How should i practice by myself

[All4G0dsGl0ry]

hello all. so i'm new to the competitive melee scene. Unfortunately, i live in Montana, and therefor don't really have any human partners to practice with. i'm gonna start by learning all of the techs i need to learn. however, when i finish with that, how would i continue to improve? i just read through a thread where training on level 9's is frowned upon. so should i just practice combos on lower level computers? hoping to find a tourney around the end of summer after a bunch of practice so any help is appreciated. thanks

 

[Mr. Happy :)]

There are a lot of guides and discussions on this topic already around, you should probably check out the your character specific boards for the best answer to that question.

As a general rule of thumb on bots; they say to cycle low-mid level ones just to get a grasp on your character's move set (different level bots react slightly differently, etc). Past that bots don't offer much and can make you develop bad habits if your not careful. Some characters like Fox and Falco can find value in bot training more than others though... but playing other people is still the best. Certain things like learning to adapt and read can't be learned from bots. See about traveling if you can, and check out the Facebook groups for local players, you may be surprised.

And welcome to Smashboards, always good to see new players

 

[BTmoney]

Here's something to look at
http://www.smashboards.com/threads/falco-discussion-thread.256826/page-439#post-14739329

 

[All4G0dsGl0ry]

by character specific boards do you mean look at whatever my main character's board is? like i said, i still have a lot of basic techniques to learn. i may check out the washington/idaho facebook, however, i don't think i'd be down to travel 4-8 hours just to practice for a day. tourneys i may. would brawl apply at all to melee? maybe just for spacing and such. i have brawl and it obviously connects online, but i don't really have that much desire to play brawl.

@tachi - thanks! looks interesting and i'll definitely use it

 

[MasterShake]

Your focus should really be performing techniques faster and more fluid. In my experience with playing novices, it's hard to advise them to get better because they might not have the speed necessary to execute correctly. In one regard, computers can be used to test that. A lvl 9 will act out of histun asap, so it can indicate if you are slow in performing a "true combo". So, in addition to committing techs to muscle memory, it's just as important to act out of them quickly. For example, a lot of people are good at L cancelling aerials on shield. But very few are good at avoiding shield grabs, which is the part that matters.

 

[bearsfan092]

Important thing: once you get your techniques down, I'd stop playing bots. You can still practice movement (platform wavelanding, etc), but I'd shift all my combat practice to humans at that point, even if it means playing less. I found I got into this mentality where I could approach a bot at will, which screwed with my approaches against people.

 

[Vudujin]

Bearsfan going deep. I would have to disagree with limiting combat to humans even if it means playing LESS. The only reason your game would suffer in the manner you claim would be from ignoring every other aspect of the meta by just using what you practice against CPU's. This kind of tech practice is more or less for an improvement of your offensive fluidity; you can't forget that your opponent is a human being with defenses and strategies. You have dominate the neutral game before you can switch to an aggro mentality.

All4G0dsGl0ry, Just play as much as you can. I personally believe you can learn a lot from CPU's. Even if they do things that most humans could or would never do, they still teach you a great deal about the physical boundaries of the game. I've learned just as much from 1-P mode than I have from humans. It's just different pools of knowledge. If you're in Montana and having a difficult time finding people, don't be off-put by CPU practice. It's still practice.

Edit: To perfect wavedash positioning, speed, and timing I started playing against 3 lvl 9's on a team with no team attack. It seems overwhelming at first, but it has done wonders for my wavedashing game.

 

[JKJ]

After learning all of the tech skill
And I mean mastering it
Read this, and it will help you to learn.
http://www.smashboards.com/threads/10-000-words-of-power.295524/

 

[ShrieK1295]

Who do you play?

 

[Mr. Happy :)]

Bearsfan going deep. I would have to disagree with limiting combat to humans even if it means playing LESS. The only reason your game would suffer in the manner you claim would be from ignoring every other aspect of the meta by just using what you practice against CPU's. This kind of tech practice is more or less for an improvement of your offensive fluidity; you can't forget that your opponent is a human being with defenses and strategies. You have dominate the neutral game before you can switch to an aggro mentality.

All4G0dsGl0ry, Just play as much as you can. I personally believe you can learn a lot from CPU's. Even if they do things that most humans could or would never do, they still teach you a great deal about the physical boundaries of the game. I've learned just as much from 1-P mode than I have from humans. It's just different pools of knowledge. If you're in Montana and having a difficult time finding people, don't be off-put by CPU practice. It's still practice.

Edit: To perfect wavedash positioning, speed, and timing I started playing against 3 lvl 9's on a team with no team attack. It seems overwhelming at first, but it has done wonders for my wavedashing game.

That is a pretty interesting way to use 3 CPUs, I gotta try that

 

[oukd]

I imagine it's more applicable for Luigi than most characters...<_< but i guess you could also up your dashdance game that way

but yeah you can learn a lot from cpu's. as long as you remember that they think nothing like humans and don't fall into habits
also i suppose you can look here but it looks like Montana smash actually doesn't exist <_<

 

[Mr. Happy :)]

by character specific boards do you mean look at whatever my main character's board is? like i said, i still have a lot of basic techniques to learn. i may check out the washington/idaho facebook, however, i don't think i'd be down to travel 4-8 hours just to practice for a day. tourneys i may. would brawl apply at all to melee? maybe just for spacing and such. i have brawl and it obviously connects online, but i don't really have that much desire to play brawl.

@tachi - thanks! looks interesting and i'll definitely use it

Yes, there are a specific forum section for every character. Check them out they are great resources. Also, I hope you do make that travel for tournaments because I don't think anything can improve your game so much in such a short period of time. I seriously felt twice as good of a player after my first tournament.

Playing Brawl for the sake of Melee...

Pros:
- Your playing more Smash
- Your learning more about Smash
- Forces you to think more than Melee (debatable)

Cons:
- You can develop bad Melee habits
- Less time playing Melee
- Wifi can hurt

Suggestion: If your gonna play wifi just to play other people, look into the Project M mod, it's roughly Melee through a Brawl disk and wifi compatible.

Personally, playing Brawl and Smash 64 for that matter, help my melee game.

 

[All4G0dsGl0ry]

thank you all for the comments! this is helping a lot and i'm taking this all into my daily practice.

@Mr. Happy - would project M mod be something i put on the wii? and do i download it and put it on a dvd-r or something?

my definite main focus right now is techs, and i don't really plan on doing anything but that until i get those all down.
yeah i wish there was montana smash, but unfortunately no. we're gonna start a league here pretty soon i think, but all the other players aren't gonna be practicing any technical skills, so i'm not gonna have a lot of competition.

yeah i plan on doing some travelling once i'm done with college this semester. i'll have all the time in the world.

 

[Mr. Happy :)]

thank you all for the comments! this is helping a lot and i'm taking this all into my daily practice.

@Mr. Happy - would project M mod be something i put on the wii? and do i download it and put it on a dvd-r or something?

my definite main focus right now is techs, and i don't really plan on doing anything but that until i get those all down.
yeah i wish there was montana smash, but unfortunately no. we're gonna start a league here pretty soon i think, but all the other players aren't gonna be practicing any technical skills, so i'm not gonna have a lot of competition.

yeah i plan on doing some travelling once i'm done with college this semester. i'll have all the time in the world.

Project M is a Brawl hack essentially, it reworked the physics engine to be more like melee and it balanced the characters/stages some. You play it with a Brawl disk and a SD card in the Wii. It's really simple to install. Google "Project M"

Here's a video of it if your interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw0T7Rw1OP8