How to practice spacing?

[Deleted member]

I've been told my spacing is trash. In my worst matchups, I mostly either hit to close or not at all, and get 0-death killed for it.

Any way to get better at spacing?

 

[Nah]

Basically the two main things to do are:
1) be intimately familiar with the range on all your characters' moves
2) get better at moving around with your character(s)

A lot of this can just come from raw experience. You'll eventually get a feel for and become comfortable with doing these things the more you play. But for some more specific, training-room sort of things (at least for the first one), go into training mode and just try to hit an idle training dummy CPU with each of your moves. Start farther away than necessary, then inch your way forward until the attack hits the dummy. This way, you'll at least have some idea of your moves' maximum range.

I'm not really sure what to tell you though for getting better at moving around other than "practice moving around", which is not exactly the most helpful thing to say, but it just seems to me like one of those things that you just get accustomed to over time.

Something important to keep in mind though is that no one can space perfectly all the time (if anyone could, Marth would be god). It's actually a two person thing, and one that not only varies for each character, but for each matchup too. Where each character wants to be relative to their opponent at any given time depends on the character, and who they're facing. It's a constant battle of the two people trying to position themselves favorably as best they can.


.....I, uh, hope this is of some use at least anyway

 

[Alicorn]

Marth is good at teaching you how to space since he has the best walk speed thus allowing for better mircospacing.

 

[FartyParty]

Spacing comes down to two things:
1) Movement
2) Timing

Timing you can really only improve with experience against other people b/c it depends on reading the opponent. But movement you can practice all by yourself.

Below are two guides for improving movement, both with recommendations for specific practice routines. The first is really good for some of the most basic movement options. The second is more advanced with a more extensive and in-depth practice routine to follow that even includes some basic things the first video left out (like simply turning around in place). The second guide is definitely better, but it could be overwhelming if you're skill level is still too low.

 

[Sean²]

What moves are you having the most trouble spacing properly? Generally if I thought my spacing was super off I'd probably go into training mode against characters of various sizes and see the furthest distance I can throw out said attack(s) and get a hit, and what is the minimum distance it whiffs. Some characters with super low-profile crouches, I will sometimes plug in a second controller, hold down on the control stick with my foot (as weird/gross as that sounds - I don't do it with controllers other people are gonna use and don't do it with bare feet), and figure out the spacing there as well.

Some stages give you visual cues on the stage itself on how far an attack will go, if you practice the spacing on legal stages in training mode. Stuff like the Pokeball on PS2, the lines/background on BF and FD, the foreground lights on Smashville, etc can give you visual cues. Some players of characters very dependent on spacing, like Marth, use/have used this method for hitting tippers consistently.

If you're getting 0-deathed it also sounds like you need to practice DI and timing airdodges, finding when the best time to use directional airdodges versus neutral airdodges, and when to combo-break with a double jump or fast aerial of some kind.

 

[Caylane]

By gitting gud.

 

[Deleted member]

By gitting gud.

I don't condone basic, unspecific advice. This is completely unhelpful. I'm assuming this is a troll answer, which don't help.