Improving your DDR skills

[SineNomine]

If you are having trouble with really fast alternating steps, try this trick: Just concentrate on one foot, doing a half time rhythm. For example, if you are trying really fast LULU...etc 8th steps, concentrate on only your left foot hitting the left arrow on the beat. Generally speaking, your other foot will fall right into place.

However, if you are a musician, the converse is true. Always be subdividing the beat in your head. If you are thinking 16th notes, your 8th steps will be right in rhythm. If you are at home, dont be afraid to say the rhythms. Sure, you feel like a dork, but the more parts of yourself that you have moving in time, and thinking in time, the more in time your feet will be. Ask anyone you know in a marching band or drum corps how they keep their feet in time. It all starts in your head.

And if you are still having trouble, start looking at your feet, where are they when they AREN'T on the beat? Try dividing the movement of your foot into several rhythmic movements (eg down on 1, up on the upbeat of 1). Your foot is probably already subdividing for you, all you need to do is pay attention to it. Generally speaking, if you are having trouble keeping fast rhythms in time, it is because you are not thinking through the motions, and just putting both of your feet on autopilot. Not to be confused with the trick above, where you just concentrate on one foot.

I hope something in all of that up there works for you.

[Raen]

Marching band an drum corps are quite a bit different from DDR. I know from 3 years of experience going on my fourth. Mainly because in marching band you usually aren't asked to march at 300 bpm. o.O Though using your method and concentrating on one foot rather than both has actually helped me a bit with Max 300, brought my score up from a low B to a high B and nearly a low A at one point. I guess I'll just have to keep on trying then. Thanks for your advice though.
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[ninjafetus]

Hey, Raen, good you see you're posting in more than just the Lubbock thread...

Um, focusing on one foot does help, alot. Also, depending on if you're playing with or without the bar, how you stand can help. With no bar, try and lean forward a little bit to lower your center of gravity. Also, I notice that when people have trouble with these, it's because they are dragging (who would rush the fast notes?). I try and time the first note, and then "play towards the last." As in, after hitting the first note, focus on hitting the last one on beat, and then then middle of the run tends to fall into place.

If you come to Tilt this weekend, I can try and watch to see if I have any tips... If you got an A on it, though, you're already on your way fine I'm guessing it's just practice. It's interesting to see someone having trouble with those notes rather than the fast runs in 300...
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Drunk Slugs.

[harry potter]

[ninjafetus]

[Sah-K a.k.a Fuji]

I'm still not familiar with the terminology around here....

what does PA stand for?

[harry potter]

[/quote]

So, you an pass it, but end up getting a few misses/greats and mess up your PA? Well, If you can pass it, you've already finished the hard part.

One question is do you kinda fumble through those parts and get a lot of goods/misses? I know a lot of people can pass the max's, but only sloppy. For those runs, I don't think there's much to do but practice.

First, you need the stamina to not play it sloppy. I couldn't AA Max300 the way I first beat it (playing small step style, fumbling thorugh the runs). I had to get the stamina to actually play those runs on my toes hitting them solidly the whole time. It's a lot easier to get through using small steps, but it wrecks your PA... (well, you can improve small step PA, but that's another story)

Um... I could help you more if you told me what happens on those parts. Mostly, though, I'll probably say practice hitting all those fast notes fluidly, and it'll just take time.

RAEN> Nielle also wanted me to add this. To practice getting up to speed on those fast alternating notes (in V, Across the Nightmare, Max300...), practice building up speed this way: Anywhere, not even in a game or on a machine, just start slowly alternating steps, and get faster and faster until you can't control it anymore. Do that a lot, and you'll learn to hit alternating steps really fast. Then, when you go back to the machine, they should be easier.[/quote] well its like it feels like im hiting the arrows but i get misses
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cnsf.pokemonmaster

[Raen]

Ah, ok then. I'll see if that works. I dunno, it's like my legs sort of go out. Like a governer on a car or something that moderates it's top speed. I'll see if this does anything though. Thanks.
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[ninjafetus]

[splinter271]

[Sabin XIII]

Question.

People on here occasionally speak of the importance of knowing when to hit the left arrow with the right foot, and the right arrow with the left foot. I never trained myself to do this and I'm trying to start.

I began to realize I had a problem when the game would tell me to hit left, down, right, or something thereabouts, and my only two options were either to hit down and right with my right foot really fast, or swing my left foot across the pad to the right arrow after hitting left...which also turned out to be a bad idea, as the next step was usually left or up, and I personally enjoy facing the screen, so I hit that with my left foot as well. In other words, I'm not capable of playing steps similar to these without using one foot to hit two consecutive arrows.

I remembered back in lesson mode being taught how to spin around the pad, a move that was "fun for everybody!" So I redid lesson mode with the intention of building my skill in this area, starting with some light songs. However, redoing lesson mode I came across a tip I had forgotten about; the lesson gave me steps similar to the ones I've already mentioned, and it suggested doing what I was already doing, hitting down and right with my right foot. It attempted to comfort me in the process. "This move is difficult for everybody!"

Indeed. The antithesis of the spin movement.

Okay, now for the point of this post. When exactly do I hit arrows with opposite feet? What visual clues am I supposed to follow during a game to tell when I'm supposed to do it? Do I only do it while spinning as lesson mode suggests, or is that tip outdated?

[Slowpoke]

Here's a question I'd like folks' opinion on: lately I've been pushing myself, tackling songs that are slightly beyond my ability level. Some I pass, and some I don't; but even the ones I pass, I usually do so pretty awkwardly, depending upon the complexity of the footwork. I started to wonder though, is this counter-productive? Is passing songs sloppily just going to make me develop bad habits? Should I tone it down a notch or stick with it?

[invincible1]

[Slowpoke]

No, it's not really a timing thing... it's things like giving up on arrows because I'm out of position or have my weight going the wrong way, or double-stepping certain sequences. Stuff L-U-R-U-L-U-R kills me... I know what I SHOULD be doing, but the double-stepping instinct takes over and ties me in knots. I don't want practicing these songs to just make me better at double-stepping.

[invincible1]

well unfortunately for certain songs, like HVAM you do have to doublestep, especially if you want to get a AA but when you keep playing the songs youll learn new ways of positioning yourself, its just natural. Thats how I feel about it anyway. Of course im not the greatest player ever but I think Im pretty good. Sometimes what you THINK you should be doing is actually not what you should be doing. Sometimes a step looks like you should do a crossover but it would actually be better to PA it with a doublestep. The one thing you should never ever do is give up in the middle of the song, I really hate when my friends do that and I get very pissed at them because you cannot improve if you give up, but if you fail you will improve if you keep trying....hope my babbling on helps you in some way....

[Slowpoke]

No, I don't give up on a whole song... I just meant give up on a given arrow, because I know that I'm not gonna be able to get there in time because of my position and momentum.... so rather than get hopelessly out of sync, I'll just regroup and continue on at the next beat.

And yeah, the occasional double-step is sometimes preferable, but in the sort of sequence I described (L-U-R-U-L-U-R), it looks and feels awful...

[Mikeweiser]

[invincible1]

[Morter]

Argh...

Ok, I only have a home version and, at the moment, not enough money for a metal pad [has a soft pad from Konami].

Now I'm trying to figure out how to do really fast, streaming crossovers [ala EE Heavy or Paranoia Rebirth Heavy]. Its getting really hard and annoying to try and play a song you like but can't do because you don't have enough traction! I've already duct taped my pad to the floor, which keeps it STILL and all, but the pad still scrunches up a bit and its starting to bug me. Any tips on this?

[Bioclown]