How do you train?

[SPC_Oli]

So, i usually ask to myself this question: "is my training method good enough, or i have to do something else?" I mean, the way i train made me improve, but now i don't know if this method is the right one to keep going forward.
I use lvl 3 cpus to train combos, and lvl 9 cpus for dodging, shielding and basically for all the defending techs, also on weekends i play with some friends, and we train together.
So i'm asking this because i really want to know if there are better ways to keep improving my game, and i want to read about what kind of training works for different people so..
How do you train guys?

 

[ELITEWarri0r115]

I train by playing against level 8-9 cpu's (with no wifi) and play on for glory 1 on 1 (with wifi) (for someone new who likes to train, I suggest team for fun)

 

[Raijinken]

I beat up my friends until they learn to adapt. Then I adapt and continue the process.

 

[Deleted member]

I play against lvl 9 CPU's because I no longer have any buddies that play Smash, and my internet is horrendous unless my opponent is like 2 houses away.

Also my amiibos kick my ass.

 

[Drippy]

I don't really play against bots anymore, I just don't find them good practice because they're to inhuman and you'll never really face something like them in a real match and overall the practice just seems wasted in my opinion. Usually my practice routine is going to training mode to try out some tech like JC Glide Tossing or foxtrotting and messing around with that for awhile until I get the hang of it, while practicing stuff for Mega Man like short hop aerials (this applies for any character though really) and diagonal Metal Blades and just trying to get into good habits for my character. Usually afterwards I will hop onto Anther's Ladder to practice with people, or For Glory if there's not many people on Anther's Ladder at the time. In general I'm also a person who likes to analyze games and study so I'll read about my character and for example, read the Leaf Shield / Crash Bomber Mega Man guide which they both made me realize how important those moves and I started implementing them into my game-play a lot. I also watch a lot of tournament matches of NinjaLink / Zucco or any good Mega Man player in general and just examining their every move and how they play and just trying to mimic that play-style when I play in a real match.

 

[Turrin]

I find For Glory to be the best method because you will eventually run across just about every play style at some point. It's really great for learning to immediately adapt and punish habits. I even find myself having trouble with really obvious play styles like roll-spammers, so I just have to learn how to beat them along with everybody else.

 

[Toon612Link]

I watch competitive play and try what they are doing online.

 

[NGUY (guitarstage)]

i suggest going into trainig watch guides and start messing around with it then go into for glory once you have it donw go into smash ladder then repeat the process until theres a tournament

 

[AvengerV]

The only viable way to train is to play For Glory or real people. You will never get any good if you play CPUs.

 

[GanonPawnch]

I've just been doing For Glory recently. One thing to note is, whenever I get my ass beat, I stick with that person. My record has most likely gone down hill lol but idc, you improve by fighting people better than you, I lost like 80% of the matches I had against this guy online, but at least I put up a fight and kept improving. If you care too much about your online record, and run away whenever you beat someone once, or when you're being beat too often, you won't improve.

 

[MapleWooD]

With the monks of Tibet

 

[Splooshi Splashy]

Part of my training is watching match vids of my mains involved in various MUs. As someone who's often in FG Teams and loves team matches in general, I download replays from the Share section and focus on FG (the 1st & most common place I check), plain ol' Team Smash (I'll admit, it's rather hard to find matches w/OUT CPUs involved), and then FF Teams (honestly, I've not been looking there for ages) featuring my mains or secondaries or anyone else I'm curious about. I also start looking within the U.S. region and then the World. I even tune in to Spectate and the Replay Channel occasionally, hoping to find a GOOD player like Cutza & Six for Jr. There's actual tournament matches over at YouTube and Twitch and other places that I'll search for, with VGBootCamp being one of the absolute biggest names in streaming competitive Smash. I definitely try to find tournament matches with actual commentators (bonus points if they're in the know about the MUs at hand), team battles in particular (any big 4v4 tournament matches that have happened recently? ). AceStarThe3rd's Undefeatable series is highly recommended viewing material as well.

As for Training Mode-- or rather, the Combo Labs as I refer to it as, it's definitely THEE place to go to try out various ideas, tactics, approaches, etc. Whole characters can be picked up here. It's also where I found out quite a number of things, like how both Jr's Mechakoopas & Cannonballs (default versions, as far as I'm aware) can challenge ALL of DH's projectiles, as well as Jr's Side B Jump Cancels & its numerous applications, and how DH can both produce many projectiles that can stuff other projectiles AND be mobile with/away from them, among others (ex. answering Flare Blitz spam with Alph, Pac-Man, DH, Jr, the question of who can duck, crawl, and DTilt under Thoron, and more).

