A new trend that is getting a lot of attention in the Japanese scene is the usage of finger pushups to improve one’s execution in SFIII: Third Strike. The theory is that finger pushups can improve the player’s muscle strength and speed of their fingers. It also builds bigger fingers so that they can hit the buttons on the cabinet more efficiently. Some players are so dedicated that they can even do 30 finger pushups in one go.
Some prominent players who are said to do finger pushups include Boss, Koshun and even Daigo when he in his prime. Apparently, they look at which fingers they play on the cabinet, and they would do pushups standing on THOSE FINGERS ONLY. If they use three fingers when they play, they would do pushups using three fingers on each hand. The benefits of doing these finger pushups are still untested in the SFIII: Third Strike community outside of Japan. So it remains to be seen whether this trend will spread over to the global SFIII: Third Strike community.
It is rumored that Kuroda used to employ this training technique back when the game was still fairly new.
