How should i practice

[UltimateHaxor123]

Hey, i'm kind of new to competitive smash and i was wondering how i should practice.

Heres the situation, i live in a neighborhood/town where virtually no one has heard of competitve smash. As a result, i usually spend my time playing against computers. However, i recently went to a smash tourney and was...beaten (for want of a better word). I realized there was nothing wrong with my technical skill but i had no mindgames/experience. I was wondering how i could improve on that. Playing lvl 1 computers help me learn combos but they dont' DI. Playing against lvl 9 computers screws up my timing because they DI differently. As of now, i'm stuck in a dilemma and since i don't have a car (for now) i don't have a way to get out of town more often. help?

 

[KirbyKaze]

How did you get to the tournament?

 

[I.B]

Practice moving in and out of your aerials as fluidly and quickly as possible. SH, FF, low fair (so that the arc cuts off about mid-way to the ground: the goal is to have the lower half of your torso completely covered), l-cancel -> dash ASAP.

Learn to auto-cancel your N-airs.
How to do it: SH, N-air at the peak of your jump, FF after the second sword swing. Practice dashing out of this as well.

Familiarize yourself with Marth's sword range and become accustomed to tipping aerials.

Hope that helps.

 

[Requiem]

I love your avatar, I.B.

Mindgames can only be learned by playing against people :/ are you really sure that there's no one around you that you could get into playing smash competitively?

Also, you could practice chaingrabs and such I guess.

 

[BBQ°]

Your best way to learn mindgames without playing against people is to watch videos of good players. It's good to watch the combos and the cool stuff, but what you really need to be paying attention to is the minor details such as: spacing, choice of options, and choice of counter options.

For example, I was watching M2k vs Shiz from Fast1 earlier today. Shiz is applying pressure to M2k and M2k is stuck in his shield standing on a platform. Shiz approaches from above, and one could obviously think that Shiz would downair, since that's what falcos like to do. Instead, he fast falls through the platform, M2k releases his shield to try to grab him, then shiz punishes him by jumping up and shining and comboing.

I also like to watch Ken or Mango play. All of their movements and attacks are really well thought out and serve a purpose. It's hard to notice mindgames in a match, but if you think about it, it boils down to:
1) How did player X get hit? Player X has perfect spacing so it was obviously not an error on his part, but rather he got tricked and punished.
2) How did player Y know to hit player X at that moment, and how did he know to use that attack to punish?

Usually when I watch two amazing players and I want to learn something from them, I watch the video as slow as possible. I'll rewatch each segment of the video so many times, and it often takes me 20 minutes or so to watch a 3 minute match.

Other than that, read guides on mindgames and prediction, there's quite a few floating around in the general melee section. Those helped me understand the game better and made me start thinking about strategies in general.

If you ever play against someone around your skill level or that is better than you, try to record the matches and watch each match in segments (like I said before... take 20 minutes if you have to)

Just try to have the mindset that your entire strategy needs to be based around mindgames. I've never been a very technical player, and when I first started playing smash I realized that if I could out think my opponent, I could win. Even when I had no idea wtf I was doing, and when I didn't even have the experience to think properly, I would keep the thinking mindset.

 

[BananaTrooper]

just watch a bazillion videos and imitate

 

[pacostaco123]

just watch a bazillion videos and imitate

true, true

 

[XIII ways to die]

you can watch all the vids you want but fighting is the only way to truly pratice however by watching them you can learn cool techniuqes to use.. find some smash firneds or teach someone how to play and smash with em alot.
also playing against more than one comp on a team against you helps. they may not di like a human but playing more than one will pressure you into learning def and off. also even if it is a comp play against and get used to coboing each character. because of the dif weight and other stuff itll at least teach you. to tech chase a bit and aim. once you can fight a human just convert your skills.

 

[Shadow Huan]

in before close.

really the only way to learn what works is to play people who know how to play lmao. try looking in the regional zones there's people everywhere.

just my $0.02

 

[XIII ways to die]

and that too.

howevermost combos you do on a comp you can do to a human the only dif is the human knows how to tech and di right. wich when that happens tech chase.

one thing you can do to catch someone off gaurd with marth is short hop fow-B to a wave land.

 

[Professor :3]

Playing against lvl 9 computers

Reported for false claims.

 

[sonofashrub]

if you really can't find ANYONE, then work on your tech skill A lot. Play other characters, like fox or whatever to give your fingers some exercise. Get your tech skill to the point that when you are able to play other humans, you'll start to think competitively, and you'll be ready to incorporate your strategies without having to worry about whether or not you're capable of executing them.

Don't work on combos so much. Work on things like l-canceling, wavedashing, things to do from the edge. Retreating fairs are very useful. Basic things. These are the tools you need to use. How and when to use them will come when you can play other humans and learn.

 

[ThatGuy]

I recommend practicing long hours in a basement, with the lights out.

 

[I.B]

I recommend practicing long hours in a basement, with the lights out.

quoted for effectiveness

 

[Charlesz]

Playing with other people. This cannot be subsituted.

