One Word Extinguisher
Smash Apprentice
Genesis is rapidly approaching, but you know what? I can count on my hand the number of players who have really improved since the new year.
I know everyone says they want to get better. I'm going to cut you some slack: I believe you all do, but most of you don't know how. Well, I'm going to tell you how.
Table of Contents
I. Prelude
II. Mindset
III. Commitment
IV. High-Level Play
V. Implementation
Section I. Prelude
I have been trying to help a lot of people get better recently, and the advice is always the same:
-- Drop your bad habits
-- Get more technical
If you don't accomplish these things, you just will not get better. This applies to every category of player, because unless you're Mango, Lucky, or Zhu, you have some bad habits and your tech skill could be better (unless your name's Lovage).
I was talking to Tofu earlier today, and he agreed. Norcal as a whole is significantly better than us, and it's because Norcal tries to get better in all of their matches. Socal tries to win all of their matches. You will not beat Norcal players by punishing the same couple of habits over and over. You have to change it up. But I spent the weekend beating Connor (sorry to call you out, but you're definitely not alone) by punishing the same two or three bad habits.
This has to stop.
Bad habits do not go away easily. They take a lot of hard work. Step one is being cognizant of them: you have to understand how bad that attacking from the ledge all of the time, or rolling when pressured, or Fox illusioning to recover every time is. Once you learn that, you have to make it a point to fix those habits in every single match you play, including friendlies. No matter what the discrepancy in skill level is, you have to control your habits in those situations, or you will lose to every person better than you who forces those habits out of you. So start practicing!
The tech skill is the easy part, so I don't need to waste time there. But dropping your bad habits is a rigorous mental exercise -- you have to be committed to it, you have to humble yourself and admit you need to change your ways, and you need to apply it in every single match with no exceptions. And don't feel overwhelmed -- ask for help! SoCal's better players will be glad to help you on what habits they're abusing! And even the better players have to humble themselves and do the same, because we're all in it together. We're all representing the same region and we're all playing for the love of the game.
The competition needs to take a backseat to getting better. As you're trying to get rid of your bad habits, your focus should be on those bad habits, and not trying to get as close as you can to win every friendly. Focus on getting better, and winning the matches is inevitable.
This is a long post, and I apologize for that, but hey, if you're too lazy to read the entire length of this post and let it sink in, then you're not cut out for competitive Melee, either. Everyone should want to help everyone else in the region get better. Let's all do our part.
Section II: Mindset.
Noob Mentality
Being a noob has nothing to do with your talent, or lack thereof. It has nothing to do with your inexperience in and of itself. Being a noob is essentially the mindset of results-oriented thinking.
What is results oriented thinking? Getting close to someone in a friendly and assuming it was because of your own skill. Essentially, being a noob is not playing to learn, as Forward said, or to improve. Being a noob is always playing to win and always being concerned and validated by wins and losses regardless of context.
Getting better takes time. It takes weeks and months, not days; it doesn't happen overnight, it doesn't happen at one smashfest, it doesn't happen at one tournament. You can get "better" in one day, but it means nothing unless you continue doing exactly what made you better for the rest of your life. You may think you can do that, but chances are you can't, and if you can do it, you will know because it's requiring mental energy every time you pick up the controller. The times you outperformed your own expectations, chances it probably had more to do with your attitude, mood, opponent or matchup. Just worry about yourself -- staying calm and learning and erasing your bad habits -- and the results will come. You can't force anything. The only goal you should have is controlling yourself, not beating your opponent.
How do you know if you're being a noob? Simple:
Having a conditioned response to the same situation every time, and not caring because it "works" every now and then. Example: shield grabbing or attacking from the ledge. Sure, it worked out for you the couple of times it was successful, but you're suffering from memory bias; you're not realizing it's the main reason you're getting punished for your stock most of the time. Why? Because you're being results oriented, focusing only on your positive results. My biggest pet peeve that most noobs do?
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Get frustrated
No one plays better when they let negative emotions get in the way. Care about the game, but care about the process -- don't be upset something didn't work out, but instead figure out why it didn't work out. If you've been practicing it and have confidence in it, then you know what to do to fix it, and you won't be wasting time being frustrated about it. It's Melee. Anything can happen.
However, a way not to make things happen that unconfident players do is:
Camping: I'm here to tell you: camping is bad. Certain characters and matchups can get away with camping -- Peach, for example, is a defensive character. You have to play defensively with her because she's just not quick enough to apply consistent pressure. Sheik is also primarily a defensive character (IN MY OPINION; I think that is how she is best used); she applies pressure defensively, with spacing, and by forming a wall around her that is impenetrable. But if you use Fox, Falco, Marth, Falcon, Jigglypuff or Luigi, you have to be aggressive. There are rare exceptions, but you're not those exceptions, nor should you hope to be. If you main those characters, you need to embody their aggressiveness. No, that doesn't mean you should always be approaching -- when you're playing characters more aggressive than yourself (such as Falcon versus Fox or Falco), then it's okay to be defensive. But overall you're going to need to know how to be aggressive, how to consistently put pressure on your opponent and how to extract their bad habits at will. Good aggressive players force bad habits out of their opponents. If you are defensive, you will not create bad habits.
But no matter what character you choose, you will need to understand how and when to be aggressive. This is why, for lesser players trying to improve their game, it's good to be aggressive. It's a good habit to have. Yes, you're going to get ***** hard for it, but you know what? Melee is an aggressive and confident game! You can't be scared! By getting ***** you'll learn what does and doesn't work. The hardest thing to do in this game is to approach -- but you're never going to learn how to approach if you don't experiment and try to be aggressive!
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I am a Sheik main, so I will use her as an example.
For the past couple of months I have tried to be more offensive, believing it was holding me back. But watching M2K I learned I have to do what I do best, and that it's okay to be defensive. I learned a lot from watching his Sheik on how you could control the match through pressurized defensive; after all, if you space everything and autocancel everything for defense, you can "don't get hit."
In Melee, you want to play the opposite style of your opponent. If your opponent is aggressive and you can play defensively very well, like Sheik in my case, then camp and let him approach you the majority of the time. Don't camp so blatantly that he starts trying to camp you back, but just bait him into throwing out the first move.
But if you play someone smart and who camps you back, then don't get into a camping war with him. That's what noobs do, because it's easy. Instead, he's playing defensively, so limit his options and control space more. It's hard to camp in Melee; the way it's built, you only need one opening and you can control stage or combo a stock so easily off of it. So know tricks to get around camping so you can put the pressure on them -- and then start camping them back as they get agitated!
