How to more effectively play rushdown?

[Ruari]

I've been playing melee for a couple of years, but have only really started to want to improve in the last couple of months. I play Fox, and I love the character, but I developed a style for him that seems inefficient. I don't really play Fox as a rushdown, and more so punish other characters approaches/whiffs and look for openings more than I force them. All in all, it makes my fox boring. I want to play him in a more rushdown style, as I think it would better lend to his strengths as well as make my play more exciting, but I don't know how to do that well. When I approach I am usually just punished and I find it hard to retain good shield pressure. How should I go about crafting a good rushdown fox playstyle? What are good ways to retain pressure? How should I be winning neutral? All help appreciated, I really just want to improve,

 

[Jma]

This is a super broad question, I think the best way to learn a style is by emulation, this applies to basically everything, not just melee. Find a good fox who plays the "rushdown" style that you want to play, watch their sets and take note of the different tools they use. Practice those tools, asking yourself "why does this work? when does this work?" etc.

An example: I play falcon, if I want to play like wizzy, I'll watch his sets and realize that in neutral, he wants to bait and punish approaches. how does he do this? I watch a set, and see that he'll nair in place, then do a dashback stomp.
I ask myself:

Why does this work?
When he nairs in place, the fox will try to run in and punish his landing, assuming he'll start dash dancing again or whatever, so the fox overshoots a drill or whatever, but gets hit by the dashback stomp instead.

When does this work?
In neutral, when the fox is grounded and waiting to react and punish you.

What beats this?
when the fox expects my option, he might go for a fh aerial, or space a sh nair or fair around my stomp
Then I can ask myself how to beat his counterplay, and lab out a mix-up, blah blah blah etc, etc.

Do this for a fox player that you like, and I'm sure that you will find a lot of tools to use.

 

[Ruari]

Bet thank you, I get how it's broad but I'll look for some foxes like that and try it out