Training menu for absolute beginner?

[t3tsubo]

Background TL;DR: Documentary kid, watched competitive melee ever since, finally got a wii+20XX. Decided to main marth mainly because that PPMD movement is so sexy.

I am an absolute beginner. 4 hours ago I couldn't even fast fall or short hop consistently. Now I can kinda of wavedash 6/10 times, l cancel 5/10 times and short hop 9/10 times. That's when I'm specifically thinking of doing those things in a vacuum, not when I'm actually fighting a cpu.

In my position, with all these 20XX tools and with about 2-3 hours a day where I can practice, what would be the most effective way for me to improve alone? I'm completely fine with just spending hours alone grinding techskill, but with so many different things to learn I'm kind of overwhelmed at where to start (foxtrot? cactuar dashing? sffling? fast fall ledge grabs? recovery options? too much tech!).

 

[FE_Hector]

I'd say you need to spend your time just working on those general things you mentioned earlier in a vacuum, but then also mix that in with just practicing combo game so that you can start getting a feel for it. Once you're comfortable with your basic movement and stuff, try to work on dash dancing (a lot!) and mixing it in with wavedashes. Being able to do either at will is really important.

 

[Hunybear]

Slow down there champ you have to make sure your practicing everything the RIGHT WAY (or just my idea of it).
Before We get all techical with crap like wave dashing and FFing you have to know some basic crap right away.

First make a physical list of everything you can't do but would like to do. Then through out the week dedicate time to learning them and cross them off. just because you crossed something off your list doesn't mean you can stop practicing it. Smash is a sport and like any spot you still train with basic crap. "Receivers play catch" football quote i liked.

Next when you play don't watch yourself. Watch the opponent. How are you supposed to adapt to their play when you don't even know what their doing? Why would you watch yourself anyway, your should know what your doing, your the one pressing the buttons. A lot of new players will watch themselves to make sure there tech is "on point" this in and of itself is a mistake.

Next understand what Tech is for. Melee gives you lots of options to play with and all learning tech does is give you more options to mess with. A lot of the times new players will practice really hard to get technique but still fall flat because they didn't spend any time working of what was readily available to them from the start. Don't let that be you.

Once you have your list and keep all that crap in mind then you can make yourself a practice regimen.

Learn really basic stuff.
FF asap
act out of moves using IASA
and Dashing and Jumping around.
SH
FF
L-Cancel
SHFFL
Wave dash
Wave Land
Jump Cancel
Wave Land on platforms by jumping through them.

glad to have you be part of the smash community. I recommend finding some people near you to play with and they can walk you through whatever problems your having.

 

[t3tsubo]

Slow down there champ you have to make sure your practicing everything the RIGHT WAY (or just my idea of it).
Before We get all techical with crap like wave dashing and FFing you have to know some basic crap right away.

First make a physical list of everything you can't do but would like to do. Then through out the week dedicate time to learning them and cross them off. just because you crossed something off your list doesn't mean you can stop practicing it. Smash is a sport and like any spot you still train with basic crap. "Receivers play catch" football quote i liked.

Next when you play don't watch yourself. Watch the opponent. How are you supposed to adapt to their play when you don't even know what their doing? Why would you watch yourself anyway, your should know what your doing, your the one pressing the buttons. A lot of new players will watch themselves to make sure there tech is "on point" this in and of itself is a mistake.

Next understand what Tech is for. Melee gives you lots of options to play with and all learning tech does is give you more options to mess with. A lot of the times new players will practice really hard to get technique but still fall flat because they didn't spend any time working of what was readily available to them from the start. Don't let that be you.

Once you have your list and keep all that crap in mind then you can make yourself a practice regimen.

Learn really basic stuff.
FF asap
act out of moves using IASA
and Dashing and Jumping around.
SH
FF
L-Cancel
SHFFL
Wave dash
Wave Land
Jump Cancel
Wave Land on platforms by jumping through them.

glad to have you be part of the smash community. I recommend finding some people near you to play with and they can walk you through whatever problems your having.

