When basics aren't enough (critique)

[Phyanketto]

So, I've been playing for around 2 months now, and I've been drilling myself to have really crispy movement and basics (shffls, l-cancelling all the things, etc.). I feel like I'm looking decent, but I got completely bodied by a good player recently. I don't really see the difference between his play and mine, except that he's hitting me a lot more than I'm hitting him. What can I do to make sure I hit him more?

Here is a video of JCPwn wrecking me on Netplay (4 buffer)... What am I doing wrong? Are my approaches bad?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Twinkles]

So, I've been playing for around 2 months now, and I've been drilling myself to have really crispy movement and basics (shffls, l-cancelling all the things, etc.). I feel like I'm looking decent, but I got completely bodied by a good player recently. I don't really see the difference between his play and mine, except that he's hitting me a lot more than I'm hitting him. What can I do to make sure I hit him more?

Here is a video of JCPwn wrecking me on Netplay (4 buffer)... What am I doing wrong? Are my approaches bad?

Thanks in advance.

You don't see the difference? You don't see the disparity in both smoothness of movement nor good decision making? Compared to him, there are a lot more random hiccups in your gameplay, questionable decisions. Even your movement does not look very crispy.

Your aerials don't look very elegant or purposeful. Your goal with aerials is not just to try to hit the damn guy without thinking. Think about whether you're going to hit their shield, how you're spacing the aerial, how you're timing the aerial, etc. Think quickly, cuz if you're not moving ASAP after the L-cancel, you're not doing it right.

First game, I have no idea on what planet full-hop counter would be a good idea. I don't even know how an input error would get you a full-hop counter. You throw out fsmashes that are straight up destined not to hit. You get hit because you don't think enough about how you're getting hit.

This isn't a 1-player game dude. You're playing against someone who is making their own decisions, so please just look and see where you get hit and just tell yourself why you got hit and what you could do next time to avoid getting hit like that next time.

 

[Phyanketto]

The fullhop counter was definitely a mistake. A lot of my f-smashes were supposed to be shffled fairs... Looking closely, I think I'm getting hit a lot because my I throw out moves to quickly when I approach... And in the space between them, JCPwn hits me. Is that right?

I'm sorry if I seem really noobie. I didn't mean to make it sound like I thought I was actually good.

 

[Twinkles]

Don't worry about it. Everyone starts off as noobie. You don't get better unless you recognize that you will do things wrong though, so it is a good thing to at least be aware that you probably make a lot more mistakes that you may like to admit.

Doing this will help you critique your videos better. Go back and watch that set as many times as need be. Look for every exchange where you get hit or even you look like you're in a bad spot. Ask yourself and analyze why you even got there in the first place. Was it because you double jumped right into an ftilt? Was it because you mispaced a fair? Even technical errors, cuz they can tell you what to practice. If your fairs are coming out as fsmashes, it means you're still not solid enough with them.

Also, when practicing SHFFL aerials, keep in mind that you should also practicing mixing up all the timings on them. If you only know how to do one timing well, you will probably mess up an extraordinary amount of L-cancels in game, and even if you don't, it actually gives people room to punish and choose the best counter to your aerials if you only do one timing.

Just keep playing, never stop learning, and you'll see results as they come for sure.

 

[Phyanketto]

Yeah! I actually just saw an interview with PP where he said to watch yourself a lot, and compare to good people. See where you're going wrong, the difference between your play.

Thanks for the advice; since I watched this a few times, I slowed down and made my aerials a lot more deliberate.