What do you practice alone?

[Oasys17]

So, I know this question has been asked MANY times, but I've never actually heard what other MARTH mains practice by themselves. I know all the basics and general practice regiments and stuff. What do you guys think is most important for a Marth to have?

 

[BTmoney]

movement, gimping bad DI/bad recovery options on reaction vs. CPUs (basically never dropping the free edge guards and optimizing that branch of punishes), going to FD and 0 death'ing a lvl 3 CPU space animal. Lvl 3 CPUs mix up their DI the most (almost human like in regards to being thrown) so they are a GREAT tool for practicing your CG. Cleaning up your movement and juggling ability is also pretty good to work on

 

[Oasys17]

I didn't know level 3 cpus DI things O_O I should start practicing vs them, then, cuz level 9s are literally the dumbest things I've ever seen xD

 

[Tarv]

Practicing against level 9s are a waste of time. They don't mimic human opponents at all, their reactions are stupid-fast and their DI is better than any human I've seen. I'm paraphrasing but a great player once said that if you practice against level 9's you'll be really good... at beating level 9's. Also, not to be pedantic but I always thought that level 4 cpus were ideal because they mix up their DI on throws semi-realistically which is why they're good practice for Marths to practice chaingrabbing their uthrow? Nothing is going to substitute for actually playing against human opponents though. However in the mean time: 99 stocks, level 4 (or 3) just practice 0 to deathing them, be mindful of your spacing like you're fighting a real opponent, mix up your recoveries like you're fighting a real opponent, practice being crisp with your edgeguarding, practice being flawless in your techskill, and practice keeping your eye on your opponent. The last bit is something that has been pretty helpful to me personally. In a real match you want your focus to be on your opponent and what they're doing. You don't want to have to focus on whether or not you're hitting that L-cancel or wavedashing properly or hitting that waveland during a match you just want to "know". Furthermore, watching your opponent (not that you want to completely ignore yourself, but the main focus should be on your opponent) can help with your spacing. Or I could be full of crap, I don't know just throwing out things that have helped me a bit. It basically boils down to try to get in the mindset of fighting against a human opponent; try to think of what a human could/would do in that particular situation and figure out ways to deal with it.

Hope this helps!


Edit: CrimsonBlur made a really cool solo training regiment for Marths but I can't seem to find it...

 

[AppleAppleAZ]

CrimsonBlur made a really cool solo training regiment for Marths but I can't seem to find it...

Here it is! http://www.smashboards.com/threads/technical-things.283211/#post-10954335

 

[Tarv]

Hooray!

10Hoorays!

 

[BTmoney]

Practicing against level 9s are a waste of time. They don't mimic human opponents at all, their reactions are stupid-fast and their DI is better than any human I've seen. I'm paraphrasing but a great player once said that if you practice against level 9's you'll be really good... at beating level 9's. Also, not to be pedantic but I always thought that level 4 cpus were ideal because they mix up their DI on throws semi-realistically which is why they're good practice for Marths to practice chaingrabbing their uthrow? Nothing is going to substitute for actually playing against human opponents though. However in the mean time: 99 stocks, level 4 (or 3) just practice 0 to deathing them, be mindful of your spacing like you're fighting a real opponent, mix up your recoveries like you're fighting a real opponent, practice being crisp with your edgeguarding, practice being flawless in your techskill, and practice keeping your eye on your opponent. The last bit is something that has been pretty helpful to me personally. In a real match you want your focus to be on your opponent and what they're doing. You don't want to have to focus on whether or not you're hitting that L-cancel or wavedashing properly or hitting that waveland during a match you just want to "know". Furthermore, watching your opponent (not that you want to completely ignore yourself, but the main focus should be on your opponent) can help with your spacing. Or I could be full of crap, I don't know just throwing out things that have helped me a bit. It basically boils down to try to get in the mindset of fighting against a human opponent; try to think of what a human could/would do in that particular situation and figure out ways to deal with it.

Hope this helps!


Edit: CrimsonBlur made a really cool solo training regiment for Marths but I can't seem to find it...

I agree with all that mostly. I do know for a fact though that Level 3 CPus are a great way to go, never tried 4. M2k said in an interview he got good primarily from playing CPUs lol so I think there is some merit to it. I play CPUs honestly about 60% of the time I play (I have lots of free time now in the summer lol) and I think my tech skill has improved rapidly because of it, I've automated a lot of processes and especially the ones where I do things versus bad defensive options automatically.

Also this is something I just started doing and that is playing very offensively versus CPUs (don't abuse the fact that you can charge a fsmash and they'll keep on running into it lol). I try to do things like approach with a perfectly spaced d-tilt or cut them off with fairs and I really just switch between those two things when I practice Marth.

 

[Tarv]

Mew2king does play against CPUs a lot but he's admitted in an article for Clash Tournaments that playing against other people in friendlies and tournaments is the fastest way to get better. So it's definitely worth playing against CPUs to work on techskill and the like but its a poor substitute for real opponents. Well regardless of whether you practice against 3s or 4s doesn't matter too much since they apparently both mix up their DI on uthrows a bit, it can still be good practice either way. Just work on getting that 0-80% death combo going.

