Speeding It Up

[TeddyRoseKidd]

I have played smash since I 2000(n64) but recently found out about competitive smash and have been progressing like crazy. Yet it seems like I have hit a wall that I cant seem to climb for a few months now and its kind of frustrating.

I have gotten to the point where I can wavedash 9/10 and L cancel 9/10 as well. Shine canceling and waveshinding I have down as well. I can kind of multishine and cant pillar for the life of me. Wavelanding Im not so good at or waveland on to platforms either. Now the problem that I have now is that when Im doing strings of them and trying to combo, I always slow down in the middle. Once Im doing too many inputs, it gets to the point where I know exactly what to follow up with but my hands cant follow through with the inputs. A lot of times when I do get the inputs and tech down right, I miss a lot of moves. In other words, I need help better controlling my character. I see top level players move so consistently in the face of so much pressure and its mind boggling on how a human can react like that. Im not sure how I should practice getting out of this rough patch and back to progressing more. I just cant seem to break through this wall. I would like to attend weeklies and learn from other smashers but there aren't any in my area as of now(We have ASU weeklies but school is out).

How I practice. I put cpu on 1 and practice just simple combos, seeing how long I can get a string going without dropping it. Thats how I practice combos. Tech skill, I go into training and see how consistently I can wavedash and l cancel until Im getting it everytime(its the most tedious thing I have ever done in my life). I also try to practice pillaring but I just cant do it. I can only get 2 shines out in a multishine. I dont have a training partner so I dont really know how to practice good offense and defense so i just try and study professional videos. The only problem with that is they play so well and so fast that I know at my level of play, you wont see me doing 90% of the things they do in sets.

Any help or insight would be gladly appreciated. Im not looking for any shortcuts, Im willing to put in the time, its just that after 3 months of practicing this stuff and still making little to no progress has me thinking maybe I need to practice a little different.

I main falco.

 

[Deleted member]

It isn't all about combos, learn how to play the game and progress against other players is more of a priority.
Also, do you play on a CRT? If not you could be missing windows because there is a delay from what you see and your inputs.
Other than that I would say just play with people better than you.

 

[Nixon Corral]

I assume ASU means Arizona State? I won't claim to be an expert on the scene, but surely there's more people playing in the Phoenix metro area than just ASU weeklies. Axe lives in Avondale (supposedly), and he must play somewhere.

See if you can mine the Regional Zones board for some info about your area. Alternatively, look for facebook pages like "Arizona Melee" or something like that. The best thing you can do is play other people. Mastering all that tech skill is useful, but you really need to be playing people.

 

[Dandy_here]

I have played smash since I 2000(n64) but recently found out about competitive smash and have been progressing like crazy. Yet it seems like I have hit a wall that I cant seem to climb for a few months now and its kind of frustrating.

I have gotten to the point where I can wavedash 9/10 and L cancel 9/10 as well. Shine canceling and waveshinding I have down as well. I can kind of multishine and cant pillar for the life of me. Wavelanding Im not so good at or waveland on to platforms either. Now the problem that I have now is that when Im doing strings of them and trying to combo, I always slow down in the middle. Once Im doing too many inputs, it gets to the point where I know exactly what to follow up with but my hands cant follow through with the inputs. A lot of times when I do get the inputs and tech down right, I miss a lot of moves. In other words, I need help better controlling my character. I see top level players move so consistently in the face of so much pressure and its mind boggling on how a human can react like that. Im not sure how I should practice getting out of this rough patch and back to progressing more. I just cant seem to break through this wall. I would like to attend weeklies and learn from other smashers but there aren't any in my area as of now(We have ASU weeklies but school is out).

How I practice. I put cpu on 1 and practice just simple combos, seeing how long I can get a string going without dropping it. Thats how I practice combos. Tech skill, I go into training and see how consistently I can wavedash and l cancel until Im getting it everytime(its the most tedious thing I have ever done in my life). I also try to practice pillaring but I just cant do it. I can only get 2 shines out in a multishine. I dont have a training partner so I dont really know how to practice good offense and defense so i just try and study professional videos. The only problem with that is they play so well and so fast that I know at my level of play, you wont see me doing 90% of the things they do in sets.

Any help or insight would be gladly appreciated. Im not looking for any shortcuts, Im willing to put in the time, its just that after 3 months of practicing this stuff and still making little to no progress has me thinking maybe I need to practice a little different.

I main falco.

I've been playing since December with Melee. So far, I have not encountered any of your problems. But, this happens quite frequently to A LOT of people, you aren't alone. Are you able to apply all of your tech into any match effectively? I used to main falco and generally it's best to keep them in the air. At low percents waveshine ONCE so they are up in the air, from there just use any aerial. If they hit the ground, tech chase or pull back to neutral and laser. You depending on the character and the percent, the string is either slow or fast. Wait until the aerial or move is finished before pressing any button. 20GX did a video on aerial drift and controlling dash distances, it should apply to every character. After being able to efficiently controlling your character, you will be moving far faster and more precise.

