I’ve been playing SF for years and been wrestling with years with this glass ceiling that I cannot seem to break through. I rest somewhere in between always beating my friends that just casually play SF to getting tore up with anyone with any sense of real skill goes again me.
I’ve been trying for months to find a new character that fits my playing style. In years past I was the kind of guy who only picked Ken/Ryu but after playing 3rd Strike it finally taught me the beauty of breaking free of the Shoto’s. So with CvS2 I started playing whoever I found gave me the most challenge fighting the old friends I could always beat as ken/ryu. This settled me on Vega(Claw) going into SF4 I has some successes with him but after everyone became familiar with the game I quickly ran into matches I felt I should have won but for whatever reason didnt.
This problem became exacerbated by falling into a routine with my play. I’d always do this when an opponent did this and if it didn’t work I became pissed. Eventually I discovered VesperArcades Training video and it was like a door was opened. A ton of techniques I had been doing but never fully understood was shown to me.
Now the question is how exactly do I incorprite this new found knowledge into my game? Everytime I would look for advice I’d see the same thing over and over. Hit Training which I never quite understood. What exactly am I looking to do in Training? I still feel that if I had someone that was at my exact skill level that I could continue to go back and forth against whilst learning the ins and outs of these new techniques that would help far better than beating up on a dummy in training mode.
So if anyone could stand through that many rant I’ll take whatever help advice I can get. Thanks in advance!
Training is primarily for execution, training muscle memory and experimentation. In addition unless you’re an online warrior, training is good to keep you warmed up between casuals, tourneys, etc.
I mostly play online these days since we lost our scene when they got rid of our arcades, but I can tell you I usually spend a couple hours in training before I even hop into online matches.
To sum it up simply training gives you mechanics, and matches will give you the knowledge on how to implement it. Get your execution down, experiment a little then try it out in matches, if it doesn’t work figure out why and come up with sometime else.
As far as finding someone your same skill level to spar with, to be quite honest I’ve had much more rapid improvement playing my sparring partner who is at a much higher level than I am. The reason being is that he points out my mistakes, tell me what I need to fix, I work on it and play him again and I don’t make the same mistakes, he’ll then point out something else that I’ll go work on, so on and so forth. If you’re playing against someone of equal skill level they may not notice mistakes you’re making, therefore making it harder to improve.
On a side note I’m an advocate of recording your own matches and watching them later to see if there are things you pick up on that you could do differently.
Thanks, you definitely gave me some insight. I most of the people that are better than me just beat me then send me a message via whatever service calling me a scrub which does a lot to make me want to not even try. I miss the days where you could actually sit next to the person and there was some sense of connection between you and them.
Getting a read off a guy you know. Plus, back then most people didn’t fly off the handle after a loss they took it and stride and kept going.
Yea, I haven’t seen a fighting game in an arcade around here in almost 8 or 9 years. I live in a resort beach town so all our arcades converted over to redemption based arcades, tickets/prizes etc.
I lucked out having an old friend that was much better than me and while he does give me a thorough beat down it definitely does a lot to help me catch up with the rest of the scene that didn’t stop when I did. If you check around regional matchmaking you may be able to find some casuals or something and make some friends that can help you improve.
Watch your replays for these types of matches and see what you are doing wrong. If I lose a match I felt I should have won I always go back and watch for the parts I made mistakes like drop a combo, weak punish, or missed opportunities. You can’t learn from your mistakes if you don’t know what they are.
1: Mix up, your only goal should be landing hits and avoiding hits
2: Everything else you learn as if your about to take a test and nothing more
A fighting game is 100% mind games, even if you have to adapt to game play that you otherwise wouldn’t prefer. Even if it’s a more simplistic form that makes you sigh on the inside. Even if you consider the game a tad unfair and some things not making much sense.
Either way it requires having too much time on your hands which oddly enough I have far too much time on my hands.
A fighting game is not all about mind games, and this is probably the problem I see with a lot of newer or struggling people: accuracy. I’d have to watch a video to really know, but people who do things like jump at the wrong time, jump ALL THE TIME, being unable to tech throws, mistime or fail to hit confirm their combos, fall into predictable wake up and defensive patterns, fall into predictable offensive patterns, fail to anti-air properly[I admit I’m pretty bad at this] throw out unsafe moves randomly…and unsafely, being unaware of your ranges or options, backing yourself into a corner, letting people out of the corner ETC ETC. When I see these I know this person cannot win. Period. This is the part of the game you have to KNOW before you can even start playing. I think the example above is prime. S. Fierce pushes you REALLY far away. How in the world does he throw you. Even kara doesn’t take you 1/4 screen
I just went in training mode, you’re right. Sorry about the above post, he puts me into some kind of mixup with standing fierce but it’s not a throw mixup.
I honestly am just fed up I cant seem to find a area where I feel I’m progressing. Everyone I run into online seems to just steamroll me. It’s frustrating because I can feel myself getting upset for falling for things but its like my hands just dont do what I need them to. I am still getting used to fighting on Stick after fighting on pad for pretty much all my life but I had felt I had overcome this hurdle.
Certain days I just wanna quit but I LOVE this game so much and I miss the magic I felt when I would have a really close match with a friend or random stranger. I am just not at the level I once was or think I once was.
