DDR Science

So Max and I were talking about different techniques that you learn while playing DDR and it's almost like we have DDR down to a science. What are some of the techniques you've learn to help you play DDR?

A few of mine are:

Learning to "hold back" my steps when playing flat footed. My PA suffers just slightly, but if I put less force during high speed areas such as 16ths or boss song 8ths, I can actually nail more steps without breaking my combo. I have to mentally concentrate on stepping with a bit less force but when I do, I can pass most of the boss songs without the bar.

Another technique I've learned is getting similar results of bar use, without the bar. I'm not knocking the bar here, I just can't use it very well. I think using the bar doesn't mean instant improvement, you have to know how to hold it and how to use it to allow your feet to move faster with less energy. One thing I noticed is that proper bar use lifts the player's shoulders up and brings the weight off their legs. I noticed that if I left my arms up high and bring my shoulders up, I get similar results of being able to step faster with less energy. If I bring my chest up and tighten my stomach muscles, I can get even better results. However, doing this takes more energy over all and can tire me out. So I've learned to use this technique when approach intense parts of a chart.

Jumps have always drained more energy from me. I'm starting to learn to delay my jumps, reducing the air time. This allows me to jump more precisely with less energy. Its still taking some practice and concentration, but I can feel the results immediately. Songs like iFuturelist Challenge are much easier to PA now that I use much less knee bending to jump and do more of a quick "hop" at every jump.

And finally, I've noticed that real dancers will bring their arms in when doing a spin in order to spin faster. When doing a turn in any form, I will bring my arms closer to my body. This allows me to pivot faster (sometimes too fast) and with much more control. This allows me to go through songs like exotic ethnic without panting at the end.


Hur hur, DDR nerd time! Admit it, you got DDR down to a science too. What do you eat? Drink? Wear? Play techniques?

The real key to finishing Exotic Ethnic without panting at the end is to breathe while you play it. Once you have that, then you can concentrate on other stuff. If you don't have that, then concentrating on other stuff won't do much for you. If you can keep your breathing in time with the beat, your timing improves. This doesn't mean one breath per beat, it means one breath per some multiple of the beat, depending on what's comfortable. If it's 180 bpm, you might breathe in once every 3 beats, or once every 4. Shallow breaths will make your side ache, just like in running, if it's a tough song.

For crossovers on singles, nothing above my mid torso turns, unless it's something like Afronova. It might sound odd, but it works well on Exotic Ethnic. For crossovers on doubles, I move my body as required, no more, no less. In m27 of CSFILSM DH, and other places like it, I actually spread my arms a bit for improved balance, and drop my center of gravity a bit for improved reach. My upper body doesn't actually follow my feet until m28, because moving away from the center would make that pattern harder.

Because I do not spin, I have learned to swap my feet when starting a stream, to ease transitions between awkward streams. EOTC DH, m37 is a good example for this because the stream in it is easier if started with the left foot, but the preceding stream has your feet in the opposite position. So I use that one beat in between to execute a sort of light hop to switch my feet around. I do something similar on Frozen Ray SH, though I've only played that once or twice, so my timing isn't as good on it. If a spin is midstream like HVAM, I'll just doublestep it and not crossover at all. Sometimes I'll use the swing around technique, but only if I'm just fooling around and not trying to score.

Sometimes I bracket jumps to save energy, or because they're too close together for me to move my feet, or the chart maker intended it, or simply because the chart is a piece of shit that I wouldn't normally play. So I place my feet on the corners and just move whichever one covers the corner the jump is in, like a normal step. This makes trash like Drop Out a lot less tiring. It also makes the jumps at the end of Afronova survivable even at 1.4x music rate.


As for the other questions, I eat whatever I want. Mainly rice, burritos (BURRRRITO TIME!), potatoes, and ice cream. Lots of ice cream. I ate a quart of ice cream when I got home today.
I prefer to play barefoot and shirtless. Playing shirtless reduces weight and improves cooling. Next best is a sports jersey, similar to what a basketball player wears on the court. I don't have that, so I wear a wifebeater at the arcade. Then I go home and beat my wife.
I drink nothing but water when playing or when not playing. Energy drinks aren't effective for me (I tried Rockstar for a couple days, and still nearly fell asleep in the middle of the day), so they aren't worth the investment.



tl;dr: Long argument between Daiz and Kyz again. Nothing interesting here.

