Are you looking to push yourself further in DDR? Are you trudging through any difficulty ranges to reach a goal in LIFE4? It can be difficult working toward a goal like “PFC the level 14 folder,” which has at least 215 songs, by current count. After finishing off the 15 folder a month ago, I’ve started work on PFCing all of the songs in the level 16 folder. Of the 170 charts available to me, I have PFCed 136 and have 34 remaining. I find it quite satisfying to work toward a goal like this, even if means achieving just one PFC in a session (or none at all). The songs are physically tiring enough to be interesting to me, but not so exhausting that they sap my energy too quickly.
Since I’ve gone about this task, I’ve developed some habits that help me optimize my sessions. I thought it might be interesting to write about those habits. Maybe they’ll be of some use to you. They are general enough to apply in any goal in DDR, so long as it’s something that requires a lot of grinding or consistent effort.
Before I talk about grinding 16s, I should discuss some things you should do BEFORE coming to the arcade that will help you have a productive session. It’s helpful to come to the arcade in a good physical condition (although it’s not mandatory — I know some players that come to the arcade hungover or fucked up and still manage to pull out some bonkers scores).
First, it’s good to get a good night’s sleep before your session. This might be obvious to some. But if you’re not well-rested, you’ll hit a wall quickly in terms of focus and stamina. Difficult games like DDR can be a good litmus test for how much sleep you’re getting, since it becomes evident right away whether you can perform at your usual level. You can’t just space out and go about your day sleep deprived, which you can sometimes get away with at work or in school. If you are feeling tired or sluggish, but have no other choice of arcade day, Caffeine or creatine can help a bit.
I’d also recommend a light meal before playing. Depending on how early on in the day you’re playing, you might do well with something as simple as a muffin, pastry, protein bar, or if you live in Korea, kimbap (a seaweed roll with rice and vegetables). In general, any food that’s bland and not too salty, oily, spicy, or overly sweet will help a lot. In the past, I’ve eaten just a Snickers bar before starting to play. In general, less is more, and if you bring a protein bar or some snacks for your session, you can eat just enough to have some energy without feeling bloated. If you’re playing later in the day and you’ve already eaten lunch or dinner, you’ll probably want to wait at least 30 minutes to an hour before playing anything stenuous. The heavier the food, the longer you should wait. I find heavy meals to make me feel “heavier” on the pad. I end up stepping sluggishly or feel lower back or knee strain after a few rounds. In these cases, it usually helps to drink some coffee and have a bowel movement before pushing harder.
If you’re a fan of caffeine, you can have your favorite beverage before playing. I generally do best with a small amount of black coffee or a sugar-free energy drink. I usually try to avoid any sugary or creamy, blended coffee drinks, like lattes, because they sit in my stomach and dehydrate me. I personally enjoy pre-workout shakes, too. I’m currently taking Assault by MusclePharm before longer sessions. It has a mix of caffeine and creatine, which gives me energy and helps me play a bit longer.
However, a black iced coffee (or americano) is my second favorite. You should also be careful not to over caffeinate, as if you drink too much, you might end up getting too jittery. Your form might suffer if you have too much energy or start stomping the pads harder than normal. (As a side note, if you do drink too much caffeine, you should try jumping into the higher BPM folders. Songs like High & Low and No Plan Days are great when you feel jittery or need to burn a lot of energy.)
Lastly, you should drink a lot of water. It’s good to hydrate before playing, but especially during your session, you should drink as much water as you can tolerate. I generally tend to drink too little water during my session and suffer after going home. Sometimes I can’t sleep because my body is too dehydrated and my mind feels fuzzy. Drinking at least a liter of water during your session (depending on length) will help.
Alright! Now you’re at the arcade and hopefully are well-fed, rested, and caffeinated. Ideally, you’re also in a good place mentally to play DDR (that could be a whole other article). If you’re extra lucky, you might have the arcade to yourself or at least not have many distractions around you.
To start my sessions, I generally warm up with 2 to 3 rounds of songs below the target level range I’m working on. This can depend on how crowded the arcade is. If there’s a long line for DDR, I might just warm up in the first couple of songs and jump right in. On sessions where there aren’t any other players, I might drag out my warmup and play easy songs up until the extra stage every time. For warmup songs, I just follow my gut. It generally helps to just play songs you find enjoyable, even if they’re on the easier end. For example, last session, I played in the 120~ BPM folder. I felt like a DJ playing songs in a similar BPM range back to back, like Till the lonely’s gone, Scorching Moon, GRADIUS REMIX, and SUPER STAR(FROM NONSTOP MEGAMIX).
The more fun you can have in these early sessions, the better. You can even play no-bar or double if you enjoy it. If you’re playing easy songs to warm up, it helps to focus hard on form and get used to how much pressure you need to trigger the sesnsors. On really easy songs (levels 10 and below), I find myself stomping hard to hit the arrows on time, which is a bad habit. I always try to dial in and step intently, especially on jumps, to conserve energy and and stamina. If your form sucks on easy songs, there’s no doubt you’ll lock up when you graduate to harder, more stamina-intensive charts.
Once I’m sufficiently warmed up, I move into the target folder. For me, it’s currently 16s. Right now, I have a running list of candidate songs for PFC. They’re sorted into different categories based on how easy I think it’ll be to PFC them. The categories run from “feel doable” (if I’ve flagged a song recently) up to “will be difficult” (songs that I know have some difficult gimmick or tech that I struggle with, like Sumidagawa Karenka). I also have another mental category, which is “songs I haven’t played recently” (or at all), which is what I spend most of my time on nowadays.
