How to practice properly alone?

[bts.mongoose]

The Smash scene nearest to me is too far for me to go out to on a regular basis. Regardless, I still love the game and want to be good at it. Does anyone have any tips as far as practicing on your own?

 

[Y-L]

Join netplay master race

 

[Vizc]

Realize it's only practice.
All you can really do is practice inputs and learn hitboxes.

20XX also helps with practicing, but If you have 20XX, you have a computer fully capable of emulating; Having that much begs you to give netplay a shot.

 

[AAkacia]

I came in here to reply with 20XX but it's already been handled.

 

[Spazzy]

I just practice tech against level 7 cpus. 99 stocks and don't play to win. I choose level 7 because of their DI and also because I have to react fast for tech.

 

[EPsilon933]

Practicing alone is boring and doesn't often get you very far. What more can you improve upon beyond getting the needed techniques down?

If you can regularly play online with net play and an emulator, you should try it. If not, I'd recommend playing Street Fighter online, especially 3rd Strike. It'll teach you how to find patterns and predict well

 

[Bones0]

20xx hack pack is no joke. You should also try to get someone near you interested in joining you on your quest to get good though. Having at least 1 practice partner makes a huge difference than none at all. Just try to find someone who will actually care about improving. Make sure you keep an eye out in Facebook groups or SmashBoards for people who are trying to play and actually live near you because not everyone knows the best networks to find Smashers.

 

[bts.mongoose]

Thank you for all the helpful responses guys! Unfortunately, my computer isn't good enough to emulate Melee, so 20XX and Netplay are out of the question. But I do have some friends around me who are into Smash, I'll see if I can convince any of them to play with me regularly.

 

[MookieRah]

Do you have a wii? You can do 20XX on a wii, that's how I do it.

 

[AlphaQHard]

Might be obvious but when i practice i try and think what i want my character to do and do it. The better control you have over your character the better. Sometimes i mess up up tilt by jumping, sometimes i mess up short hop up air by double jumping.

 

[MookieRah]

I posted very briefly yesterday because I didn't have much time, but I'll post more today.

If you have a wii, get the 20XX mod on there. It's not hard, and only requires a cheap SD card and a bit of time. Trust me, you will be saving yourself A LOT of time in general, as you can practice things more efficiently and in ways that are just impossible to train by yourself otherwise.

As a general guide for training by yourself, you need to focus on technique and not so much on other aspects of the game. Single player is for execution, not learning game theory, as the computers will play the same way every time and lead to lots of bad habits.

If you are new starting out, there is a TON of stuff to learn. I'll stress that in the beginning you should focus on controlling your character. This means learning how to perform tilts in every direction as quickly as possible on both the ground and platforms, learning how to short hop, learning how to fall through platforms instead of land on them, and other basics like that. Once you master these things, then move on to L-canceling and wave dashing/wave landing. Learn about your OoS options (out of shield options) and learn to not rely on rolls. Learn your characters's bread and butters (the basic setups & combos that the character is known for). Learn how to DI, and practice DI'ing (I make it a big thing in my practice to always input DI whenever I can without interrupting my movements/attacks, it's a very good habit to be in). Learn character specific tech, stuff like double jump cancelling with Characters like Yoshi, Peach, M2, Ness, etc, Shine stuff with the spacies, and other stuff related to your character of choice.

All of this and more can be trained in single player, and all are required for high level play. I would actually say that in a lot of cases this stuff is more easily learned in 20XX/Training mode as you can concentrate on one thing at a time instead of focussing on trying to learn new techniques during matches.

My last piece of advice is to train smarter, not harder. Actually spend time trying to learn the mechanics of the game and how you can create a method of single player practice in order to learn complex things. Try to find ways to automate things that most would assume is based on reaction, so it actually frees your mind to be able to react to even more things (the DI trick I mentioned earlier is a good example of this).

 

[Vorde]

I used 20xx to start learning more about DI and it helped me a lot. Unfortunately for me, my life is usually so busy, I cannot find the time to play Smash with the local scene I have helped create in my small town. 20XX has been awesome for practice, and I could not recommend it more

 

[bts.mongoose]

I posted very briefly yesterday because I didn't have much time, but I'll post more today.

If you have a wii, get the 20XX mod on there. It's not hard, and only requires a cheap SD card and a bit of time. Trust me, you will be saving yourself A LOT of time in general, as you can practice things more efficiently and in ways that are just impossible to train by yourself otherwise.

As a general guide for training by yourself, you need to focus on technique and not so much on other aspects of the game. Single player is for execution, not learning game theory, as the computers will play the same way every time and lead to lots of bad habits.

If you are new starting out, there is a TON of stuff to learn. I'll stress that in the beginning you should focus on controlling your character. This means learning how to perform tilts in every direction as quickly as possible on both the ground and platforms, learning how to short hop, learning how to fall through platforms instead of land on them, and other basics like that. Once you master these things, then move on to L-canceling and wave dashing/wave landing. Learn about your OoS options (out of shield options) and learn to not rely on rolls. Learn your characters's bread and butters (the basic setups & combos that the character is known for). Learn how to DI, and practice DI'ing (I make it a big thing in my practice to always input DI whenever I can without interrupting my movements/attacks, it's a very good habit to be in). Learn character specific tech, stuff like double jump cancelling with Characters like Yoshi, Peach, M2, Ness, etc, Shine stuff with the spacies, and other stuff related to your character of choice.

All of this and more can be trained in single player, and all are required for high level play. I would actually say that in a lot of cases this stuff is more easily learned in 20XX/Training mode as you can concentrate on one thing at a time instead of focussing on trying to learn new techniques during matches.

My last piece of advice is to train smarter, not harder. Actually spend time trying to learn the mechanics of the game and how you can create a method of single player practice in order to learn complex things. Try to find ways to automate things that most would assume is based on reaction, so it actually frees your mind to be able to react to even more things (the DI trick I mentioned earlier is a good example of this).

Thank you so much! This is super helpful. I'm gonna look up a guide for installing 20XX on the Wii first thing tomorrow.

 

[BO/\K]

If you have someone you know who can DI throws the way you tell them too that's helpful. A new player DIing away is the same piece of combo meat as a top player DIing away.

Tech chasing and combo trees are a good example of things that follow this thought. If you have plans to cover options and then practice covering the options on reaction with a punching bag buddy, you'll be able to punish better.

You can also practice movement alone.

Try not to practice too much at once it'll throw you off. I stick to 5-15 min spurts.

 

[yttik]

I usually play with either level 1s or 7s, put time on infinite and practise individual tech. You can also put a level 9 and just try to run and not get hit for 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 etc. Try not to get too accustomed to the weird playstyle of CPUs.