Also, sometimes I play against level 7s for footsie/spacing/approach practice because you have to be a little tricky about when you approach them. It can help with knowing when there's an opening and when to approach. Not too often though, don't want to get too used to their patterns after all. And as far as spacies go they're a little more aggressive in their recoveries. Like level 1s will die if you hit them out of their up+bs no questions asked but higher levels (5-7) will react to being hit out of the up+b and try it again with a pretty quick reaction time. Of course that's ignoring the fact that practicing edgeguarding against spacie CPUs can be a bit counter-productive but you get the idea.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

Change of pace for CPUs.

99 stocks on one stage versus one character will get very stale very quickly and I think might lead to more habit forming than you get out of it. ALL CPUs have regular patterns and its quite funny that despite the "DI" its not mixed up at all. You'll see CPU lv1-5 all having the same sort of pattern if you start from 0% on FD. I think lv3 is a forward, forward, DI behind, then alternate back to forward each time. In this regard, for CG practice its better to face shorter match lengths like normal 4 stocks, and change up the lv randomly each time. Actually, unless you want to practice something very specific for a long period of time, I think its better to keep doing 4 stock matches on random stages, with random character choices, on random stages. You'll get more accustomed to on the fly improvisation and reaction stuff.

 

[Tarv]

I'll be honest I do the 4 stock random opponent thing more often than I do the 99 stocks on one stage. The former is more fun and makes practicing feel less like a chore admittedly but the cyclical monotonous nature of the latter can help ingrain techskill so that it becomes something of a second nature. Personally it's easier to just internalize techskill using the 99 stocks strategy. Both have their merits though.

Also no matter what you're eventually going to notice patterns in any CPU level but that's not really the point of CPU training. To me CPU training is to make sure that your techskill is spot on, clockwork for when you do fight an actual opponent you can focus on them and not what you're doing. Not to take anything away from playing against different CPU levels though, whatever works for you.

For added fun: Practice stage striking against yourself. Have a pretend GF Bo5 against a CPU, try to make it fun for yourself because honestly practicing against CPUs can be reallllly boring.

 

[Oasys17]

Thanks! I bookmarked that thread, very informative!

Also, I know full well it's a very poor substitute for playing real people, but I only get to fest like 1-2 times a week on average, so I need stuff to do when I've got downtime at my place.

 

[JeezImSoBored]

i try training mode combos not for the sake of combos but to practice the techskills and reaction to combo. otherwise i'd play cpu with alternating levels since low level CPU cant really help practice shield games and OOS stuff

 

[JeezImSoBored]

not a marth main though btw

 

[Skiller]

mainly i just mess aronud with movement, oos options, and platform stuff like shield dropping/isai dropping.

 

[Ziodyne]

i try training mode combos not for the sake of combos but to practice the techskills and reaction to combo. otherwise i'd play cpu with alternating levels since low level CPU cant really help practice shield games and OOS stuff

do u have 1-player mode cstick hack enabled?

and low level CPU or not, you can work on OOS stuff by yourself. just shield and practice doing OOS with different timings so you are comfortable doing OOS at any point while you're shielding

doing this but with hitstun is actually kinda trivial compared to dealing with pressure mixups on your shield in a real fight IMO. it's not the hitstun, but learning to deal with all the pressure mixups that becomes a real challenge.

 

[JeezImSoBored]

do u have 1-player mode cstick hack enabled?

and low level CPU or not, you can work on OOS stuff by yourself. just shield and practice doing OOS with different timings so you are comfortable doing OOS at any point while you're shielding

doing this but with hitstun is actually kinda trivial compared to dealing with pressure mixups on your shield in a real fight IMO. it's not the hitstun, but learning to deal with all the pressure mixups that becomes a real challenge.

its good to know how much hit stun is on your shield so you can OOS asap though, like getting daired by falco or getting jabbed by gannon, feels pretty different

 

[-Se7en-]

So, I know this question has been asked MANY times, but I've never actually heard what other MARTH mains practice by themselves. I know all the basics and general practice regiments and stuff. What do you guys think is most important for a Marth to have?

Spacing is the most important factor since it can turn the tides on a match but always practice up throw chain grab,mix in a short hop up air like M2K does if it's against Falco/Fox.If you have a friend who is a noob then let him use Falco and Fsmash you from the middle of FD to get better at DI.Also one last thing (a smash 64 quote) "Don't get hit!"

 

[DireDrop]

I pick a random level 3 CPU, 4 stocks, random stage, and then just practice wavedashing around the CPU. I also throw my shield up a lot to practice wavedashing out of shield, since that's something I struggle with. I do that until I accidentally kill my self 4 times from dodging off the stage or whatever (which is inevitable at my current skill level). Actually fighting the CPU hasn't been much help because of how different live opponents are.

 

[Beat!]

Change to infinte time instead of stocks when practicing on your own and you can suicide as many times as you want.

 

[Deathconsciousness]

I practice my skills.

That was easy.

 

[-Se7en-]

One thing I must say though : when you enter a Melee tournament you may be nervous to wavedash towards them.

 

[Omit]

I usually practice combos and AT's against lvl 3-5 CPU's.
Some really helpful advice here btw!