Shadowboxing

[Ezlo]

Alright, so I have an... interesting situation. I live in Kuwait, where there isn't really a Melee scene, and I REALLY want to get better. To get to the nearest weeklies, I have to convince my parents to drive me through Saudi Arabia and into Bahrain, which quite simply won't happen. I'm currently trying to start up a scene in Kuwait, but that's slow going and I haven't gotten anyone yet. To practice, I work on a lot of tech skill, weaving in and out of different character's ranges, my punish game, control of my character, etc. but that leaves me with two major problems -- a bad neutral game, and little actual in-game experience to get me familiar with specific situations.

So I've started shadowboxing.

Unfortunately, I'm not good at it (yet), and I'm not really sure how to identify situations to work on. It doesn't help that I can't play other people much to find situations that pop up. In ~one year I'll be in the US for college and I'll be able to find a scene, but I don't want to wait until then to get better.

How do I shadowbox effectively, and how do I get to the point where I can use what I've learned from shadowboxing in tournament?

Any advice on practicing related things alone would help too, but there's already a crapton of resources that I already look to for that. I also have really bad internet so netplay isn't really much of an option, at least not for competitive practice.

 

[AirFair]

Well, I think shadowboxing helps you get familiar with acting in certain positions, so you aren't ever caught trying to do something awkwardly. Practicing doing things in different positions and ranges helps you figure out what kinds of positions you should be taking as well as what kinds of options you want to be using.

As regards to what else you might be able to do, I would suggest you start to study videos if you don't do it already since you can start to get a good idea of what kinds of things you should be doing. Even if you don't understand what the top players are doing, you can at least get an idea of what they are trying, and why they might be doing it. and that carries over into shadowboxing.

 

[iAmMatt]

Do you have 20xx 4.0? I use it, and its a great training tool. It teaches you how to approach, and the bots have mixups. It's really helped me improve, but there's nothing as good as playing against real players, unfortunately.

 

[Ezlo]

Well, I think shadowboxing helps you get familiar with acting in certain positions, so you aren't ever caught trying to do something awkwardly. Practicing doing things in different positions and ranges helps you figure out what kinds of positions you should be taking as well as what kinds of options you want to be using.

As regards to what else you might be able to do, I would suggest you start to study videos if you don't do it already since you can start to get a good idea of what kinds of things you should be doing. Even if you don't understand what the top players are doing, you can at least get an idea of what they are trying, and why they might be doing it. and that carries over into shadowboxing.

Thanks for putting some extra perspective on it! I've been thinking of shadowboxing as a way of dealing with specific situations already, but I've thought more about what options are good, not so much the positioning I'm taking. This helps
I already study videos, and I've found it helps SO much in terms of finding options, helping my movement in neutral, when to take center stage instead of following up on an attack, etc. There's so much out there.

Do you (or does anyone) have any thoughts on what types of situations are most useful to shadowbox? (For instance, is it more useful to shadowbox situations where I'm punishing, in shield, in the neutral, etc.) Or is it more dependent on what I'm struggling with most at the moment?

Do you have 20xx 4.0? I use it, and its a great training tool. It teaches you how to approach, and the bots have mixups. It's really helped me improve, but there's nothing as good as playing against real players, unfortunately.

Yup! I already use 20XX 4.0. I agree, it's really useful. It's really useful to create situations I need to practice, and really just lock down some of the more specific parts of my play.
Also, I'm TRYING to get people to play melee with me, but there's no one ;-; I just want friends
(who also play melee and live here)

Thanks for your responses and help!

 

[iAmMatt]

Maybe this thread can help you, started in 2013, probably dead unfortunately

 

[Ezlo]

Lol, I actually responded to that thread when I first started smash and I was a n00b. I only had PM and Wii U back then.
I've actually met most of those people, but the majority live in the UAE, Saudi, or Bahrain. The guy who started the thread isn't playing smash almost at all anymore, but he used to be our best Sm4sh player and a pretty good melee player too (he stopped right as I started :'( which is sad)
I've met one other person in Kuwait who plays melee, but he mostly plays Sm4sh and doesn't really play melee all that much anymore. Thanks for reminding me of that thread, though, I'll see if I can contact some of the people who play other smash games and see if they know melee at all.

 

[iAmMatt]

Lol, I actually responded to that thread when I first started smash and I was a n00b. I only had PM and Wii U back then.
I've actually met most of those people, but the majority live in the UAE, Saudi, or Bahrain. The guy who started the thread isn't playing smash almost at all anymore, but he used to be our best Sm4sh player and a pretty good melee player too (he stopped right as I started :'( which is sad)
I've met one other person in Kuwait who plays melee, but he mostly plays Sm4sh and doesn't really play melee all that much anymore. Thanks for reminding me of that thread, though, I'll see if I can contact some of the people who play other smash games and see if they know melee at all.

Np, let me know if you find anything

 

[ChivalRuse]

How I do it:

Imagine a certain attack that your opponent will use. Visualize where the opponent will be after they attack, and during what point of the move you will be able to hit them. Then execute the response that you would want to employ in real time.

You can practice this kind of stuff by just having a level 1 CPU on the stage with you, and practice hitting the CPU in the way that you would hit an actual opponent if the sequence actually played out the way you are imagining it to.