I only manage to play 2-3 hours a day. I spend the majority of my time either playing Endless with friends, or simply practicing in the training mode. I feel like a mere 2-3 hours can’t possibly be enough to improve, is it? I’ve only been playing SF4 seriously for about a month now, give or take. I really want to be a good player though. I am committed. I just don’t know if I should be spending more time playing.
No need to rush, play as much as you want. 2-3 hours a day is plenty, some people can only practice a few days a week.
You’ll get better at anything if you practice it for 2-3 hours a day. How you practice will affect how much you learn.
- Depends on what you spend those 2-3 hours a day doing. Mindlessly autopiloting ranked for 2-3 hours a day will be less beneficial than other things.
- Depends what your goals are. You’re not going to win EVO with that kind of time, but you can still see improvement - it really depends what your expectations are.
2-3 hours is okay. I’ve been doing that for 3 1/2 years and now I’m superman
When you are new to a fighting game the most time you’ll spend on it is in the beginning, period where you are still new to the game. You have to learn a LOT of aspects.
The better you get > the less time you need to put into the game to improve. 2-3 hours should be enough to improve at a decent rate. When i learned SSFIV i had a lot of free time, a lot more than 2-3 hours a day but i didn’t spend them wisely, i was simply doing just combos over and over in training without actually playing, without focusing on the actual fundamentals.* More than anything you have to practice smar*t.
How you train during those two to three hours is what counts.
I wish I HAD two to three hours a day to practice ANYTHING I like doing, let alone play games.
Thanks for the replies. Well, in training mode I like to setup various situations by using the Record feature. So that way I can practice my anti-airs, I can practice how to deal with zoning, I can practice combos, etc. Various things like that…
2-3 hours are enough. There is also the danger of “overload”. You might need a few days or even weeks break so that your body can memorize the things you learned. It is like bodily exercise. If you strain your body every day you’ll do it more harm than good.
Practice is key, but practice is not the key
2-3 hours a day is great. To put it into perspective, that’s 14-21 hours a week or in other words, a part-time job. You should definitely see some improvement since you’ve started playing a month ago. Have you noticed any improvement? Are you winning more matches against your friends? I like to go back and watch the replays I decided to save from months earlier and see what my gameplay was like; that is when I can best see my improvement.
Well, I’ve been playing somewhat irregularly. I started around Feb, and I basically left my PS3 at my friends house, and I would come over once a week and we would spend at least 3-5 hours playing. Then I brought the PS3 back to my house, and I started playing a few hours a day. Then I stopped playing for 2 weeks because I ordered an Arcade Stick (that literally took 2 weeks to arrive), and in those 2 weeks I didn’t touch SF4 even once because I wanted to quit using the Pad for good. So I got my stick 4 days ago, and I’ve been using it ever since. So yeah I feel like that 2 week break from SF4 did somewhat make me rusty but now that I’ve resumed playing, I feel like I found my rhythm again. So yeah, I’ve seen small gradual improvement but I still lose the majority of the matches I play online. I am still trying to adjust to using the Stick, so basically I’m doing two things at once. Learning how to use an Arcade Stick, and learning how to play the actual game and improve. 
If it takes 2-3 hours, less or more, to learn something, then that’s how long it takes.