KirbyKaze
Smash Legend
I know. Sheik's tech skill is not glamorous.
But being able to link d-throw > dash attack on another Sheik when they DI away at 25-30% makes a huge difference in your ability to do combo damage in a ditto. Throw timings are incredible important and they provide an immediate benefit. Want another example? CG Sheik dittos. The fact that I can CG from 0-30% consistently in the ditto gives me a HUGE advantage over the vast majority of people in CG dittos, I think, because most people cannot (I think Drephen and M2K can, after that I really have no clue). I wound up almost 4-stocking Plank at Pound 5 (he said we were going to CG ditto) and while it's clear I was better than Plank at that point, the fact that he flubbed grabs at like 11% when I was doing clean 0-death grabs gave me a huge advantage. And that's not smarts; that's just muscle memory.
Being able to d-throw > dash > SH uair (or FJ uair) underneath Puff, Samus, and Luigi at 20%+ when they DI away opens up doors for punishment options that are not available if you purchase an f-tilt or horizontal aerial (fair & nair) after the throw.
Being able to WD OOS quickly and effectively allows you to turn pressure situations around on Peach when she down smashes your shield and gives you an invaluable escape against Puff's walling, Falco's pressure, Fox's pressure, and poking styles.
Being able to wavedash and dash fluidly and in and out of one another (using WD momentum, dash cancels, dash dance, etc. all together) gives you control over one of the best ground movements in the game (Sheik is a freaking beast) and a better control of the tools you will be using to space virtually all your moves (Sheik loves the ground and so should you). Same thing applies with jump-related movements (waveland, short hop, reverse needle store [while sustaining momentum], etc.).
I cannot stress how important it is to be able to control your move placement during jumps (and other movements, but jumps are especially important). Being able to hit the standing Kirby or crouching Peach or whatever with the SH FF AC fairs (and then dash away, shield, jump again, or do other actions after the fair) actually does drastically change your ability to engage a plethora of characters (like Fox and Ice Climbers and other short characters) and give you a ton more options. Combined with the movement stuff above, it's such a ridiculous way of artificially boosting your success against a plethora of characters without being smarter.
All of this control is why I'm able to combo so fluidly with shenaniganry like dairs, uairs, link to tipped up smashes, etc. Part of it is smarts, but if I didn't have this level of control then I wouldn't be able to dash attack > SHFFL uair (late uair, as I'm falling) > and then I can dash out of the late uair's l-cancel lag IMMEDIATELY and follow if they've DIed away or just combo the balls off them by transitioning into dairs if they don't (not the best example, but it's all I could come up with for combos right now). I know, it's not as fun in the immediate as being able to turn your blinker on with Fox. But such is the case for most characters. It sucks, but it's the hand we were dealt as Sheik players.
The reverse needle store (while sustaining momentum) is actually REALLY useful with this character because it gives you access to edgehogging from dash > SH > RNS > FF and it feels quicker from a lot of distances than the run off vanish-hog. It's one of my staple ways of grabbing the edge, especially in Sheik ditto and versus Marth. And not for stylistic points; it's honestly the most practical thing in a lot of situations. That you can change your mind during that kind of sequence and switch to bairs if you think that's wise, and you still have access to your double jump (very useful vs Falcon in a lot of situations for this reason) is absolutely incredible and should NOT be underestimated. Dash > FJ > RNS is a great way to setup bairs against high space animal, Falcon, Ganon, Peach, and even Ice Climber recoveries (side-B, not up-B).
This one is small, but I find the FF during WD edgehogs is really useful. If you guys are not FFing when you WD edgehog you should be. Tap the stick down and towards the stage (diagonal ftw) as you're sliding off. It really does change the window of your edgehog a lot (I wouldn't know how many frames, but I swear it's like 5+ which is actually huge). Having more time to react ***** and you can use that to coax people lower by being onstage longer, and THEN hog them (and likely kill them a lot of the time).
