My Marth Practice Routine

I suck, but follow this guide and maybe you won't

I've come up with what feels like a reasonable practice routine for Marth mains, based heavily on information in videos from PewPewU, things I personally need to work on more, and simply studying a bunch of PPMD and Mew2King sets. Designed to take about 2 hours if you follow my time guidelines. Most of the routine focuses on movement, as good movement is Marth's greatest asset when you consider his attack range. Here it is:

Dash Dancing (20 mins)

Marth's dash dance is one of his most useful assets. It's the second longest in the game (next to C. Falcon), and believe it or not, Marth is the 3rd fastest character in the game (behind C. Falcon and Fox). Being floaty does not equate to slowness! Being able to mix up dash dance distances effectively is critical to spacing your opponent out and bait out moves to punish. To work on dash dancing, head to Yoshi's Story and do the following:

1. Full-length to shortest dash dance in middle section of Yoshi's Story (5 mins)
   
   1. Focus on starting with your shortest dash dance and making it longer and longer over time
   
   
2. Variable-length dash dance in middle of Yoshi's Story (5 mins)
3. Fox-trot across Yoshi's Story (5 mins)
4. Variable-length dash dance on the top platform on Yoshi's Story (5 mins)
   
   1. This is useful because you have to focus on your movement in a very small space
   
   

Wavedashing & Wavelanding (20 mins)

Marth also has an incredible wavedash. Beyond Ice Climbers, Marth has the longest wavedash among tournament-viable characters. Combined with his long dash dance, this makes Marth incredibly powerful when it comes to baiting opponents and approaching them with amazing accuracy; mastering his movement gives you the ability to place yourself perfectly, especially when combined with the huge range on his attacks. Here's how I practice:

1. Wavedash back and forth across any stage (5 mins)
2. Fast-fall into waveland (5 mins)
3. Move across Final Destination while mixing up dash dance and wavedash, occasionally down-tilting (10 mins)

Ledge & Platform Movement (30 mins)

Since Marth's aerials have long ending lag (on average the worst among any top-tier character, where by top tier I mean Falco, Fox, Marth, Peach, Sheik, Jigglypuff), being able to ledge cancel a move at will is very important. Here are some things to practice to improve your game when you aren't controlling center stage:

1. Get on the ledge of Final Destination and a stage with platforms and move back and forth between holding the ledge and being on stage / lower platform while mixing up get-up options (5 mins on each side of a stage)
2. Shield drop aerials (5 mins)
3. Fast-fall ledge-cancelled aerials (5 mins)
4. Mixing up attacks when getting up from the edge (5 mins)
5. Edge guards (5 mins)

Aerials & Tilts (20 mins)

This section focuses on using moves in combination with pivoting and L-cancelling.

1. Tilt out of pivot (5 mins)
2. Fast-fall L-cancelled aerials, switching between short and full-hop (10 mins)
3. Short-hop double forward-airs (5 mins)
   
   1. The value of this technique is highly debatable but it's still a good way to practice tech skill. Also, it's helpful to use the A button for the first forward-air and the C-stick for the second.
   
   

Recovering (30 mins)

Marth has limited options while recovering but his recovery is still very usable if you're good at using the side-B and saving your jump. Here's how you can improve:

1. Drop from ledge and recover so you hit the sweet spot (2 mins on each side of every tournament-legal stage)
2. Side-B mix-ups (3 mins)
   
   1. Just practice getting back from bubble zone while mixing up the timings between each side-B
   
   
3. Air dodge
   
   1. Get back onto stage using your air dodge, keeping in mind where on the stage you want to land