I try to do Ippo’s training regime daily when I can find the motivation and time (probably around 2 months a year for the last couple years - not very consistently) - 2 minutes each of:
* Warm Up
* Movement
* SHFFLing
* Edge Guarding
* Chain Grabbing Fox
* Chain Grabbing Falco
* Down-Tilt
* Out of Shield Options
If I have extra time sometimes I just set the timer to 99 minutes and 99 lives and just do each of these until I’m satisfied, usually 3-5 minutes.
I’ve been doing this off and on (mostly off) for a couple of years and I still struggle to implement s lot of the things covered in his video in tournament play. Mostly OOS options. I just don’t shield enough I think, and when I do I don’t have good patience, or timing, and don’t select a good option (usually just let my shield down after putting it up by accident). Also, edge guarding, and chain grabbing I can tell still need a lot of work, and I’m only at 50-80% on my shuffles depending on what I’m working on (getting off the ledge I tend to miss a lot - so I need to work on that more).
I think my biggest problem I need to work on is being less predictable. I feel like I get read really hard and consistently when I play tournament matches, doing things like fair off of ledge way too often and getting called out for it, or getting hit out of an approaching fair.
Other things I know I need to work on but struggle to make time to do it are work on specific matches, and specific interactions within those matches. Shirk and C. Falcon are big ones that I feel unsure of what I’m supposed to be doing. Specifically combos, edge guards, and kill setups. I’m pretty clueless most of the time, just kind of playing by feel, probably letting my opponent condition me to be less and less aggressive and give up too much space. I see the pros running off and hitting people off stage all the time, but I feel like that usually ends badly for me. Still, I’m trying to do it more and more, because I’ll never learn unless I keep trying it.
Link to Ippo’s practice routine video for reference:
https://youtu.be/K_0v9J54eNc
A lot of tech and tips and tricks could be implemented into a routine like this. I think the one thing I’m lacking the most is just having a practice partner. I have been told this is crucial to development, but my networking and scheduling / time management skills just aren’t quite there yet to the point that this is easy or even possible for me right now. I think I just need to put myself out there a little more, and get out of my comfort zone / make new friends, and build in regular practice sessions into my routine. It just feels like everyone I know who plays is way better than me and not interested in playing with me because of my lack of skill. That is probably just my anxiety and insecurities talking though. I think a more accurate assessment is people at my skill level are less engaged and active in the community and so they are a little harder to seek out and identify due to their lower visibility.
I could just play on Netplay daily too. This would probably help a lot, and maybe I’ll start doing this. I think the release of ultimate and missed expectations there really fueled a new desire to play this game again for me, and I want to step it up to the next level, and this is probably the thing that will help me get there fastest / with least effort (it feels easier than finding someone to play with locally - of course I would rather do that but it seems to be more of a challenge for me).
For having put as much time as I have in to this game, I have to say I am somewhat disappointed with my results, which is why I am here. I was hoping to find some tips for my own practice routine. I guess I did, even if it was mostly through introspection. Thanks for the prompt!
