How often do you practice?

[Lovage]

Consider this a survey of the newer generation of players

how often, on average, do you practice the game alone? how often do you spend 1+ hours on fighting cpus or practicing specific techs? what are you trying to master right now?

i'm pretty curious about this, because when i first started out i practiced pretty much 2+ hours like 5 days a week on top of the time i spent playing with friends. but part of me feels like people don't practice the game as much as they used to when i was first learning it. what's it really like out there?

 

[Blu]

Being a part of the newest generation for sure, I have a lot to practice and therefore do so continuously. Besides my main being quite the touchy character, I feel as if my hands can't keep up with my brain; I strain to reach the point where this is no longer an issue.

On average I practice 2-3 hours on weekdays (with some lifts on busy days, naturally) and around 4-5 on weekends. I thank piano for giving me the mental discipline necessary to practice something for extremely long periods! I hear that overemphasizing tech skill can cripple gameplay, so I usually stick to gaining consistency for the hardest techs instead of trying to be flashy.

Any further advice on how I can better my practice time?

EDIT:

Isn't practicing against computers completely irrelevant?

 

[username12345678]

2+ hours a day. less if im going to a tournament or playing somebody.

right now im working on ledge dashes

 

[RaphaelRobo]

I've been playing for about 3 months.

I practice 10 to 60 minutes every day. At the moment I'm working on being more consistent with Fastfalling and my various technical stuff. I can do most of Ganon's tech stuff, but I need to be able to do it without thinking so my mind can concentrate on other aspects of the game. The only things I can't do at the moment are Reverse Ledge Dashes and Edge Cancels, so I'm going to start working on those.

I play with friends occasionally during school, but they're all really really bad, so I get kind of bored playing them. It's a bit more interesting when I pull out my Kirby, but still a guaranteed win. Sometimes I don't pay attention to the game at all and start having conversations with people, and then it's not a guaranteed win, but still in my favor. Other than that, I don't really play with people.

If I want to spend more time playing Melee, I usually practice Fox technique, because it's fun to play such a fast character, and he has a lot of technical stuff. He's really a pocket character for me at the moment, so I guess you could say he's a PokeFox.

 

[Varist]

like 10 minutes every 30 minutes whenever i'm home. so like 20 minutes per hour for 4 hours. i can do anything already

 

[Bstuk]

I really only spend like 3 hours a week practicing against computers. When I "practice" with my friends, I do about 10 hours a week.

 

[Varist]

why the **** did you wait 3 years to post, and why did you post that

 

[Blu]

why the **** did you wait 3 years to post, and why did you post that

I'm still laughing! xD

 

[Bstuk]

why the **** did you wait 3 years to post, and why did you post that

Decided to come out of the shadows and post!

 

[Strong Badam]

I'm not very consistent with my practice but it's usually at least 30 mins a day.

 

[DualCats]

I would estimate I practice about two hours a day by myself (and about 10 hours a week playing against people). Lately, I've been drilling shield-pressure a lot.

 

[Rh1thmz]

I used to have less patterns in my practicing when I first got really into practicing my AT's, just kinda picking the game up in training/infinite time with lv 1 mode for 30-90 minutes at a time and working on SHL timings/heights, wavedashes, SHFFLs etc, depending on how much inspiration I had at the moment. As the basics got more under control, the practice time/regime got more structured as I begun to focus more on more specific maneuvers like waveshining and LHDL. When last semester kicked off, I was practicing 1-2 hours almost everyday working on whatever came to mind that I could improve, like my understanding of individual character physics in context of combos, shineaerials, making my basics more frame perfect and clean (such as L-cancel timings with delayed aerials/against shielding opponents vs straight up SHFFLs), and basically attempting to refine every little nuance that I could hypothesize.

I'm not done, by any means, but I feel a little more in control of my tech skill on a more advanced level now, so my weekly average practice time may be less consistent now, but I'm not sure...guess I'll have to see if I have any more significant projects or something that I want to undertake. Although learning double shines and attempting multishining in general afterwards will likely prove me wrong on the declining practice time deal...especially when putting it in context with shield lag and waveshining and such

I feel like practice time is largely dependant on choice of main, though. A spacie player can easily find enough material to fill an hour of time in training over long periods of time, whereas a Puff player, for example, might just spend 20-30 minutes every now and then. I don't have much case-specific evidence to back that claim up, though...I just hear my Puff friend telling me about needing to practice his enormous tech skill all the time I also just may inherently have a more analytical and systematic approach to practicing tech skill, though, being a music major on bassoon (which is innately a less intuitive instrument than most) at my college; I try to apply the concepts of breaking things down into smaller chunks/slowing them down (not necessarily in training mode in smash, though, just not necessarily TAS training drills or anything like that) and repiecing them together to my tech skill practice. I know doing that in combination with training mode is really helping me with double shines right now, really analyzing all of the mechanics of every last part of the double shine and mastering the theory as well as the muscle memory.