For songs in the “haven’t played recently” category, I usually follow these steps:
- Play the chart once or twice without prior study.
- If my first couple of plays feel good, identify choke points or gimmicks and study those via Sanbai Ice Cream. If the song doesn’t feel good, move onto something else.
- Record subsequent plays (or use a replay buffer) with a camera so I can correct form errors.
- Continue playing and making progress.
- Hopefully get a PFC, or if I’m feeling frustrated, move on to a song in a similar BPM range.
I’ll break down these steps with a little more detail:
I first play the chart without any prior study. On any given day, you might excel with a certain type of technique (like jacks, jumps, or crossovers) and might not have any issues with 95% of the song. Sometimes, you just don’t know what your sticking point is going to be. To give an example, I recently played TRIP MACHINE (xac nanoglide mix). I hadn’t played the song in a while, but I knew it had a reputation for having difficult crossovers. Rather than study everything in advance, I played 2-3 times without any prior study and just found that a couple of sections in the middle and latter parts of the song were troublesome. There was no point in studying the first half because it felt fine already.
After the first few plays, you should be able to tell whether the song feels “good.” Good is arbitrary, of course. If a song feels “good,” I can say that the BPM range feels pretty comfortable, I’m not getting a lot of shit misses (or pad misfires), or the parts I’m struggling on feel correctable within my current session. This can depend on my energy level, too. Some days, I feel well-rested (or overly caffeinated) and can do reasonably well on high BPM songs like No Plan Days or Triple Journey. Other times, they just feel fast as fuck and I know they aren’t worth focusing on. It’s important to pick your battles during a particular session. If the song feels too fast, too slow, or too technical, or if your accuracy just sucks for no reason, you should go back to step one with a different chart. In a session with limited time, there’s just no point in banging your head against a song/chart that doesn’t agree with you.
If you’ve decided you’re going to stick with a particular song, the next step is to identify any gimmicks or choke points you’re having trouble with. This is entirely dependent on your first few plays, not anyone else’s opinion. For instance, there could be an ambiguous crossover here that you missed the first couple of times. I’ll give you an example. When I played PRANA CSP recently, I noticed a few personal choke points:
- The 3-note bursts of 16th notes in measures 24 and 64 intentionally start on the wrong foot.
- There’s a sneaky crossover in measure 61 that is easy to mess up.
- A 5-note burst in measure 77 has ambiguous footing after a jump.
- The stream in measure 8 could become a problem if I play for too long and run low on stamina.
There were other tricky parts, too, like some jacks in measure 32 or the song’s stop gimmick, but I wasn’t having problems with them right away, so I didn’t focus on them. The list I made above was just based on my performance that day.
Recording your sessions can be helpful to find these choke points. I broadcast my streams on YouTube NOT because I get tons of viewers (usually just 1-2 at a time, at most), but because I can rewind the stream to look at my play and identify where I picked up some greats or misses.
After I identified those 4 points, I studied the chart on Sanbai Ice Cream between attempts. I am lucky enough to have a streaming computer next to the DDR machine, so I can pull up the chart and look over at it from the DDR pad. However, you can also do this with your phone. While listening to the preview music on the song select screen, I tried stepping out the patterns in points 1-3 a few times at half-speed and at full speed. I tried this several times while looking at the pads to make sure I was stepping where I could trigger the arrows.
With that knowledge in mind, I moved on to step 3 and kept playing the song. Each time after playing, I reflected on what I did wrong — whether it was a brain fart or a legitimate form error I needed to correct. Using my YouTube stream, I looked back at the most recent recording of myself playing to see where I was getting greats. For instance, I choked a few times at the crossover I mentioned in point 2. In those cases, I was not crossing over with perfect form and couldn’t register the left arrow with my toe. Again, I tried stepping the pattern 3-4 times on the pad in between attempts. That helped me work on the muscle memory needed to perform the pattern in the middle of the song.
After that, it was just a matter of time until I achieved the PFC. Each attempt yielded some more information about a weak point. As long as you aren’t already tired, you should be able to pinpoint a part of the song you’re struggling with after each attempt and make nominal improvements.
Sometimes you’ll be able to achieve your goal for a song during the session. Other times, it’s just about making gradual progress. It might take multiple sessions to achieve your goal, especially with songs that have difficult gimmicks. Your stamina might not allow you to play the song more than a few times in a given session. Still, recording your plays and noting what’s difficult for YOU will help you gradually make progress and achieve that goal.
If your stamina runs out or you feel yourself getting frustrated, you can move onto another song and consider whether you want to revisit your target later. You might find success picking another song in the same BPM range as what you struggled with. For example, PRANA was 188 BPM, so I might pick out another song that’s 180-185 BPM. If your form and accuracy hold up, you might end up with a surprisingly high score! Grinding one song for a while really helps your brain get attuned to a certain BPM (rhythm), so the effort you put into honing your “Marvelous Attack” will carry over to other songs in the same BPM range. The few MFCs I have were achieved in that way.
To wrap up, achieving a goal in DDR can be a long, drawn out process. You may become frustrated as you feel your form isn’t matching up to your expectations (or that of your rivals’). However, if you follow the steps above, it can feel more like a methodical process rather than just hoping for a high score each time you visit the arcade. Personally, recording my play sessions and watching replays has greatly increased my satisfaction with DDR, whereas before it felt like just guesswork when fixing my sticking points. I hope you’ll also consider utilizing a replay buffer or setting up a camera and tripod to review your attempts. If it’s helped iamchris4life, it will help you too.
