I don’t think the nerves ever go away for some people. It just stops interfering with the way you play after a certain point. I may be nervous right before the match, but by the time the first round starts, it’s usually gone. I used to get nervous during casual too, but the same thing sorta happened…tourney matches are sort of like causal ones, except you play a little more seriously. At least that’s how it is for me.
About the excecution issues, that’s just practice. After playing on something as different as a keyboard, you need how to re-learn stuff, as it applies to a joystick, or even that specific set of sticks in your arcade. If you can’t get a decent stick for your PC (or just don’t want to spend the money), you need to just keep at it and learn what works the best for you (preferably without breaking your hands, but we all make sacrifices).
The thing is, when you’re having trouble excecuting, your brain sort of does the math for you, and eliminates options… If your DP isn’t coming out when you need it, you’re going to stop using it, and Ryu without a DP plays a lot differently than Ryu with one. And using a super or something as anti-air may not even occur to you anymore, even if you would have thought about it before. Blah blah blah. Point being, that the easiest way to build confidence in your excecution (which you need), is to excecute better. And the way to do that is generally practice.
And yeah, different games have differnt timings on things…I remember not even to being able to do a jumpin combo with Ryu the first game I played when I got 3rd Strike on my DC because the timing is different.
About lack of competition, don’t know. CPU is really only good for practicing timing on stuff and sometimes priority. The best thing you can do is find tournaments or whatever, but no comp or lack of good comp is what holds most people back, whether or not they realize it. I think the best thing you can do if there’s absoutely no one around is to play with purpose…try to get perfects and master all of your combos and setups, or play Survival Mode (which is essentially the same thing after you’ve taken enough damage), etc.
As for the 3S example, if nothing else counter thee actual player instead of the tactic. If he can parry your attack and then super every time he needs to, it means he’s reading you. But, you being you, you can read you too. If you know what your impluse is and subsequently know what his will be (to counter whatever move you want to do, which could include doing nothing), then you can at the very least just not do it and cause a stalemate for a second, and at best, continue to read and counter the opponent.
This thinking is just sort of wrong IMO. Let’s take some of the matches from the A3 section of the Evo2k2 DVD. Ohnuki vs Choi, both V-Sak. Ohnuki wins the first round pretty decisively. Second round, Choi just baaaaarely pulls through. Third round, Choi destroys Ohnuki. Like, amost a perfect. Or BAS vs Cole. 1st round BAS takes decisively. 2nd round Cole dominates BAS. Gets hit maybe 3 times. Third round, BAS wrecks Cole, just as badly. There’s a lot of this that goes on in SF. I’ve gotten a Perfect on someone but stil lost the match. So you shouldn’t be so discouraged after losing the first round…sure you “need” to win the 2nd round now, but you need to win two rounds anyway, whether it’s 1 and 3, 1 and 2, or 2 and 3. So just try to win…
Know your shit. You usally can’t jump at Akuma, but you can’t jump at Shotos in general right? What it all ultimately comes down to is knowing what will and won’t work vs that particular player…but the general tone is knowing what works well and what won’t. Maybe you can’t rush him down like you could with another character, but if you can read a poke and hit him with a super, you may be able to just out poke him and play defensively for the whole round. What does he like to try and wear down your guard bar with? Does PPP crouching FP or R beat his b+RK or hopkick? You may not be able to jump at him, but are you letting him jump at you? Is he throwing fireballs or doing anything else that’s a free jump in or diveick super? Can you get him to do it more often, etc…
Hope I was able to help some…
