Building bridges while walking forwards

Sometimes in Minecraft one wants/needs to bridge across a gap. So far the only way I have found to do this is to crouch, walk backwards so you are overhanging the edge and then aim for the really thin visible surface on the block. This works but it's slow and painful.

I watch videos on YouTube where people seem to be building such bridges while walking forward normally, for example:

Is this a difference between Bedrock and Java? (I play on Java, but the videos seem to be playing on Bedrock) is there some trick I am missing?

Solution 1:

Unfortunately, there's a difference in building bridges in Bedrock and Java edition. In Java edition, there is no way to build bridges as shown in the video you linked, except maybe with a hacked client, which you probably don't want.

There are still many bridging techniques you can use in Java edition (this video has lots of examples), so technically, you can sprint-jump forwards and place blocks behind yourself as you jump. But, as you could probably guess, techniques like these are ridiculously hard to do consistently and take a lot of practice.

There are many easy yet fast techniques, like walking backwards, crouching for just a split second as you place the block, and repeat. It will not be as easy or effective as in Bedrock edition, but it's still an improvement.

In conclusion, it's probably best to stay at the simple crouching backwards building, since it is easy and safe. Faster techniques are mostly used in competitive minigames and are not practical for regular building.