Underused Technique: Pivot Dribbling [UPDATE: Replay Demo Added]

[Le_THieN]

In the spirit of sharing new discoveries (or at least introducing lesser-known techniques), I present you guys with the pivot dribble.

Hylian and I have been sharing a few late night Wi-Fi matches for the last week or so, and he showed me this interesting technique. To my understanding, the community has always assumed that you can't really grab your banana again after you dribble a banana in the same direction that you're facing. Of course, with the newfound versatility of pivoting constantly bringing new things to the table in Brawl, in turns out that you can indeed pick up the banana immediately after a forward dribble by buffering a change of direction to turn around and face your banana and hitting the A-button to pick it up.

To break it down, it works like this:

• glide-toss forward
• push down on the C-stick to throw the banana at the ground
• as you're moving forward, buffer/hold the opposite direction
• push the A-button

The timing is not as fast as the reverse single dribble; there's a slight delay. There's a very small window of time for you to actually grab the banana right before you slide outside of its range. It's also not very forgiving and requires a pretty precise input of the A-button. Once you figure out the timing though, you can pretty much develop a rhythm to dribble back and forth on a single banana.

At the moment, neither Hylian or I have any real applications for this. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is if an opponent is closing in on you from behind, then you could dribble away from them to reset your spacing and still retain control of your banana. You can also transition out of a pivot dribble into NinjaLink's reverse single dribble, and the pivot dribble now offers you the option to change directions.

Hopefully, someone more creative than me figures out a practical application. I can do it pretty consistently, but lightning has yet to strike me for that crazy-awesome offensive tactic that I might be able to employ this in.

Finally, Hylian tried to pawn this technique off on me because he doesn't really care about taking credit, but neither do I. Consider this a small contribution to the community with no strings attached and call it whatever you want.

EDIT: Here is my short replay demo of all the known dribbling variations and some movement applications that I'm currently using in my matches: Diddy Tech - Pivot Dribbling Demonstration

 

[FishStix]

OK newb question here, can you concisely explain glide tossing? Sounds like an interesting technique

 

[Le_THieN]

OK newb question here, can you concisely explain glide tossing? Sounds like an interesting technique

Oy, vey. Please follow this link. You'll find nearly every fundamental you need to know about Diddy Kong.

 

[Miles.]

Vids plz?

10 pivotdribbles

 

[Hylian]

I might put a video up though I don't think it's nessasary.

 

[Vyse]

It's like back in the days of Melee when we knew things to be technically possible, but had never taken the time to try it out.

 

[Le_THieN]

I might put a video up though I don't think it's nessasary.

It really, really isn't. You can spend five or ten minutes playing around with it, and you'll figure it out. Although for some reason I suspect that people tend to be more razzled and dazzled by threads with video evidence as opposed to one that affluently describes it in detail. =)

 

[Miles.]

No, I can grasp exactly what you are descirbing. I am just bored at work from 10pm to 6am and want to see it and perhaps some applications.

Albeit you dont have any yet, but still...

 

[Luigi player]

Meh, this is hard >.> I finally could do it and right after it doing a backward dribble (pivot dribble to the right, and then right dribbling again). It's really hard to get the banana after a pivot dribble even if you turn around at the right time...

And I figured out I can't dribble that good backwards too... because my timing is a bit off... I'm used to online...

 

[Le_THieN]

Meh, this is hard >.> I finally could do it and right after it doing a backward dribble (pivot dribble to the right, and then right dribbling again). It's really hard to get the banana after a pivot dribble even if you turn around at the right time...

And I figured out I can't dribble that good backwards too... because my timing is a bit off... I'm used to online...