Section III: Commitment.
So you walk around saying you would just love to get better at Melee, but you don't have anyone to play in your area and you get tired of playing by yourself. Scratch that attitude -- there is always something you could be doing to improving yourself, it only depends on exactly how serious you are. To start, you're going to need to get serious:
Practice. Even if it's for 10 or 15 minutes a day, practice! Everyone who has improved their game did not get there by accident, or by playing their buddies over and over. Kira took out practice time before Mango Juice, and what did he do? Beat Germ and HomeMadeWaffles in tourny. Lovage practiced tech skill for years to get to his level. Tofu practiced on Bowsers and played Falco exclusively for over a year. And I have become much more technical by taking Tofu's advice and practicing as well.
A large problem is a lot of players don't know how to practice properly. Here's what worked for Tofu, and it worked for me, so I'll help you out:
Pick Fox and Falco. Pick a Lv1 Bowser, put the Damage Ratio on .5, and the Handicap on, with Bowser's at 9 and yours at 1. Practice drill shines/pillars. Practice nair shines. Important: vary the fast fall speed of your aerials. This will mimic the shield-timing situations that will occur in real matches. The trick of drill shining properly is hitting the fast fall. Even if you don't main these characters, it will help get your fingers faster!
Familiarize yourself with your main. In Cactuar's thread on the Marth boards, he recommends picking up Marth and just doing moves so you understand the timing of everything. Your goal is to be able to move as soon as you can, as soon as the move is complete. Work on dashing away immediately after an aerial when you land; work on wavelanding and wavedashing perfectly; work on empty short hops. Work on anything that will make you more technically proficient with your character. The important lesson this will teach you is timing. To accomplish anything in Melee, all it requires is certain timing. Practicing on your own will force you to learn that timing and force you to try new things to figure out the proper timing of moves. Most importantly, you will learn how not to become frustrated!
Eliminate frustration. Keep your head in the game. Don't get mad or upset at anything that happens. Remember, it's just a game! Have fun! If you feel yourself getting agitated, just let it go and take a couple of breaths. Take a couple of seconds to chill on the respawning platform if you must. You must be calm to be successful, because you have to focus 100% of the time to be successful in this game. That will not come overnight, and you have to train yourself to accomplish this. It takes work!
Just think of all the smashers you know that visibly show frustration throughout the course of the match. Do they ever pull off comebacks? No, they usually get progressively worse.
If you don't know what things to work on, go to your character specific forum! I can list a ton of things for a few of the characters:
Fox: Firefox sweetspots; drill shines; running shines; shine to wavelands off the edge; shortening your Fox illusion; Fox illusion autocancels from the ledge on stages such as Battlefield and Pokemon Stadium. Tons more at the Fox forum!
Falco: There is a whole thread on the Falco forums dedicated to lasering, and it is very useful. Double shines, empty short hop to reverse utilts, perfect wavelands, finding the perfect spacing on the forward smash, autocanceling the bair, etc.
Sheik: Retreating autocancel fairs, full hop autocancel nairs, autocancel bairs, perfect wavelands from the platforms, Isai/Shai drops from the platform to needles, empty short hop to utilt, boost grabbing, needle/Shino stalling, perfect (and imperfect) wavelands from the ledge
Marth: Autocancel nairs, early autocancel fairs to dtilt, late fairs to crossups (dashing through / away from the opponent), pivot fsmash/ftilts, shield breaker regrab from the ledge, perfect wavelands/wavedashes, chaingrabs on space animals, etc.
I will update this section more with useful links and good examples of players to watch!
Be creative! The little things matter! Even if you don't think they have a tremendous use in-game, they teach you how to practice! They help you prevent yourself from getting frustrated in the match, because you can't get frustrated while practicing if you hope to learn how to do something.
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One of the best things Tofu taught me to play around with in training was just getting used to the empty short hop timings of my character. Short hop and practice the variations I fast fall, do an aerial and/or wavedash back.
I didn't realize it, but it helped me a lot. Something I have learned from Mango: when your opponent is in your effective range but not quite vulnerable to an attack (say, Marth short hop floating down near an opponent whilst inside tipper range), the best thing to do is just wait. Keep yourself in position to respond to anything, because eventually they have to do something. While kept at that range, you're basically the opponent's toy, and this is where panic moves such as rolls and spot dodges come from.
Simply just floating in your opponent's face right outside their effective range and keeping spacing with wavelands rather than coming down with aerials gives you both defensive and offensive potential and keeps your opponent on their toes.
Stick to one main. I believe using Fox and Falco to start is good, because it teaches you tech skill that can be universally applied to any character you end up maining, and it teaches you timing and quickens your fingers. That said, whoever your true main is, use them and only them! Once you get good you can start experimenting with a secondary, but unless you run out of things to better yourself at, why aren't you using your main? Oh, you think you don't have things to work on? Read this thread, I'm naming a ton of things you can work on!
Honestly, Melee is 90 percent tech skill. Don't let lack of technical ability prevent your skill from growing![/QUOTE]
Section IV:: High-Level Play
Smash theory
Not that I am trying to get everyone to play like me -- please don't! I'm too smart for y'all
-- but I think illustrating how I see the field will help people play safer.
Alright, here's how Melee works at high level play. Give your opponent one opening, and he will punish you and make sure he takes your stock. Basically, it's like this: play super safe and careful until you get your one opening. As soon as you hit your opponent once, pressure him and never let him recover properly and you will eventually take the rest of his stock. If you mess up and the players revert back to equal positioning, don't force it, resume playing carefully again, and work for your opening.
That's it! It's a very simple game!
Center Stage
Now, there is one position you always want to occupy: Center stage. Imagine Battlefield in your head: one top platform, two side platforms, and one ground level.
You always want to be on the ground occupying the bottom level in between the two platforms on the side.
Here's my ****ty MS Paint trying to illustrate this. Imagine Battlefield in your head, with the top middle platform, the two far platforms and the ground level of the stage:
In between the "x"s is where you want to control at all times. That is desirable position; that is center stage. If you're on the right or left side of those platforms, for all intents and purposes you are being edgeguarded. So you need to have the same mindset you have when you're actually off the stage trying to get back to the ledge / on the stage: I will play safe as ****. If you try to attack your opponent while you're on the side of the stage, he can easily wavedash back or runaway and make you whiff, and then you will be punished. Watch Cactuar for a great example for how he controls the center stage.
To an extent, every single pro knows this, whether consciously or subconsciously. They exert pressure while they control the middle, and they play safe until they get the middle. Zhu is another textbook example of this phenomenon.
