In Need of a Training Gameplan

[RippedStudley]

So a friend and I are pretty hell bent on playing melee nonstop this year at school in an effort to get better. While I know what pretty much every tech skill is from watching tourney videos and the like, being only a casual player I've never truly tried to master them. As mentioned in a lot of posts, knowing all the different tech skills is somewhat overwhelming to me, as I'm just not sure where to start. If any veteran/someone who wants to help could maybe give me a gameplan or practice strategy to start cracking down on the tech skills one by one, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you very much!

 

[Dolla Pills]

In terms of techniques what you want to get down is:

Movement:
- dash dancing, platform movement, short hopping, and wavedashing are good starters. Stuff like moonwalking, sticky walking, and pivoting can come later.
- movement is important as it allows you to more freely access options and control the map. If all you can do is roll around out of shield it will be very easy to catch you and very hard for you to create an opening.

General offense:
- L canceling, making use of IASA frames where applicable, JC grabs, and learning simple follow ups to your starters will allow you to convert off your openings instead of just getting one hit
- Edgeguarding is also one of the biggest differences between casual and more competitive players

General defense:
- Teching, knowing how to DI out of combos and when to DI for survival, learning your out of shield options, recovery, and utilizing good options from the ledge
- These will help you preserve your stocks and feel less threatened/overwhelmed by your opponent, and also give you more time to adapt to their play style and habits

In my opinion these are the basic technical building blocks of Melee. Some can be labbed out solo but all will need practice against someone else to some extent. Once you are starting to shift these aspects of your gameplay from casual to competitive you will be able to learn the other fundamentals of Melee much easier than if you had no technical ability.

Now, I listed a lot of stuff and it's far too much to keep track of in game, especially when you're new. What I recommend is that you and your friend find a way to record (even at low quality) so you can watch your matches. When watching your matches, it will be helpful to think of the above areas that I listed and ask yourself what you can do better, particularly when you get hit/ recover poorly/ drop a combo/ take a huge combo/ otherwise notice you did something "bad." It will be much easier to notice these things when not playing, so you may be able to improve more efficiently by reviewing your own footage.

I also recommend finding other real life people to play with. If you are in college, try to find or start your school's scene (most schools already have a Melee scene). If you aren't, try to find your local scene or at least a few local players and try to grow from there. Playing against many people will allow you to be familiar with many different styles and characters which will help your growth as a player.

Last of all, don't forget to have fun!

 

[Ezlo]

Hey there!
If you're looking to get the tech down in melee, I suggest EvenMatchupGaming's series on Melee (and Project M) tech. I would recommend learning the tech in the order that they show it, or at least in order of the videos they made. Work on getting it consistent, so that it's second nature and you don't have to think about it. Don't worry if it doesn't happen quickly, it will come with time if you practice the tech enough and use it in matches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGS5eT68P-8&list=PL7EcSDUpgrOmM3pjPbX1e5D22EVL32f1g

Now, once you're started on that, and you've seen some progress on L-Cancelling, Dash Dancing, and Wave Dashing, you can begin improving in aspects of the game besides tech skill, too. This comes best from a few different places:

The internet
Your own practicing and experimentation
Watching good players and figuring out what they do that works (and why it works, once you're more comfortable with the game)
Talking and playing with other people

This is where you'll learn things like...
The Neutral Game
Combos and your character's Punish Game
Character-specific tech skill
Spacing
Mix-ups
Edgeguarding

... and so on and so forth. The list goes on and on. If you don't understand what these are yet, don't worry, it'll come if you keep trying to find information through the four ways I mentioned earlier. Once you've started learning tech skill, looking these up is a good place to keep going if you want to understand the game a little better.

Remember, you can start learning these things before your basic tech skill is perfect, but MAKE SURE that you practice tech skill a little bit at least every time you play! You want to get it out of the way, because not knowing your tech skill will make your play worse for no reason other than that you didn't practice it. Also, even if using tech skill in a game makes your play worse for now, make sure you're incorporating it. It might make you play badly for a little while, but eventually it will pay off and you will start playing much better.

