I'm starting to get more serious about getting better, and I need a bit of help.

[Drosss]

(I don't know if this post is "following the rules" or not, but if it isn't go ahead and remove)
I've noticed that compared to a lot of videos that I've been seeing, my general movement is significantly worse. I find myself to be moving/reacting slower, in terms of chasing the opponent, dash dancing, etc.

I know how to wave dash and how to L-cancel, but I'm not sure if I'm missing some sort of trick or something. I think it might have to do with my inability to follow up with combos. Either that, or I am just not putting things together correctly. Perhaps it's because I don't know when to do certain things.
I play Marth, and I just started getting into trying out Dr. Mario.

If someone could give me tips on movement or point me to a thread, that would be much appreciated.

 

[Superw0rri0]

So I started playing seriously about 5 months ago and I know exactly how you feel. I got out of that phase pretty recently. I don't know how knowledgeable you are and how "good" you are. You're a little ambiguous on that so I'll just tell you about what I did. At first you're going to want to learn everything you can about your characters. I'm a doc main myself and you seem to be interested in doc. So just go to the doc forums and pick a part everything you can find and try to learn how to do them. Same goes with any character. Then I would practice against the CPUs and try to implement these new techniques that I learned. I suggest playing against levels 4-6. 1-3 is too easy and 7-9 the reaction times they get are stupidly good and, especially at level 9, they become to robotic that you're actually hurting yourself by practicing against that level. Important: don't feel bad for losing against the CPUs. You're not supposed to beat them, you're supposed to use them to practice you're movements and executing your moves and combos. At the same time don't rely on practicing against the CPUs. Practicing with other players is 102930219801923x better than practicing with the CPUs. There are too many reasons to list why but basically an actual player plays with the current metagame where as the CPUs play a metagame that is 12 years old. Once you know your character and understand how to play them along with knowing the mentality behind your character, watch other people play your character and study them; whether it be through the internet or in real life. Watch how they move and what they do in certain situations. For doc, watch Shroomed and the other big doc players, but you can still learn from players that main other characters. Figuring out the movement and the timing is something that no one can teach you. It's something that you'll have to figure out OVER TIME. It took me 4 months to figure out proper movement and for others took longer. The more you practice and the more you play, you'll find yourself getting better every week and eventually every day. I'm sure i've stressed this enough but just in case you haven't gotten the message, it takes time to get good at this game. The forums can only teach you the technical side of this game but learning how to play the game is something that will come over time.

TL;DR:
Learning how to play the game is something that will come over time.

 

[rob_bot5]

Some of the most overlooked movement practice is moving asap after your moves. Knowing when the lag ends is pretty important

 

[CyberZixx]

Melee is a game where you have to learn a bunch of seperate concept and then combine them into effective play. Things like wavedashing, l canceling, dash dancing, combo di, survival di, reading di and techs. Figureing out all that and stringing it together takes practice knowledge and experience. Learn to perform movement related tech but also understand there purpose in a match. Learn to string things together like being able to act out of a wavedash or your shield.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

(I don't know if this post is "following the rules" or not, but if it isn't go ahead and remove)
I've noticed that compared to a lot of videos that I've been seeing, my general movement is significantly worse. I find myself to be moving/reacting slower, in terms of chasing the opponent, dash dancing, etc.

I know how to wave dash and how to L-cancel, but I'm not sure if I'm missing some sort of trick or something. I think it might have to do with my inability to follow up with combos. Either that, or I am just not putting things together correctly. Perhaps it's because I don't know when to do certain things.
I play Marth, and I just started getting into trying out Dr. Mario.

If someone could give me tips on movement or point me to a thread, that would be much appreciated.

It does no good if you lcancel but don't move ASAP; you might as well had not lcanceled. Even if you won't be playing him in matches, practice with Falcon against a cpu marth or ganon. Basic combo strings will work for him regardless of DI and you must lcancel to immediate dash in order to follow up.

