With 3-frame links being the minimum, will double tapping be of any use? Will anyone bother with it?
Anything that helps the execution succes rate is useful, even with easier links.
Double tap is a bad tecnique for 1-frame links since it has a gap (sfIV had plinking to cover that but other games didn’t!), but it’s actually the perfect complement to the 3-frame margin.
A perfectly executed double tap means that the button is pressed in the 1st frame, unpressed in the second, pressed again in the 3rd. Simple maths makes it that while a single button press gives you a 3-frame chance to hit the link, a well done doble tap extends the margin to 5 frames. I’m going to double tap everything.
(pro-tip: even in the sf4 engine double tap is better than plink for any link above 1-frame)
Fair enough, I guess I should get good with it. I heard Mago even triple taps.
triple tap is even better of course, I don’t use it though because my wrist aches if I triple tap even for a short while 
Hol Horse, you should slow your double tap slightly so that it’s pressed in the 1st, unpressed in the 2nd and 3rd, and pressed again in the 4th. This gives you a 6f window instead of 5f.
edit: with a 6f window, now you can hit your links when you’re blackout drunk, not just normal drunk
I wonder if most people even know what double tapping is…
It ISNT pressing the buttons twice, as fast as possible with one finger… That’s waaaaay to slow to be of use.
A true double tap looks like a single tap.
I’ve heard people saying they “triple tap” using 1 finger…
No dude, that’s called mashing 
…
fischbs you’re right in theory, and for a 4 frame link I should slow it even more and so on, but 2 frame gap makes it bad for 2-frames situations, such as possible punishes where the buffer doesn’t come to help. 5 frames is enough and honestly it would be mad confusing to learn different double tap timings for each situation, and I also play other games.
The standard tight double tap is a great execution tecnique and is good in every game for anything that doesn’t require a single frame timing (and in any non-plink game it’s at least decent to use for 1-frame things too.
lol so true. Two fingers on the same button? Blasphemy to most! 
True double tap takes time to learn. If you never used it you probably have to change your right hand position, and also get used to hit the edges of the button instead its center. The hardest part for most people is unpressing the button in 1 frame (if you don’t do that the double tap won’t work).
Hitting the button on the edge on the first tap instantly sliding the finger outside is more reliable than just lifting the finger again.
It’s good for many situations, not links only.
Daigo double taps normals in footsies situations, just to give a notorious example
QFT. This is the reason why I can’t double tap. I can make it look like I can double tap, but all I’m really doing is hitting the button twice while its down and getting a single tap.
I learned the double tap technique from watching gootecks play, he’s pretty notorious for it as well, or at least was. Idk if he still does it, but I could definitely feel an improvement in his timing overall when playing against him when he used double tap for everything.
A skill worthy of learning that’s for sure. I’ll take your insights into consideration when I try to learn it again when sf5 comes out
The hard part for me is not hitting one of the bottom rows buttons when tapping the upper row…anyway I’m finally at peace with my fighting game mediocrity.
Double tapping is so hard though.
The technique itself is easy enough to learn but actually applying it to your game is hard as fuck.
I watched Daigo’s and Sako’s hands in slow motion and they literally double tap every button press unless it’s a 1-frame link.
They double tap pokes, special moves, target combos and shit, while I have trouble even getting my moves out when trying to apply it.
On top of that you don’t really get the maximum advantage out of double tapping anyways. I doubt there’s a lot of people who get the perfect double tap timing consistently.
I guess buying a stick was simply a mistake after playing video games on gamepad for over 23 years.
I mean what’s the point in using stick if you can’t take full advantage of it?
How in the heck do you do a triple tap though?
Like a REAL triple tap? Is it ring finger>middle finger>index finger?
When I saw gootecks double tapping he was using middle finger>index finger… But is ring finger>middle finger better?
Top notch buttons are critical for good double tapping. Double tapping is actually the MAIN reason Sanwa buttons are considered the best. Every other tech can be done with good success on any kind of button that’s not broken, but the Sanwa button high sensitivity and mechanical quality make a huge difference in double tapping.
