Starting on Doubles

Beginner doubles...Extreme wise

Air
Frozen Ray
V
El Ritmo Tropical Seriously, try to AAA this

The Basic

Trip Machine
Jane Jana
Last Message
Sync
Paranoia KCET or what its called
Candy (Non vocal)

Not an Amateur anymore

EOTC
CSFIL Speed Mix
MoboMoga

SN and up

AM-3P
Don't Stop
Stealth
MAX LOVE
Freeway Shuffle

I'm 5"0, and I have no problems reaching across the pad to hit arrows in time. The only songs which make you jump from the left side to the right side quickly are the Disney Rave charts, which didn't really have any thought put into them. Remember that the game is made for small Japanese girls, not large American men.

Whenever you play Single, play without a bar, and alternate between the left and right sides of the machine every time you play. When you play easier songs, try leaning forwards slightly when you step forward and backwards when you step back. Try putting all of your body weight on your left leg, and all of your body weight on your right leg. In doubles, it's fairly common that you'll do this, and you need to experiment to know how far you can lean, and get an idea of where the edge of your balance is.

Before you can really get into doubles, you need to :

1) Know where the edge of the 1P left and 2P right panels are, at all times, without looking down. These are the "edge" panels.

2) Know where the edge of your balance is, leaning in every direction (most people have different limits on their left and right sides)

3) Get used to putting all of your body weight into one leg, and planting it down on the "edge" panel. In streams that run across both pads, you'll need to be able to plant it down, and make sure it doesn't slide off. The faster the song, the more sure you have to be of your balance.

4) Get used to playing at a BPM that lets you read 5 or 6 arrows ahead. Some of the harder songs will tie you in knows if you don't read ahead and figure out when the direction of a crossover is going to switch.

I wanted to try playing doubles however my fear of playing them is of course the crappy condition of the dance pads. Every time I play DDR, it's always the 1P side that has a busted arrow so I can't pass a chart that easily. But based on the condition your local cabinet is, you always have to check the conditions of both pads before attempting doubles.

These. If you're used to playing heel-toe or playing on your toes, you won't be able to manuver on doubles very easily. You've got to be able to take full, weighted steps in order to move quickly between the pads for some of the cross-pad turns and such.

I read doubles at a slower bpm than I read singles because of more complicated patterns. You'll find that there can be a turn that starts a very familiar way, but end completely differently than you might have thought. Slowing the speed down will help you see the patterns and allow you to shift weight the right way and turn to hit the correct arrows.

I know of some really neat doubles charts that can teach you some intermediate turns and techniques:

Ghost Edit I didn't read that there wasn't an Extreme for miles. I know i have to brush up on what X has on it, but I know there are some good charts.

Playa D- - From what I remember, this chart teaches you some basic crosspad runs and center pad patterns. I always thought it didn't have a very complicated chart and the song doesn't completely suck.

Taj He Spitz (Remix) D - Also not too complicated and has some solid back-and -forth movement.

Vem Brincar D - Has some neat turns in it with some rhythms that aren't straight 8th runs. If I remember correctly, there are a couple big leaps in the chart that get you from one side of the pad to the other.

Sana Mollete Ne Ente D - This is where I learned to take full steps. During the chorus, you're given some pretty wicked turns that jump back and forth from the middle of the pad. If you're light on your feet, you'll probably end up falling. It might seem like a lot of energy to burn, but if you don't do these turns the right way, you'll end up backwards and have a hard time following them up.

- From Extreme -

Ordinary World D- - This is the only real "Half Doubles" DDR chart (as in you will only seldom hit the 1P Left and the 2P Right arrows.) You'll spend a lot of time in the song learning cross pad crossovers and turns. Once you figure them out, the chart is a blast to play and will help you get your mind around the harder charts.

So Deep D - Otherwise known as the songs with the crosspad runs. The entire first part of the song is nothing but runs that go forward and backward on the pads with some minor variations in how you need to twist to hit them. The end of the song is a little more tough as you get some strange and all over the place gallops.

One thing that made a big difference for me is wearing grippy shoes for doubles (on singles it doesn't matter, and slippery shoes may even be preferable for sliding/mashing arrows). With 10 years old worn out sneakers, I was spending more energy trying not to slide off the pad than actually getting across the pad. After I replaced those shoes, I could actually jump side to side across the pads.