 

[Ryucloud]

Your best way to learn mindgames without playing against people is to watch videos of good players. It's good to watch the combos and the cool stuff, but what you really need to be paying attention to is the minor details such as: spacing, choice of options, and choice of counter options.

For example, I was watching M2k vs Shiz from Fast1 earlier today. Shiz is applying pressure to M2k and M2k is stuck in his shield standing on a platform. Shiz approaches from above, and one could obviously think that Shiz would downair, since that's what falcos like to do. Instead, he fast falls through the platform, M2k releases his shield to try to grab him, then shiz punishes him by jumping up and shining and comboing.

I also like to watch Ken or Mango play. All of their movements and attacks are really well thought out and serve a purpose. It's hard to notice mindgames in a match, but if you think about it, it boils down to:
1) How did player X get hit? Player X has perfect spacing so it was obviously not an error on his part, but rather he got tricked and punished.
2) How did player Y know to hit player X at that moment, and how did he know to use that attack to punish?

Usually when I watch two amazing players and I want to learn something from them, I watch the video as slow as possible. I'll rewatch each segment of the video so many times, and it often takes me 20 minutes or so to watch a 3 minute match.

Other than that, read guides on mindgames and prediction, there's quite a few floating around in the general melee section. Those helped me understand the game better and made me start thinking about strategies in general.

If you ever play against someone around your skill level or that is better than you, try to record the matches and watch each match in segments (like I said before... take 20 minutes if you have to)

Just try to have the mindset that your entire strategy needs to be based around mindgames. I've never been a very technical player, and when I first started playing smash I realized that if I could out think my opponent, I could win. Even when I had no idea wtf I was doing, and when I didn't even have the experience to think properly, I would keep the thinking mindset.

Well said man you help me as well with that speech you have my respect man

 

[AceDudeyeah]

Watch youtube videos with a controller in your hand.
half-serious suggestion.

I pretend I have one when watching new matchups.

Make sure you're in private, though. haha

 

[Darkwing SykeDuk]

vid's is the best way to go if you cant play against decent opponents.

 

[Nø Ca$h]

movements

sh falling fair (running left and right)

shffac nair

running into dtilt

iasa out of dtilt

after u can do these by 2nd nature practice stringing them in fluid ways with as little lag inbetween

 

[Uck]

To practice play against friends but dont neglect cpu practice like people say.

Things you can do against cpu.

Move around maps fluidly.Learn maps.Move fluidly while attack to.
Beat the crap out of the Cpu while thinking of tactics.Getting use to timing between attacks and stuff.
Practice DIfluence with level 3 Cpu.
Learn more than once character this will help alot.
Hone your skill to the max! Cpu if very good when first learning melee.

Now once your done practicing and play real player just remember your playing a person and slow down a tad.What helps the most is to watch a videos of other people playing and it will reset you cpu thinking and blah blah good luck

Do you think when melee came out all the old great players didnt abuse the cpu your dead wrong

 

[Retroking2000]

you will have to play more people if you ever want to get to a high level but i think the best thing you could do it just try to pratice efficient shffls , mixing iy up with full jumps and half jumps , double jumps once you get comfortable with succesfully landing l cancels on any given suitation .

but other than that most people when praticing stick to a certain type of stage play on all stages you think might arise in a tournament especially get comfortable with pokemon stadium , fountain of dreams all the like

one thing i have notice to do to pratice is to run suitations in my head of how someone will attack me on certain stages . for example you standing on a left platform opponents could attack in a certain amount of ways just figure how to protect yourself from attacks coming up and down and rising , left and right think that from every angle and every suitation

but you have to play people in order to overcome preformance anxiety sadly

 

[FoxLisk]

watch a high level match. like mango vs jman or something. whenever neither player is comboing, pause the video every couple seconds and guess what the players are going to do next. every time you're wrong, you got mindgamed.

concentrate on things like that. what the best players do that isn't your instinct. they're right more often than you are, so try to understand what they're doing. of course you still have to play a ton to get any real value out of this, but it gives you thing st othink about.

 

[Ocho(*8*)]

movements

sh falling fair (running left and right)

shffac nair

running into dtilt

iasa out of dtilt

after u can do these by 2nd nature practice stringing them in fluid ways with as little lag inbetween

so how exactly do you do a shffac nair? All I really know about autocanceling is that you land without L-canceling and you get basically no lag out of it. I'm guessing theres a specific timing for when to land though??

also is there any trick for iasa out of dtilt like you said? something ive found is that when I dtilt and then hold the stick backwards marth stands up much faster then if I just wait for the move but what other ways can you do stuff out of dtilt more quickly?

 

[CA420]

I just paly against my brother. He's a noob, but he used C-stick alot so it helps you out better then killing cpu's.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

for marth's shffac nair just start the nair on frame 1 or frame 2 of being in the air and then ff normally. nair autocancels frame 25 and after, marth's perfect shff is 26 frames.