Short hop

Sheik's short hop compared to her normal jump.

An example of where short hops are useful. Link dodges Meta Knight's attack with a short hop and punishes with a down aerial.

A short hop (officially small jump) is the act of pressing the jump button and letting go before the character leaves the ground. This will result in a jump that is lower than a normal jump. This technique can be performed in all three Super Smash Bros. games.

The short hop technique is essential in high level play, allowing the user to perform aerial attacks closer to the ground. This is useful for spamming aerials, especially with the SHFFLing technique (only in Melee), as the aerials can be done closer to the ground and possibly hit targets who are still on the ground. Hitting grounded targets is great for characters whose aerials play a significant part of their metagame, such as Ness.

Jumping speed can affect the timing of the short hop. In Melee, for instance, a Fox player must release the jump button within 2 frames to short hop. Bowser, by contrast, requires only 7 frames and his short hops are considered much easier. The height of a short hop varies from character to character as well. Also, in Brawl, it's much easier to short hop than in Melee. Short hopping is also used during wavedashing, to an extreme degree.

Short hopping is a bit harder to do in the Subspace Emissary, because characters jump faster.