Choose a moment with room to observe
Use a familiar early part of Classic and stay with one companion. Pick an open-space moment before a branch is immediately beside you. You need enough clearance to see the turn develop without interpreting an unavoidable collision as an input failure.
Before tapping, name the current motion: rising, falling or moving mostly forward. This establishes what the input is changing. The companion’s illustrated face or slight body tilt is less useful than the actual trail behind it.
Follow the change instead of adding another command
Tap once and watch whether the existing climb or descent becomes steeper or flatter. A reversal can first reduce vertical movement before it changes its direction. Avoid immediately repeating the tap just because the body continues along part of its earlier heading.
End the observation when you need another action to continue safely. This is not a challenge to refuse all further input. Its purpose is to connect one action to a visible path segment, including how much space the change needs.
Repeat from a different heading
On another attempt, observe a reversal while the companion is traveling differently. Compare a rising starting point with a falling one. The same button action can look very different because the initial heading is different.
Once that relationship is clear, connect it to the next opening: predict whether one reversal will begin bringing the projected path toward safe space. If you later change companions, repeat the observation briefly. Their different pace, turning radius and vertical pull mean that familiar visual timing does not transfer perfectly.