Once you have that down, try working on your neutral movement. With Marth, practice dash->wavedash. Dash right -> wavedash right, dash left -> wavedash left. This is what high level marth players do in order to maximize their mobility and evasiveness.

check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iTKxosywts#t=12m24s if you want to see m2k doing some warm ups

 

[Double Helix]

check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iTKxosywts#t=12m24s if you want to see m2k doing some warm ups

Lol. M2K doing warm ups? No way man! =P

But seriously, I have been playing for a year. I feel like I would have progressed faster if I had people to play, but in any case, find people to play. Ultimately, just playing people better than you is a really good way to get better. Sveet may know better than me, and I have looked for it recently, but is there a thread that is a "How to practice" sort of thread? I feel like a thread like that should be stickied, because something maybe more important that practicing is practicing correctly.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

The closest thread to that would be Drastic Improvement. The author, Umbreon, has been a valuable member to the community since before I knew what smashboards was. From what I have heard, he was also a sort of mentor to players such as M2K, Dr PeePee and Cactuar. He definitely knows what he is talking about.

I will be honest, I have only skimmed the thread, but from what I can tell it is very comprehensive. I would assume it is character generic, so if there is any elaboration that is needed feel free to ask.

 

[Drosss]

It does no good if you lcancel but don't move ASAP; you might as well had not lcanceled. Even if you won't be playing him in matches, practice with Falcon against a cpu marth or ganon. Basic combo strings will work for him regardless of DI and you must lcancel to immediate dash in order to follow up.

Once you have that down, try working on your neutral movement. With Marth, practice dash->wavedash. Dash right -> wavedash right, dash left -> wavedash left. This is what high level marth players do in order to maximize their mobility and evasiveness.

check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iTKxosywts#t=12m24s if you want to see m2k doing some warm ups

That makes a bit more sense now. I was watching some of PewPewU and M2K's games, and I was blown away by their movement. I'll try doing that Captain Falcon thing you suggested; I already play C. Falc for fun, but I'll try to figure out how to get used to chasing the opponent, I guess.
Thanks!

 

[Drosss]

So I started playing seriously about 5 months ago and I know exactly how you feel. I got out of that phase pretty recently. I don't know how knowledgeable you are and how "good" you are. You're a little ambiguous on that so I'll just tell you about what I did. At first you're going to want to learn everything you can about your characters. I'm a doc main myself and you seem to be interested in doc. So just go to the doc forums and pick a part everything you can find and try to learn how to do them. Same goes with any character. Then I would practice against the CPUs and try to implement these new techniques that I learned. I suggest playing against levels 4-6. 1-3 is too easy and 7-9 the reaction times they get are stupidly good and, especially at level 9, they become to robotic that you're actually hurting yourself by practicing against that level. Important: don't feel bad for losing against the CPUs. You're not supposed to beat them, you're supposed to use them to practice you're movements and executing your moves and combos. At the same time don't rely on practicing against the CPUs. Practicing with other players is 102930219801923x better than practicing with the CPUs. There are too many reasons to list why but basically an actual player plays with the current metagame where as the CPUs play a metagame that is 12 years old. Once you know your character and understand how to play them along with knowing the mentality behind your character, watch other people play your character and study them; whether it be through the internet or in real life. Watch how they move and what they do in certain situations. For doc, watch Shroomed and the other big doc players, but you can still learn from players that main other characters. Figuring out the movement and the timing is something that no one can teach you. It's something that you'll have to figure out OVER TIME. It took me 4 months to figure out proper movement and for others took longer. The more you practice and the more you play, you'll find yourself getting better every week and eventually every day. I'm sure i've stressed this enough but just in case you haven't gotten the message, it takes time to get good at this game. The forums can only teach you the technical side of this game but learning how to play the game is something that will come over time.

TL;DR:
Learning how to play the game is something that will come over time.

I've been working with lvl 9's for the past few weeks, I think I gotta start moving towards lvl 4's or 6's. But my brother is coming home soon, so once he gets home (and he's a damn good Falco) I think I can learn from him. Thank you so much for this!

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

lvl 4 CPUs are really good to practice marth CGs on. lvl1s will always DI left/right, while lvl4s will mostly do straight up DI and occasionally side to side.

 

[Deleted member]

read my article.

talk to people that know what they're talking about.

listen to what they have to say.