I'm new to 16-star running (and speedrunning in general, so if this isn't the place to ask this question, let me know) and every time I get to the staircases it seems like executing a proper BLJ is completely up to luck. Sometimes I can get it on my first or second try, and sometimes it takes me a dozen tries, and sometimes I just can't do it for the life of me.

Does anybody have a special technique they use to BLJ, or does it just come down to how fast you mash? Does the angle you ascend the staircase have anything to do with it?

I'ts best to have an angle that goes STRAIGHT up, but anything close to that is okay. If mashing is best varies of how fast you tap, so you have to find out the pace yourself.

And if you can try to delay the first longjump you do on the stairs, the longjump has a few frames on the ground when finishing. You can test this by doing a forwards longjump then a normal jump the normal jump will be delayed a bit however if you do 2 longjumps consecutive they will not be delayed nor will any other if you do more after them. So try to delay the longjump that is supposed to start the BLJ just before you're able to do a normal jump so you delay it as much as possible, that should help a bit. This is written a bit hard to understand sorry about that, if you don't understand it, i will explain it in an easier way.

That helps a lot Tayyip, thank you! I'll get practicing

So what i tried to say was, that the longjump doesn't end when mario lands on a surface, instead he slides for a few frames. But if you do a longjump right when you hit the ground, he will not slide, but you have an option of waiting to longjump until he is IN the sliding animation. This only works if you do longjumps afaik. Now, if you delay the first longjump while attempting to BLJ, it will increase the chances of getting the clip.