Best Way to Practice Hit-Confirming (for beginners)

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

I’ve combed through a few threads here and have tried to apply the advice of many people to take a simple combo and punish, and focus on practicing them (as well as hit-confirming) in Arcade Mode once you’ve somewhat mastered them in Training Mode. I’m not sure if this was the case when other players have started playing Street Fighter, but after a certain point I cannot execute combos in arcade mode, because the CPU is either countering just as I press a button, or is able to pull off moves before their recovery animation is over. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve seen Ryu (CPU) pull off a DP or a special move right after jumping in, but before he even lands on the ground.

What is the most efficient way that you guys practice?

2

One of the best ways to practice hit confirming for me is to just go into the lab and set the training bot’s block to ‘Random’

3

Practice common situations and try these situations when the dummy is set on “random” guard. You can also set the counterhit on random also to practice reacting to Crush Counters for instance.
There is no arcade mode, you ment survival. ANyway, you can start up training and set the training dummy to CPU and choose a difficulty level, much easier than doing this in survival mode.

Practicing hitconfirming on the CPU is a wasted effort to be honest, there is nothing to be gained there. A CPU doens’t cannot be conditined or read, it doesn’t have spacing or mindgames. A CPU simply reads the INPUTS of you and chooses the best option. If you hit the CPU it chose to let you hit him. CPU plays completely different than a human opponent so when you play online/offline against human opponents… not a whole lot will transfer from what you practiced fighting a CPU.

When practicing hitconfirming, practice what you would do on hit AND what you would do on block. When you are in a match and a similar situation arises you have it ingrained into your muscle memory and you don’t have to exert a lot of mental effort. You can think about other things then. This comes with experience, you won’t get it right immediately.

I have no idea who you use so i’ll just post a few very basic examples i practiced with my characters:

Cammy:
(blocked) cr.mp, walk up throw
(hit) cr.mp, cr.mp xx hk spiral arrow

If the opponent is always mashing buttons after i do 1 buttons, then i would just do this:
(blocked) cr.mp, (counterhit)cr.mp, cr.mk xx hk spiral arrow.

Necalli:
(blocked) st.mp, walk up throw
(hit) st.mp, cr.mp xx light Disc’s Guidance

If the opponent mashes buttons after my st.mk i would frametrap them:
(blocked) st.mk, (couterhit)cr.mp xx light/mk axekick

You can get as creative as you want with what you do on block as long as you have a read on what the opponent will try to do
You can even do this with necalli if you know they’ll block and are delaying their buttons a LOT, so you have to bait them into pressing buttons:

(blocked)st.mk, walk forward(this will make them think i will do a walk up throw), (counterhit)cr.mp xx mk axekick, cr.mp xx light Disc’s Guidance.
The person was going to press throw after they saw me walk forward, but i counterhit them with a cr.mp, this combos into mk axekick. I knew my opponent was really defensive and i baited them into pressing a button by walking forward. This is only possible if you have a read on an opponent and if you ahve conditioned them to block a lot or be conservative in their buttons presses on defense.

Hitconfirming is about anticipation in combination with reacting, if you can anticipate something then you are mentally prepared for what to do during that moment, what to do on hit and what to do on block.
After this you will look at the opponent their habits and intentions and try to exploit that, this is where hitconfirming really becomes important as you can can expect certain things to happen if you adjust your timings or use different buttons.

I went a bit on a rant, but in short:
Put dummy on random guard, practice common situation for your combo starter. There is a LOT more you can practice but you’ll get there gradually after mastering basic hit confirms.

4

Sorry. I did mean Arcade Mode. I was starting out on Street Fighter 4, and I didn’t make that clear in my original post. Sorry for that mix up.

That wasn’t a rant at all–thank you for your help. It was frustrating because it seems as though the CPU is almost precognitive whenever I fight it. It would counter my attack the instant I pressed a button. I’ll try to focus practicing hitconfirming in online matches. but I think it’ll a but frustrating because most online fights that I’ve had thus far had a lot of lag. So it feels like you’re fighting against lag rather than your actual opponent.

I guess you can’t win sometimes. :-/

5

training mode > random block > practice your hit confirms

6

Before switching to random blocking, you need to hone and I mean HONE your muscle memory. practice first by setting the cpu to not blocking then just rigorously hone your muscle memory for your characters most useful confirms. (Study high level play of your character to get a feel of how you should be confirming). Then once your muscle memory is flawless and effortless for even hard confirms, set cpu to random block. It should still be relatively easy. Then graduate to cpu matches.

It will take time to do in matches. This is mostly just an experience thing and playing the game. It will become like breathing in time. I remember when I used to say HOLY SHIT when players would confirm the lightest jab into supers in garou but then i stuck with the game and it’s laughably easy.

PRACTICE! and practice smart. Analyze what’s working and what isn’t for you and develop your own approach if need be

7

Thanks for the advice, guys! Really appreciate it.

I came to realize that you need a different frame of mind to be playing fighting games in general. Though I got this game a few months ago, I’ll still lose focus in sticking to my small practice goals (execution and such) whenever I lose matches. It’s very easy to get frustrated and go back to try to win matches no matter what, and I don’t want to play like that at all. That’s just another hurdle I have to get over.

Fighting games may have steep learning curbs, but I’m glad I’m getting into them. :slight_smile:

8

There are many components to great fighting. Footages, confirms, reads, execution, mixups, meter management, space control confidence, psychology, emotional and mental resilience and…knowing exactly what to do in every situation. You have to get good at all of these things and it simply takes time to master them. . A lot comes with just more and more experience.

But for confirms, BUFFERING and shortcuts are your best friends. For buffering, learn to instantly begin storing motions during attack animations, even if you’re unsure you’ll connect with the initial blow. You’ll learn shortcuts, like for shoryu into super, simply do a Z motion, then 1 more qcf, because the Z motion has a built in qcf and don’t need to add a third for the super. Specific games and characters have certain input tricks and shortcuts, so if you’re having trouble with a specific confirm, think through possible shortcuts or ask help.

I also would always recommend for relatively new players to understand a few concepts that really get movies on their legs in the genre:

1.) simplifying your mental stack- (rather than considering all possible options in any given scenario, know 1 or few options that you know will work so that you can react and counter instantly and on time. In this way overthinking your options can slow you down and before you know it your opponent is already 3 moves ahead of you. You have to streamline your play before you consider opening it up to more complex decisions. Even pro players sacrifice flashy and complex things to focus on what will get them the win.

  1. Watch pro players and break down their approach and try to understand their choices and play style and how and when they spend meter etc as well as how they adapt to different matchups.

Don’t get frustrated :smiley: you’re gonna lose over and over if you’re new to the genre or a game :dizzy:

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Will do. Thanks a bunch! :smiley: :wink:

10

One thing James Chen mentioned that is helpful, always be ready to do the combo, it is easier to stop yourself from completing the combo than it is to try to react to the hit then try to do the combo