If you are launched into the air, you are in no position to attack. If you are hanging on the ledge, you are in no position to attack.[/i If you are recovering off the stage, you are in no position to attack. If you are sitting on one of the platforms, you are in no position to attack.[/i Your mindset should be regain center stage. Don't rush it or force it -- your opponent knows that's what you need to regain control of the match, so he's not just going to let you have it. It's a dance, and whoever messes up first gives his opponent the advantage. The difference is if you don't control center stage and you mess up, you die. If your opponent messes up, then you just regain center stage; he's usually not going to die from it. Instead, he's put in the position where he has to work his *** off to get it back.
So don't think to attack if you don't own center stage! Sure, if your opponent messes up and you obviously can hit him, then do it -- congratulations, you just regained center stage. But overall your strategy is to be extremely careful and to do anything and everything that's safe. Think like Isai -- "don't get hit."
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Respawn Invincibility
Nintendo must've had a good idea about the efficient simplicity of the fighting engine, so they put something in to counteract a wise and smart player controlling center stage all day: respanw invincibility. The next time you watch a melee match, pay attention to where the kills occur: the majority of time, the opponent loses a live, respawns with invincibility, and his opponent runs around trying not to get hit. But soon after the invincibility wears off is where the kill usually occurs. Why is that? It's evidence of the phenomenon of center stage: when you have it, and the opponent has to fight hard to get it back, they usually make a mistake and die, because they're already at combo percent so one hit is all that is needed to lead to an edge guard.
So the most important part of the match, in terms of asserting your dominance on the match, is re-gaining center stage back from your opponent after his invincibility is gone. Most players that get a kill in that scenario experience a brief let down; they think, Okay, after the first two seconds, I play my game again, but get slightly lazy -- maybe I did a move that would normally work, but because his percentage is low got CCed into a smash -- and they lose their stock. This happens all the time, it is truly ridiculous. Don't let this be you: instead, concentrate most fiercely in that situation, because if you can consistently add 30 or even 40 percent to that stock before you perish, you can use the invincibility of your own to put them into kill range easily and make comebacks incredible hard for them to accomplish.
I cannot emphasize the importance of this; it truly separates good players from great players. It takes consistent practice, but it turns high percentage one and two stocks into consistent two and three stocks on players lower than your skill level, and keeps you in the match against players better than you.
You want to see someone who stresses this fundamental part of their game? Watch Zhu, and what he does to regain center stage after his opponent respawns. He never goes on the aggression; instead, he plays extremely carefully, waiting to abuse Falco's priority and intimidation to earn him center stage again to resume locking down his opponent.
Bad Habits
A big problem a lot of people have who want to get better is they simply do not know where to look for when it comes to bad habits. The main thing that makes a pro good is the absence of bad habits. If you can't punish them for silly, avoidable mistakes, you have to be able to both create more opponents from neutral ground and be more efficient with your combos. So just break it down into three things: lack of bad habits, combo efficiency (zero to death combos), and offensive pressure (ability to create openings).
I will make a list of the general bad habits people have, and what are better alternatives you can use in the situations your bad habits strike:
Ensuring ledge invincibility
When you come up from the ledge, make sure you have fresh invincibility! There is no excuse not to -- all it takes is falling down and regrabbing the ledge! If you don't, when you come up, your opponent can hit you out of anything you do.
Attacking from the ledge
This is a big no-no! Why? Because of risk versus reward: If you miss, you are very vulnerable. If you get hit out of it, you have no jump and are edge guarded. Even more importantly, opportunity cost! If you attack from the ledge, you are passing up the ability to wavedash onto the stage and get the center stage. (I will talk more about center stage my next post.)
Instead of attacking from the stage, do these options:
Bread and butter:
-- Waveland onto the stage (very fast with a ton of options after this)*
Variants: Waveland into buffered roll*; waveland into an attack*; waveland onto the very
edge of the stage once your opponent starts giving you space expecting you to waveland into the middle of the stage
* -- P specialty!
-- Get-up attack (lots of range, tons of priority -- but don't do it into someone's shield)
If you're Fox and Falco: Illusion from the edge, but:
1. Only do it with invincibility
2. Only do it if your opponent is sitting near the ledge (because you have invincibility they can't hit you out of it!)
Other options:
-- Stand up into a buffered roll
-- Roll
And remember, take your time! You can camp the ledge for AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Your opponent has one of two options: Pressure you near the ledge, in which case you can often waveland past them or getup attack. OR they can sit near the center of the stage and wait for your waveland, in which case you can slowly get up and land near the edge of the stage and protect yourself with an attack if they come after you (one of my favorite things to do with Marth is ledge camp, then slowly jump off the ledge and land and dtilt. HugS does this at lot with his Samus to a downsmash!).
Rolling
Here is something Mango told me that I never forgot: almost every time you roll, wavedashing out of shield would have been better. Try it! Especially when you are trapped on the platform, it is too good. Sit in your shield and wait for the right opportunity, and then wavedash out of it and run away (or hit your opponent!).
Shield grabbing
This is very predictable and exactly what your opponent wants you to do. Instead, take your time and don't panic. Most opponents' shield pressure games are not perfect, so you can sit in your shield for a little bit and see what they do. If they mess up a little or their spacing is slightly off, you can wavedash out of your shield or just attack them out of your shield. You can even roll out of your shield, but you have to know when! Don't use it as a crutch!
Example: Fox is nair shining your shield. The first nair shine is done perfectly, but the second nair is on the top of your shield. So you can buffer a roll here and run away.
If you're Falcon and you're being shield pressured, notice how often the Fox/Falco shines after an aerial. If he always shines after an aerial, jump out and stomp him after the aerial and it will hit him as he shines. He can stop that, though, by just nairing again (aka the Cactuar)! There's a response to almost everything, but you have to train your eyes to follow the nuances of the game. Figure out your bread-and-butter response and, when in doubt, choose that; when it fails, figure out why, to what, and what you can do to counter it and mix it up accordingly!
Attacking from the air
If you're launched into the air above your opponent, do not come down with an aerial. You will get *****. Instead, look to waveland backwards or forwards, or air dodge into your opponent if he is spamming attacks as you come down. Rule of thumb: If you're above your opponent or on the side of the stage / on the ledge / recovering, do not try to attack. Play it safe.
Get-up Attack
When people miss their techs, they tend to get-up attack. Yes, it's a good option, often the best one, but when your opponent starts waiting for it, you have to switch it up!
