Questions on reading.

[Raethien]

I am not good at reading in the sightest, I kind of wanted to get rid of my misconceptions on reading.

Do you get better at reading as it goes on?
Do you have to actualy think about it as the match plays out?
Or does it just come naturally?
Aso is there a way to get into the mindset of reading?

 

[Gawain]

Do you have to actualy think about it as the match plays out?

Otherwise it is not a read.

 

[Raethien]

Otherwise it is not a read.

I have seen mutiple people say it is just natural. But I was just never sure.

 

[Jrzfine]

'Natural' reads are just guesses.
If you want to get better at reading, hop into any match, local or online, play very passively, and just watch. Try throwing out a move and watch for what their response is. Are they airdodging every time i get them in the air? Does that ROB always shoot a laser at me when trying to recover offstage? Is that Toon Link always throwing a bomb and following up with Fair?

Basically, just observe. When you see the same thing twice, make a note of it. Three times, and you can reasonably assume they'll do it a fourth time in a similar scenario. Then, use that knowledge to punish. I main Falcon, you see, so reads are critical to my success. I'll spend the first stock spamming Uair and Jabbing to do what is called 'conditioning'. Now the opponent sees this, and will preemptively airdodge off of a dthrow to avoid the seemingly inevitable Uair, as well as shield any time i'm in jabbing distance. Now that I see him doing this, the next time I walk up to him and without hesitation grab him, predicting that he will be in shield. I then Dthrow him. I will now shorthop jump and wait for the airdodge, which I also predict. As soon as I see it, he's doomed. Knee to the face while he's in endlag.

TL;DR get used to observing, and once you've seen a lot you can begin to start matches making reads just based off things you've seen other people using that character do.

 

[Raethien]

'Natural' reads are just guesses.
If you want to get better at reading, hop into any match, local or online, play very passively, and just watch. Try throwing out a move and watch for what their response is. Are they spotdodging every time i get them in the air? Does that ROB always shoot a laser at me when trying to recover offstage? Is that Toon Link always throwing a bomb and following up with Fair?

Basically, just observe. When you see the same thing twice, make a note of it. Three times, and you can reasonably assume they'll do it a fourth time in a similar scenario. Then, use that knowledge to punish. I main Falcon, you see, so reads are critical to my success. I'll spend the first stock spamming Uair and Jabbing to do what is called 'conditioning'. Now the opponent sees this, and will preemptively airdodge off of a dthrow to avoid the seemingly inevitable Uair, as well as shield any time i'm in jabbing distance. Now that I see him doing this, the next time I walk up to him and without hesitation grab him, predicting that he will be in shield. I then Dthrow him. I will now shorthop jump and wait for the airdodge, which I also predict. As soon as I see it, he's doomed. Knee to the face while he's in endlag.

TL;DR get used to observing, and once you've seen a lot you can begin to start matches making reads just based off things you've seen other people using that character do.

Thank you for this amazing help.

You also taught me some new things with Falcon.

I appreciate it greatly.

 

[Jrzfine]

Thank you for this amazing help.

You also taught me some new things with Falcon.

I appreciate it greatly.

No problem, man. I see you asking questions all the time here and on the Falcon board, which is good. Keep at it, and i'm sure you'll get much better.

 

[SphericalCrusher]

'Natural' reads are just guesses.
If you want to get better at reading, hop into any match, local or online, play very passively, and just watch. Try throwing out a move and watch for what their response is. Are they spotdodging every time i get them in the air? Does that ROB always shoot a laser at me when trying to recover offstage? Is that Toon Link always throwing a bomb and following up with Fair?

Basically, just observe. When you see the same thing twice, make a note of it. Three times, and you can reasonably assume they'll do it a fourth time in a similar scenario. Then, use that knowledge to punish. I main Falcon, you see, so reads are critical to my success. I'll spend the first stock spamming Uair and Jabbing to do what is called 'conditioning'. Now the opponent sees this, and will preemptively airdodge off of a dthrow to avoid the seemingly inevitable Uair, as well as shield any time i'm in jabbing distance. Now that I see him doing this, the next time I walk up to him and without hesitation grab him, predicting that he will be in shield. I then Dthrow him. I will now shorthop jump and wait for the airdodge, which I also predict. As soon as I see it, he's doomed. Knee to the face while he's in endlag.

