Help! I recently picked up USF4 two months ago, and I was pretty bad. My PP capped at around 400 using Oni, but after two months of grueling, bitter work, I managed to make it to 1400 PP with my new main, Chun. Things were going pretty well, but then one day I just started to go on MASSIVE losing streaks, and now I can’t even get past 700 PP for the life of me. I’m putting in about 4-6 hours every day. I’m not really trying to learn new skills, other than landing her annoying one frame link (c.lp, c.lp, st.fp), and even when I Try my hardest to win, I just lose. 
I’m okay at anti-airing (70% success, usually), I can combo her ultras with ease, but I just keep losing. If you have any tips or similar experience PLEASE post them. Also, if any of you are on PSN, I could really use a pro sparring partner. Thanks, guys.
Honestly, my advice is to stop playing Street Fighter 4 for a few months and focus on an older game (ST, A2, 3S, CVS2). Every time I have done this I come back refreshed. Street Fighter 4, to me, is a game that builds bad habits in players.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I don’t have any other fighting games.
I’m on PSN.
Really? What’s your PSN username?
I totally know this feeling. My advice is when starting out, its good to play, but don’t play for long periods of time like 4-6 hours. You’ll start running out of steam and thats when you start getting losing streaks. Play in moderation (~2-3 hours tops) and you’ll be more successful in my experience.
Also, hang around in Endless a lot. A lot of strong players lurk around there (at least on XBL, I don’t know about PSN but its likely the same). Play a few games, and when you’re done playing with them, always ask for tips afterwards.
EDIT: all of the games UCFinish mentioned can be played using GGPO as well, if you’re interested
USF4 doesn’t build bad habits… unless online is your main source of playing.
Stop playing SF4 to get better at SF4?
Dumbest advice I’ve read in a while.
You’re just getting burnt out is all. You shouldn’t play for that long. You may not realize it but when you do something not physically strenuous for a long period of time like gaming, fatigue still sets in. mental fatigue. You can easily realize when you’re working your body to hard and need a break, but it’s harder to recognize when your mind needs a break. Sounds like what you’ve been doing is working, just stick to that and shorten your play sessions. Also everyone has a losing streak every now’n’then. You can’t expect to win all the time.
Meh, just depends on the person. I’ve gone without SF for years came back without so much as bothering with training mode and still beat other players with absolute utmost ease. It’s a very simple game for me at least. Then again I mostly find terrible crappy players so I suppose that doesn’t necessarily count. Not much else to say.
Thanks, guys. I should note that I usually play in sessions of 2 hours at most. It’s just throughout the day.
With Chun I feel like the lag of the day can be a huge factor. Some days it feels like the input lag and choppiness is just terrible and puts her at a big disadvantage, like without her speed, you can’t space yourself right and need to space differently for reaction times, which compounds the difficulty. Walking into like 3 fireballs in a row, can’t dash out of focus, can’t block cross ups or anti air at all, it can be really frustrating. I have picked up a garbage Blanka for when the bars are questionable.
The questionable bars are usually low level players that my Blanka beats even in lag but would scrub out my Chun (I can’t beat people over 1200pp with my blanka, but with decent connections, I can beat like top 10 players sometimes with my Chun). So this keeps my pp up above 1000 usually, which people will respect a lot more than like 800 or less. This respect will win you more matches, which will keep your positive energy up, winning you more matches.
What you need is a garbage Blanka. When the bars are green and come up quick, use Chun. When it takes forever to decide it’s green and the guys in like Australia (and you are not), or when it’s yellow and they’ve readied up, use Blanka.
My Blanka is 3-4 weeks old and has about 2300bp, my Chun goes from 2500 to 5000 and then back down again over and over. I’m ranked like #180 or so Chun on steam to give an idea of what level I’m at. PP is usually 1100 to 1400, but sometimes it gets rough when I can’t find same skill and have to create, get rolled by a bunch of 2000+ pp guys in a row, and I’ll have like 500pp. … that’s when I bring out Dhalsim, nothing to lose (besides every single match). 
I’ve owned USF4 since the day it came out and I’m at the lowest point I’ve ever been. The more I learn, the worse I get. The more I try and practice fundamentals, like Anti-Airs, spacing, blocking, the worse I get.
I’m losing at an all-time rate. I’m lucky to win a round. People who have no idea what they’re doing are beating me.
But I have faith that it’ll turn around.
-One day, I will land a real combo instead of 3 crouching jabs.
-One day, I’ll FADC > Ultra.
-One day, I won’t throw a fireball when it’s obvious that my opponent is predicting it and will jump-in.
-One day, I won’t flinch and do a random SRK.
-One day, I won’t throw out a sweep when my opponent is charging up a FA in my face.
-One day, I’ll punish a whiff with something stronger than a throw.
