Studying: Preparing for your next big session
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Yuisin
Chart study is not the most glamorous part of being a DDR player, but neither is all the sweat.
Whether you're an experienced player or just starting out, approaching studying with a game plan (see what I did there?) can help you tackle tricky charts and refine your skills ahead of your next big session.
Team Heron recently held a team discussion around what to do on a day you don’t plan to play, but still want to make progress. Whether it’s because of a prior commitment, a rest day, or an aching hip (“Helloooooo are you talking about me?” - Ambones), it isn’t always feasible to play DDR for days or weeks on end.
Let’s talk about how studying charts can elevate your next session.
“Why study? What can it help?”
From Kevbo:
Playing Stepmania or studying charts on Youtube can be more productive than learning it on pad. I get frustrated with learning as I go, and wasting physical resources trying to learn rather than execute.
From Dunc:
I’ve done some form of studying probably every day for the last 4 years, cycling through various uppers charts, gimmicks, and current goals. Especially [while I couldn’t play], I spent hours following Youtube charts, tapping along to the charts as practice.
I think studying is the key to why I was able to find success with new 17s so quickly upon returning to the game after a long physical break. I had played all those songs in my head and with my arms 1000 times before ever stepping on the pad.
“Okay, I’m ready to study. Where do I start?”
From Tiza:
Pick a chart that gives you mental trouble, where you pick up judgments because you weren't sure how to do something, misremembered a pattern, or weren’t familiar with some kind of necessary skill (tech, sync, stops, gimmicks).
Lord knows there will be hundreds of these because there are 3 Osaka Evolved charts, 3 Tokyo Evolved charts, and 439 Paranoias. (Editor: This may or may not be true.)
Before you watch the chart, think through it on your own first. Do you confidently remember the chart? Can you recall the needed tech, gimmicks, and sync? Do you know what you're supposed to be doing, and can you execute? Or, can you not execute? Or.. do you not remember?
Next, watch through the whole chart once on Youtube and "play it in your head." Imagine the motions you're doing, when you're getting tired, what parts you know you're probably getting judgments you don’t want, because you always do, etc. Did you remember all the trouble spots? (Editor: We recommend Yuisin on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@fumenity, or Stepmania on autoplay + tick.)
Now you have a better sense of what you KNOW is a problem ("I can't do the third crossover run in Emera!") and what you FORGOT was a problem ("Oh yeah, the thing right after it trips me up too.") Then, focus on those specific sections.
Debug mode.
Are you approaching the pattern correctly, or are you not even processing it right?
Is there a way you could improve your approach to the pattern? Find doublesteps, different spots to turn, etc. things that might "smooth out" a complicated section for you.
Do you know the rhythms, stops, etc? If not, find the "solution":
Listen to assist tick, find a way to count out a stop.
First visualize, then act out, the motion in question. Does it feel the same in slow-motion as it does when you play it? If not, why not? (too fast, off balance from earlier section, forgot about the one thing so you're late, etc)
Is this just something that you're bad at? Try to suss out what makes that motion hard for you and see if you can find a motion that simplifies it. ("I always flail too much on the fast crossover - I'm going to stand on my pads and try to feel out where I should be stepping to minimize distance")
From Dunc:
If I have time for more purposeful study, I’ll watch a Youtube video and basically smack my thighs while seated as if they were the pad.
When I do this, I’m also approximating the turns crossovers and body positioning of the patterns in the song translated to my left and right arms.
This is even better rhythm practice, but also helps work out certain challenging mental patterns without the physical constraints.
I’ll sometimes do this for long enough and at a high enough level that my arms get weary and I have to stop, so now it’s arm day!
From Ambones:
Don’t forget that you control SO much of watching a Youtube video, or playing a chart on Stepmania. This is the best place to focus on those problem areas: play or watch the same section multiple times, and start with a slower rate mod or playback speed to better piece it together.
I try to get different ideas on how I can tackle a difficult or ambiguous section while doing this. Sometimes the “natural” technique I try at the arcade doesn’t work, so this gives me the freedom to experiment or think of another way to approach that problem.
“What if I only have a little bit of time to study?”
From Dunc:
If I only have time for casual on-the-go study (i.e. subway, waiting in line somewhere) I’ll tap along to the songs on the bottom rim of my phone with my thumbs as my hold my phone in landscape, emphasizing my nails to get a solid tap sound, and that helps with practicing rhythms.
“What if I’m studying a chart I don’t know at all?”
From Ambones:
Watch the chart on Youtube (Yuisin’s the GOAT!) and take extra care to listen to the music! Your familiarity with the music will generally help your timing and pattern/rhythm recognition as you start to unpack a new chart.
After viewing the chart for the first time, reflect on potential problem areas after your initial watch. What sections of the chart seem the most objectively challenging? Is it a difficult technical pattern, a gimmick (stops, BPM changes) that you’ll need to learn? Does any part of the chart target a skill weakness of yours?
Rewatch it. Try to predict what’s going to happen. You’ll start to feel the song come together a bit more each time. (Heads up, you may need to do this a few times!)
Then, make sure to revisit it regularly to test your memory, so you cement it. Deep study on one day doesn’t always mean you’ll be able to recall it perfectly from here on out.
“What other resources can I use for studying?”
From Dunc:
Sanbai Ice Cream charts (https://3icecream.com/)! These are great to study as a static picture of reviewing very particular patterns, charting out what Left/Right might look like, and tooling through moments where you have to consider a double step or a crossover and what will work best for you.
You can spend hours making discoveries of new chart tech just from this fresh perspective that static chart images can give you.
From Ambones:
Soflan.net is helpful for a static chart viewer (especially handy when you need to access a chart, quickly) and at-a-glance gimmicks, like stops or speed changes.
Final Offset (finaloffset.telp.gg) provides a great visualization of chart sync. Seeing objectively that a song is drifty, early, or late (or, all of the above) can help you prepare your strategy for tackling a song.
Finally, truebpm.dance is a quick resource for visualizing speed changes and stops over the course of a song.
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Helpful resources for your Dance Dance Revolution study:
Great tips. I echo what Dunc says: you need to mirror the movements as closely as possible. It is very hard to "think" during DDR because it takes up so much mental processing. Baking in as much muscle memory as possible ahead of time is the best way to mitigate this IMO. There have been many times on a tricky step section where I've "known" what to do, but didn't end up doing it.