1

Hi guys, I’ve been roaming these forums a bit and i have yet to see anyone ask this question. How do you think like a top player. What goes threw your head while playing. Not just the usual train them to think one thing and do another. What are some things you think of while going into an intense match?(tournament play) I love to have a big discussion about this so… Discuss!

2

The Footsies handbook at Sonic Hurricane is a good place to start.

3

that’s true. And here is the link http://sonichurricane.com/?page_id=1702. It;s always good to have a solid ground game.

4

http://gootecks.com/strategy/street-fighter-4-thought-processes/

as a start

5

Well its not enough to just think like a top player. You have to actually build yourself from scratch to be consistent.

Alot of people think by watching videos and applying what they see from them will automatically give you pro status. Well yeah, you might actually be able to win against good players. However you will lack depth in your game-play and it’ll be easy for the more experienced opponents to read you out. My advice is to try to play people within your skill range and through time you will eventually know what a top player thinks like.

  1. Get your execution down (Combos, links, hit-confirm and trickery gimmicks).

  2. Matchup knowledge … Matchup knowledge … Matchup Knowledge … It makes the alot of difference.

  3. Footsy Mind-Games. (Reading your opponent; and making it difficult for them to read you).

6

+1 to everything he said.

I guess I can elaborate to answer your question a bit by saying one simple word: “Lots”.

When I was starting to play SF2 in arcades, I literally only thought things like “haha” or “oh shit”, but as I got more comfortable with the game my brain got more comfortable actually thinking; and I don’t believe its’ something you can force. I told a clueless guy in a pick-up basketball game to basically stand in front of his defender in the post for a pass and I gave him a bloody nose because he couldn’t process the the play in his head and move his hands.

I actually went through a phase where I was overthinking the game too much which killed my reflexes, but now I just ask myself a few simple looping questions that usually puts me a few moves ahead of where the match is now for example (against a bad Ryu):

"What does this guy want to do?"
He wants to fireball to control space.
"How can I turn that around on him?"
Early jump, punish into knockdown.
"How is he going to try to get out of my traps after I turn him around?"
Wakeup DP
"How can I turn that around on him?"
Block, focus, ultra.

I think about competitions at that level, as it’s happening and before it’s happened as a series of actions and reactions (isn’t that all anything is? at lower levels of play it’s just a series of random actions that somehow achieve a result) so I’m trying to corrall my opponent into a set of actions that I can control and react to and, likewise, he wants to do the same to me which is why it’s so important to study up on matchups. The footsies game is, at the highest level, really the only way in, since at that level people don’t charge in leaving themselves vulnerable or do a lot of dangerous moves unless it’s very likely that they’ll hit.

7

a few things:

  1. Solid execution (Bread and butter, Ultra set ups)
  2. Experience (Matchups, Players etc)
  3. The ability to capitalise on any mistake or opening (Don’t allow a SINGLE jump in to be unchallenged if its just a blatant jump in)
  4. Footsies, Gimmicks, Spacing and controlling your opponent (having your opponent in the corner is a GOOD THING)

If you lose, learn from it. Say ‘Why did I lose? because he rushed my shit down all day. How did he do it? crossed me up everytime; if it connected he got a combo, if I blocked he threw me. Diagnosis : Learn to block crossups, learn to tech throws.’

Then, YOU WILL BE A MAN MY SON!!! :crybaby:

8

I don’t think its something you can fake aka if you haven’t put in the same amount of work, thought and creativity, you can’t emulate a top player. You should be thinking how do I train to think like a top player, not how do I think like a top player when I’m in a match.

9

LIKE THIS

But in all seriousness, one thing that’s helping me a lot is learning frame data. Learning how long it takes certain moves to execute and recover will go a long way in helping you develop your play style.

10

God if i see that picture posted once more im gona scream. You cant really think like a top level player untill you become one imo. If you start to think too far ahead thats when you will make rooky mistakes just take your time and it will come eventually(well for most people it will)

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[media=youtube]6OEXzKk5gkQ"[/media], get those down… works for any game… I’d have to add execution to this also… footsies handbook is also great… there is only one thing about thinking like a top player though imo, learn from your mistakes and take losing like a man, you’re not going to win every match and generally there is always going to be someone better than you… so when someone gives you advice(good advice), don’t shrug it off like you know everything…

EDIT: I think this thread is more about having the mindset of a top player… thinking like a top player doesn’t automatically make you a top player but anyone who has the correct mindset is well on their way imo…

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I dunno. I mostly just focus on the fight. I’m nowhere near a competitive level at SSFIV, so most fights can be pretty intense for me. I mostly just try to focus on the opponent and what they are doing. Keeping in mind whether their going to try to zone me, or bait me into a trap. Always watching them for an opening or a weakness in their strategy, as well as making sure there is no weakness in my game.

13

Stay calm, think like you’re going to win.
Get your execution down perfectly so you aren’t thinking about motions or button presses.
Perfect your reactions so you don’t need to be like “oh shit mash DP,” and instead just know to do it.
Don’t think about what’s going on behind you. Even if you aren’t good start going to tourneys to get used to the setting.

I’ve been playing other games in tourneys for years so there might be stuff I’m missing that just seems natural to me.

14

Realize that the only thing you’re going to do by trying to think like a top player is inflate their ego. Most of them don’t need help with that. Except maybe Marn. But if you’re trying to think like Valle or someone it’s pretty much just “WAAAAAAH, TURBO! LK LK LK ISN’T A BLOCKSTRING SO IT’S NOT LAME TO MASH DP! I’M OLD SO MY RYU IS A NECESSARY CRUTCH!” and that doesn’t really help anyone.

Look, the thing you’re going to notice from hearing a lot of the long-time SF players is that someone else taught them the basics. And the building point for all of them is completely different depending on who they latched onto. Basically, it doesn’t matter. Everything at the high level is immediate adaptation anyway, and the best you’re going to get from this question is a bunch of random conjecture that you can come up with on your own.

But that doesn’t matter since your intent was apparently to toss out some broad, vague question and have people scurry about like you’re some genius spark of intellectshul tok.

15

i would say the main thing is just experience. outside of that though you need to be thinking the entire match. the way i try and play is that if someone were to come up to me at any point in the match and ask “why did you do what you just did” that i have a concrete answer for him, that way even when you misread something you can look back and realize where your mistake was made because each point in the match was a decision and not just herpderp i dp nowz.

16

Sirlin’s “Playing to Win: Becoming the Champion”

Sonic Hurricane’s Footsies handbook that Little_Goten and practically everyone else mentioned.

Prima’s SSFIV Frame Data Guide – for hardcore card-counting street fighters only

SRK SSFIV Character Discussion Sub-Forums

Read and be enlightened.

Oh also practice. a lot.