Peach Down Smash Landing All Hits
In SSB: Melee, Peach has an especially strong attack in the form of her down smash ("The Meat Grinder"), which as the wiki mentions, can deal 64.96% damage if all the hits land. When all the hits are landed, the opponent is effectively trapped in the down smash, taking huge amounts of damage, and often ending up being spit out in a random direction with great force. With this in mind:
How can I maximize my chances of landing all of these hits?
I've noticed that it is much easier to land all the hits against larger, heavier characters like Bowser or Ganondorf (probably because they cannot escape the attacks, and because they are more vulnerable to being hit by all the hit boxes). But how can I maximize my chances of landing all of the hits against smaller characters too? Is there a strategy that helps? Or is it more about timing and practice? Is it even possible to land all the hits against smaller, lighter characters like Pichu or Kirby?
How can I maximize my chances of landing all of these hits?
DSmash them while they DI down and in dsmash (see bullet 1), or position yourself so that the combination of their starting position and the knockback of initial hits sends your opponent into the subsequent hits (bullet 2)
In order for Peach's downsmash to hit multiple times, the other character needs to be "sucked in" to the hitboxes. The hitboxes of dsmash send you down and in at a reasonably low (140 degree) angle, so under no-DI or optimal-DI (up), most standard characters in normal play (so not giga bowser, metal characters) will only be hit by 1-2 hits before the knockback raises them above the hitboxes, so for maximal damage you want opponent to DI down and in. You can accomplish this by attempting to condition your opponent to attempt to crouch cancel your attacks (which acts as DI down) or attempt to exploit natural situations when your opponent would be holding down (Fox attempts a drill-shine on you but lands short and you dsmash him- he's holding down because of the drill-shine inputs & takes large amounts of damage if he doesn't release down fast enough)
Having the initial hitboxes of dsmash knock opponents into the follow-up hits is usually accomplished by dsmash on a platform and having your opponent jump into it. This video roughly demonstrates what I'm talking about (turnip also adds knockback, but if you slow the video down you can see how the first two hits work)