It takes 26 frames for the get-up attack to finish, but it lasts 51 frames. (My figures may be off by 1-2 frames.) There are 60 frames in one second; do the math, and all someone has to do is wait for you to finish your get-up attack and they have more than enough time to punish you with whatever they want off of pure reaction! Of course, if you tech every time, it's fairly ease to follow your tech and get you every time. So mix it up!
Other options:
Purposely missing a tech and immediately rolling or standing straight up; standing up and buffering a roll / spot dodge / attacking / wavedash away / jump (basically, just get the hell out of there!)
Teching in Place
Do not tech in place. Case closed. At very high level play, between two smart players who know each other well, you can rarely get away with teching in place, because after dozens of matches or so they will assume you will always tech away or miss a tech. But for 99.9% of you Melee players, STOP TECHING IN PLACE. When your opponent forces you to tech and makes his reads, he's going off of reaction. The first thing he looks for is a tech in place, and he's always in position to punish it! If you HAVE to do it, make sure you buffer a roll or throw out a high-priority move (such as Fox's ftilt) right after, but honestly, I see this punished 95% of the time by good players. Just stop doing it.
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Maneuevering Out of Shield
People tend to concentrate the majority of their mistakes in the game once they are put into their shield. Defensively speaking, most players have glaringly obvious habits out of shield. Some people love to full hop out of shield, others like to roll, and still others like to attack out of shield. Few people choose the best option, though: Wavedash out of shield. Wavedash out of shield, shield grab, and attack out of shield gives you a lot of defensive options, but you have to develop a discerning eye.
When dealing with shield pressure, you have to get used to gauging where on your shield the move hit and what timing of the opponent's short hop did he use it. From there, you can cut your choices down to a more concentrated set of options. If he hit too high on your shield, such as with Fox's bair or drill, this is where you want to shield grab: you always want a grab if you can get it. The even safer way, however, if you don't trust your shield grab timing, is to attack out of shield. If Fox attacks the top of Marth's shield, for instance, Marth can always wavedash away to safety since Fox has to shine to protect himself from his error, since most people would attempt to shield grab that.
So if your opponent is shield pressuring you but throwing out spaced attacks without waiting for your responses in between them, then a roll is suffice -- as a change up -- because you will be guaranteed safety if he spams a move. Wavedashing out of shield is better, though -- it's faster, more surprising and gives you the ability to punish or put pressure on. In general I only attack out of shield if I know it's going to hit, because the punishment for missing is too great.
If he either timed it low enough on your shield or spaced it properly, then you should have an idea of what your opponent can do after it and how you would respond to it.
I will edit this post as I think of more bad habits people have. Things to talk about: edge guarding
V: Implementation
How to Get Better
Okay, your knowledge of the game has improved. Now you need to apply it!
This is very important: Do not try to do everything at once. First, recognize and isolate your bad habits. Make a list of them, and know when you are subjected to give into temptation and commit one of them. Focus on one or two of them, and, for every match you play, become determined to eliminate them. Do not do them no matter what. Even if you just sit there doing nothing and you die, that's better than a dumb bad habit. Don't get frustrated -- give it time! Remember, you've been doing this habit thousands of times, many times unconsciously. It's ingrained in your muscle memory! You need to work to overcome them! Just target one or two of them and don't worry about the others; as you eliminate them one by one, you can move on to the next bad habits.
If your old bad habits pop up, stop working on whatever one you are working on and squash it out again. Do this until you get it right, until you are thinking in that situation and you will only perform that habit when you want to.
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Practicing Tech
Hey, you are practicing right? If you read this far, you must be serious about getting better -- now prove it by practicing daily! Believe it or not, an effective way to get rid of bad habits is by practicing not to do them! Sounds too good to be true, right? For example, if you keep practicing how to perfect waveland from the ledge to the stage and buffer a roll after, you gain the confidence to do it consistently in a match and you will be looking for the opporutnity to get away with it more. That is how you get away from your bad habits like attacking off the ledge: practicing to stall every time you're on the ledge and going through the motions of what your options are after that.
Watch Videos
Do you know how I figured out all of this stuff? Trial and error. But realize that you have a vast database of thousand of videos full of players already better than you that have figured this stuff out! Usually what they do is better than what you're doing. Every response in this game is situational, and there are multiple choices for each. Familiarize yourself with all the ones you could do so you can never be predictable again.
Pick your favorite pro and the character he uses, say, Mew2King's Fox. Let's go back to the Anaheim 2006 example. Isolate an area of your game you hope to improve. M2K's Fox was great at using the Illusion to recover. In his set against Ken at Anaheim, he ***** him over and over by forward bing. So watch that set with the focus on, "What does M2K do to recover every time he loses center stage? How does he recover from the edge? When and how does he use the Illusion?" And you'll learn that he illusions in Ken's face when Ken gets too close to the edge; you'll learn that he constantly falls down and regrabs the ledge to keep invincibility; you'll learn that he wall jumps and shortens his Forward B to keep Ken trained to the same response -- "M2K is going to Forward B" -- but using it in slightly different ways to keep Ken's timing off. Now you can compartmentalize that situation in your brain so when it occrus to you again, you'll be conscious of your options.
Want to learn how to punish? Watch Lucky and see how he wavedashes out of his shield and shines when, say, Sheik downsmashes his shield and doesn't space it. And so on and so forth. Even if you're not practicing it yourself, the next time you're put in that situation, a new idea has been planted into your brain, and you can slowly train yourself to utilize this. Trust me, I know from personal experience: it works. And as you get better and better, revisit the videos and you'll learn more and more about the game. A true genius learns from the mistakes of others.[/QUOTE]
Understanding Styles of Play
Sheik is a very different character from most other top tiers (Fox/Falco) in the sense that she controls space. Think of her like a souped up Ganon, or a simpler ninja version of Marth without the sword. (Of course every character attempts to control space, but bear with me.) Ganon/Marth work by keeping you in his effective range -- for Marth it's his fsmash, for Ganon it's the fair and bair. They want to bait you into that area, because that's the range in which they win and you cannot do anything. Get inside that range, though, and they get destroyed.
It's the same for Sheik, but she has a lot easier time creating a wall because she can autocancel all her aerials. Focus on trying to stay in ftilt range, but whenever your opponent commits himself to a move, fall back to your autocancel aerials. Fox trot to autocancel bair; shorthop backwards to autocancel fair to ftilt. And so on and so forth.
I will edit ths with more information as I think of it and try to make it as easy to read as possible! Post anything you've having trouble, either with comprehending what I am saying or a part of your own game you are struggling to overcome, and I will try to address it! Please tell a friend or put it in your sig, let's motivate everybody to get better!
