Can someone explain what's good about Wavedashing?

I tried it, and it doesn't really help me much. A mere distance of sliding no more than a few inches in comparison to the size of the character itself and that's it.

Can someone explain please?

Remember the wavedash essay? The one Cez submitted without any credit? You might want to read up on that.

You use Samus right?

Samus has an effective wavedash, and you can entirely replace your roll with it. Remember the video you watched? You'll notice Wes use wavedash tons of times. Watch it again and look closely for it.

you aren't angling it enough to the side (or you're using a char with a very short wave-dash, although this can be useful sometimes too). try somebody like luigi, ice climbers, mewtwo, marth, yoshi, roy, dr/mario, g&w....they all have long wave-dashes and you should travel about the length of a roll or longer if you wave-dash well with them. The control stick should be primarily to the side and not too far downwards.

also, read up on toby's wave-dashing guide: http://www.freewebs.com/xiffer/wavedashing.html. This explains some of the uses of wave-dashing. Some of the things he doesn't go over in depth: wave-dashing out of your shield with anybody but Yoshi is an effective shield exit; wave-dashing on and dropping off platforms can create unorthodox movements that are very confusing and useful; it's also very useful for spacing attacks like marth's tipper that require a certain range to be most effective.

in general though, it's a very effective method of movement and very useful to know.

If you can do it well enough, it is very good. the backwords wavedash is effective for edgaurding(wavedash backwords off the edge and watch what happens) mindgames(Run up to someone but backdash before you get in range, for example) and evasion( samus has a terrible roll).

Forward wavedash is also very useful, I'm not experienced to give you all the info on it, but I can tell you I love to wavedash. Maybe because I've played a little to much mischief makers...

You can do anything immediately out of it, so if you decided to wavedash back while your opponent is dash attacking you, you can immediately smash instead of running back, stop running by crouching, then turning around and smashing.

But what is really so great about it? Why use it if you could just Foxtrot quickly around the stage? And how do you wavedash out of a shield? Is it only accessable from the air?

Mask o' Shiek, I'll be sure to read that sometime.

Its not just for movement, its so you can be in the standing position while moving. If you just run then try to attack, you'll find you'll have fewer options than if you wavedash either back or forwards and attack.

Okay... I just hope I can learn to wavedash good.

Yea...but shffling is quite a bit more important, so I recommend you start with that instead.

Shffl, doesn't that stand for Short Hop, Fast Fall, and L Cancle? I use all of them but the L Cancle, which I should use a little more...

Can you short hop consistantly? it is extremely short, not just a half jump or anything, its like barely leaving the ground for most characters. L cancelling is pressing either L, R, or Z before you hit the ground to reduce the lag of the move upon landing in half. Refer to hints section/newb faq next time.

I know, I know, I know what all 3 of them are and how to use them. Short Hop, I find, allows me to execute some more fluent aerial moves, given that ground moves are not as free. Take Mewtwo's left/right aerial, for example.

bingo. it allows aerials to be brought fluidly into play, which cannot be done without short hop. I'd say that it's most important to work on short hopping and l-cancelling, which opens up an entirely new aerial game once you can use them effectively. wave-dashing is important to learn but not as revolutionary.

Imo, wavedashing is much easier to pull off.

I learned it before I learned short hop and l-cancel. I've known it since 2002, and it took me about six months to master it. By "master" I mean "apply it in battle without having to say 'I wavedashed!'" I don't imply that I can wave-dash totally effectively :p

btw Cylun, would ya like to vote me as Cleverest Member? Just click the link on the top of the page and vote people in fitting categories.