TL;DR get used to observing, and once you've seen a lot you can begin to start matches making reads just based off things you've seen other people using that character do.

Pretty much the perfect answer. Practice makes perfect as we've all heard so many times in our lives... eventually when you play with the same people or the same style of players, you'll pickup on patterns and you can predict their movement.. etc.

 

[Raijinken]

Natural reads are the best, because if you're able to sub-consciously guess your opponent correctly most or all of the time, then you can plan around their play most or all of the time. The rest is just execution.

Odds are that if you have to consciously play passively and put serious effort into looking for reads, then if your opponent is equal or better than you, you're giving up valuable stage control and possibly more by trying to play passive and look for a read. Meanwhile, once they obtain that stage control, you're at the disadvantage and unless you promptly stop playing passively and start making things happen, they'll read your passivity and pound you to dust.

In some matchups, that's what you want to be doing, but especially if you're maining Captain Falcon as per your info block, you'll need to develop the subconscious habit instead of playing passively. Passive Falcon is painfully ineffective.

 

[Jrzfine]

Natural reads are the best, because if you're able to sub-consciously guess your opponent correctly most or all of the time, then you can plan around their play most or all of the time. The rest is just execution.

Odds are that if you have to consciously play passively and put serious effort into looking for reads, then if your opponent is equal or better than you, you're giving up valuable stage control and possibly more by trying to play passive and look for a read. Meanwhile, once they obtain that stage control, you're at the disadvantage and unless you promptly stop playing passively and start making things happen, they'll read your passivity and pound you to dust.

In some matchups, that's what you want to be doing, but especially if you're maining Captain Falcon as per your info block, you'll need to develop the subconscious habit instead of playing passively. Passive Falcon is painfully ineffective.

Yes, you are correct that you should not play super passive against good players. If you want to learn the basics of reading, though, you need to actively slow down your gameplay and analyze your opponent while still fighting them. Until you get a good grasp of how to read and what to look for, i believe that it's simply too much to ask of the player to play at full speed AND be able to process everything the opponent is doing all at once.

 

[Raijinken]

Yes, you are correct that you should not play super passive against good players. If you want to learn the basics of reading, though, you need to actively slow down your gameplay and analyze your opponent while still fighting them. Until you get a good grasp of how to read and what to look for, i believe that it's simply too much to ask of the player to play at full speed AND be able to process everything the opponent is doing all at once.

Fair enough. I guess a lot of it depends on your community and own skill level.

That said, one way you can practice reads is by playing against AI. At certain levels, they have -very- predictable ways of reacting to certain situations. That's all reading boils down to (seeing the consistent reaction and punishing it), and while it's harder to properly read a player, the AI can be a good start.

 

[Lyserdon]

What I find is that some reads just seem to happen without my even being aware of it. But my skill with those types doesn't develop fast and I rarely notice a new type of read just pop up in my play. Jrzfine is right that you often need to slow down and be okay with giving things up like stage control in order to let your conscious mind analyze the situation more completely. Don't worry about winning the match, worry about winning the next tournament. Winning and training are two different things that need to be approached differently.

I find that something that both helps my gameplay directly and to improve my own read game is to try what I call counter reading, which would be a subset of mindgames I guess. Next time you successfully dodge/shield/counter/armor/whatever an attack, think about how your opponent can change his action to make your successful action into a punish opportunity. For instance. If I air dodge an attack successfully a couple of times, the next time I'm going to look for my opponent to bait it. And not only can I avoid the bait, but I can pick up from him ways to bait and incorporate them into my own play.

Once you do these things enough at a pace your mind can keep up with you'll notice your presence of mind for the situation moving faster so you can play faster. And then you'll notice some of those reads that required a ton of mental effort start showing up automatically in your game.

Final thoughts/Shameless main promotion: lrn2Zard. Seriously though, train with a character who relies heavily on reads. The things you learn will improve your reads with all characters

 

[Swampertrulz]

I think I get better at it as the match goes on.