Tips for a newbie doubles player?

[karusanyoshi]

I've been playing this game for a while now - and I've gotten pretty good; able to pass almost all the 9's and a couple 10's in both DDR and ITG. There are a few areas I'm weak in, regarding singles mode - I can't do crossovers at all, my left leg hits the left arrow, no questions. I've been doing crazy crossover patterns by double stepping, and for long L, U, R, U, L, U, R, doing a weird shuffle - although it works, I usually get greats or break my combo. So I've been looking into starting doubles play, hoping it will improve my game for singles mode and I wanted to know if theres any tips that doubles veterans wanted to share with a newbie doubles player.

[Kaykun[Stoked]]

Play 4/5 footers. Then when you can loft across the pad move up.
Play lots of 7 footers. Then gradual up again.

A good way to keep center is if you're standing on a particular side, lean your shoulders towards the opposite pad, ready to move.

[recessionatalus]

i'm assuming you play pretty fast speed mods; slow down by 1 speed mod for doubles (if you would play a song 3x on singles, play it 2x on doubles)

LEARN TO CROSSOVER because you cannot whiteboy doubles effectively

avoid most of the songs from 1st mix, club mix, and 6th mix because most of them have really weird doubles charts (the 1st/club mix ones were mostly if not all songs that didn't previously have doubles charts, so their doubles charts are strange and hard)

play easy stuff until you get the hang of things and work your way up slowly

[Sigma X]

I'm going to second everything ranatalus said, especially with the speed mods and the crossing over. Reading doubles is actually much different than reading singles, and a lot of the time if you're just starting out, you think you have more time than you do in your reading frame. Starting with the 1 speed mod down like said before is a good idea, until you learn the charts better and then can make a judgment for yourself based on what speed you're comfortable playing with.

As for crossing over, those types of patterns appear a lot more in doubles, and whiteboying some songs is almost impossible. In many cases it's also a lot easier for doubles songs to know how to spin. My suggestion for working on that would be to find a Light/Standard song that has slow crossovers (I can't think of one off of the top of my head right now, sorry) or if you have a home version, practice something like Exotic Ethnic Heavy Single or Boogie Down Expert Single on a lower music speed in training mode. These songs have a ton of crossovers, and practicing them at lower song speed will gradually get you used to crossing over, until you can finally start doing them at normal speed.

Also, in regards to playing DDR and ITG doubles, I've found in my experience that DDR doubles charts tend to be of better quality than the ITG charts, even though they are slightly easier. So it may be better to start working on doubles stuff with DDR, then do ITG stuff when you're more comfortable with your doubles playing ability.

[recessionatalus]

itg charts doubles charts on hard seem to be more like 3rd mix doubles charts (the more awkward, difficult stuff like captain jack, haha)

some good songs to use to learn the needed transfers are destiny standard, .59 standard and heavy, and silent hill oni. i will warn you right now with silent hill oni: the first freeze in the freeze stream you NEED to hit with your right foot

[Trigger_Happy]

DO NOT play ANY Trip Machine on doubles if you are bad at crossovers. The doubles charts are made in a way that you are pretty much forced to crossover if you ever have a chance passing.

Try slower songs that are 7 and below. Even then, there are some songs that pull out interesting tricks and you should watch out for those tricks when they come up (they are usually freeze arrows and steps on both pads).

[red shoe paul]

When I tried doubles back in the day, I held the bar no matter what. I don't really play DDR anymore, but when I did and tried doubles, that helped me a lot.

[recessionatalus]

the bar thing is the same for doubles as it is for singles: helps at first, limits you later

of course if you don't care about passing psmo doubles then by all means,

[MathiasXII]

My guess is that the first thing you want to do in doubles is to be confident and in ease to travel from one pad to another. It's the very first step ! I know when I started playing doubles, it was like I was learning to play DDR ALL over again !

So for traveling songs, I would suggest you Starmine on light (The DDR Ultramix 2 one...I don't know in which other DDR it was or it is...probably Supernova !). That song makes you travel from left to right constantly...

Another song just to get used to stepping on both pads would be air (from light to higher difficulty) since it's a pretty smooth songs and it's in the easiest songs in double.

But my tip would be take it very easy at first since it's another story...then, like you did with only one pad, go to progressively higher difficulties. Practicing at home on scrapped pads while using autoplay on the computer, although sometimes it look stupid, can also be a great way to practice :P.

[travelsonic]

Originally Posted by ranatalus

the bar thing is the same for doubles as it is for singles: helps at first, limits you later

of course if you don't care about passing psmo doubles then by all means,

Are you talking about ising the bar, or not using the bar?

[recessionatalus]

using the bar. anyone that i've seen use the bar improves dramatically right away, but becomes dependant on it which hinders their ability to improve later

[THD5%]

I got good at doubles by playing the following:
Holic (LOTS of Holic)
V Hvy/Oni
Can't Stop Fallin' In Love
Jane Jana (LOTS of Jane Jana)

Picking up doubles also varies greatly depending on the person.

For example, I picked up doubles two summers ago, starting on songs I listed, and passed PSMO doubles just about a month later.

[recessionatalus]

i forgot about janejana, that's really good for learning how to do transfers

[rockdemon181]

It's true about the bar - I'm still a bit of a newbie but I know that the bar is a good way for starting off. After a while though you feel more inclined to play standing up because it generally makes the whole experience more dancy and enjoyable :-) The great thing about doubles is that when you play without the bar it feels a lot more like actual dancing should be than single play...

[recessionatalus]

actually i tend to recommend against using the bar at all until you get up to the top levels of play; while you would say "oh once you get better and more comfortable you can play without it" you still won't have improved your skills for playing without it.