Hello, I’m relatively new here but have lurked for about three years now. My first question is how does one learn how to hit confirm especially in a real match? I feel this topic isn’t discussed as much as it should be. I see people confirming jabs, one crouching forward and shorts into CA and I’m wondering how the brain could even perform a motion that fast let alone react (ie. S. lk into 720) Is there a way to practice this? What about jabs into special moves? I saw James Chen hour long video on hit confirming and it mentioned something about buffering a move that only comes out on hit but I didn’t really understand it that well or if it applies in SFV.
For the sake of simplicity I’ll assume you’re playing Ryu.
So the trick to doing this is basically buffering an input within an input. So instead of inputing qcf.P, qcf, qcf.P you want to input qcf.P, qfc.P really quickly at the end of your combo string.
Hope this explanation made sense. There are probably videos on youtube about super cancelling if you need a more visual explanation
Also if you’re wondering about learning to just hit confirm. Set the dummy to block -> Random and practice the string that you want to hit confirm. If the dummy blocks, stop your string. If the first hits land, continue your combo.
Also keep in mind that even if you do that shit in your sleep after 1000 hours of practice mode, that doesn’t mean shit in a real match. You gotta force yourself to try it and might lose matches because of that, but it’s worth it since leveling yourself up is more important than leveling your points up.
Also you can start with easier hit confirms to ease yourself into the concept.
cr.lk>cr.lp xx super/srk is hard as nails. Ryu’s st.MP>st.MP xx Hadoken xx CA is piss easy by comparison.
I’m also trying to master this. Learning to hit-confirm cr.MK into super consistently as SF3 Ken and SF5 Karin would be immensely beneficial
Although, after an hour of practice against a random-block dummy, my reaction speed is still limiting me
Some general tips:
- your brain reacts much faster from an auditory cue than a visual cue
- the attack flash animation will be blue if the attack is blocked or yellow if it hits. Alternatively, some people prefer looking at the health bar using their peripheral vision instead for a visual cue
- obvious, but remember that you can buffer QCF before cr.MK and another QCF during the startup frames of cr.MK. Or, you can just straight-up churn 2xQCF after cr.MK is inputted if you’re more comfortable with that
But it I’m inputting quickly to combo, do I “mash” as soon as the first hit lands as opposed to doing the whole string? If they block and I’m waiting for the confirm feels like I’d get punished. Playing Mika and going from hp to CA is proving tricky for me. I’m fine with the concept in MvC3, having issues in SFV.
You may be confusing a counter-hit into CA with a hit confirm.
A common strategy in SF is to input a cancellable normal into special move/super at a range that if the opponent sticks something out at the wrong time, the normal will counter-hit it and the special will come out. Otherwise the normal whiffs and nothing happens.
To learn hit confirms, pick something easy first, which means a combo with a lot of initial attacks or just slower attacks so you have time to recognize that the combo landed. Also, confirm into a hard punch/kick normal or easier special move like something with a QCF motion. Then go into training mode and set the dummy to random block.
You cant “hitconfirm” a supercancel in sfv from a single attack. The thought process is tgat you throw out a mofe that will whiff intentionally, during this you input the super motion. If the opponent throws out a poke or walks/dashes forward theyll get caught by the poke that is buffered with the super.
So setting dummy on random guard and trying to cancel from a single normal into super in sfv is not doable. You can however link a super on reaction from things like counterhits.
sticking out super-buffered pokes into the air is definitely one way to supercancel from a single attack safely. But, the harder method of actually reacting whether or not the single poke hits successfully is still possible. You see this commonly in 3rd strike matches with Nuki’s chun-li (cr.MK xx SA2) and both Matsuken and Deshiken’s ken (cr.MK xx SA3). Even though there are only 1 or 2 active frames for cr.MK, there is an additional ~10 “freeze” frames that occur upon a hit that you can use in addition to react
Okay I just want to chime in here: while confirming 3S Chun c.MK into super is very doable because that move has a very large cancel window, there’s been an everlasting debate on whether or not it’s possible to confirm Ken c.MK, and I’m on the “no”-side of that debate. You can do stuff like committing to the c.MK super if you see your opponent standing and use that as a pseudo-confirm, but a true confirm where you actually react to the hit and then super is borderline impossible at best. 12 frames is at the very limit of human twitch reaction time, and any input lag from the setup is going to make that even harder.
Point is, not all moves are single-hit confirmable. In 3S, most moves that let you single-hit confirm either let you link out of them, or have extended cancel windows. There are single-hit confirms in SFV as well, but they work under the same rules.
Ken can’t confirm cr. mk into SA3.
I’ve done extensive research and I have never seen anyone do that shit on a training dummy without guessing.
In real matches it’s either an option select based on meter, where you get just enough meter for SA3 on hit, while being short on meter on block/whiff, or people reacting to a button or other action they’ve seen previously aka whiff punishing, or good fucking guess based on previous behavior.
