I started to notice an improvement in my Street Fighter game when I started playing a friend who was slightly better than me on a regular basis. I learned a lot from the games we played and eventually surpassed him. Fighting him taught me the true value of the basic moves and combos over the flashier super moves. Many of our heated matches were nearly special-free.
I no longer live near him but have found a few new opponents; my fiercest competitor is my wife. She is hard to play since she sticks to mix-up characters with lots of speed. Her 3S Chun-Li is pretty inspiring. She’s not quite as good as I am but she keeps me on my toes.
Buying a nice Hori arcade stick made a huge difference for me. I am not coordinated enough to pull off certain moves consistently with a D-pad. Sirlin’s book is available online for free and is an interesting read.
Self:
Reflect on your past matches. Learn your own strengths and weakness, learn which characters are best for you/you feel most comfortable playing with and act accordingly.
Others:
Make friends and rivals.
Play and observe as many people as possible to expose yourself to as many playstyles/situations as possible. You should be able to pick up on a lot from this (including their strengths and weaknesses). Not everyone uses a execution-heavy/fancy playstyle to win.
And for the love of god either make sure you’re having fun or that you love winning and money so much that you’re always determined to get it. ANYTHING that’ll keep you playing/from giving up.
I feel your pain most of the games I play I am not all that great at them either and training mood seems to have little or no effect on how I train but one thing always said here and in other gaming site should be followed in this case me especially, playing people better than you literally play people that are superior to you and force yourself to find tactics that will get around their moves.
If you don’t have human player just play the game at its highest level or a level high enough to where you will be beaten senseless yet still have still a slight chance of success. If your chance of victory is 0% don’t play the game at that level drop it just some but not by very much. I gain my skills in SC doing this play the game at its highest level from day one and forced myself to beat the game with every character under those conditions. I also taught myself to play VF, KI, and Guilty Gear the same way when I didn’'t have others to fight against me that were at my level or higher.
This tactic helped and I still feel I am a scrub because I have enough real fights daily and at the end of the day that is all that matters what good human player you beat. Playing the game at higher levels helps only so much and that is why when I face good people I end up losing so often because I play people of that level very much. That is the only tip I can give you. You have find your own way out if it and you have to play better opponents to force potential out
I don’t catch on quite as fast as the people I play with when it comes to combos. I will just use that as the intro to my thoughts.
I have been playing Third Strike for 3 years now. Before I knew SRK, arcade sticks, and tournaments existed, I found the Anniversary Collection, bought it out of nostalgia for Street Fighter II, and fell in love with Third Strike. I learned EVERYTHING on a ps2 pad. Took me probably 2 years of playing a LOT. I had a lot of time to kill in college because my courses were a joke. I accepted there were certain things I could not do on a pad (kara demon, kara SRKs, kara throws) and decided I didn’t need them to win. After getting my ass absolutely handed to me at EVO East 2006, I realized that my understanding of the game was pitiful. So I spent another year practicing on pad. I met a guy in my area through SRK who can beat anyone in any game at any time, and played hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of matches with him. Finally I decided to get an arcade stick. And you know what?
I had to start all over. I had never played in an arcade in my life. I thought it was impossible and deemed the purchase a waste. I didn’t want to relearn how to do all the combos that I had spent 2 years in training mode learning. I was ready to give up the game. I kept plugging away at it for an hour or so a day and 6 months later I can do everything I did on a ps2 pad and more.
And so my words of advice are that you have to love the game enough to practice it. Most people don’t have that drive, trust me I understand. My friends refuse to take the game as seriously as me because they despise sitting in training mode learning the timing for stun juggles that you might not even get to use in a real match for a year. However, that is also why I am better than them. And then when you go to another big tournament and meet some top players, the shit gets serious. And your love for the game is reignited.
On top of all that, watch a shitload of videos. Tutorials, obscene unrealistic combo videos, ranbats from all over the world, etc etc. Trust me, it all helps. And dont refuse to watch anything that Rockefeller isn’t commentating, or something with poor visual quality, a lot of the poor quality vids are some of the best (Look up Hirai vs Umezono 11 game set to see someone who has 3s Chun Li all figured out). Also, don’t skip the Twelve vs Sean matches just because you think you will never run into one of those characters. Because you will. Learn everything that every character can do.
I’ve got to go to work, but I would much rather be in training mode. Good luck to you sir.
This is how I improved my execution when I couldn’t combo into super for shit back when I first started playing.