I really really want to enjoy this game as much as I once did. I wish I could play someone that would just sit down and tell me what I was doing wrong and tips on avoiding simple mistakes.
Everybody gets the moment when they realize the world is bigger than they thought. Everyone gets days where it feels like all the effort is wasted[especially when you’re PAYING to lose]. You’re right, feedback is a huge part of the process. Thankfully this is the age of the internet and you’re on a site where people play the sodded thing. Worst to worst post a vid up and everyone can stare, but I’d advise if there’s literally no scene in a 100 mile radius find some PSN/XBOX chums. Nothing helps more than a nice 20 set in endless as well as taking the edge off of needing to win. Also if you’re just learning stick then it’ll be more difficult. Moves not coming out doesn’t really help much with winning games, but still with it. It was insanely frustrating for me too, but hell I paid for it. Might as well use it. Very helpful in the long run.
Here’s another tidbit: This game takes work. Like effort. Like a lot of it. And it doesn’t give particular returns except for the satisfaction of stomping 12 year olds and finding groups of people to drink and smoke with. If you really want to be good at this you have to be dedicated and somedays it won’t feel worth it[Like today for me, AE Fei Long - pretty lame.] But if you really enjoy it, don’t get discouraged. Remember the satisfaction you get from playing and it’ll let you easily tide the bad times.
Final Misc Tips: most people online really really suck. So quick checklist. Do you know your best punish[Vegas is what…s.fierce c.strong EX wall or something]. This makes people not want to shoryu randomly. Or not. Then they lose. Then you laugh. Do you know your options on wake up. [Vega BD+Backflip = OMG rage for me]. Do you anti-air properly? Or do you take the jump in and the resulting mixup. Are you hitting them with your attacks? A lot of vegas game is his superior footies tagging them out of things, but his range+speed allows for the kara-throw/c.lp mixes which can be frustrating. The reverse of all this is true, don’t put yourself in the opposing situations. This is the baseline of the game. Make every game count. If you lose you lost for a reason. Try to pinpoint why. Try to reduce situations you found desperate. Try to maintain situations you felt in control. For example I have a hard time with max range rekkas. My very expensive current goal is trying to break that stalemate. I imagine jumping in properly or EX Chop or something…s. mp seems to get hit, etc. practice/experiment/prosper. The secondary is to not allow him to get free jump ins. Else mak’s miserable defensive tools will ensure my quick demise.
If you keep playing and even pay attention at all to improving and eliminating bad habits, you WILL improve even if it takes a long time. Do your best to play in real life with a local scene, that is the best thing you can do to have fun and get way better than you would just playing online.
Let’s see: *punches hole next to 1,3,5 (OOOOOOH, YEAH!) 7 & 8
This is pretty damn helpful actually. My friend also pointed out that I have imposed 4 major hurdles lately that haven’t helped me any either.
1.) just came back to the game after a few months break
2.) been jumping from games with wildly different play styles (MvC3 to MK9 back to SSFIV)
3.) trying to learn a new character.
4.) jumping from pad to stick
I been just trying to get back used to the flow of the game by playing against the CPU but of course when I use (claw even at the highest difficulty) there is not much learning going on. Mainly because the CPU plays absolutely nothing like a real opponent. We all know that moment when play the CPU and you do that one thing that in the back of your head goes “There is no way that would have worked on a real person” yet it does.
Alright, you guys have convinced me to walk into my local scene (Ann Arbor wolfcrone here I come) and try and shake off some of the cobwebs!
You have to do the expert losing strategy if you ever wanna improve in a game like this. This strategy is called ‘Changing on the fly’ which explains a lot of things early on in a match. Here’s how it works;
Winning Round 1) Winning Round 1 Means NOTHING when it comes to Street Fighter. Because that was the round you and your opponent were feeling each other out. Now that you know what the other one will do in X Situation, then you’re gonna counter the shit out of it. Why? Because doing the same thing over and over is what makes people people. We do what works. Until it stops working. In order to utilize what you learn in Round 1, watch for him doing some of the same shit again, and counter properly, while you start playing ENTIRELY DIFFERENT so you confuse your enemy. This is what will help you win.
Combos are your friend) Every Chance you get, no matter how small, combo combo combo. Even if it’s only simple light attack chains that you’re putting together, they stack up to cause Stun. If you Stun your enemy, they are fucked. One hundred percent. Plus, every tiny little dividend of damage will work you towards the goal, so it’s worth doing.
Don’t Throw a Special Out All The Time) People HUNT for Specials all the time, so they can just beat you stupid when you get blocked, and they’ll set your ass on fire again and again. Plus, Predictability is what lets people set up juicy Jump In Combos. And the last thing you want is to be easy to pick apart.
Finally…
Watch Your Character In Action) Youtube and Replay Channel are there for a reason. People have to see how your characters work and how they should react to certain things. If you see a bad decision get made, you can immediately say ‘Hey, He should have done Y attack instead’ or something. Watch Vids, Watch Combos, Watch as much as possible. Read up on them too. Hell, Get a Tattoo of them on your back, just make sure you’re dedicated to learning your main. Also, Learn other characters constantly. If you know what they’re capable of, you know how to beat those abilities too.