Show me a video where someone confirms 20 cr. mk xx SA3 on random block, and I’ll believe it, otherwise it’s just a myth.
I’ve seen Deshiken pull it off in a the grand finals of the 4th Coop Cup (and Hitotsume does it as well a few seconds later, right before Deshiken does it to him again).
Skip to 5:55 in this video.
https://youtu.be/yRQkbQt29GY?t=5m555s
The issue is that to be able to do it, you need to be buffering the super input regardless of whether or not it hits, hitting kick as soon as you’ve confirmed it hits. Compare this to Chun’s cr.mk xx SA2 where you have all the time in the world to confirm it.
That said, the method of pulling it off (buffering the motion, but not the button press) is a good way of doing hit confirm into super with anyone in SFV.
3S also had ‘late cancels’ on many normals and very fast super start up making it possible.
if you use Ryu, cr. hp is definitely go for single hit confirm into CA. do the cr.hp and use negative edge. basically the way to do it step by step is; d, df+hp, d, df, f, let go of hp. this way you don’t get a fireball but to be honest, if you get the fireball or an srk by accident before the super then of course that’s still good. make sure after releasing HP you tap or double tap again just in case you let go too early.
So it’s been a long while since i’ve played my last Street fighter game (Probably around 12 years.) I currently play Necalli and have been doing fairly well. Gotten into silver, making steady progress. I understand the concept of buffering as I can do it like… in a neutral position? For instance if i’m playing against a Ryu and he’s spamming fireball, I can buffering the qcfx2 and just react with a punch for it. Or if I know i’m going to land a punish I just qcf low strong qcf p. It’s also suuuuuper easy to do off a stomp which is generally where you’d go for it anyway but doing it off a light is still ridiculously tough for me for some reason, but manageable for now in training mode. But since I don’t have an attack that uses qcf p, I know it works, how’s someone like Ryu supposed to do that? Doesn’t fireball just come out if you do the same method?
Yeah, if there’s an overlapping motion you’ll get the special move if you use the method you’re using, so you really just have to be very fast and precise with your super inputs if you have overlapping motions. It’s definitely possible with some practice, though.
Would you say that it’s a bad habit to get into if I was to play other characters, or other games, and did you have a suggestion for a different method?
If it works out for you with the character you’re currently playing, then I see no reason to stop using said method. It works just fine, I occasionally use it myself. It only really becomes a problem if you try to switch to a character/game where the method doesn’t work, and it doesn’t sound like you’re planning on doing that at the moment.
I would suggest practicing different forms of hit-confirms though. Diversifying your repertoire of techniques is always a good thing.
-the first one is not a confirm, it’s a whiff punish. it’s a really common whiff punish situation and every mid level Ken or above will be able to do it 100% of the time.
-the second is a confirm but it’s made much easier in that he can visually see Deshiken is walking forward
-the third one is a DED option select. notice how he has exactly the right amount of meter where super only comes out if hits. if it was blocked he wouldn’t have had the bar for a super so nothing would’ve happened.
the “is Ken low forward confirmable” thing is argued a lot between pretty good players. the answer depends on what you consider “hit confirm.” if you mean in a match, with various cues to help you (like you see him standing up and walking towards you) then yes it’s probably possible but pretty difficult. if you mean a “true hit confirm” aka turn the CPU to random block and do 10/10 correct without messing up once, I don’t think that’s possible. I’ve never seen anyone do that. also I suspect that had Deshiken walked forward and then blocked low at exactly that moment, the other guy would’ve let it rip anyway. you have to commit to it before you can really process that it 100% hit. he committed to super because last time he saw, Deshiken was walking forward.
I think Ken low forward super confirm is something you do if you’re “feeling it” but it’s not something you expect to rely on. He’s not Chun where you can bully people with low forward and relatively easily react to the hit. it’s something you try at the right moment when the state of the match + the read on your opponent suggests to you it’ll work, and visually you think it’ll work.
to answer the question:
practice in training mode with the dummy on random block, and only confirm on hit. if you let it rip on block, start over. try to get 10 in a row. I suggest starting with really easy ones. if you have a copy of 3s, then Chun low forward, Makoto stand strong, Elena low strong, Ken low strong are all reasonable to confirm into super. then you play against a real CPU and try to only confirm on hit. then you move to real opponents. basically gradually increase the difficulty.
if those single hits are all too hard for starting off, try two hit confirms. Makoto low short -> hayate -> SA1. only activate SA1 when you know low short and hayate hit. you can also do jump in attacks like this. so say you are Ken, you jump in roundhouse, then low forward, and you only confirm into uppercut if you saw that jump in roundhouse hit.
I’m not sure about other games but I imagine there’s similar ideas/tools you can use to learn the same skills.