lasts. Try Foxtrotting around the stage as fast as you can. After you get a feel for it, at the end of your Foxtrot, input Forward and Back quickly and see if you successfully Foxtrot the other way. Do this a lot until you get a feel for the timing. After that, train doing this single Foxtrot the other way as much as you can on both sides (right to left, left to right). After you feel confident in doing them, see if you can start going back and forth using this. I literally learned how to do Extended Dash Dances in 2 days with this method.

But again, like I said, execution isn't something you should work on just now.

 

[Knightmare369]

Really, if you wanted to learn Wavebouncing and Extended Dash Dancing quickly for whatever reason:
- To Wavebounce, just set your to Attack, and then, while you are walking, running, or in the air, flick the CStick in the opposite direction you are going, and at the same time, press your Special button to wavebounce. (Something like +, or +. You can and you probably should set another button to Special if you plan on doing this, a button like or R in the Pro Controller would be my choice).
- To Extended Dash Dance, get familiar with exactly how far your character's Foxtrot is, and how long it lasts. Try Foxtrotting around the stage as fast as you can. After you get a feel for it, at the end of your Foxtrot, input Forward and Back quickly and see if you success foxtrot the other way. Do this a lot until you get a feel for the timing. After that, train doing this single Foxtrot the other way as much as you can on both sides. After you feel confident in doing them, see if you can start going back and worth using this. I literally learned how to do Extended Dash Dances in 2 days with this method.

But again, like I said, execution isn't something you should work on just now.

Thanks. Now I should be able to fully focus on my reading/mentality/combos.

 

[GLORY12HOUND]

Also since u play Ryu u should also work on your inputs for his specials. As well as work on him overall. Especially things like kill confirm and B&B's. Best of luck. And welcome to smashboards.

 

[Crystanium]

To predict something, you need to be familiar with it. This is why training allows you to perform better than before. You have an idea of what to expect and probably a strategy to deal with it. Since you're entering a more competitive approach, take the time to play to learn.

 

[Knightmare369]

Also since u play Ryu u should also work on your inputs for his specials. As well as work on him overall. Especially things like kill confirm and B&B's. Best of luck. And welcome to smashboards.

Thanks! When it comes to Ryu, I have all of his inputs down besides I don't get True Shoryuken out every time when going to the left. One thing I've learned though is to practice Ryu's inputs even when not playing, because you can pay more attention to where your putting you fingers and what mistakes you are making. It allowed me to imprint those inputs in my muscle memory better and made me a lot faster. Just putting that out there for any Ryu mains that might stumble across this thread and are having trouble.

 

[KirbCider]

It's pretty much what everyone has already stated: It comes with experience mostly, as well as observation.

Everyone has habits whether they are aware of them or not. My friend has an unhealthy habit of rolling instead of shielding so his rolls get pretty predictable. It comes to a point where I purposely wait for him to roll and punish accordingly. The best thing you can do is observe what your opponent does in certain situations. Are they always recovering low? Do they always air dodge every time they see you jump off stage? Whenever they're at the edge do they always shield your attacks and grab you? Things like that.

A good player always mixes things up and makes it hard as possible to predict what they're going to do. Don't get caught up doing the same punishes just because you can read your opponent because then that sets you up for being read yourself as well.

Other than that, there's no real magical trick behind it. Just be observant and patient, and remember your past experiences.

 

[Baby_Sneak]

Download discords in your phone. It's in the App Store (iPhone users) or play store? (Android users).

play tons and tons and tons of people there. Also FG if you don't have the time.