L-canceling

Guide to L-Canceling

What does it do?

Let's say you're playing as Link, and you're quite fond of that down aerial of his. The problem is that, when you hit the ground, Link takes a while to pull his sword out of the ground, right? Don't worry, there's a way to lessen the amount of time - it's called L-Canceling. L-Canceling essentially reduces the recovery time of landing air attacks.

How to L-Cancel

In order to l-cancel, press the L, R, or Z buttons after an aerial A attack. Example; use Link's down aerial attack, and right before you hit the ground, press L, R, or Z. You will notice that the recovery time (referred to as lag time, or just lag) is decreased, or cut in half. L-Canceling only works with aerial A moves, B moves cannot be l-canceled. It takes practice to get the timing down.

Uses

L-canceling helps you move faster, and is the key to many complex combos such as pillaring, SHFFLs and Fox's Infinite Combo. You can speed up your game a great deal from this simple technique, since you can recover from aerial moves twice as fast.