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My diet consists of pretzels, pizza and strawberry-frosted mini wheats.

One thing that helped me out was being in marching band, which is why I love spinning around and playing doubles.

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Yeah, I surpassed my friends that had spent years of high school in marching band in ~6 months. Actually, I surpassed all but one of them in about 3 months. I made sure to point out to them that walkthroughs and such said that being in marching band really helped with DDR.

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you also have to consider whether they were serious about being in marching band. I was too hardcore with my section that the band director stopped me three times from holding my section after practice to run two laps around the field as punishment for not knowing their stuff.

Come to think of it, that's probably why people in the band hated me, I would take my dedication to the band with pride while everyone else wanted to slack off.

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i just hit the arrows when im supossed to. didnt know there was any science involved.

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Ok techniques that I know they work but I haven't try

for ITG:

If you are playing really hard and tiring songs, eat a lot of sugar or chocolates, you'll feel really accelerated and you'll get tired slowly, so you'll be able to pass those songs

I tried this but a friend told me I shouldn't, well, I'll try to do what he said, NEVER do less movement than in other parts just for keeping energy, if you want to do less movement, just do it if the song is a lot of stamina, but put the same effort to ALL the song, do this in a song you can't pass: First play with all you can, do 25% and then stop... next try put all the effort and do 35%... stop!, then the same but with 50%... stop!, until you pass the song, if you do this technique, you won't get a mediocre score, it can be more than 80% depending on the song and if you did step by step this technique

Also for long and tiring song, get A LOT of air, close the mouth during all the song, and if the song calms down, like streamings stop, breath a lot and close the mouth again, even if you have the opportunity, drink something so you get some energy back, but as I said, all the song do it with effort, and if you want to do less movement, waste energy, because if you want to keep energy, you'll be passing the song with like 60% - 70%

If you are really tired, and you can hardly keep playing, try to bracket until a "slowdown" of arrows appear, so in that moment take a lot of air

Oh yeah also, if you want to play seriously, never use a black shirt or jeans

for DDR:

well seriously nothing lol, DDR is easy, those techniques I said before can work for 10 footers, I recommend on DDR playing the best you can, DDR was made for Perfect Attacking, so in all the songs do the most movement possible. Hold the bar if you really want to AAA something, bar makes your body weight to be in the arms so you can't have less problems to Perfect Attack

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All I've learned is moving too fast (and this includes some boss songs with extreme speed) could harm your body when you grow older.

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My experience is that this technique does not work. When I play The Koan Of Drums, or Tantric, or Reasons to Live 0.7x music, or Scars of Yesterday 0.6x music, I don't put the same effort into the 8ths that I put into the 16ths. If I did, I wouldn't have the energy to finish them. The right technique is to put the most effort into the hardest parts, to make sure you survive them. Then just put a little effort into the easy parts, to maximize the opportunity to catch your breath and regain your composture. Thus I bracket some of the 8th streams in Reasons to Live 0.7x music and Scars of Yesterday 0.6x music, because I need to save my energy for the 16ths. I also don't focus as much on PA in those parts, because that also saps energy.
On the other side, it's also important to not let your legs fall asleep when you take a break in the middle of a long song. I've had times where after a break section ended, I couldn't do the 16ths because I'd let my legs relax too much. So it's a fine balance.

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I repeat, you do exactly what I did before, and is a big mistake... I mean yes, you pass the song, but with a good score? the techniqe of getting some percentaje and then stop, and then some other % and stop, makes you start learning the song so you already have the foot technique for some part of the song + your physical body system starts getting used, that means, your body starts getting energy... I have done what you did, an example of that is when I passed Delirium, I did all the beginning bad, and at the streams pushed myself to pass, yeah I passed, but with a bad score... so next time I play this song, I'll try the technique, in that way, you'll own (lol) all the song with the same energy and same timing and same movement because you start getting the energy.