I know everyone says they want to get better. I'm going to cut you some slack: I believe you all do, but most of you don't know how. Well, I'm going to tell you how.
Table of Contents
I. Prelude
II. Mindset
III. Commitment
IV. High-Level Play
V. Implementation
Section I. Prelude
I have been trying to help a lot of people get better recently, and the advice is always the same:
-- Drop your bad habits
-- Get more technical
If you don't accomplish these things, you just will not get better. This applies to every category of player, because unless you're Mango, Lucky, or Zhu, you have some bad habits and your tech skill could be better (unless your name's Lovage).
I was talking to Tofu earlier today, and he agreed. Norcal as a whole is significantly better than us, and it's because Norcal tries to get better in all of their matches. Socal tries to win all of their matches. You will not beat Norcal players by punishing the same couple of habits over and over. You have to change it up. But I spent the weekend beating Connor (sorry to call you out, but you're definitely not alone) by punishing the same two or three bad habits.
This has to stop.
Bad habits do not go away easily. They take a lot of hard work. Step one is being cognizant of them: you have to understand how bad that attacking from the ledge all of the time, or rolling when pressured, or Fox illusioning to recover every time is. Once you learn that, you have to make it a point to fix those habits in every single match you play, including friendlies. No matter what the discrepancy in skill level is, you have to control your habits in those situations, or you will lose to every person better than you who forces those habits out of you. So start practicing!
The tech skill is the easy part, so I don't need to waste time there. But dropping your bad habits is a rigorous mental exercise -- you have to be committed to it, you have to humble yourself and admit you need to change your ways, and you need to apply it in every single match with no exceptions. And don't feel overwhelmed -- ask for help! SoCal's better players will be glad to help you on what habits they're abusing! And even the better players have to humble themselves and do the same, because we're all in it together. We're all representing the same region and we're all playing for the love of the game.
The competition needs to take a backseat to getting better. As you're trying to get rid of your bad habits, your focus should be on those bad habits, and not trying to get as close as you can to win every friendly. Focus on getting better, and winning the matches is inevitable.
This is a long post, and I apologize for that, but hey, if you're too lazy to read the entire length of this post and let it sink in, then you're not cut out for competitive Melee, either. Everyone should want to help everyone else in the region get better. Let's all do our part.
Section II: Mindset.
Noob Mentality
Being a noob has nothing to do with your talent, or lack thereof. It has nothing to do with your inexperience in and of itself. Being a noob is essentially the mindset of results-oriented thinking.
What is results oriented thinking? Getting close to someone in a friendly and assuming it was because of your own skill. Essentially, being a noob is not playing to learn, as Forward said, or to improve. Being a noob is always playing to win and always being concerned and validated by wins and losses regardless of context.
Getting better takes time. It takes weeks and months, not days; it doesn't happen overnight, it doesn't happen at one smashfest, it doesn't happen at one tournament. You can get "better" in one day, but it means nothing unless you continue doing exactly what made you better for the rest of your life. You may think you can do that, but chances are you can't, and if you can do it, you will know because it's requiring mental energy every time you pick up the controller. The times you outperformed your own expectations, chances it probably had more to do with your attitude, mood, opponent or matchup. Just worry about yourself -- staying calm and learning and erasing your bad habits -- and the results will come. You can't force anything. The only goal you should have is controlling yourself, not beating your opponent.
How do you know if you're being a noob? Simple:
Having a conditioned response to the same situation every time, and not caring because it "works" every now and then. Example: shield grabbing or attacking from the ledge. Sure, it worked out for you the couple of times it was successful, but you're suffering from memory bias; you're not realizing it's the main reason you're getting punished for your stock most of the time. Why? Because you're being results oriented, focusing only on your positive results. My biggest pet peeve that most noobs do?
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Get frustrated
No one plays better when they let negative emotions get in the way. Care about the game, but care about the process -- don't be upset something didn't work out, but instead figure out why it didn't work out. If you've been practicing it and have confidence in it, then you know what to do to fix it, and you won't be wasting time being frustrated about it. It's Melee. Anything can happen.
However, a way not to make things happen that unconfident players do is:
Camping: I'm here to tell you: camping is bad. Certain characters and matchups can get away with camping -- Peach, for example, is a defensive character. You have to play defensively with her because she's just not quick enough to apply consistent pressure. Sheik is also primarily a defensive character (IN MY OPINION; I think that is how she is best used); she applies pressure defensively, with spacing, and by forming a wall around her that is impenetrable. But if you use Fox, Falco, Marth, Falcon, Jigglypuff or Luigi, you have to be aggressive. There are rare exceptions, but you're not those exceptions, nor should you hope to be. If you main those characters, you need to embody their aggressiveness. No, that doesn't mean you should always be approaching -- when you're playing characters more aggressive than yourself (such as Falcon versus Fox or Falco), then it's okay to be defensive. But overall you're going to need to know how to be aggressive, how to consistently put pressure on your opponent and how to extract their bad habits at will. Good aggressive players force bad habits out of their opponents. If you are defensive, you will not create bad habits.
But no matter what character you choose, you will need to understand how and when to be aggressive. This is why, for lesser players trying to improve their game, it's good to be aggressive. It's a good habit to have. Yes, you're going to get ***** hard for it, but you know what? Melee is an aggressive and confident game! You can't be scared! By getting ***** you'll learn what does and doesn't work. The hardest thing to do in this game is to approach -- but you're never going to learn how to approach if you don't experiment and try to be aggressive!
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I am a Sheik main, so I will use her as an example.
For the past couple of months I have tried to be more offensive, believing it was holding me back. But watching M2K I learned I have to do what I do best, and that it's okay to be defensive. I learned a lot from watching his Sheik on how you could control the match through pressurized defensive; after all, if you space everything and autocancel everything for defense, you can "don't get hit."
In Melee, you want to play the opposite style of your opponent. If your opponent is aggressive and you can play defensively very well, like Sheik in my case, then camp and let him approach you the majority of the time. Don't camp so blatantly that he starts trying to camp you back, but just bait him into throwing out the first move.
But if you play someone smart and who camps you back, then don't get into a camping war with him. That's what noobs do, because it's easy. Instead, he's playing defensively, so limit his options and control space more. It's hard to camp in Melee; the way it's built, you only need one opening and you can control stage or combo a stock so easily off of it. So know tricks to get around camping so you can put the pressure on them -- and then start camping them back as they get agitated!
Section III: Commitment.