First I practiced just doing the super motions as fast as possible without messing up. I would also try it from all different positions like crouching, standing, while recovering and ect.
After you get that down is when you start buffering. Basically just think about it like this. You’re doing a super motion and you are just adding another button press to the motion.
Example
Kens low mk super in 3s. D+mk (hold), DF, F, qcf and release mk. Thats probably the most basic combo into super you want to start with. After you get that down you can start doing shorts into super and what not.
Kara grabs are pretty easy once you get the feel for them also. That’s all it really is. You get this feel for certain shit and you’re like oh shit thats how you get it. Some people just try shit the hard way the whole time without knowing.
Anyway for kara grabs just kinda roll your fingers.
For example ryu’s kara grab in 3s.
Forward+MP then cancel it out with a grab.
What I do is keep my thumb and pointer on lk and lp and as i hit forward+mp with my middle finger I roll directly onto my thumb and pointer so I cancel the move quick enough.
I figured some of this shit could help. I suck at teaching so lol.
HM… Interesting thread… You know, I used to be really scrubby, but I’m alot better than I was before. I was really bad in Street Fighter based games. I couldn’t do a dragon punch to save my life. Eventually I did learn, but it took awhile, but I got it down perfectly now. Then came my next dilemma, I couldn’t do double motions in a combo for the longest time. I gave on SF based games and went on to VS games. I excelled in MvC 1 and 2. I may not move as quick as Sanford or Yipes, but the more I watch videos, the better I start understanding how to execute better.
Even nowadays, no one around Boston plays VS games anymore, the scene here is pretty much dead and there’s really no one to play… but this past year alone, I went to EVO2k7 in Vegas. I chilled with John Choi and asked him for some tips on how to execute better. Though he never watched me play and couldn’t tell me what my weaknesses were, he said so little, but yet he helped me out in my game play so much. I can’t really explain it, but I guess he triggered something inside me. Nowadays I can actually do short short super. Before evo, I couldn’t do it. Now, I get it out 75% of the time. I just need to practice this on stick now and I’ll be all set. I usually play on pad for SF based games and stick on VS games. Practice does help and watching videos to understand where and when they execute helps.
Also on another side note, you can always try double tapping. I hear your moves always comes out perfectly. At least I was told by a top japanese player in Vegas.
First, learn that you should only be playing for the money. After that, learn black magik like Dark Prince and Sell your soul for the skills you want, but don’t forget to get other shit too like whatever else you desire. If you want to be good that bad I can arrange this, just let me know. ^
or posts stupid stuff like this and get infracted.
For me I practice with my local tourney players. That’s basically the best solution. Practicing against the CPU will lead into bad habits and the CPU doesn’t prove much of a challenge.
Practicing against a friend who is willing to learn would probably be the second best option since both can learn from each others mistakes and improve on them.
I was scanning a couple of pages back and I noticed someone said ‘you mean playing for 16 yrs isn’t extensive?’
Well it depends on how you’ve been training. Training against CPUs will only improve to a certain limit. Same as playing with casuals who just play for casual fun.
Also note that there are ppl who spent many years with that one character to be this good, but a tourney player can take a week or 2 to be as good or exceed beyond.
Not that this isn’t true, but it only works for you because you have an advanced knowledge fighting games. For someone who doesn’t know enough to see why they are losing, that kind of level gap in competition leads to things like calling people cheaters and quitting, because they can’t put actual names on things like this person’s mind games are owning me or I have terrible spacing or the move has ridiculous priority.
But at the same time my view is survival of the fittest…
At that level you either learn…or you give up…
Hence my 2nd biggest thing I would say to add on to that is DESIRE/DEDICATION. If you dont have the desire to work, lose and learn and get better, and want everything handed to you on a platter you will never be good at anything in life. HARD WORK is one of the biggest determinants in success.
You must take in every loss and learn from it and welcome losing as you will get far better from losing than from winning. The people that give up from losing soo much IMO arent cut out for the big stage…
Also means they dont have the desire to win…I get my ass handed to me by Kane9999 in Mexico in KOFXI yet I LOVE IT… :lovin: Why? I am getting better with each loss and I know that just means I will be that much further ahead of the pack when I come back over here.
I also gotta add to the casuals thing- I am notorious for sandbagging during casuals in any game…I use them to keep sharp…and test things out so yes Keits is right. Just handle your business when it counts.