Also, not everything is physical, it is related with mental =P, from you depends if you want to pass a Dragonforce song on pad or a DDR 6 footer, why? you can be really tired, but if you are inspired and you got the "balls" (lol sorry for the word) for finishing the song, you will, because it also depends of how you will take that pass as a challenge

Hope is understandable

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It's better to print out the stepchart and learn it by doing the movements rather than playing the song over and over and going a little further. And rather than printing out the chart, it's better to practice the parts of the song that you know you're not able to do. A good example would be MAX300 standard. Any one can step the quarter notes that are in the song but people would have more trouble with the beginning and ending streams so you're better off wasting your time in practicing those two section instead of the middle section.

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Best quote ever regarding DDR Science:

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lol
Playing DDR/ITG/PIU is about hitting the notes that come up to you in the right time.
Same as guitar and piano, etc. Play the notes correctly and you got yourself a song.

It's funny how you all stated the OBVIOUS in trying to pass things.
Lag jumps
Air Time
Etc...

I don't think it's quite that obvious Aegis. If it were, everyone would become an expert instantly. It's like when running, it seems simple enough, you just, run, right? No. To be able to rung long distances, there's certain techniques you have to learn, such as having low knee movement, breathing through your nose and going into "low gear" when going up a hill. Like anything that physical, you're not simply "doing it". DDR isn't just "hitting the notes". Many players will agree, when you get to a certain level, songs don't necessarily get easier, your technique gets better. You can't tell me you play DDR the exact same way today as you did when you first started.

I don't see people flying in the mid-summer morning, when the breeze kicks in, in Miami, so stfu.


(Learn the techniques when a noob [Crossover, etc] and Standard when a noob will be fun)
Ask me, Standard/Expert conversion was fun as hell back when I was learning.

More often than not I will doublestep on crossovers. I'll crossover when it's needed (sup Afronova and Paranoia Survivor) but otherwise I just doublestep because I tend to have better accuracy while doublestepping.

When it comes to eating, I try to eat something that is filling but will not slow me down. Sure, if I ate something from Burger King/McDonald's/Wendy's etc I can still play DDR decently but I'll end up feeling like crap after. I found that eating pasta beforehand tends to work best.

Drink-wise, I almost always drink something like Vitamin Water or Gatorade. Water works good but I found that Vitamin Water and Gatorade will hyrdrate me faster.

I always wear light sneakers such as Nike Frees, shorts, and a t-shirt when I play DDR/ITG. Skate shoes like Vans and Etnies work pretty good but they're heavy and therefore generally not good for streamy songs.

NEVER EAT LUNCH/DINNER 5 MINUTES BEFORE YOU PLAY DDR ON EXPERT/ONI.
YOU WILL FEEL BAD.

/derp

*clears throat*

I......

Oh wait, I have nothing to argue with against any of this. I forgot to mention that learning to breathe is key, which you did mention. I admit I used to hold my breath during intense parts, like the end of exotic ethnic or HVAM, but when I started to run regularly, I learned to breathe as a pattern and through my nose. I'm in the process of translating this to DDR and breathing through my nose and in a pattern during hard songs. It's helped me be able to pass multiple boss songs per session. Now I'm treating 10s like I used to treat 9s 3 years ago. As in I will choose a 10 because 9's aren't hard enough.

I've also learned to add ghost steps during gaps. A good example is Holic's streams. Each stream will often start on the same arrow the previous stream left off on. So if my right foot ends on down and the next arrow is down, I will use my left foot to hit up as an 8th note and just continue the pattern. A little more difficulty is using the technique to stop double stepping. Such as during HVAM.



Those 2 arrows circled aren't a part of the normal chart, but I mentally add them there. When one of the streams normally ends on the left foot, I'm not "double stepping" by using my left foot to start the next stream. Granted, my left foot still starts the next stream, but there's not awkward stopping, I just doing all 3 streams as one long stream. It's a bit more tiring but I PA much better this way.

A much more practical use is something like the end run of Paranoia Evolution:



This used to give me trouble until I realized that the gaps between the streams could have a step added to them to make it one long stream, as so:


By doing this, I'm able to get about 12 greats on this song. There's a ton of songs I use this technique on.

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Now that is what I am talking about, Daiz! *thumb up*

Horseshit. Back in the day, most of the arcades I went to were inside casinos. I'd frequently stuff myself at the all-you-can-eat buffets, and wash it all down with some DDR. I even went so far as to eat while playing on more than one occasion.

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