So you walk around saying you would just love to get better at Melee, but you don't have anyone to play in your area and you get tired of playing by yourself. Scratch that attitude -- there is always something you could be doing to improving yourself, it only depends on exactly how serious you are. To start, you're going to need to get serious:
Practice. Even if it's for 10 or 15 minutes a day, practice! Everyone who has improved their game did not get there by accident, or by playing their buddies over and over. Kira took out practice time before Mango Juice, and what did he do? Beat Germ and HomeMadeWaffles in tourny. Lovage practiced tech skill for years to get to his level. Tofu practiced on Bowsers and played Falco exclusively for over a year. And I have become much more technical by taking Tofu's advice and practicing as well.
A large problem is a lot of players don't know how to practice properly. Here's what worked for Tofu, and it worked for me, so I'll help you out:
Pick Fox and Falco. Pick a Lv1 Bowser, put the Damage Ratio on .5, and the Handicap on, with Bowser's at 9 and yours at 1. Practice drill shines/pillars. Practice nair shines. Important: vary the fast fall speed of your aerials. This will mimic the shield-timing situations that will occur in real matches. The trick of drill shining properly is hitting the fast fall. Even if you don't main these characters, it will help get your fingers faster!
Familiarize yourself with your main. In Cactuar's thread on the Marth boards, he recommends picking up Marth and just doing moves so you understand the timing of everything. Your goal is to be able to move as soon as you can, as soon as the move is complete. Work on dashing away immediately after an aerial when you land; work on wavelanding and wavedashing perfectly; work on empty short hops. Work on anything that will make you more technically proficient with your character. The important lesson this will teach you is timing. To accomplish anything in Melee, all it requires is certain timing. Practicing on your own will force you to learn that timing and force you to try new things to figure out the proper timing of moves. Most importantly, you will learn how not to become frustrated!
Eliminate frustration. Keep your head in the game. Don't get mad or upset at anything that happens. Remember, it's just a game! Have fun! If you feel yourself getting agitated, just let it go and take a couple of breaths. Take a couple of seconds to chill on the respawning platform if you must. You must be calm to be successful, because you have to focus 100% of the time to be successful in this game. That will not come overnight, and you have to train yourself to accomplish this. It takes work!
Just think of all the smashers you know that visibly show frustration throughout the course of the match. Do they ever pull off comebacks? No, they usually get progressively worse.
If you don't know what things to work on, go to your character specific forum! I can list a ton of things for a few of the characters:
Fox: Firefox sweetspots; drill shines; running shines; shine to wavelands off the edge; shortening your Fox illusion; Fox illusion autocancels from the ledge on stages such as Battlefield and Pokemon Stadium. Tons more at the Fox forum!
Falco: There is a whole thread on the Falco forums dedicated to lasering, and it is very useful. Double shines, empty short hop to reverse utilts, perfect wavelands, finding the perfect spacing on the forward smash, autocanceling the bair, etc.
Sheik: Retreating autocancel fairs, full hop autocancel nairs, autocancel bairs, perfect wavelands from the platforms, Isai/Shai drops from the platform to needles, empty short hop to utilt, boost grabbing, needle/Shino stalling, perfect (and imperfect) wavelands from the ledge
Marth: Autocancel nairs, early autocancel fairs to dtilt, late fairs to crossups (dashing through / away from the opponent), pivot fsmash/ftilts, shield breaker regrab from the ledge, perfect wavelands/wavedashes, chaingrabs on space animals, etc.
I will update this section more with useful links and good examples of players to watch!
Be creative! The little things matter! Even if you don't think they have a tremendous use in-game, they teach you how to practice! They help you prevent yourself from getting frustrated in the match, because you can't get frustrated while practicing if you hope to learn how to do something.
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One of the best things Tofu taught me to play around with in training was just getting used to the empty short hop timings of my character. Short hop and practice the variations I fast fall, do an aerial and/or wavedash back.
I didn't realize it, but it helped me a lot. Something I have learned from Mango: when your opponent is in your effective range but not quite vulnerable to an attack (say, Marth short hop floating down near an opponent whilst inside tipper range), the best thing to do is just wait. Keep yourself in position to respond to anything, because eventually they have to do something. While kept at that range, you're basically the opponent's toy, and this is where panic moves such as rolls and spot dodges come from.
Simply just floating in your opponent's face right outside their effective range and keeping spacing with wavelands rather than coming down with aerials gives you both defensive and offensive potential and keeps your opponent on their toes.
Stick to one main. I believe using Fox and Falco to start is good, because it teaches you tech skill that can be universally applied to any character you end up maining, and it teaches you timing and quickens your fingers. That said, whoever your true main is, use them and only them! Once you get good you can start experimenting with a secondary, but unless you run out of things to better yourself at, why aren't you using your main? Oh, you think you don't have things to work on? Read this thread, I'm naming a ton of things you can work on!
Honestly, Melee is 90 percent tech skill. Don't let lack of technical ability prevent your skill from growing![/QUOTE]
Section IV:: High-Level Play
Smash theory
Not that I am trying to get everyone to play like me -- please don't! I'm too smart for y'all
-- but I think illustrating how I see the field will help people play safer.Alright, here's how Melee works at high level play. Give your opponent one opening, and he will punish you and make sure he takes your stock. Basically, it's like this: play super safe and careful until you get your one opening. As soon as you hit your opponent once, pressure him and never let him recover properly and you will eventually take the rest of his stock. If you mess up and the players revert back to equal positioning, don't force it, resume playing carefully again, and work for your opening.
That's it! It's a very simple game!
Center Stage
Now, there is one position you always want to occupy: Center stage. Imagine Battlefield in your head: one top platform, two side platforms, and one ground level.
You always want to be on the ground occupying the bottom level in between the two platforms on the side.
Here's my ****ty MS Paint trying to illustrate this. Imagine Battlefield in your head, with the top middle platform, the two far platforms and the ground level of the stage:
In between the "x"s is where you want to control at all times. That is desirable position; that is center stage. If you're on the right or left side of those platforms, for all intents and purposes you are being edgeguarded. So you need to have the same mindset you have when you're actually off the stage trying to get back to the ledge / on the stage: I will play safe as ****. If you try to attack your opponent while you're on the side of the stage, he can easily wavedash back or runaway and make you whiff, and then you will be punished. Watch Cactuar for a great example for how he controls the center stage.
To an extent, every single pro knows this, whether consciously or subconsciously. They exert pressure while they control the middle, and they play safe until they get the middle. Zhu is another textbook example of this phenomenon.
