"Hands" - it's about hands

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
1

Seeing as every other comment in every thread is about hands i thought it would be best to make a thread dedicated to hands. Quite a few threads are getting a bit messy and this might help clean things up a bit.

FIRST OF ALL WATCH VESPERARCADES TUTORIAL ON PIANOING AND SLIDING https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmx_mnW9h-Q

As of now, there’s only a few meaningful cancels to hands and they are cr.mk and cr.mp to lp, hp, and ex hands. As the character develops there might be a need to learn some additional cancels but as of now, the mk and mp cancels are the only thing you’ll need. It doesn’t matter how you do the hands as long as it is consistent. I’ll list all the various techniques i’ve seen in the threads. I’m personally not particularly amazing at hands so any feedback is appreciated. If there’s a technique you want to claim ownership of, do tell.

Piano
cr.mk, lp, mp, hp, mp, lp
cr.mk, hp, mp, lp, mp, hp
cr.mk, lp, hp, mp, lp, hp
cr.mp, lp, hp, mp, lp
etc.
As long as the fifth p input is the correct strength it’s all good. Just pick the variant you are most comfortable with. The variants starting with lp are superior as they make the mk plinkable. For hp hands from mk i find lp, hp, mp, lp, hp most comfortable.

The dirty piano
cr.mk, lp, mp, hp, lp, lp
I’ll call this one the dirty piano until someone claims ownership. You can replace the last lp for any other strength and it’ll be a regular ol piano. I like this one for lp and ex hands from mk.

Alternating piano (PinkPwnageFrenzy)
mp, lp, mp, lp, mp
mp, lp, mp, lp, hp
etc.
Another piano variant. Just alternate twice between two inputs and finish with desired strength. I imagine this might be useful on pad.

The plink
cr.mk~lp, cr.mk~lp, any three punch inputs ending in the desired strength eg. cr.mk~lp, cr.mk~lp, hp, mp, lp
Not too big of a fan of this one for mk but seems popular enough. I do however like it a lot for mp eg. mp~lp, mp~lp, desired strength p. It’s very easy to just plink mp with lp twice and then press the final input. I use this one for any strength hands from mp.

Sliding
Plink mk with lp using your thumb on mk and your index finger on lp then quickly slide your finger from lp to mp to hp, and then back again to mp to lp. If you want to do hp hands, instead of sliding back to lp from mp, slide to hp instead. if you want lp hands from cr.mp with a slide you slide mp hp hp mp lp. if you want an ex while sliding just kinda slide and mash. This is probably the easiest way to do hands (as in it requires the least amount of practice) but certainly among the messiest.

Pianoing tips
When first starting slow it way down. Just press the buttons in order, nice and slow, again and again. If you have trouble getting smooth inputs and get a bunch of plinked or simultaneous presses you can try thinking of the sequence in partitions. For example, if you want to piano lp, hp, mp, lp, hp you can think of lp to hp as a part, hp to mp as a part and hp as the last part, and as such, in your mind you are doing three things in sequence rather than five, which might help with coordination. You can of course partition the inputs any way you like.

If you’re starting to get it but then all of sudden your coordination starts to feel whack, just slow it down again. Nice and eeeeasy. Don’t even bother trying to get hands to come out, just make sure the inputs are nice and smooth then gradually increase the speed.

Don’t just arbitrarily practice the cancels, but also practice them in the context you intend to use them. Practice walking around to cr.mk xx lp hands, practice frametrapping cr.mk xx lp hands, practice counterpoking cr.mk to whatever hands. Having the piano down is meaningless unless you can use it in context.

(PinkPwnageFrenzy) You can practice hands on most surfaces when you’re not at your stick. Like on a desk, bathroom sink, etc. Don’t press down super hard on them, you’ll wear out your hand faster. And with first tip, if you tap too loud you might annoy people. =p

Sliding tips

Feedback and additional techniques are appreciated.

2

if you want lp hands from cr.mp with a slide you slide mp hp hp mp lp if you want an ex while sliding just kinda slide and mash.

