I need help adding lasers to my game...

[Zhulong]

I attended my first ever tournament last week and while I lost quickly in bracket I didn't get completely bodied. But there was one glaring thing I was told by almost everyone I played:
I don't spam lasers enough.

I often use them when edge-guarding but I find that when I use lasers to approach etc I leave myself very vulnerable and so I guess I just got into a bad habit of not using them much at all.
Does anyone have any advice on how to practice adding more lasers to my ground game? And how to pick good moments to spam?

Thanks!

 

[Portapus]

The trick to using good lasers is to start them off with good spacing. A lot of it has to do with neutral, recognizing different situations, and then adjusting to your opponent. Lasers are great for locking down and controlling the situation.

As far as when to spam and not to spam depends on what kind of falco you want to play. Lasers are great at extending combos. They're also great when you recognize that your opponent wants to approach to halt their approach. The absolute best way to practice this is to practice with friends. If you have friends in the competitive scene that's ideal, but any practice is better than none. 20XX and netplay are good tools to use as well, although practicing on CPU's can be a little frustrating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkUfAtXnNAU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGtPF_13AaA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD4nDvvdCWc

Here are some links to help you study. I linked two other videos that show you how lasers can be beat to help you recognize when lasers are working vs when they aren't working in neutral. I hope that helps!

 

[GatGoat]

i feel like you need to implement more out of shield options into your game more than lasers right now, at least thats the vibe im getting. and if you already are then try mixing them up in the neutral when you spam lasers. it might help you from getting punished like you say were before you stopped using lasers altogether

 

[Illuminus]

Druggedfox recently did a video showing the power or lasers in neutral:
https://youtu.be/Y-7xlZF16zA

Also, I want emphasize that tech skill is a really big barrier to being good at lasers, they feel terrible when your slow I played for almost 8 months until I realized I was slow at lasers. Like it just feels awful when your opponents takes a laser and gets another move out when they really shouldn't. Once you get that near frame perfect speed youll just feel super powerful lasering in place, you'll see that your forcing opponent to the platforms or trying to powershield and it feels great.

After work on moving around and lasering. Retreating lasers, platform coverage, run off double jump lasers and whatever else you can find