Seeking Rapid Improvement With No Partner

[SirhcEz]

All I have is myself, and bots.

What can I do to make myself a challenge at tournaments?

I have gone to one tournament and got dumpstered by what most people called the bad players.

I am more so looking for a marth guide that will help me improve quickly (willing to dedicate alot of time) with bots, and practicing tech.

Anyone know of such a guide?

 

[FROST :)]

Pretty much this. Its a series of Marth videos from a fellow smasher (Townes I believe). It teaches you how to practice alone with 20XX and regular melee.
http://smashboards.com/threads/8-new-marth-solo-practice-videos.401568/
here is the thread. Obviously, tournament experience is more important than practicing tech alone, but if you dont have any other choice then you might as well just practice tech.

 

[SirhcEz]

Pretty much this. Its a series of Marth videos from a fellow smasher (Townes I believe). It teaches you how to practice alone with 20XX and regular melee.
http://smashboards.com/threads/8-new-marth-solo-practice-videos.401568/
here is the thread. Obviously, tournament experience is more important than practicing tech alone, but if you dont have any other choice then you might as well just practice tech.

Thanks man! And I would rather be good before I go to a tournament again.

I got stomped really hard.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

Playing with those people will still provide a decent perspective on the game. I sort of stepped into Melee getting rolfstomped repeatedly. However, it taught me more of the difference between the limitations of CPU and regular players. This way when I took a summer to simply play on my own I game back with improved execution ability. I believe the CPUs mainly only ever provide you with the ability to improve your punishes (you can still think about punishes in the wrong way until you play people) and overall tech skill.

So yeah, if you have access to tournaments say every couple of weeks to a month go to them. Do not skimp out on them for super long.

 

[FROST :)]

Thanks man! And I would rather be good before I go to a tournament again.

I got stomped really hard.

Chances are you'll train alone for 3 months and still lose to players that have no tech. Fundamentals are trained by playing against people, not CPU's. Fundamentals are by far more important than tech skill

 

[TobiasXK]

one of the fastest ways to improve (independent of techskill) imo is to play "bad" players—with the understanding that they're not great, there's nothing special about them—and focus hard on figuring out their game. analyze their habits and playstyle until you can see the mistakes and know why they're bad and can punish them the way that good players would.

that's like half of what good players do—stomp bad ones. and you need to develop that skill of picking apart your opponent's playstyle, which is way easier to do to bad players than it is vs. good ones. so it's a good starting place imo. the people who stay at low level forever basically just never do this. and that also contributes to why they can't see the mistakes in their own play.

 

[townes]

Fundamentals definitely triumph over tech skill, but no one is winning any tournaments with only tec skill or only fundamentals. However if you find yourself with no access with smashbros to play against and a BURNING DESIRE to quickly improve, check out my solo training videos. They'll show you what's important and what's not and how to practice things with only 1 controller and 3+ fingers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_0v9J54eNc&list=PL3Z01NXawoQceMjbPnuegbh4C_ECzAKOZ&index=18

 

[MH | Joeschmo]

I like that some league players are coming to Smash anyways. Looking at Pewpewu's Marth University is a great place to start. Also look at AirFair's thread with his compilation of Marth guides and videos, just try to absorb as much info as you can and practice it.

 

[Chuckeeeh]

I would look not at how to practice without a partner, but rather how to find a partner.

If you don't have a partner because there are no players in your area, try Netplay.
Invest 20 or so dollars on the new Mayflash 4 port adapter, and the (free) new dolphin test build (5886)

But again, I can second that 20xx hack pack is the best alternative if there is absolutely no way to play with real people.

 

[Saint Shaden 009]

Before I found people to play with regularly, people would always suggest netplay when in forums and such. Thing is, alot of people, myself included, have doodoo butter pc's and can't run Dolphin to save their lives and also can't just invest in a new one, either. So if netplay isn't an option, watch Ippo's vid series on Youtube. From there, you can start getting ideas to help train specific things you might be lacking in whenever you do find someone to play.
Example being I saw the SHFFL video and found I could use a second controller Bowser handicapped to 9 and 0.5 damage on a platform (like Battlefield or Yoshi's) and work on SHFFL the up air through said platform and basically make my sharking faster and more efficient.

And 20XX helps A TON.

 

[MookieRah]

Get 20XX setup if you are playing off of a wii. It's actually better than human opponents for a lot of tech training. You can work on all kinds of punishes, setups, and strings with it and build a really, really good foundation quite quickly.

Also, if you get 20XX, learn how to chain grab Fox. For a beginner, this is extremely tough to do, but you learn so much from it. It forces you to react fast and input things crisply, but it's much more than that. It teaches you to break down a difficult tech into digestible pieces, as well as forcing you to adjust how you use your controller. For example, when I chain grab Fox I move my thumb to the Y button so that I can input jump canceled grabs with ease. It's a small change, but it makes a huge difference in execution. You have to think about how you are learning and not just what you are learning. If something seems impossible, yet many players pull it off consistently, then you are probably not practicing it the right way.

Lastly, the overall goal in your training should ideally be to figure out what your options are and to have a basic answer for everything. For example, if you know your options against Falcon from a grab below a platform, you don't have to figure that out during a real match. Learn as many answers to as many situations as possible during training and then work on applying those things against other players.