Tap
A tap, or tapping is a term used in the Super Smash Bros. series. It refers to quickly tilting or tilting in a direction mildley or very hard on the control stick/d-pad in a certain direction, and it is used to either dash, jump, jump in mid-air, jump from a platform, and can be combined with the attack button to preform smash attacks.
Different ways to use tapping
There are a number of ways to use taps, as mentioned above. Note that for the Wii remote, the equivalent to tapping is double tap, as tapping normally would act as a tilt.
Dash
Tap the control stick/d-pad left or right to dash in that direction.
Jump
Tap the control stick/d-pad up to do a jump. This also works with midair jumps. Unlike other taps, this one can be turned off at the controls section in Brawl, which some people prefer. Some characters, such as Yoshi, benefit from turning this option off. Note that the player can always tap jump out of water, even with the tap jump option off.
Platform drop
When on a pass-through platform, tap the control stick/d-pad down to fall through it.
Smash attack
One of the most important things of tapping would be to do smash attacks. To execute them, tap the control stick/d-pad in any direction while simutaniously pressing the attack button.