Sometime soon, you should go to a tournament or somewhere that Melee players meet up near you. Even if you're not confident in your tech skill or your ability to play well yet, you should go anyways. This can help in a TON of ways. Most important, you'll get to meet other people who love the game you're playing, and you'll be able to recognize them and talk to them in the future. These people can help you get better. Whenever you play against one, you should ask yourself, and ask them, what you could do to improve.
For a while, most people will say something like, "work on your tech skill," or "keep practicing the fundamentals." At first, this will mean that your tech skill isn't consistent enough yet. Maybe you'll miss your wavedashes sometimes in a match, or you'll accidentally full hop instead of short hop. If your tech skill is very consistent, though, they probably mean that you need to learn when to use it in a game. You might be rolling too much instead of moving quickly with your wavedash, or something like that.
Keep practicing, alone and with other people, and make sure to keep asking yourself and other people how to get better. Then, practice whatever answers you get. Remember, sometimes people will say one thing, and mean something slightly different, like the example I gave above.

One thing that I only realized in my first tournament match -- when you begin to play fast, or even when you're playing against someone who moves quickly, you'll find that you don't have the time to think about all your decisions in the middle of a match. A lot of the game becomes instinct, which is why you don't want to have to think about tech skill in a game! If you have to think about doing tech skill, it will make it hard to focus and can even make you lose a match!

Finally, remember that even though you need tech skill to play this game as fast as the pros, the game is much more than tech skill. Know that it's just as important to know when to use your tech skill, when to move and attack, and how you should do all of them in the middle of a match.

Wow, that was a lot longer than I thought it would be! I hope it helped

~ EZLO

 

[RippedStudley]

In terms of techniques what you want to get down is:


I also recommend finding other real life people to play with. If you are in college, try to find or start your school's scene (most schools already have a Melee scene). If you aren't, try to find your local scene or at least a few local players and try to grow from there. Playing against many people will allow you to be familiar with many different styles and characters which will help your growth as a player.

Last of all, don't forget to have fun!

Hey there!

Sometime soon, you should go to a tournament or somewhere that Melee players meet up near you. Even if you're not confident in your tech skill or your ability to play well yet, you should go anyways. This can help in a TON of ways. Most important, you'll get to meet other people who love the game you're playing, and you'll be able to recognize them and talk to them in the future. These people can help you get better. Whenever you play against one, you should ask yourself, and ask them, what you could do to improve.
For a while, most people will say something like, "work on your tech skill," or "keep practicing the fundamentals." At first, this will mean that your tech skill isn't consistent enough yet. Maybe you'll miss your wavedashes sometimes in a match, or you'll accidentally full hop instead of short hop. If your tech skill is very consistent, though, they probably mean that you need to learn when to use it in a game. You might be rolling too much instead of moving quickly with your wavedash, or something like that.
Keep practicing, alone and with other people, and make sure to keep asking yourself and other people how to get better. Then, practice whatever answers you get. Remember, sometimes people will say one thing, and mean something slightly different, like the example I gave above.



Finally, remember that even though you need tech skill to play this game as fast as the pros, the game is much more than tech skill. Know that it's just as important to know when to use your tech skill, when to move and attack, and how you should do all of them in the middle of a match.

Wow, that was a lot longer than I thought it would be! I hope it helped

~ EZLO

So even if we don't have the tech skill really at all, do you think we should still go to tournaments, or should we wait until we have basic tech skill usage down?

 

[Dolla Pills]

So even if we don't have the tech skill really at all, do you think we should still go to tournaments, or should we wait until we have basic tech skill usage down?

There are a surprising amount of newbie people who show up to tournies especially if it's the start of the year at college. I'd still suggest going if it's feasible-- you might not be able to compete to the fullest but you'll make new friends and start to get involved which will help a lot in the long term

 

[Ezlo]

So even if we don't have the tech skill really at all, do you think we should still go to tournaments, or should we wait until we have basic tech skill usage down?

At this point, tournaments and gatherings aren't for you to win -- they're for you to meet new people, learn more about the game, and try to get better. You can do that even without solid tech skill Also, I've noticed that if you know people who play smash and you meet up with them regularly (like at a weekly tournament or something) then your drive to get better goes way up.