I definitely frequent FG Teams most of all, once I'm done contributing points to whoever's in the Conquest at any given moment (as of this post at this point in time, it's Kirby) in FG FFA, since points are valued by the amount of KOs you rack up, as well as how high you place in the match. With 3 other players all against you for 2 minutes, it's a KO goldmine.

As of late, I've been trying to contribute match vids for the Share section of both the 3DS and Wii U versions for FG Teams, most notably for characters that hardly have any footage for them, like G&W, Alph, WFT, Falco, Char, Zelda, and of course my mains, Jr & DH. If you find Sploosh with "OpenDEAL! MICRO!" & Saki Amamiya's face in the profile, that's me.

Earlier in Smash 4's release, when I wasn't comfortable with certain characters in a team environment, I went to For Fun Teams and threw myself in the fray. I considered myself ready for the big leagues that I consider to be FG Teams (for now) with said characters if I can win 2 out of 3 matches there, which I did. Among the last that I have done so were Metaknight & Palutena.

Research is also a part of my training. I definitely look at frame data for various characters, especially my mains, which the Competitive Discussion area of our awesome forums have posted. Said frame data revealed precious intel that have helped me find some new characters to rep for certain MUs, most notably Falco of all people. He's apparently the lowest tiered character to EVER have been blessed with a 2-frame Jab like 3S!Chun-Li's Crouching LP. O_O Not even YOSHI has anything like that, just 3 frames on his Jab & NAir at most.

I definitely agree with GanonPawnch's advice. Sticking around in a room that feature players that either body you and/or use characters that body your characters is a great way to improve and grind out MUs, including potential counterpicks. I care not about my records, even though I occasionally check them from time to time out of sheer curiousity. I tell you right now, a bunch of my losses came from grinding out MUs that are bad for my mains Jr & DH, like Yoshi, Sonic, Rosalina, and more.

 

[DJDave189]

For me I just battle CPU. Then when I'm ready I go to For Glory or find someone on this site.

 

[Falcon1991]

I usually do 1 v 1 Smash battles on 3 stock with no items. Sad to say I prefer Omega stages, but I do still sometimes use a normal stage.

 

[Antinomy]

I usually just play against people I know offline or online.

I don't play For Glory much because I often end up in laggy matches.

 

[Godzillionaire]

I train with level nine CPUs and train myself to come up with as many different ways to deal massive damage and get creative, then I go on For Glory to see how these methods work against real people

 

[Ravioko]

I just play a lot with both my girlfriend and bestfriend, and I play For Glory.

 

[David Galanos]

I see a lot of people saying CPUS and for glory. DO NOT PLAY FOR GLORY. It creates bad habits, and is not practice for real competitive play. If you are tournament players you should not be practicing on those things. CPUs are just predictable and do things humans don't and for glory players have developed a whole different meta game for themselves and they just aren't good practice whatsoever.

What I do, is warm up in training mode for not long. I practice my movement, combos, stuff like that. Then, I usually go on SmashLadder.com to play friendlies. I find a lot of good players better than me to play with. I play some ranked matches too cause it kinda creates the pressure a tournament match can have. Simply just playing good players and playing better players is good training.

I cannot stress this enough, PLEASE STAY OFF FOR GLORY. I know there's always that time you find an actual good player, but it is generally casuals who don't know what they are actually doing. You can't practice against them and go to a tournament and play someone who knows how to read, condition you, etc etc. For glory can make you pick up bad habits too like I said. Smashladder is a great tool. Meeting people in person to play, stuff like that. For glory, CPUS, amiibos are not resources to get better. I know for glory is fast and convienent, but you will be happy after you spend the time to add someones NNID, and improve after playing an actual competitive smasher that is good.

