I feel that I'm missing something when it comes to melee, can someone help me out?

[Deleted member]

I've been playing for a while, and while I execute all the advanced techs in game for my best characters very well enough to the point where it's second nature, I often find myself in spots that feel VERY awkward. To me, it feels as though I'm not spacing my self well enough, or that I have some weird subconsciousness problem.

I'm going to have to first explain something -- even though I'm fairly certain that most of you will call Johns -- whether I win OR lose, I notice when I am playing the game right. By right, I mean when I put my character in right positions, and my aerial attacks don't miss my opponent which end up putting me in the most uncomfortable positions imaginable. I've tried all sorts of things to try to force me out of the "habbit" -- if that's what it is -- such as imagining my character's hit box on my character, or putting borders between my opponent and I -- some kind of visual representation that I can put in my head to make me play the game correctly. I noticed that when I play players around my skill level, it feels as though they are following some sort of guidelines that make them use their characters correctly. For instance: Fox players who use their neutral air almost always are able to shin them on impact. When the neutral air hits, the opponent goes flying the DIRECTION that Fox was going. For me, Fox's neutral air would end up sending my opponent behind me, I would then turn around, run toward my opponent, try for an edge guard, and somehow my opponent would end up getting behind me and into the stage.

I also notice things like when I play the game RIGHT (With Samus in this case), I am able to shield attacks following a certain timing, and when I FEEL (Feel being the big word, in the sense that I can literally feel the right way to play the game) a certain timing, I can wait a moment after shielding, and when I've got the right timing, I can wavedash out of the way, and follow up with an fsmash.

When I play the game WRONG, I can't FEEL the game correctly at all. Playing characters like falcon or Fox feels like I need twitch reflexes, and when I go to move my character, it feels like the controller is literally broken, as I'll do stuff like turn around in place a bunch of times when I try to dash-dance.

Let me show you a gif image that I created in a match that I saw with Westballz and Ajred: https://gifs.com/gif/mZYqw9

Here's the video, it's at 5:34: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvZ6lC1ZoN0

Notice Ajred's falcon when he hits fox, as soon as he hits him and sends fox flying, he then jumps the opposite way. Now: keep in mind where fox's position was where falcon's knee hit, notice how Ajred's falcon jumped the other way in such a way where if Fox was still in that particular position, he could get another Knee on him. THAT is what I'm talking about, I don't know what type of guidelines he follows at all times in order to play the game like that, but everyone does this except me.

I'd really like someone to point out what guidelines I'm not following. I feel as though even noobs who don't use advanced techniques have these guidelines down no problem. They can at-least space themselves out right, as though they are following a "track" that is set for their character to be positioned correctly. I am tempted to go back and play the game without ANY advanced techniques like a nooby to see if I can get this down in my head permanently.

I'm not sure, but perhaps the best key word I can think of to cover this might be "movement."

 

[Roko Jono]

not really getting what you're asking but... i'll try

im not sure what you think the falcon was doing, but I don't believe he was jumping backwards so he can "cover" a second knee. he jumped backwards so he could face inward and grab the ledge for the edge guard situation.

in a sense if you are asking how people cover those types of options, its just thinking ahead. like when a falcon overshoots a knee and ends up behind the opponent they can cover their next option with a turn around forward tilt.

your samus example sounds like the feel for shield stun. you have to play the game for a while to know when you are allowed to wavedash out of shield to punish. it depends on the move hitting you, and what type of shield you do. the lighter the shield the longer the shield stun. easiest example is shielding a marth forward smash. you should be able to wavedash out of shield and punish him, but if you do it too early you'll probably spot dodge. too late and well, its too late. this feeling also takes time. even to this day i probably dont know every attacks "shield stun" frames, but I do know the feel for the common ones at least.

that track you might be speaking of is just knowing how your character moves. you know how high they jump and double jump, how fast their air speed is, etc, so in a sense, you could probably look away from the screen while playing for a few seconds and know exactly where you are on stage. i know i've done it a few times. there is a feel to the game which is very weird. players know when they are out of hit stun and they know when their moves finish, its just what happens with time.

dont overthink when you play. just play, relax, have fun and try to improve at your own pace.

 

[KムエN]

I think I know what you're asking.. because at one point I felt like asking a similar question, lol. It happens to everybody.

Sometimes you're just on point, and most times you're not. When you're not on point, you're most likely not focused as much as you need to be, and then you end up with poor spacing and in bad situations like those. But if you want to be on point more often, you need to be as interested as possible, preferably focused (sometimes I can daydream while whooping people better than me but not always), and not on autopilot. What I do to get myself fighting on point is.. well I do several things.
1- I don't play every day. I might think about playing Melee every once in awhile.. if I do, then I'm hyping myself up to play, and I'm visualizing fighting perfectly.
2- I only play when I really want to.
3- I warm up (in my case I usually go Spacie/Marth, or M2 who's my main secondary) and use that time to get myself serious and focused. If I'm not focusing as hard as I need to, to produce the exact results I want, then I immediately recognize that and focus harder. I usually don't bother trying to fight anyone seriously until I'm warmed up. (Unless I'm coming from a long break, and I feel godly and know I can't be stopped).

Another thing is I usually try to "slow things down". IDK if I can explain it.. like, I'm taking my time, and dedicating my full attention to the smallest details of each play and action, with no rush whatsoever. Usually when I'm on point I'm willing to go to time if it had to come to that.
Last thing I do.. it's not really something I consciously do 100% of the time (yet), but it's something that happens when I'm on point- I'm thinking very far ahead as I play. Before I even get the hit, I have my options and the spacing already determined and I have the best followup planned, and I'm ready to adapt on the spot if something I didn't expect occurs (underestimated DI, unusual floor tech on a move, unpredicted ledge rise or tech roll, a trade, etc.). If you think any of these things will help you then try them. I'm not totally sure if it does, but I hope this message addresses what you were asking, haha.