3

Thanks, updated

4

What about alternating between two buttons for the piano/slide, like lp mp lp mp lp? Any reason not to try something like that? Also, your fourth piano input list doesn’t have five inputs. =p
Also other useful tips:
You can practice hands on most surfaces when you’re not at your stick. Like on a desk, bathroom sink, etc.
Don’t press down super hard on them, you’ll wear out your hand faster. And with first tip, if you tap too loud you might annoy people. =p

5

I really appreciate this thread, but honestly I’m still having problems. To me cMK and cMP just dont seem like they link to hands. Auto-block always kicks in.

6

fourth piano starts with mp :stuck_out_tongue: thanks for the feedback, i’ll update the op

7

If autoblock kicks in that means you didn’t cancel into the hands. Try doing the inputs a little bit faster.

8

I wish i could show you how fast i can go with it, but when i do the inputs look neat and tidy but then it doesnt come out. so unless i need to be breaking mach 5 im at a loss here haha

9

You’re not canceling it fast enough unfortunately. A good way to tell is if you do it on whiff (make your normal whiff) and then buffer the hands anyway, if you did it fast enough as you would to link it, you’ll get hands after ur normal. Looks like you did a frame trap for hands, dunno if that helps you speed up your timing or not

10

Actually, if he practices on whiff, at least with c.mk, hands should not come out on whiff with proper timing, only on block or hit. You are being slow if it comes out on whiff. its basically the same as c.mk xx hadou with ryu, hadou will never come out on whiff.

11

watching haneyama’s decapre, his inputs seem to be =

lp + mk,
mp + hp,
mash lp.

if you play on a ps3 pad, these are the inputs that also work for me. out of experience, setting up your buttons so you have a secondary version of light punch on L1 might help you a lot. this way you can slide your thumb from mk to mp, use your index finger to trigger R1 (hp). the whole time, you can concentrate on the lp using your other hand.

you’ll do it too slow at first but even if you do it too slow it still has a use. so just learn the motion and eventually you’ll get it.

this is exactly how i do mp into hands on pad.

12

Thanks for the help all. I’ve got every cancel and combo down just working on this cMK. But ill get it.

13

got it, the only way i can do it is the lp+mk fashion and boy do i have to mash after. looks real sloppy

14

Oh ok didn’t know that, that’s just the way I learned how to do hands consistently. Thanks for the clarification

15

right and this is why this is so good against balrog.

16

He does lp + mk mp hp mash lp, not mp+hp.

17

My main issue right now is that for some reason I get EX, the inputs are always like this - cr mk + cr lp cr mk + cr lp hp mp lp + mp. It’s annoying and I can’t seem to stop doing it.

18

I tend to get the ex out too. Unless I slide, which I dont do, cause after a long session my finger will hurt for the rest of the day. The method I recently developed ishelping me alot. I do cr. mk+lp. lp mp hp lp/hp.
I doubletap the first lp that I do with the mk. Piano the last 2 buttons and finish with the one I want.

19

Have you tried thinking about the inputs in parts? That really helped me with smoothness. Try to imagine “cr. mk+cr. lp, cr. mk+cr.lp, hp” as one distinct part, “mp” as the next and “lp” as the final part. You even try thinking about “cr.mk+lp, cr.mk+lp, hp, mp” as one part and only the lp as something seperate.

I’ve started to think about “cr.mk, lp, hp, mp, lp” as one distinct part and then it’s easy to just pick the final strength when i consider it conceptually as a follow up to the first part. I also got EX accidentally all the time prior to thinking in partitions.

20

My suggestion for slide is seting up your buttons this way

LP MP HP MP
LK MK HK 3P

I use this configuration for Blanka, to do st.LP xx HP Elec you press LP and slide all the way to MP and back to HP. HP Daggers that’s not really useful for Decapre, obviously, but the 3P is useful for EX, press cr.MK + LP and slide all the way to MP and then down to 3P.

Also, another tip when doing cr.MK xx LP Dagger is to not slide your index too much into HP, you risk pressing HP twice and getting MP Dagger instead of LP. So slide from LP to right until the edge of the HP button and then back again, you can seel if you messed up by always counting the inputs in training mode.