EDIT: Oh, and in general, one should practice alone 20-30 minutes a couple of times a week to keep all of their tech skill fresh, sharp, and not rusty...especially if he or she plays a spacie. Things just get too rusty too fast for spacies...at least in my experience.

 

[phish-it]

Never. I should get a melee disc.

 

[Melomaniacal]

Uh... by myself, maybe once every 6 months for under an hour, haha.
With others, it's been fluctuating. I'll go a week and play every other day, then I'll go a few months without touching a controller.

 

[cmac]

I usually don't get a chance to practice during the week due to school but on the weekends, I've started practicing about 1 hr against comp with random characters to get into the habit of using the tech skill I practice and then I switch to practicing with my gannon and marth for maybe another 30 minutes or so. But I get the most practice when I'm with my friends which would usually amount to 2-3 hrs at least whenever I go play with them.

 

[mesa23]

i'm pretty inconsistent with the whole practicing thing

like yesterday was my first time practicing in like a week and it went on for a total of about an hour

and today i've practiced too damn much

beating up cpu's, doing the whole fox shine nair shield pressure thing with starmen on training mode and shdl-ing and that lhdl with falco and multishining into shine grab, etc

i prolly won't do any better against my friends but i can definitely outswag them techskill-wise

 

[foshio]

Atleast 30 mins usually about an hour by myself. 5 days aweek.

 

[Warhawk]

I play with my roommates pretty much every day, but I don't practice alone very much, maybe 10-15 min on average a day but its more like some days for 25 minutes others not at all. This is probably why I can't multishine, only double shine lol.

 

[-Philip Coast Philip-]

I really only spend like 3 hours a week practicing against computers. When I "practice" with my friends, I do about 10 hours a week.

why the **** did you wait 3 years to post, and why did you post that

rofl seriously

joined: april '08
post count: 2

and for one of the most banal questions ever

 

[Avalancer]

Practicing against computers is usually a bad idea. Their timing is inhuman, and lasers always get powershielded.

 

[Naughty Pixel]

I usually get like an hour in every day when im not at college, if im in college i play with my roommate when ever he isnt salty about how bad his luigi is (he's meh at the game never practices but he likes playing from time to time) and when ever i can i'll head over to other people dorms and play against them for atleast 4 or 5 hours. i have all my basic techs down and i can traverse the stage fluently now when i play i just focus on one or two aspects and so ive been recently focusing on wavelands on platforms and from the ledge, and ive also been working on reading rolls/get up attacks

 

[Republican0fHeaven]

rofl seriously

joined: april '08
post count: 2

and for one of the most banal questions ever

hahahaha this is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while


And I practice really sporatically. Some days not at all. Some days up to 10 hours in a row by myself >.< but it helps that I get paid to do it while at work

But if I were to average it over a weekly basis I'd say 3+ hours a day.

I wasted alot of my time with ICs working on different chain grabs and desynchs before deciding to drop the character. But right now im working on multishine pressure and backwards waveshining with fox.

And with jiggs Im working on mixing up my bair chains and overall being ready to jump for a rest opportunity at any time. Also the insta-sing ledgegrab

 

[Varist]

multishining into shine grab, etc

you are not practicing this. this is a fact.

rofl seriously

joined: april '08
post count: 2

It was 1 at the time of that posting. That was his FIRST.

 

[mesa23]

you are not practicing this. this is a fact.

i am practicing it. fact
i am not consistent with it. fact
by multi i mean more than 1 less than 4. fact
i'll probably never get it off in an actual match. probably

just cuz i don't enter tourneys and stuff doesn't mean i can't practice fancy stuff

it's not even THAT hard to do (just really hard to be consistent with)

 

[Lovage]

fancy stuff is really rewarding to practice

makes the whole process of practicing a fun game to create sick routines. it's fun to create routines and you get good at the game at the same time. i think making revolution was one of the best things i coulda done to find consistency in my tech skill thru practice

 

[twizzlerj]

I was at 2 hours a day getting my techs up and around 2 days a week with one friend who is better then me. I need more people to play with and players who I believe are good enough to give sound advice. My practice time now is around 20 minutes a day which I don't think is nearly enough for me to be able to reach my goals so I have to step it up eventually.

 

[Planet Piss]

Unlimited time matches against lvl fours. How much I practice varies greatly; typically 2 (occasionally less) to 3 hours per day. The most I recall practicing in one day was 750 or so kills with Fox, but usually I get 100-200 kills throughout the day.

I usually practice consistency, patience, variability, and move choice. Basically, I just 0-death the computers over and over again using improvised combos. After a year and a few months of doing this I can safely say that it has finally paid off- despite how many times I have almost lost hope from getting destroyed- and I can compete with players that have been in the community for a long time.

It really does feel terrible to practice more than four hours a day for weeks straight and get three stocked by the character I combo'd thousands of times while training. Now, my time has come.