The above are all things I can do very proficiently, on command, in a variety of ways, in and out of sequence, and largely effortlessly (the CG at 0 I need to practice for about 5-10 mins and then I can usually do it fine). And I'm not going to lie. They are a huge reason why I am successful as I am. It's not just smarts. An extremely huge, important part is that my hands generally cooperate with me. I'm not saying you all need to be able to do every single thing this character can do. A lot of stuff I learned is useful mainly to my style and there are many different skills available with this character (some of which I don't use). If you want to explore different ones to shape your own game then by all means do so (I actually encourage you to do so, because we likely play differently). I think I picked a very competitive set, but it is by no means the only competitive set. I'm sure there are many more; Amsah is just as good as me (he might be better, who knows?) and he makes it a point to be basic (but his basics are STRONG AS HELL). M2K is simultaneously more and less fancy than I am (I think I'm better at some stuff, but he's better at others).
That said, if you are trying to do something in matches on a regular basis because there's a common situation that demands the use of said technique, I would think you should be able to do it easily and on command without thinking about it and you should usually get it right (speaking purely in regards to hand-brain cooperation).
So why is KK stressing the importance of technical skill so much? It would honestly make my life a lot easier. In a lot of the videos I am asked to look at there seems to be a lot of unintentional rolling, full jumping, sidestepping, and various other flubbed inputs going on. It's really hard for me to give honest feedback about strategy when I'm unsure of what moves are intentional and which moves are not. Sheik is not Falco in that I cannot simply give you a new advanced technique that abuses his broken SHFFL, pistol, shine mechanics, or similar shenaniganry and this new tech conveniently transitions cleanly into every other option he has. Sheik actually does require some elegance in her strategy because she's heavily reliant on spacing to beat mechanics like CC (she has very simple, traditional relationships between her attacks and the opponent's defenses unlike heavily slanted characters like spacies and Peach). Consequently, I need to be able to identify what you're trying to do. I can't do this when you're constantly making tech errors. Nobody's perfect, but this is seriously outrageous.
That said, I am aware I have been neglecting you guys so I will start critiquing again. Tafo, I'm gonna watch you vs. Mack. If you still want me to watch you vs. Zhu I can do that, but I think I can probably give you better insight vs Mack.
If you guys want I can see about making a Sheik "tech skill" video that outlines some of the things that I consider "basic" with her and important with her. It'll likely be mainly movement and specific combo links but I don't mind showing you guys it. A lot of it will be move placement-related too. Maybe some character-specific tricks.
It won't look anything like a SW routine, however. I couldn't make Sheik look that entertaining even with a hundred up smash combos.
:x
But being able to link d-throw > dash attack on another Sheik when they DI away at 25-30% makes a huge difference in your ability to do combo damage in a ditto. Throw timings are incredible important and they provide an immediate benefit. Want another example? CG Sheik dittos. The fact that I can CG from 0-30% consistently in the ditto gives me a HUGE advantage over the vast majority of people in CG dittos, I think, because most people cannot (I think Drephen and M2K can, after that I really have no clue). I wound up almost 4-stocking Plank at Pound 5 (he said we were going to CG ditto) and while it's clear I was better than Plank at that point, the fact that he flubbed grabs at like 11% when I was doing clean 0-death grabs gave me a huge advantage. And that's not smarts; that's just muscle memory.
Being able to d-throw > dash > SH uair (or FJ uair) underneath Puff, Samus, and Luigi at 20%+ when they DI away opens up doors for punishment options that are not available if you purchase an f-tilt or horizontal aerial (fair & nair) after the throw.
Being able to WD OOS quickly and effectively allows you to turn pressure situations around on Peach when she down smashes your shield and gives you an invaluable escape against Puff's walling, Falco's pressure, Fox's pressure, and poking styles.
Being able to wavedash and dash fluidly and in and out of one another (using WD momentum, dash cancels, dash dance, etc. all together) gives you control over one of the best ground movements in the game (Sheik is a freaking beast) and a better control of the tools you will be using to space virtually all your moves (Sheik loves the ground and so should you). Same thing applies with jump-related movements (waveland, short hop, reverse needle store [while sustaining momentum], etc.).
I cannot stress how important it is to be able to control your move placement during jumps (and other movements, but jumps are especially important). Being able to hit the standing Kirby or crouching Peach or whatever with the SH FF AC fairs (and then dash away, shield, jump again, or do other actions after the fair) actually does drastically change your ability to engage a plethora of characters (like Fox and Ice Climbers and other short characters) and give you a ton more options. Combined with the movement stuff above, it's such a ridiculous way of artificially boosting your success against a plethora of characters without being smarter.