I recommend you get better with the reverse single dribble before you even attempt this. The comprehension that you acquire from being able to fluidly dribble in the first place is pretty essential to possibly making pivot dribbling useful in the first place. Besides, why would you want to learn how to do this without being able to reverse single dribble properly in the first place? =)

 

[Luigi player]

I recommend you get better with the reverse single dribble before you even attempt this. The comprehension that you acquire from being able to fluidly dribble in the first place is pretty essential to possibly making pivot dribbling useful in the first place. Besides, why would you want to learn how to do this without being able to reverse single dribble properly in the first place? =)

Yeah well I can dribble online really well, but offline I sometimes press the cstick too fast I guess (or maybe my controlstick was just acting a bit up, I noticed I can't always dash to the left... Man I'm happy when my new white GC controller is finally here that I ordered from Japan :D).

Anyway... now it's a bit easier to do it, but I still don't get the banana all the time. And it will probably be even harder to constantly pivot dribble forth and back. Wow... and people say Brawl has no techskill...

I guess it probably won't be that hard after you get a feeling for it ^^

 

[ADHD]

This is already known so you won't be taking any credit for it lol that bigmack kid does or some other dude who posted a diddy technique thread--he said you can pivot dribble to make a dash dance with a single banana

I use it to change my single dribble direction as a taunt, thats really all it can do

 

[Le_THieN]

This is already known so you won't be taking any credit for it lol that bigmack kid does or some other dude who posted a diddy technique thread--he said you can pivot dribble to make a dash dance with a single banana

I use it to change my single dribble direction as a taunt, thats really all it can do

Um, I'm sorry: who are you again, and can you read?

 

[ADHD]

My bad, I misread

But the only thing you can do with this honestly is change your single dribble direction and dash dance with a single naner which isn't as fast

 

[Timcanpy]

i think this was known, because i see it in ninja link videos some time ago, but, good information after all.

 

[pastaboy]

hmm iv tried doing this b4 but timing was hard. what uses does this have? mindgammmmez

 

[Vyse]

You only have to sit down and think for yourself for a while. Consider all the possible actions from a forwards single dribble, remembering that you can pivot and pick up the banana. There's loads of potential for an entirely new form of movement based around this technique.

Don't complain about the timing. You can complain once you've gotten down Double Shine Pillaring with Falco in Melee (I can...although I'd have to practice up on it again =_=)

 

[ADHD]

This isn't hard at all XD

Just press A a hair after the single dribble timing... It's slower so keep that in mind

 

[Hylian]

You only have to sit down and think for yourself for a while. Consider all the possible actions from a forwards single dribble, remembering that you can pivot and pick up the banana. There's loads of potential for an entirely new form of movement based around this technique.

Don't complain about the timing. You can complain once you've gotten down Double Shine Pillaring with Falco in Melee (I can...although I'd have to practice up on it again =_=)

Haha that's easy basic melee stuff. I find this harder to do consistently...though I can do it fine heh.

If you wanted to cite something harder in melee you should of mentioned something such as turn-around waveshines.

 

[Vyse]

If you wanted to cite something harder in melee you should of mentioned something such as turn-around waveshines.

Yeah.

...

Yeah.

=_=

Anyway, I practiced this for a while, and I've gotten to a point where I can Pivot Dribble Dance back and forth.

 

[B.A.M.]

good to hear, however its definitely something that shouldve come as a logical progression to some who already know dribbling and its other derivatives. good stuf tho guys. gotta let people know.

 

[Diddyknight]

will have to implement this into my gameplay d(^O^)b

 

[GDX]

...ok

 

[AlphaZealot]

Change attack button to one of the triggers and practice dribbling with that so you can pick up the nana into an F-Smash (while holding the banana). This was the first thing I taught myself after learning to dribble. And yea, pivot dribbling has been around for awhile but at least now its in the open.

 

[IDK]

http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=185118 pretty much... (double dribble w/ one banana)

 

[Kaptain Kong]

yeah, I also knew about this too from bigmack's thread, but this should have a separate thread for strategies/uses.

 

[Le_THieN]

I have updated the front page with a video link to a demonstration of the pivot dribble.

 

[Vyse]

Where was the Peanut Gun Charge Cancel to Pivot Dribble to Peanut Gun Charge Cancel etc?