Thanks for the tips, I'm basically working through that list in order already so I guess I got the theory about right! I used examples of things in my OP that I didn't know until I looked them up (no commentator ever mentions cactuar dashing or mentions that you need to fast fall a wavedash in order to snap to ledge more quickly).

Actually my biggest problem seems to be pressing buttons quickly. I want to be able to SHFFL nair as a milestone (https://youtu.be/bc-GCf9HFNA?t=29s), but I literally cannot press A quickly enough after SH->FF to throw out anything but a single hit nair, or I end up full hopping or missing my FF, or throwing out a dair instead. Guess that's the first time I'm working on.

Also, playing people near me isn't really an option as I work full time. I also realize until i get some basics down like SHFFLing I'm not even playing the same game as everyone else lol.

 

[FE_Hector]

but I literally cannot press A quickly enough after SH->FF to throw out anything but a single hit nair, or I end up full hopping or missing my FF, or throwing out a dair instead.

I had that second issue with my SHFFL nairs as Falco, and what you really have to do is slow it down a little bit. Make sure you press A and then input the FF when you SHFFL nair because you'll be starting the FF during the startup of the nair instead of FFing and then pressing A. As far as the hand speed issue goes, that's something that just naturally improves as you practice doing things faster and faster. It's just a part of getting used to the game.

 

[Hunybear]

Thanks for the tips, I'm basically working through that list in order already so I guess I got the theory about right! I used examples of things in my OP that I didn't know until I looked them up (no commentator ever mentions cactuar dashing or mentions that you need to fast fall a wavedash in order to snap to ledge more quickly).

Actually my biggest problem seems to be pressing buttons quickly. I want to be able to SHFFL nair as a milestone (https://youtu.be/bc-GCf9HFNA?t=29s), but I literally cannot press A quickly enough after SH->FF to throw out anything but a single hit nair, or I end up full hopping or missing my FF, or throwing out a dair instead. Guess that's the first time I'm working on.

Also, playing people near me isn't really an option as I work full time. I also realize until i get some basics down like SHFFLing I'm not even playing the same game as everyone else lol.

Speed should be an after thought. Accuracy is substantially more important. Speed comes with time, but accuracy makes consistency. This is not to say being quick isn't a large part of melee.

 

[t3tsubo]

Speed should be an after thought. Accuracy is substantially more important. Speed comes with time, but accuracy makes consistency. This is not to say being quick isn't a large part of melee.

Yea I'm quickly quickly realizing this. It's one of those things you couldn't ever understand just from watching melee - its not just how fast these pro's are pressing buttons, it's how accurate all their stick inputs/button press timings are. This game is insane.

 

[t3tsubo]

For posterity this is a list of ABSOLUTE BEGINNER movement techskill that I practiced, roughly in order. Keep in mind I picked marth as a main mostly because I want to do sexy movement, so I focused mostly on movement to start off with as a base. I know I would get more mileage in terms of beating actual opponents practicing other stuff, but with no one to play against but the CPU I'm just grinded this:

1. short hop
2. drifting short hop
3. fast fall
4. drifting fast fall
5. alternating drifting fullhop/shorthop fastfall
6. wavedash
7. wavedash across stage both directions
8. wavedash backwards -> forwards repeatedly
9. consecutive wavedash speed+
10. dash into wavedash forwards + backwards
11. dash dance into wavedash forwards + backwards
12. platform waveland down/left/right
13. shorthop/fullhop -> FF waveland
14. wavedash->FF->ledgegrab (both sides)
15. SH/FH->turnaround->FF->ledgegrab (both sides)
16. ledgedash (both sides)
17. ledge->no impact land (both sides)
18. SH->aerial->Lcancel (all aerials)
19. SH->aerial->FF->Lcancel
20. SH Drifting both sides -> aerial -> (FF) -> Lcancels
21. wavedash/dashdance into SHFFL aerials
22. throwing out random aerials and fast falls and full hops and L cancelling all of them

EDIT: plus being able to do everything in that list while looking at the cpu rather than your own character

 

[DrumBeater02]

I min the same boat he is and, WOW that's a lot of stuff to practice but it is needed to improve.