Tips on improving speed

[Mooseghost]

Hey folks. I play 64 competitively and have been trying to get into Melee and PM for a bout a year now, but I have a problem. I simply cannot keep up with the speed at which these games must be played. I've put in endless hours against CPU's trying to improve my tech skill, but I still can't consistently wavedash more than once or twice in succession before flubbing, and I seem to make mistakes constantly, such as shielding right after an L-cancel, missing combos, dash-dancing into attacks, etc. The problem stems partly from a lack of dexterity and partly from a lack of reflexes, it seems. Does anyone have any advice on how to improve my speed? Must I simply keep grinding? Anything helps, thanks for reading.

 

[The 2t]

It basically just comes with time. This game is incredibly fiddly and technically demanding to learn, to the point where it gets quite frustrating at times - a lot of stuff is going to take years to perfect.

But the best way to actually improve is from playing real people. Practicing against CPUs can only get you so far. But yeah, just keep at it, all this stuff will come with time. If you can be bothered travelling and meeting up with people in your region that's great, if not then at least try to have a couple of friends you can play with and improve steadily with them.

It's not going to all happen at once, but if you keep playing the game, one day you'll be playing and you'll suddenly realise that you're getting most of your wavedashes consistently and you're not shielding after L-cancels anymore. All of us have been there and it just takes time.

 

[Mahie]

You could try to set yourself a goal (100 wavedashes, for instance), and then try to reach it as fast as possible. Keep track of your times and I'm sure you'll notice that you're improving.

 

[pokemongeof]

The goal is to mentally prepare yourself for your task. Also, you should know the specifics to help.
For example, a common mistake for wavedashing is that the jump input and air dodge are pressed fast, so it usually results in a ful jump.

Also, what do u use for l-canceling?

 

[Mooseghost]

All right, sounds like I just need to keep practicing. I should note that I'm fairly certain I know all the technical details of how Melee works, so when I make a mistake, I almost always know what went wrong and how to fix it. My fingers just don't cooperate with my brain very well, it seems.

@pokemongeof: I use L to L-cancel. However, in the heat of battle I often find myself tapping L repeatedly before (and sometimes after) landing, causing me to shield upon landing. It's a bad habit from playing 64.

 

[Massive]

You can improve wavedashing by making a conscious effort to hit the trigger for as short a period of time as possible. Keep in mind you also don't have to depress it all the way to airdodge/wavedash. Working on wavelanding also dramatically improves your capacity to wavedash as well as increases recognition of situations where you can wavedash. Also keep in mind that each character has a different timing for wavedashes. Wavedashing with luigi or mewtwo has a wide margin of error, where some characters like fox have a very tight one. Characters like falco and bowser have slightly slower jump animations and their wavedashes will feel "weird" to execute coming from another character. There's really no way to intuitively know this stuff without practice though.

You could also try playing a faster character and getting used to them. Some time invested in fox, for example, can dramatically improve the speed of your hands and improve your muscle memory in ways that are applicable to every character (since very few require timing more stringently than fox).

 

[The 2t]

^ Pretty sure you do have to press the trigger all the way to air dodge and wavedash, don't you? Light presses are only for L-cancels.

 

[Mahie]

^ Pretty sure you do have to press the trigger all the way to air dodge and wavedash, don't you? Light presses are only for L-cancels.

What Massive meant is that you can press the trigger fully, then go back to right before the click, press it again, and so on.

That's faster than going all the way back to neutral, then pressing it fully again. Instead, your finger travels half the distance.

Now in practice, I don't know if that works or not, or if you end up shielding or something. I've never thought about it that way.

 

[Massive]

Nah I was getting confused with L-cancels, my bad.

Alternatively you can calibrate your controller so there is no light shield (hold the trigger while you plug in your controller or on a recalibrate), or put some stronger springs in there so it becomes harder to hold shield for as long. Neither of which is strictly forbidden, but honestly they wont help your game in any way more substantial than practice does.

 

[Nicco]

Don't give up! That's how it feels. I also came from 64.
A year ago from now I couldn't do anything. Now I feel good enough to do a tech skill video lol!

Just keep practicing. Learn the name entry glitch and keep practicing!!

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

Hey folks. I play 64 competitively and have been trying to get into Melee and PM for a bout a year now, but I have a problem. I simply cannot keep up with the speed at which these games must be played. I've put in endless hours against CPU's trying to improve my tech skill, but I still can't consistently wavedash more than once or twice in succession before flubbing, and I seem to make mistakes constantly, such as shielding right after an L-cancel, missing combos, dash-dancing into attacks, etc. The problem stems partly from a lack of dexterity and partly from a lack of reflexes, it seems. Does anyone have any advice on how to improve my speed? Must I simply keep grinding? Anything helps, thanks for reading.

For the wavedash thing, just spend a game or two as Marth and only allow yourself to move by wavedashing (you can still jump and stuff). Oh and make sure you do it against a human. A lot of people run into trouble where they can do something in practice but then can't in a match.

 

[Pawls to the Wall]

For me, the most important part of increasing my speed and technical skill were hand, mostly thumb, exercises. I have pretty clunky hands from joint injury, but I've been able to compensate for the stiffened tendons by stretching and working the muscle. You can get a grip-trainer, start rock climbing, use doczac's handmaster plus, etc.
My gains have been phenomenal.