 

[-Philip Coast Philip-]

Once Im doing too many inputs, it gets to the point where I know exactly what to follow up with but my hands cant follow through with the inputs. A lot of times when I do get the inputs and tech down right, I miss a lot of moves.

That is lack of muscle memory, or focus. You need to have a more natural flow with your tech in the middle of a battle, by focusing on it less in a match. Otherwise, you'll be compensating for every time something 'feels different to you. Basically, there are natural variations in your own play, that your body has to become accustomed to over time. If you think you've made a mistake every time you perceive something as 'different' or 'off', you won't learn to trust yourself when it really matters. That said, muscle memory is important if not vital, but proper mindset is something you have to consider when practicing.

How I practice. I put cpu on 1 and practice just simple combos, seeing how long I can get a string going without dropping it. Thats how I practice combos. Tech skill, I go into training and see how consistently I can wavedash and l cancel until Im getting it everytime(its the most tedious thing I have ever done in my life).

It sounds like you may be putting a bit too much pressure on yourself, by trying to keep a string, or wavedashing without failing. You have to consider fatigue, blast-practicing is not good. When I practice tedious stuff like wavelands, or wavedash out of shield to ftilts, you have to have mix it up and give yourself breathing room to rest and go back to it, you're learning very precise stuff. When I practice something like off-edge bomb+grapple+airdodges, or complex stuff underneath battlefield, I break it down into parts, and practice each part separately, and then start to string things along, piece by piece. So if you're messing up combos, or missing your wavedashes, just try hold down+a direction, tapping jump, and hitting shield, slowly. Get that proper spacing for the inputs ingrained in you, because we forget the proper timing under pressure and start to speed up inputs which causes failures (unless you're completely focused)

Any help or insight would be gladly appreciated. Im not looking for any shortcuts, Im willing to put in the time, its just that after 3 months of practicing this stuff and still making little to no progress has me thinking maybe I need to practice a little different.

Good call.

 

[EPsilon933]

Now the problem that I have now is that when I'm doing strings of them and trying to combo, I always slow down in the middle. Once Im doing too many inputs, it gets to the point where I know exactly what to follow up with but my hands cant follow through with the inputs. A lot of times when I do get the inputs and tech down right, I miss a lot of moves. In other words, I need help better controlling my character

Play the game more. You need to develop more muscle memory. The human brain takes a small amount of time to generate movement commands to your body. The more you do certain things, the faster it can generate them

 

[captchagod64]

so, is the consensus that he needs to stop practicing so much and start playing more, or that he needs to practice more so that he can implement it in his play better?

 

[TeddyRoseKidd]

That is lack of muscle memory, or focus. You need to have a more natural flow with your tech in the middle of a battle, by focusing on it less in a match. Otherwise, you'll be compensating for every time something 'feels different to you. Basically, there are natural variations in your own play, that your body has to become accustomed to over time. If you think you've made a mistake every time you perceive something as 'different' or 'off', you won't learn to trust yourself when it really matters. That said, muscle memory is important if not vital, but proper mindset is something you have to consider when practicing.

It sounds like you may be putting a bit too much pressure on yourself, by trying to keep a string, or wavedashing without failing. You have to consider fatigue, blast-practicing is not good. When I practice tedious stuff like wavelands, or wavedash out of shield to ftilts, you have to have mix it up and give yourself breathing room to rest and go back to it, you're learning very precise stuff. When I practice something like off-edge bomb+grapple+airdodges, or complex stuff underneath battlefield, I break it down into parts, and practice each part separately, and then start to string things along, piece by piece. So if you're messing up combos, or missing your wavedashes, just try hold down+a direction, tapping jump, and hitting shield, slowly. Get that proper spacing for the inputs ingrained in you, because we forget the proper timing under pressure and start to speed up inputs which causes failures (unless you're completely focused)

Good call.

Thank you for your response, been working alot so my reply is really late. I really started to focus on the point where you said under pressure, we start speeding up inputs. I started to notice that this was one of the main reasons that my combos end in the middle. Ive been practicing slowing things down and sticking to timing, its hard but I have noticed improvement in my follow ups. Ive also been working on getting things down as muscle memory, im just afraid of it becoming an autopilot thing where I get bad habits of doing the same thing repeatedly. Also ive focused alot on breaking down my practice. I am over working myself. I even read in PPMD's twitter that he was over working himself in practice and it was making things worse. So I definitely started cutting down how much time Im spending on things and its helping.

I also attended an event, it wasnt a weekly, it was an actual smash event. Axe was there lol. I was too late to enter bracket because I was working but i got to play friendlies with most of the people there. I noticed that I am much better playing against people than cpu's. Like I can never SHLaser a cpu because they always powershield it, but when playing against people, I got to see how this type of pressure can create openings. I also got to play against an opponent who can constantly adapt to what Im doing and it was a very welcomed change. It forced me to try and learn mix ups on the spot.

 

[Eggggggggggbert]

Netplay definitely would help a little bit if you have a problem with reaching out and not finding people in your community. It's hard to tell a falco player to use it though because I know a number of falco players feel they lose a lot of technical skills, but its really important to play against real people. CPUs is good for research and footwork but playing real people who are better is the best way to improve at any game.