All of this control is why I'm able to combo so fluidly with shenaniganry like dairs, uairs, link to tipped up smashes, etc. Part of it is smarts, but if I didn't have this level of control then I wouldn't be able to dash attack > SHFFL uair (late uair, as I'm falling) > and then I can dash out of the late uair's l-cancel lag IMMEDIATELY and follow if they've DIed away or just combo the balls off them by transitioning into dairs if they don't (not the best example, but it's all I could come up with for combos right now). I know, it's not as fun in the immediate as being able to turn your blinker on with Fox. But such is the case for most characters. It sucks, but it's the hand we were dealt as Sheik players.
The reverse needle store (while sustaining momentum) is actually REALLY useful with this character because it gives you access to edgehogging from dash > SH > RNS > FF and it feels quicker from a lot of distances than the run off vanish-hog. It's one of my staple ways of grabbing the edge, especially in Sheik ditto and versus Marth. And not for stylistic points; it's honestly the most practical thing in a lot of situations. That you can change your mind during that kind of sequence and switch to bairs if you think that's wise, and you still have access to your double jump (very useful vs Falcon in a lot of situations for this reason) is absolutely incredible and should NOT be underestimated. Dash > FJ > RNS is a great way to setup bairs against high space animal, Falcon, Ganon, Peach, and even Ice Climber recoveries (side-B, not up-B).
This one is small, but I find the FF during WD edgehogs is really useful. If you guys are not FFing when you WD edgehog you should be. Tap the stick down and towards the stage (diagonal ftw) as you're sliding off. It really does change the window of your edgehog a lot (I wouldn't know how many frames, but I swear it's like 5+ which is actually huge). Having more time to react ***** and you can use that to coax people lower by being onstage longer, and THEN hog them (and likely kill them a lot of the time).
The above are all things I can do very proficiently, on command, in a variety of ways, in and out of sequence, and largely effortlessly (the CG at 0 I need to practice for about 5-10 mins and then I can usually do it fine). And I'm not going to lie. They are a huge reason why I am successful as I am. It's not just smarts. An extremely huge, important part is that my hands generally cooperate with me. I'm not saying you all need to be able to do every single thing this character can do. A lot of stuff I learned is useful mainly to my style and there are many different skills available with this character (some of which I don't use). If you want to explore different ones to shape your own game then by all means do so (I actually encourage you to do so, because we likely play differently). I think I picked a very competitive set, but it is by no means the only competitive set. I'm sure there are many more; Amsah is just as good as me (he might be better, who knows?) and he makes it a point to be basic (but his basics are STRONG AS HELL). M2K is simultaneously more and less fancy than I am (I think I'm better at some stuff, but he's better at others).
That said, if you are trying to do something in matches on a regular basis because there's a common situation that demands the use of said technique, I would think you should be able to do it easily and on command without thinking about it and you should usually get it right (speaking purely in regards to hand-brain cooperation).
So why is KK stressing the importance of technical skill so much? It would honestly make my life a lot easier. In a lot of the videos I am asked to look at there seems to be a lot of unintentional rolling, full jumping, sidestepping, and various other flubbed inputs going on. It's really hard for me to give honest feedback about strategy when I'm unsure of what moves are intentional and which moves are not. Sheik is not Falco in that I cannot simply give you a new advanced technique that abuses his broken SHFFL, pistol, shine mechanics, or similar shenaniganry and this new tech conveniently transitions cleanly into every other option he has. Sheik actually does require some elegance in her strategy because she's heavily reliant on spacing to beat mechanics like CC (she has very simple, traditional relationships between her attacks and the opponent's defenses unlike heavily slanted characters like spacies and Peach). Consequently, I need to be able to identify what you're trying to do. I can't do this when you're constantly making tech errors. Nobody's perfect, but this is seriously outrageous.
That said, I am aware I have been neglecting you guys so I will start critiquing again. Tafo, I'm gonna watch you vs. Mack. If you still want me to watch you vs. Zhu I can do that, but I think I can probably give you better insight vs Mack.
If you guys want I can see about making a Sheik "tech skill" video that outlines some of the things that I consider "basic" with her and important with her. It'll likely be mainly movement and specific combo links but I don't mind showing you guys it. A lot of it will be move placement-related too. Maybe some character-specific tricks.
It won't look anything like a SW routine, however. I couldn't make Sheik look that entertaining even with a hundred up smash combos.
:x
