When I first started playing SF4 I never really followed this site much. I never used a stick. I mostly played for the first couple months after launch, and I played Rog.
People didn’t know their punishes or their mixups. Dash punches were “safe”. People didn’t understand safe jumping and headbuts actually worked as anti-airs.
So essentially as I am trying to get back into the game now much more proficient with a stick. I still have most of my bad habits. I dash punch too much from the wrong ranges so they get punished. I try to headbut instead of simply using normals. I sit there in training mode trying to practice against the cpu, but the instant I start playing someone I get uncomfortable and start doing this garbage again. Same goes for mashing jab when I actually know combos and try to practice Rogs frame traps.
This is one thing I just can’t seem to figure out. How do you break muscle memory and bad habits. I’m almost starting to think I need to drop Rog and pick up a new character and start from scratch now that I know what I’m doing. Anyone have any ideas?
Think harder, be more focused, and force yourself to always be conscious of what you are doing. There isn’t really a trick, and you need to develop this anyway because if you can’t play without doing things you know to be unsafe, you’ll never be able to adapt mid match against a very strong player. Switching characters or taking a break from the game isn’t going to help you in this situation.
Try to pay attention to what move the opponent is doing, whether it’s a normal from the CPU in arcade mode, or a charge super from an online player. You should be able to go “oh, that kick is an overhead” or “that doesn’t look safe on block” as soon as you get hit by it. The more you understand the opponents attacks, the less you will cling to bad habits.
Watching replays also helps you analyze your weaknesses.
Good advice from the previous posts. Also, play against people that punish or somehow take advantage of your weaknesses. That’s sort of like facing Zangief: you only learn that you really need to reverse by getting his ass on you face over, and over, and over. And then a few more times. Just keep improving.
Whenever I see a weakness in any of my attacks, I go to practice mode and record what it was my opponent did to punish me. Then I keep aproaching it at different angles and read all there is to know about that particular attack. I then stop playing for about 10 minutes as I close my eyes and imagine what I could possibly do with my new found knowledge. Then I return with a clear focused head. I do all kinds of other stuff, too but that’s pretty much it.
Take care of one bad habit at a time. If your bad habit is jumping too much, focus only on not jumping for like 20-30 matches. Don’t try to fix like four bad habits at once, just focus on getting rid of each one at a time.
**I have a lot of bad habits with this game, but unfortunately, the only thing I can really say is repitition. Practice techniques and combos over and over again over an extended period of time, and it will soon become programmed into your mind and be second nature. I used to have a lot of trouble with Claw’s Super and Ultras, but after going into practice mode for a while and studying my faults through repitition, these attacks come a lot easier now. It would also probably help if I had a stick, but that’s another story xP **
This is THE best advice IMO! You can literally spend days or weeks on improving one aspect of your play (ex. punish jump-ins with LATE shoryu, don’t always do a reversal in situation X, don’t always dash back after Y, etc.) If you just focus on improving one aspect of your game over a day, week, month you WILL see marked improvement. Try it!
I do all kinds of other stuff, too but that’s pretty much it.