 

[DavemanCozy]

What I do:

1. Go on training mode and practice moving around.
   • Pivoting, short hop aerials, B-reversing, etc. All the tech and essential movement needed.
2. Do some reading of known data.
   • Smashboards has a lot of data about the game: frame data, mechanics, etc. Reading this data is one of the ways of studying the game.
   • Imo, it's important to stay up to date with this knowledge.
3. Watch videos of competitive matches.
   • Sometimes I'll watch the same match multiple times, focusing on each player individually, to get the whole picture of the match.
   • If you have tournament matches of yourself playing, I highly, highly recommend you watch these multiple times and analyze your match carefully. Even if you got bodied.
   • Also, listen to the commentators: if they are good commentators, they will pipe in with their own knowledge of the game and point out what players did right/wrong. Keep in mind that commentators are human too: not all of them are going to be helpful.
4. Play friendly games with my friends and lab with them
   • Friendly games are played on neutral stages, including the counterpicks. I don't always play as my main during friendlies.
   • Labbing is experimenting with the game. I do this with friends in friendlies and in Training mode: 1/4 and 1/2 speed are immensely helpful for analysing frame data, what can be whiff punished, etc.

 

[NE_BOBANDY]

I spend about 20 minutes a day in training mode, practicing movement, spacing, etc.

I play with people face to face, almost every day. Either someone from the local scene, my best friend, or one of my room mates. Playing even the most scrub-like of players is better practice than playing against the CPU's, in my opinion.

If I can't find someone to play with me, or if I'm up super late at night, I'll boost up some FG 1v1 and play 5-10 games. I find if I play more than that online, I'll start to fall back on some bad habits that really only work with some amount of lag.

If my internet is being slow, or I just need some more practice after training mode, I'll beat up some CPU's. I generally keep them level 7 or below, because of the way level 8 and 9 CPU's spam airdoges and spotdodges. Real players never do that, and it forces you to pick up potentially bad habits.

The biggest part of my training is going out to every event I can possibly go to. Weekly brackets, big tournaments, small smash fests at someone's house, doesn't matter. If I can go somewhere and play a large variety of different players, I'm there.

 

[NGUY (guitarstage)]

Going to tournaments online or offline is a very good practice

 

[MarioMeteor]

Sometimes I like to watch the Replay Channel. There's always that 2% chance that you'll find a player that knows what he's doing. I've heard Anther's Ladder is pretty good.

 

[Ultrashroomz]

I play with friends online at least once a week.

We always do 2 stock, 6 minutes, no items, and only play on neutral stages, like Battlefield, Town and City, and Smashville.

 

[MarioFireRed]

I usually just practice with the CPU at level 9 to get a feel of my current character and figure out the ways they can punish. Then I practice friendlies with people at school (usually friends) while almost never using my mains in order to get better with/diversify my roster against their mains.

The ruleset we typically use is 3 stock, no items, 1v1, Omega Stages.

 

[Purin a.k.a. José]

Normally, I play Smash Mode with Level 8 CPUs and my mom, with a few items or no items at all, with 3 stocks and random Omega stages, starting off as Kirby in Omega The Great Cave Offensive and ending as a character that I choose on Final Destination.
But, before a Tournament, I play Smash with only the legal stages of said tournament with my mains () and its ruleset.

 

[Chaozrush21]

I train in Training Mode and watch some Ness mains on Youtube on the side. I can't train in For Glory mode because last time I did that my Ness started to become worse and I started to spam PK Fire.

 

[UltimateXsniper]

Cpus are one method of training. It's more of basic trainIng. They can help when you want to do some combos you are trying to learn.

Personally, I always played against cpus since I was young and I haven't really formed any real bad habits (even rolling). I know a lot of people do however so be careful.

Don't bother with for glory honestly. There are probably more skilled people in for fun from what I've seen. Wouldn't recommend going to for fun either.

Amiibos are a step to the right direction by nintendo. They learn your playstyle and eventually punish you for bad habits and predictable moves. I get that amiibos are about 1.5x stronger on stats even if you don't feed them but personally, I believe that should make you more cautious because they'll punish harder.

Looking up characters on here and youtube and help you out on some tactics you didn't discover.

So your best bet could be Amiibos + Looking it up IF you don't have friends that don't play smash or not very skillful. I would recommend using cpus as dummies to do combos on.

 

[Bearbuddy4]

I see a lot of people saying CPUS and for glory. DO NOT PLAY FOR GLORY. It creates bad habits, and is not practice for real competitive play. If you are tournament players you should not be practicing on those things. CPUs are just predictable and do things humans don't and for glory players have developed a whole different meta game for themselves and they just aren't good practice whatsoever.

