The One Trick to Improving in Smash

[Spaghetti Sammy]

The one thing that is essential to getting better in Smash is something I realized today.
Its knowing you are not the best, and knowing that every loss is because you did something wrong, and analyzing your mistakes and making changes to your play style.
A little story on how I came to this realization.

Spoiler

So today, I was playing some For Glory, and I was playing Purple Villager (my favorite) and I was put against a Villager using the same skin. I taunted to say "Fancy that" and he just... kicked my **** off. He was so much better than I was. He was PSI Villager Sigma and I was PSI Villager Delta ya feel me? Right. So, he knew exactly how to edge guard and how to read and how to force people into situations. It was as if a better version of me was playing For Glory. After being defeated I felt odd. I wasn't upset but was instead happy. I had realized that I am not the best and that he was better, and that I now had something to look at to see what I did wrong and what he did right. I have a little word document I keep all my Smash advice (for myself, I guess) written. So I immediately opened that and wrote down things I was doing wrong. I was shield grabbing to much, not following up on my lyoids, spacing incorrectly. But now I know what I need to fix and that's what the most important thing is.

tl;dr I played a really good guy, realized I was bad, and now know what to improve on.
So moral of the story: If you're bad, fight someone really good. Save a replay of that, analyze what you did wrong and keep notes on what you need to do.
Hope this helped!

 

[Minato]

Yup, it's definitely important to take what you can from your losses so you can learn to better yourself for next time. It's something a lot of people lose track of when they're trying to improve in any competitive games. Even in the case of when you win, the better players will still try to use it as a learning experience to try stuff out and stay ahead of the curve.

Also taking down notes like you mentioned is great. Especially helpful for anyone that forgets or autopilots too much.

 

[BMK]

Solid advice. I'll be sure to follow it

 

[Spak]

Also, anyone starting out in Smash (any of the games, or any other competitive game in general) should read this:

http://smashboards.com/threads/drastic-improvement.311129/