 

[Dr Peepee]

Just played about an hour

LOL

I'd say I'd average about 3 hours a week, but there have been weeks when I've probably done 8 hours on my own before.

I'm trying to do it more though so I'm hoping I'll be asked again eventually lol.

 

[Blu]

but it helps that I get paid to do it while at work

 

[ShroudedOne]

I get 3 hours of smash on Wednesdays, and about double that on Fridays. Other than that, I don't ever really practice. I have bursts when I realize I suck that I'll do about 15-20 hours a week, and get tons better, and after that, I go back to being lazy. Perhaps I'll start doing it more...

 

[t3h Icy]

When I first moved to BC, I played with the locals (mostly Blunted Object) for 6-10 hours a couple times a week, but once I got more of a grip with the game and gained all the realistic tech skill I need (Sheik main), I stopped practicing entirely, and I just play at smashfests and tournaments now. I felt that I improved the most by just thinking and writing about Melee and applying game theory and philosophies that I've gained from other competitive games. Ultimately, I could be bringing my tech skill up higher in consistency, and be able to do unnecessary fancy stuff, but I haven't dedicated much time to Melee lately, due to other things with higher priority (University, other games, etc).

I'm pretty average though and have a serious Fox problem, lol, but I'm in between the gaps of PR potential players and the ones that are new and improving, with basically 0 practice.

 

[Mr Postman]

You sound exactly like a sheik main from where I live (Oregon)

 

[Mr Postman]

When I first moved to BC, I played with the locals (mostly Blunted Object) for 6-10 hours a couple times a week, but once I got more of a grip with the game and gained all the realistic tech skill I need (Sheik main), I stopped practicing entirely, and I just play at smashfests and tournaments now. I felt that I improved the most by just thinking and writing about Melee and applying game theory and philosophies that I've gained from other competitive games. Ultimately, I could be bringing my tech skill up higher in consistency, and be able to do unnecessary fancy stuff, but I haven't dedicated much time to Melee lately, due to other things with higher priority (University, other games, etc).

I'm pretty average though and have a serious Fox problem, lol, but I'm in between the gaps of PR potential players and the ones that are new and improving, with basically 0 practice.

You sound exactly like a sheik main from where I live. (Oregon)


Personally, I moonwalk about 24 hours a day.

 

[commonyoshi]

You sound exactly like a sheik main from where I live. (Oregon)

Reading this thread makes me realize how little I practice compared to everyone else... Except for sheik mains.

 

[Varist]

You sound exactly like a sheik main from where I live. (Oregon)

i am practicing it. fact

spamming bxbxbx for a few minutes is not practice. fact

i am not consistent with it. fact

exactly my point. mutually factual.

by multi i mean more than 1 less than 4. fact

irrelevant because you are not really practicing it. fact.

i'll probably never get it off in an actual match. probably

if you can say that with such ease then your practice is not practice it is just messing around. fact.

just cuz i don't enter tourneys and stuff doesn't mean i can't practice fancy stuff

the fact that you're still on the SHDL practice tier means that you can't practice multishining. fact.

it's not even THAT hard to do (just really hard to be consistent with)

that goes for everything in melee. irrelevant.
you don't have to prove anything to anyone, don't try to sneak top-level ATs into what you tell people you practice so they'll take you more seriously because everyone knows you're not getting anywhere with it.

 

[Beat!]

I'd say it's about 30+ minutes a day. My TV is right next to my computer so I usually play while chatting on Skype and stuff.

 

[mesa23]

what the hell does practice mean then?

also, where do i find the techskill practice tier list?

 

[Yakal]

When I first began I practice somewhere between 3 and 5 hours a day for a year on techskill; I figured if I had the techskill readily on hand while watching how my character combo'd the cast (falco) then I would be able to play well. Worked out for the most part. That was 2 or 3 years ago; at the moment I don't practice though I've been trying to make time for techskill practice since I haven't been as technically capable as I'd like to be. As well as simple things like Lcancelling from whack fullhops and such I looked into and have been playing around with shai drops and shine grabs (I'm able to do them without a problem, I just need to make it habit instead of shield pressure; I realize shield pressure is important on a psychological level but as it stands I shield pressure when it's clear I need to do a shinegrab instead.) Ideally i'll be leaving myself with an hour or so once I settle into school a bit more and figure out my schedule to sit down and practice what I like.

I'm in between the gaps of PR potential players and the ones that are new and improving, with basically 0 practice.

Hmm.

 

[Jeapie]

Alone?
Used to practice +5hours a week alone
Now I play 10 min a month alone

 

[Hax]

literally never anymore.. :| i played once for 3 hours inbetween RoM4 and Apex. probably why i wasn't really on my game at Apex imo. my training, for the most part, is mental; inbetween nationals i think of stuff that should work and it usually does. obviously not a substitute for real training