-One day, I won’t let a noob beat me by jumping around like a maniac.
Have faith that you will do better and try to practice the things you’re bad at. I know I’ll be good one day. It’s not complicated, it’s just mental.
Thanks, guys.
@WildDogPizza: I’ve noticed that lag is especially bad for Chun. She doesn’t have an invincible anti air like a DP, so if it’s just some crazy frequent flyer then it makes it difficult.
@Greenwood: Thanks. I need to work out some bad habits, and REALLY improve on anti-airing in real matches. I suggest trying out endless battle. I trained with a 3400 PP player, and even though I lost 30 out of 32 matches, I learned a lot. I suggest finding a high-level player and invite them to some endless.
Yup, that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve only played a handful of Ranked in the past 2 months. Everything is Endless.
I know most of my problems. I know I’ve done something stupid as soon as I do it. I’ll think of a stupid idea, then I will perform my idea but as I’m doing it, I’m telling myself “this is stupid! don’t do it!”, but I’m too late and before I could stop myself, I already did the stupid thing.
Hopefully, this is the kind of thing that will go away with experience. When I learn to stop thinking of stupid ideas in the first place, then I’ll get better.
I like fighting people much better than me. I really appreciate the better players who put up with my horrible play and obliterate me 10 times in a row. They’re doing ME a favor.
It’s normal to playing worse from time to time. You’re burning out yourself. Emphasize your training on other aspects of the game. See the curve below, it gives a good idea how you progress.
Sounds like y’all just need to work on your fundamentals. The best combos in the world don’t matter if you don’t have the fundamentals to be able to put yourself in a situation where you can land them.
There is nothing anyone can say or do that will help you get rid of bad habits beyond mocking or berating your incessantly for them. And if you need someone to do that to you for you to lose your bad habits, that’s a really bad sign that you’re not actually motivated to improve.
These bad tendencies never go away. Everyone wants to “screw it wakeup Ultra,” and we all feel justified when it works. The best you can do is learn other options and convince yourself that these other options are indeed better. Learn to control your bad habits by giving yourself good habits as well.
That said, you’re probably not getting worse. What’s actually happening is that you are better recognizing how bad you actually are, and now you need to work hard to improve.
I disagree with everything you just said.
Since I wrote that post, I’ve eliminated (or at least decreased the frequency) of most of my bad habits. I have recognized my own flaws and made adjustments. It’s not that difficult. It’s human nature to learn from mistakes. I don’t need someone mocking or berating me to figure out that I need to stop doing stupid shit.
I’m not motivated to improve? That makes no sense.
Bad tendencies never go away? Yes, they do. Maybe not for everyone. You have to be smart enough.
Better at recognizing how bad I am? Not even close. When I posted that, I went through a 2 or 3 day slump where I couldn’t beat anyone. I wasn’t better at recognizing I’m bad, I wasn’t winning anymore. That changed. I had a breakthrough and now I’m better than ever.
My post was supposed to be for your benefit, so if it’s not useful, just ignore it. This is my last post in the thread because I’m just trying to be helpful, not trying to start an argument.
My point was that nobody else can help you get rid of bad habits. It’s on you to self-improve. And yes, I know tons of people who play SF who practically never learn from their mistakes because changing is hard to do. In my opinion, it’s more human to repeat the same thing over and over until you put a lot of effort into changing it.
The urge to give in to bad tendencies might not be as strong, but people will still want to do it. You might be able to control the little thought in your head because you know it’s a terrible idea, but the desire to do it never goes away when you’re pushed into a corner. You sometimes see even the best players do crazy uppercuts, obvious jump-ins, or random ultras out of desperation.
Let me be more specific with an example. When I was learning to anti-air with Ryu uppercut, for example, I focused a lot on only that. I realized how much I didn’t want to anti-air specific spacings on jumps because it felt weird or dangerous. It took a significant amount of effort to actually break through that habit. I played a lot worse when I was focusing on anti-airs, especially at the beginning, because I would not get uppercuts and eat jump-ins, and I wasn’t focusing on footsie so people would just walk in on me and hit buttons. But I improved that skill over time, and now I’m a better overall player because of it. I didn’t recognize how bad my anti-air game was until I really tried to improve it.
I don’t actually know your situation because I haven’t seen you play or talked to you, but I do know that people who think they’re getting worse usually aren’t. They’re just re-evaluating the way they think about the game.
A lot of people in this thread are saying some crazy shit. I’m going to give you the best advice anyone can give you.
If you want to get better, play 1 match, go to the video and review the fuck out of that match. Your SF life should be spent watching your matches and going to training mode to practice everything you found difficult (from blocking crazy set ups to hitting links to understanding what your opponent was pressing during your pressure.)
This is the most boring as bullshit ever, until you have learned enough that a quick review of where things went wrong is all you need.