What I do, is warm up in training mode for not long. I practice my movement, combos, stuff like that. Then, I usually go on SmashLadder.com to play friendlies. I find a lot of good players better than me to play with. I play some ranked matches too cause it kinda creates the pressure a tournament match can have. Simply just playing good players and playing better players is good training.

I cannot stress this enough, PLEASE STAY OFF FOR GLORY. I know there's always that time you find an actual good player, but it is generally casuals who don't know what they are actually doing. You can't practice against them and go to a tournament and play someone who knows how to read, condition you, etc etc. For glory can make you pick up bad habits too like I said. Smashladder is a great tool. Meeting people in person to play, stuff like that. For glory, CPUS, amiibos are not resources to get better. I know for glory is fast and convienent, but you will be happy after you spend the time to add someones NNID, and improve after playing an actual competitive smasher that is good.

I only play for glory to "train" (i'm not competitive, smash isn't my only game, but i rarely lose) I think I could beat you easily , that comes off as presumptuous but i think forglory is an amazing tool. the only thing it lacks is platforming. I think i could beat you and I'm willing to put that to the test.

So far I've played 4686 for glory matches, with 163 hrs according to for glory stats.

Wana play?

 

[UltimateXsniper]

I only play for glory to "train" (i'm not competitive, smash isn't my only game, but i rarely lose) I think I could beat you easily , that comes off as presumptuous but i think forglory is an amazing tool. the only thing it lacks is platforming. I think i could beat you and I'm willing to put that to the test.

So far I've played 4686 for glory matches, with 163 hrs according to for glory stats.

Wana play?

He's saying for glory doesn't have many skilled players, which is why you rarely lose. There are not many players that do mix ups, combos, readings, or even some know the basics of a character in for glory. I mean, I see some that spams with B or side B with some characters, people who makes themselves predictable, even people who do try but don't know how to pull off some techniques. You'll have a better fight with a level 9 cpu. Of course there is an occasional player that does know what he or she is doing but it's rare.

MOST people in for glory can't even compare to competitive players. For glory itself isn't even that competitive.

 

[Bearbuddy4]

He's saying for glory doesn't have many skilled players, which is why you rarely lose. There are not many players that do mix ups, combos, readings, or even some know the basics of a character in for glory. I mean, I see some that spams with B or side B with some characters, people who makes themselves predictable, even people who do try but don't know how to pull off some techniques. You'll have a better fight with a level 9 cpu. Of course there is an occasional player that does know what he or she is doing but it's rare.

MOST people in for glory can't even compare to competitive players. For glory itself isn't even that competitive.

I would agree that playing people who are better than you is a good method. For glory is competitive, lets not forget what competitive means. But for glory does not have as many people who claim to be "competitive". Theres an ego that comes with saying you're competitive and its getting on my nerves.

 

[NGUY (guitarstage)]

its not ego is reality if you start going to in person evrybody who gets high is competitive because they stand u´p to very good players

I would agree that playing people who are better than you is a good method. For glory is competitive, lets not forget what competitive means. But for glory does not have as many people who claim to be "competitive". Theres an ego that comes with saying you're competitive and its getting on my nerves.

 

[DukeofShorts]

I train in 100x gravity in a spaceship on my way to Namek.

I usually watch tournaments that include people who have the same mains as me and try to emulate them as best I can against my roommates and for glory.

 

[Zionaze]

When I vs an obviously good player in For Glory, I save the replay, even if I get obliterated. I watch and observe my mistakes and think of other options I could have chosen, then implement those ideas. Also watching pro people use your mains and imitating them is pretty good.

 

[Ze Diglett]

When we're not playing on custom stages/with equipment, beating up my friends (or sometimes, getting beaten up by said friends) usually lets me know which characters and techs I'm good with and which ones I need to work on. FG 1v1 kind of works if you don't have anyone else to play against, though the general skill level there is kind of all over the place, not to mention copious amounts of lag and the matchups get pretty repetitive after about 40 minutes of playing against Sonic and Captain Falcon.

 

[DakotaBonez]

Although nothings beats practicing against real opponents and with a variety of charactes, Custom stages are good for tech practice. Build yerself a box with lava in various places. Touching the lava will propel you directly away from it and into the walls of the box. Practice teching off the walls.