Practicing problems, need opinions, and inputs.

[Raethien]

I have a roommate that refuses to practice against me, and when he does, he doesnt try, resulting in me falling behind, with the excuse of "We don't need to practice each other because we already know what we are going to do" He says practicing is pointless, as we wont get better from it.

While I think any practice is good practice, if there is no one else, we shouldn't just not practice.

What are things others do? Im pretty sure if they only have one practice partner, they still practice regardless.

 

[KirbCider]

To be honest I'm in a similar situation.

I have extremely few friends to play Smash with IRL (at least ones that actively play it and know what they're doing) so I'm limited on what I can do in person. A friend of mine who comes over frequently refuses to play against me when I want us both to practice.

His reasoning is "He doesn't like going against me, and I'll just beat him no matter what anyways". When I finally get him to he picks random characters he doesn't even know how to play and just goofs off. Instead he prefers to never shield, complain about random things when we do 2V2 For Glory ("my elbow was in his face it should of hit!" typical johns like that) rather than practice to improve.

He doesn't even care to listen to what I have to say when trying to get him to understand certain things. Honestly, it's not worth the stress to force people like this to make a valid attempt to play and get better. No matter what you try they'll just end up making excuses that they think is valid. While you may have limited options IRL Online is still a pretty decent option. For Glory gets a lot of hate, but it's not too terrible for practice. You're still going against other players and are at least doing something rather than nothing at all. It's something.

If you really want to avoid using For Glory as a means of practice there's even threads here (for both the Wii U and 3DS) where you can find other members here to Smash with. I've done that frequently and found good opponents around or greater than my skill level.

 

[MagnumMuskox]

You can also use the CPU to an extent. You never want to try and read the CPU, as it will create bad patterns in your gameplay. Play a round focusing 100% on reaction. Do nothing until the CPU attacks you. Then react to it. Eventually your reaction time will start to get better, but NEVER PREDICT. Then, play a round focusing 100% on option coverage. Again, no predicting. One more round focussing 100% on your character's spacing tools (pretty much ignore the CPU's attacks).

This is hard to do, as it requires ALL of your attention and concentration. Again, DO NOT READ THE CPU!

Training mode is also great for perfecting advanced techniques. They should be second nature to you. To get there, you will need to use them in stressful situations over and over (ie: against a CPU but ignoring it).

Aside from all that though, nothing beats human interaction (this is something I'm just learning). You gain nothing from playing weaker players. Play someone until you can beat them, then find someone better. Repeat until you are the best. Go to every local tournament. Play as many friendlies there as you can before, between and after your matches. If there are no local tournaments, make one.

Learn from your mistakes. Learn from your victories. Every loss is your own fault. Every victory is a gift.

The only thing stopping you is yourself.

 

[SneaselSawashiro]

You can also use the CPU to an extent. You never want to try and read the CPU, as it will create bad patterns in your gameplay. Play a round focusing 100% on reaction. Do nothing until the CPU attacks you. Then react to it. Eventually your reaction time will start to get better, but NEVER PREDICT. Then, play a round focusing 100% on option coverage. Again, no predicting. One more round focussing 100% on your character's spacing tools (pretty much ignore the CPU's attacks).

This is hard to do, as it requires ALL of your attention and concentration. Again, DO NOT READ THE CPU!

Training mode is also great for perfecting advanced techniques. They should be second nature to you. To get there, you will need to use them in stressful situations over and over (ie: against a CPU but ignoring it).

Aside from all that though, nothing beats human interaction (this is something I'm just learning). You gain nothing from playing weaker players. Play someone until you can beat them, then find someone better. Repeat until you are the best. Go to every local tournament. Play as many friendlies there as you can before, between and after your matches. If there are no local tournaments, make one.

Learn from your mistakes. Learn from your victories. Every loss is your own fault. Every victory is a gift.

The only thing stopping you is yourself.

Sadly, the CPU if they're set at a high enough level-to-max, will also spend WAY TOO MUCH TIME reading you instead (leet air dodges and "hit you with the proper attack when something else hits you towards my way" anyone?)

And in training mode on the 3DS, they'll spam projectiles non-stop.

 

[Crystanium]

Play in For Glory, save videos, watch replays to find the rewards and punishments. Whatever resulted in your punishments, you need to find a way to reduce or prevent punishments. Just because your roommate thinks it'd be pointless to play against you because you both know how the matches will turn out, find ways in which you will dominate. See if he'll think it'll all be the same then. My brother and I play against each other often, even though we both go to For Glory as well. But my brother and I have been improving against each other. I point out his flaws, he points out mine. Pointing out flaws is how you improve.

 

[Uffe]

How good is he? Does he remotely keep up with you? Are you the one constantly winning or is he? If your styles are predictable, then that obviously needs to change in order for you to improve. There are good things to keep and bad things to get rid of when you're playing. Based on your selected characters below your avatar, you've got three characters who are good at spacing. At least that's how I would look at it. If you're using Sheik and you're always fairing your roommate, then yes, he'll expect it. Try a different approach. Do empty hops (which is just jumping around in front of your opponent without attack, but also being at a good distance from getting hit) and see how your roommate reacts. Does he shield? Does he dodge? Roll? Whatever he does, abuse it. So if he blocks as you empty hop, then go for a grab. If he likes to dodge on the ground a lot, then perhaps it would be best to delay your attacks or simply hold the smash attack a tad longer so that he'll get hit.

If you're not recognizing that you're being predictable, then you're playing in a mindset where you're just randomly throwing out things and hoping it'll work, or you're acting in a sequence. It's referred to as "auto-piloting". You're not actually focusing on what your opponent is doing. At least he's not. If you're predictable to him and he's predictable to you, then you've both become conditioned to the point that if you do try something new, you or he may not expect it.

I started playing Smash 4 a year and some months before my brother did and with him playing me a lot and me telling him what he's doing wrong and doing right, as well as he practice in For Glory or in Anther's Ladder, he's gotten better. Tonight, he effed me up to the point I blew my lid. I got so salty. But I shouldn't have, because that's good he's getting better or at my level. If you and your roommate are consistent in practicing, you'll notice a difference. My brother didn't think he was getting good, but I was seeing it and I wasn't saying that he was just to make him feel better. Challenge each other. Give input to one another. Don't take it as negative criticism, because when you do or if your roommate does, then neither of you will improve faster than you could. If you can go to tourneys, attend them. No point falling behind with someone who won't give you the time of day.