Sure I’m not sako/daigo level at double tapping, but my succes rate is miles better with new sanwa buttons compared to worn out sanwa buttons, let alone other kinds (like hori stock or whatever)
For double tap I usually go middle>index, as most do.
I’ve seen (and tried) two kinds of triple tap execution.
One is indeed ring>middle>index as you said, it’s basically an extention of the middle>index double tap, so if you have learned to double tap it’s sort of an extra step of the same movement, it’s in my opinion a bit easier than the other method; but since ring finger is shorter you have to extend it out or bend the middle finger more, either way it’s an unnatural position, and that gives me strain on ligaments.
The other is going middle>ring>thumb. Compared to the former, it bears no ligament stress so it’s a lot easier on the hand and thus probably way better for extended session, but it’s even harder and forces you to move your hand completely out of place from the usual “neutral position”. To triple tap this way, you form a sort of triangle on the very edge of the buttons with middle, index and thumb, then quickly “drop” the fingers in sequence letting them quickly slide out of the button in a rotation, like a outward spiral (maybe I’ll need to draw that to explain myself better lol)
Double taps sound sexy.
Finger techniques come handy in sexual relationships indeed
I think this is why Hori made the Kuro button plunger wider radius tbh.
Why does Daigo double tap footsies? Does he also double tap specials?
Excellent explanation dude thx for that.
(Wish more posts on srk were as insightful)
Is double tapping really necessary in SF5 though?
When I’m first learning a character I was using it and truthfully I’m not great because I don’t have my hand positioned ‘high’ enough over the buttons to do it - but after some practicing and figuring out timing; you can do the combos just as easily without double tapping.
To me at least double tapping made me feel as though I was mashing on buttons instead of just being critical and thorough with my execution.
SF4 requires quicker button presses than SF5. When I’m not hitting a combo in SF5 I just tell myself to slow down and poof problem fixed.
I’ve even seen people hitting SF4 1-frame links without using plinking because it was unconfortable to them, so these kind of techniques are not fundamentally necessary in a fighting game. Yet many other people plink 3+ frame links, which is as much as overkill as double tapping in sf5.
Also, we still don’t know if there are going to be combos which require stricter than 3-frame timing and/or where the buffer isn’t applicable. There may be some, like walking links (walking negates the buffer), strict juggles or whatever
Unless you feel really hindered by the execution itself, any technique that helps the success rate for something is useful, even if it was already something quite accessible.
On the topic of the purpose of double tapping outside links and reversal specials:
Normals out of blockstun: I’m not sure if the SF5 has a buffer for these too (anyone?), but anyways the purpose is getting your normal out as soon as possible. This not only helps with punishes. Lets say you block a move that’s -1 on block. You have theoretical frame advantage, but unless you’re hitting your button in the first frame, you have no practical frame advantage. That’s the reason why sometimes hitting the button still favours the guy who is at -1/-2 even in high level games, he just had a better timing.
Hitting the button at the first possible frame out of blockstun is harder than a 1-frame link since muscle memory won’t help, and also in the post-crt era it’s also setup-dependant since the timing is it totally dependant from audio/video feedback.
Raw command specials: quite overkill in modern games with huge directional input buffers, but it’s mostly to avoid the “pushing the button too early > you get the normal out before the special motion registers”. Double tap + negative edge gives you 4 contigous frames to register the directional input and kara-ing the normal into the desired special
Raw charge specials: see the above, but it’s a bit more useful since it really helps in situations where you are looking for exact/minimum charge time optimization
Cancel into specials/supers: double tap helps hitting the cancel window correctly. Usually not needed, but some cancellable normals have a small cancellable window that could be missed in the heat of the battle. If the special/super strenght doesn’t matter, then piano/slide over the 3 buttons fullfills this goal even better.
Raw normals: good for state transitions when you want the normal to be out asap but if you hit the button too early the move wouldn’t come out, like after a dash or after whiffing another normal. There might me more to it but that’s what I know about.