Double Tapping Tips?

I’ve been having an extremely difficult time mastering the double tap and until I get it down I feel that my game will always suffer. I was hoping some of you could share your experiences with this technique and how you overcame the challenges.

My problems currently are:

#1 - Hurting Fingers. This is by far the most problematic. After practicing the double tap (I’m rolling my middle and index fingers) for a few minutes they really start to hurt. When I play normally they never hurt at all but since I need to use the tips of my fingers for this it’s really started to be painful and I can’t keep it up long.

#2 - Hitting other buttons. While this isn’t so much a problem with the kicks, it’s a real problem with the punches. If I try to double tap medium punch, my fingers will “roll” off into the medium kick button… causing additional pain in the process.

I feel like I’m doing something wrong. Do any of you have any tips regarding this? How did you first learn it? What’s a good practice exercise? I’ve been using Sagat’s fake HK to verify that I’m doing it correctly - but again it’s easiest doing it on HK. Rolling my fingers off any other button is extremely problematic.

What type of controller or arcade stick do you use? I use a fightpad and a PS2 controller.

I only use double tap for certain situations. Like for ryu’s ex hurricane kick into ultra 1 in the corner. While ryu is in the air during the kick, I would input the ultra motions and press 3 punches right before he hits the ground and immediately after he hits the ground. It never fails. I guess you could practice that since it’s pretty easy. I’ll sometimes double tap FADC’s too.

I never hurt my fingers before. You must be hitting the buttons pretty hard.

What you’re doing isn’t double tapping. To double tap you have to hit the buttons twice with a 1 frame interval, which I don’t think it’s possible without an arcade stick. And even if it is, the time gap is a lot less than what it takes for ryu to land from an ex tatsu.

Anyways, I do it all the time for juggles like yun’s ex lunge > lp lunge or ex upkicks > lp lunge, or Akuma’s lk tatsu > srk and my fingers don’t hurt. Just do it without hitting those buttons so hard.

Also, when it comes to hitting links, I find that plinking is a lot more consistent/easier.

I have the same problem :frowning: Lk, Mk, and Hk are no problem, but the way my fingers roll off the buttons I will hit the kick buttons whenever I try double tap a punch.

I was under the impression that double tapping is universal and plinking is more a SFIV only thing, I have plinking down pat but I would like to get double tapping down as it seems the easier of the two for many combos/links and would help in other games.

(end nerd mode)

Double tapping with a 1-frame interval is hard.

To give you an idea… Sagat’s fake kick allows for a 3-frame gap between the inputs. It’s bad news for your double tapping skills if that move doesn’t come out 100% of the time.

im gonna say its probrablly not possible to get a double tap in one frame

just keep practicing. it took me like a week @ maybe 10 min a day

just start doing it with different buttons if you feel like youre relying on HK. i threw fireballs with DTs for my punch inputs for example

on a side note, i cant think of any situation where this is 100% necessary in sf4 unless you are doing something that is un plinkable, like 1 frame jabs

Well, I want to learn double tapping simply because it leaves more room for error on 2 frame links. Plinking still helps of course for 2 frame links but you should really only be plinking for 1 frame links. Regarding the question above regarding controller; I’m using a Madcatz TE stick. Throwing fireballs while double tapping is probably a good idea for practice. I’ll give it a go and see how I do. It’s really hard though for me not to drag those fingers over the kick buttons… and when I do that really hurts. :frowning:

Well, about that… That error margin thing is kinda theoretical, and it assumes you would perform the perfect double tap. I’d recommend plinking as an easier tool for any links, including 2+, if needed. I don’t see double tapping as a practical technique for links; best to forget about it.

Lol I never understood what double tapping really is for, someone care to explain?

it originated in the old days.

but the basic idea is that if you used one button input and it came out on the direction before the moves complete motion, you dont get a special.

:d::df::hp::f: for example for a fireball, you get crouch fierce or nothing if you tried to cancel into a firebal from a normal.

if you double tapped you would get :d::df::hp::f::hp:, and increase your chances of still getting a fireball