I think JaneJanaD- is a great song to practice. It's a almost one single (very technical) stream, and it walks you through some of the new patterns that don't occur in 4-panel, but it's one of the few streamy doubles songs that that's still slow enough that you can drop one or two steps and pick it back up again, without being punished too harshly.

Lucky for you the step team that was selected for DDX AC did a magnificent job with doubles. I highly recommend playing the DDRX songs on Standard. Just about every single one of them has the ←→←→ pattern that will quickly get you used to moving around, along with a few wonky-at-first patterns that will get you comfortable for the other songs outside of ddrx.

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1. Begin practicing before you start your game.

Seriously. Just get on the machine, and pace around on the panels awhile. Look down if you need to, but get to where you're familiar with how far apart the panels are, and try some unique crosses like stepping from up/down arrows to the opposite player's inside-sideways one, or vice versa. You'll also want to stand on the middle two panels awhile, and reach around to the other up/down arrows, on both sides of you.

Couple of inevitable moves to practice: from standing in the middle, do a sequence like:

1P: right (with left foot), up, left, down, right (or reverse order)
2P: left (with right foot), up right, down, left (ditto)

Although charts may make it look like one, it's not a spin, but a free-flowing stage-walk/twist.

1P up, 2P left, 1P right, 2P down
1P up, 1P right, 2P left, 2P down
(and similar interchanges)

These work like crabwalking variations, and you'll be seeing them quite a bit. It's critical to be able to recognize which transition is coming up, and how you step across like this. You'll notice, in the examples above, all that's reversed are the two middle steps - a very subtle difference, but how you execute it differs quite greatly.

Some of the trickier sequences utilize one up/down combo, and the middle sides; including:

1P up, 1P down, 1P right, 2P left (repeat)
1P down, 1p up, 1P right, 2P left (repeat)
1P up, 1P right, 1P down, 2P left (repeat)
...etc.

2. Refresh your perspective.

This isn't "two dance pads connected at the middle." It's all ONE BIG PAD, and you've just been playing on half of it so far. ;)

3. Play / songs with lots of Air or Stream.

The two biggest things in learning to play double is recognizing the new jump and stepping patterns, especially as they cross over the middle. Lots of songs with jumping sequences like CANDY* or slow-and-steady streams like JANEJANA are terrific for learning these interchanges.

There will also be some EXTREME interchanges that require quick accomodation and fast physical movement - of your entire body, not just your feet. Two clear, but doable examples of this are Jam Jam Reggae and Midnite Blaze ; the latter of which has a twice/thrice occurring step that goes from one player's down arrow to the other player's up. It's a full beat, not a half-beat, but it's still enough to catch people off guard.

Some songs with high Freeze may be okay too, but on levels 11 and above, (8+/old scale), they tend to get a little deceptive/tricky in their sequencing.

4. Stick with songs you know and like to begin with, work up through the mixes.

Another thing is that devious double chart design tends to increase extremes with newer releases - so start with songs from earlier mixes, and then work up to later ones. 4th Mix and below are pretty basic, but some like SuperNOVA 2's and X2's will likely confuse the tar out of you, early on. Even some of the songs that appear easier stamina-wise may have deceptively tricky flow to them.

Finally...

5. Team up together with somebody if possible, and watch/learn from each other.

There's no 2-player double mode to save you from failing, now; and being able to watch the screen while other players are playing will help you to untangle/decode some stepping sequences that aren't so obvious when sightreading them during gameplay.

If you can't partner up with somebody, then at least watch some YouTubes of double charts, or utilize training mode to watch them instead.

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You know, I'm an expert doubles player, can clear pretty much everything up to a few 9s and 10s, and I cannot for the like of me remember where I got the practice in. I didn't have 2 home pads and even if I did they were soft mats anyway, on Dancing Stage EuroMIX Doubles wasn't even an option unless you put in a specific code.. I think I might have just jumped straight to expert!

But the problem I have most on doubles is moving whilst hitting 1P Right and 2P left; even now I often have to look down which is a bad thing to do. I don't like holding onto the bar for anything less than a 10/15 either, and there's no real way I can get used to it now my local DDR machine has gone and the nearest decent one is about 100 miles away.. and I only have one flux.

One thing that I CAN do though is run Stepmania in edit mode or no fail and just pretend I have a mat. It sounds weird but you get used to reading patterns and moving around a bit more. I'd recommend giving that a try!