If you are launched into the air, you are in no position to attack. If you are hanging on the ledge, you are in no position to attack.[/i If you are recovering off the stage, you are in no position to attack. If you are sitting on one of the platforms, you are in no position to attack.[/i Your mindset should be regain center stage. Don't rush it or force it -- your opponent knows that's what you need to regain control of the match, so he's not just going to let you have it. It's a dance, and whoever messes up first gives his opponent the advantage. The difference is if you don't control center stage and you mess up, you die. If your opponent messes up, then you just regain center stage; he's usually not going to die from it. Instead, he's put in the position where he has to work his *** off to get it back.
So don't think to attack if you don't own center stage! Sure, if your opponent messes up and you obviously can hit him, then do it -- congratulations, you just regained center stage. But overall your strategy is to be extremely careful and to do anything and everything that's safe. Think like Isai -- "don't get hit."
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Respawn Invincibility
Nintendo must've had a good idea about the efficient simplicity of the fighting engine, so they put something in to counteract a wise and smart player controlling center stage all day: respanw invincibility. The next time you watch a melee match, pay attention to where the kills occur: the majority of time, the opponent loses a live, respawns with invincibility, and his opponent runs around trying not to get hit. But soon after the invincibility wears off is where the kill usually occurs. Why is that? It's evidence of the phenomenon of center stage: when you have it, and the opponent has to fight hard to get it back, they usually make a mistake and die, because they're already at combo percent so one hit is all that is needed to lead to an edge guard.
So the most important part of the match, in terms of asserting your dominance on the match, is re-gaining center stage back from your opponent after his invincibility is gone. Most players that get a kill in that scenario experience a brief let down; they think, Okay, after the first two seconds, I play my game again, but get slightly lazy -- maybe I did a move that would normally work, but because his percentage is low got CCed into a smash -- and they lose their stock. This happens all the time, it is truly ridiculous. Don't let this be you: instead, concentrate most fiercely in that situation, because if you can consistently add 30 or even 40 percent to that stock before you perish, you can use the invincibility of your own to put them into kill range easily and make comebacks incredible hard for them to accomplish.
I cannot emphasize the importance of this; it truly separates good players from great players. It takes consistent practice, but it turns high percentage one and two stocks into consistent two and three stocks on players lower than your skill level, and keeps you in the match against players better than you.
You want to see someone who stresses this fundamental part of their game? Watch Zhu, and what he does to regain center stage after his opponent respawns. He never goes on the aggression; instead, he plays extremely carefully, waiting to abuse Falco's priority and intimidation to earn him center stage again to resume locking down his opponent.
Bad Habits
A big problem a lot of people have who want to get better is they simply do not know where to look for when it comes to bad habits. The main thing that makes a pro good is the absence of bad habits. If you can't punish them for silly, avoidable mistakes, you have to be able to both create more opponents from neutral ground and be more efficient with your combos. So just break it down into three things: lack of bad habits, combo efficiency (zero to death combos), and offensive pressure (ability to create openings).
I will make a list of the general bad habits people have, and what are better alternatives you can use in the situations your bad habits strike:
Ensuring ledge invincibility
When you come up from the ledge, make sure you have fresh invincibility! There is no excuse not to -- all it takes is falling down and regrabbing the ledge! If you don't, when you come up, your opponent can hit you out of anything you do.
Attacking from the ledge
This is a big no-no! Why? Because of risk versus reward: If you miss, you are very vulnerable. If you get hit out of it, you have no jump and are edge guarded. Even more importantly, opportunity cost! If you attack from the ledge, you are passing up the ability to wavedash onto the stage and get the center stage. (I will talk more about center stage my next post.)
Instead of attacking from the stage, do these options:
Bread and butter:
-- Waveland onto the stage (very fast with a ton of options after this)*
Variants: Waveland into buffered roll*; waveland into an attack*; waveland onto the very
edge of the stage once your opponent starts giving you space expecting you to waveland into the middle of the stage
* -- P specialty!
-- Get-up attack (lots of range, tons of priority -- but don't do it into someone's shield)
If you're Fox and Falco: Illusion from the edge, but:
1. Only do it with invincibility
2. Only do it if your opponent is sitting near the ledge (because you have invincibility they can't hit you out of it!)
Other options:
-- Stand up into a buffered roll
-- Roll
And remember, take your time! You can camp the ledge for AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Your opponent has one of two options: Pressure you near the ledge, in which case you can often waveland past them or getup attack. OR they can sit near the center of the stage and wait for your waveland, in which case you can slowly get up and land near the edge of the stage and protect yourself with an attack if they come after you (one of my favorite things to do with Marth is ledge camp, then slowly jump off the ledge and land and dtilt. HugS does this at lot with his Samus to a downsmash!).
Rolling
Here is something Mango told me that I never forgot: almost every time you roll, wavedashing out of shield would have been better. Try it! Especially when you are trapped on the platform, it is too good. Sit in your shield and wait for the right opportunity, and then wavedash out of it and run away (or hit your opponent!).
Shield grabbing
This is very predictable and exactly what your opponent wants you to do. Instead, take your time and don't panic. Most opponents' shield pressure games are not perfect, so you can sit in your shield for a little bit and see what they do. If they mess up a little or their spacing is slightly off, you can wavedash out of your shield or just attack them out of your shield. You can even roll out of your shield, but you have to know when! Don't use it as a crutch!
Example: Fox is nair shining your shield. The first nair shine is done perfectly, but the second nair is on the top of your shield. So you can buffer a roll here and run away.
If you're Falcon and you're being shield pressured, notice how often the Fox/Falco shines after an aerial. If he always shines after an aerial, jump out and stomp him after the aerial and it will hit him as he shines. He can stop that, though, by just nairing again (aka the Cactuar)! There's a response to almost everything, but you have to train your eyes to follow the nuances of the game. Figure out your bread-and-butter response and, when in doubt, choose that; when it fails, figure out why, to what, and what you can do to counter it and mix it up accordingly!
Attacking from the air
If you're launched into the air above your opponent, do not come down with an aerial. You will get *****. Instead, look to waveland backwards or forwards, or air dodge into your opponent if he is spamming attacks as you come down. Rule of thumb: If you're above your opponent or on the side of the stage / on the ledge / recovering, do not try to attack. Play it safe.
Get-up Attack
When people miss their techs, they tend to get-up attack. Yes, it's a good option, often the best one, but when your opponent starts waiting for it, you have to switch it up!
It takes 26 frames for the get-up attack to finish, but it lasts 51 frames. (My figures may be off by 1-2 frames.) There are 60 frames in one second; do the math, and all someone has to do is wait for you to finish your get-up attack and they have more than enough time to punish you with whatever they want off of pure reaction! Of course, if you tech every time, it's fairly ease to follow your tech and get you every time. So mix it up!
Other options:
Purposely missing a tech and immediately rolling or standing straight up; standing up and buffering a roll / spot dodge / attacking / wavedash away / jump (basically, just get the hell out of there!)
Teching in Place
Do not tech in place. Case closed. At very high level play, between two smart players who know each other well, you can rarely get away with teching in place, because after dozens of matches or so they will assume you will always tech away or miss a tech. But for 99.9% of you Melee players, STOP TECHING IN PLACE. When your opponent forces you to tech and makes his reads, he's going off of reaction. The first thing he looks for is a tech in place, and he's always in position to punish it! If you HAVE to do it, make sure you buffer a roll or throw out a high-priority move (such as Fox's ftilt) right after, but honestly, I see this punished 95% of the time by good players. Just stop doing it.
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Maneuevering Out of Shield
People tend to concentrate the majority of their mistakes in the game once they are put into their shield. Defensively speaking, most players have glaringly obvious habits out of shield. Some people love to full hop out of shield, others like to roll, and still others like to attack out of shield. Few people choose the best option, though: Wavedash out of shield. Wavedash out of shield, shield grab, and attack out of shield gives you a lot of defensive options, but you have to develop a discerning eye.
When dealing with shield pressure, you have to get used to gauging where on your shield the move hit and what timing of the opponent's short hop did he use it. From there, you can cut your choices down to a more concentrated set of options. If he hit too high on your shield, such as with Fox's bair or drill, this is where you want to shield grab: you always want a grab if you can get it. The even safer way, however, if you don't trust your shield grab timing, is to attack out of shield. If Fox attacks the top of Marth's shield, for instance, Marth can always wavedash away to safety since Fox has to shine to protect himself from his error, since most people would attempt to shield grab that.
So if your opponent is shield pressuring you but throwing out spaced attacks without waiting for your responses in between them, then a roll is suffice -- as a change up -- because you will be guaranteed safety if he spams a move. Wavedashing out of shield is better, though -- it's faster, more surprising and gives you the ability to punish or put pressure on. In general I only attack out of shield if I know it's going to hit, because the punishment for missing is too great.
If he either timed it low enough on your shield or spaced it properly, then you should have an idea of what your opponent can do after it and how you would respond to it.
I will edit this post as I think of more bad habits people have. Things to talk about: edge guarding
V: Implementation
How to Get Better
Okay, your knowledge of the game has improved. Now you need to apply it!
This is very important: Do not try to do everything at once. First, recognize and isolate your bad habits. Make a list of them, and know when you are subjected to give into temptation and commit one of them. Focus on one or two of them, and, for every match you play, become determined to eliminate them. Do not do them no matter what. Even if you just sit there doing nothing and you die, that's better than a dumb bad habit. Don't get frustrated -- give it time! Remember, you've been doing this habit thousands of times, many times unconsciously. It's ingrained in your muscle memory! You need to work to overcome them! Just target one or two of them and don't worry about the others; as you eliminate them one by one, you can move on to the next bad habits.
If your old bad habits pop up, stop working on whatever one you are working on and squash it out again. Do this until you get it right, until you are thinking in that situation and you will only perform that habit when you want to.
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Practicing Tech
Hey, you are practicing right? If you read this far, you must be serious about getting better -- now prove it by practicing daily! Believe it or not, an effective way to get rid of bad habits is by practicing not to do them! Sounds too good to be true, right?
For example, if you keep practicing how to perfect waveland from the ledge to the stage and buffer a roll after, you gain the confidence to do it consistently in a match and you will be looking for the opporutnity to get away with it more. That is how you get away from your bad habits like attacking off the ledge: practicing to stall every time you're on the ledge and going through the motions of what your options are after that. Watch Videos
Do you know how I figured out all of this stuff? Trial and error. But realize that you have a vast database of thousand of videos full of players already better than you that have figured this stuff out! Usually what they do is better than what you're doing. Every response in this game is situational, and there are multiple choices for each. Familiarize yourself with all the ones you could do so you can never be predictable again.
Pick your favorite pro and the character he uses, say, Mew2King's Fox. Let's go back to the Anaheim 2006 example. Isolate an area of your game you hope to improve. M2K's Fox was great at using the Illusion to recover. In his set against Ken at Anaheim, he ***** him over and over by forward bing. So watch that set with the focus on, "What does M2K do to recover every time he loses center stage? How does he recover from the edge? When and how does he use the Illusion?" And you'll learn that he illusions in Ken's face when Ken gets too close to the edge; you'll learn that he constantly falls down and regrabs the ledge to keep invincibility; you'll learn that he wall jumps and shortens his Forward B to keep Ken trained to the same response -- "M2K is going to Forward B" -- but using it in slightly different ways to keep Ken's timing off. Now you can compartmentalize that situation in your brain so when it occrus to you again, you'll be conscious of your options.
Want to learn how to punish? Watch Lucky and see how he wavedashes out of his shield and shines when, say, Sheik downsmashes his shield and doesn't space it. And so on and so forth. Even if you're not practicing it yourself, the next time you're put in that situation, a new idea has been planted into your brain, and you can slowly train yourself to utilize this. Trust me, I know from personal experience: it works. And as you get better and better, revisit the videos and you'll learn more and more about the game. A true genius learns from the mistakes of others.[/QUOTE]
Understanding Styles of Play
It's okay for Sheik to be defensive. Slowing down the game is good versus Fox, but at the same time, you have to be technical enough on the platforms and with needles and such because they're your main "get the hell out of here!" card.
Sheik is a very different character from most other top tiers (Fox/Falco) in the sense that she controls space. Think of her like a souped up Ganon, or a simpler ninja version of Marth without the sword. (Of course every character attempts to control space, but bear with me.) Ganon/Marth work by keeping you in his effective range -- for Marth it's his fsmash, for Ganon it's the fair and bair. They want to bait you into that area, because that's the range in which they win and you cannot do anything. Get inside that range, though, and they get destroyed.
It's the same for Sheik, but she has a lot easier time creating a wall because she can autocancel all her aerials. Focus on trying to stay in ftilt range, but whenever your opponent commits himself to a move, fall back to your autocancel aerials. Fox trot to autocancel bair; shorthop backwards to autocancel fair to ftilt. And so on and so forth.
I will edit ths with more information as I think of it and try to make it as easy to read as possible! Post anything you've having trouble, either with comprehending what I am saying or a part of your own game you are struggling to overcome, and I will try to address it! Please tell a friend or put it in your sig, let's motivate everybody to get better!
