1

SSF4AE is my first fighting game and I’ve been playing on and off for a few months now. I don’t know anybody IRL who plays so I’ve watched a lot of videos on youtube and read posts on here. I’ve managed to get together a training regimen which I hope will help me improve my game. Except this training I am also currently looking up matchup guides when I have time and playing a few games here and there.

I plan to do the moves for a set amount of time, but I sometimes adjust this if I feel I need to practice more on something (or less for that matter). I also sometimes halve the times for each excercise to make it a 30min session instead of 60. Reason I’ve started using set times is because I’ve noticed I often start doing the excercises, but I have to go in an hour or so and then I end up not getting all the practice I want on the later stuff. Anyway, here is the list of combos.

Basics - 16minutes

[1min/side] srk (against jump in)
Might drop this soon because I’m getting decently good at it, but still an ok warm up.

[2min total] cr.mp cr.hp
Very easy plink, but I use it in real games so want it to be 100%.

[3min total] cr.lk cr.lp cr.lp cr.mk
Feel I preffer this way over cr.lk cr.lp cr.mp and even though it does less damage it is just a way to get better execution in real games. Not going to bother starting cr.lp since cr.lk just feels better.

[3min total] cr.mp cr.mp cr.mk
I plink both links, starting to feel better and better.

[3min total] cr.lk cr.lp cr.lp cr.hk
Same hit confirm as earlier, but ending in a sweep.

[3min total] cr.mp cr.mp cr.hk
Same as the other hit confirm, but sweep again.

Specials -14minutes

[2min/side] cr.lk cr.lp xx srk
Like farhannius pointed out; this is a good way to hit confirm into srk FADC ultra.

[1min/side] cr.mp cr.hp xx tatsu
High damage punish combo. Sometimes I start from an FA or jump in, just to practice that aswell. I do this for a lot of the combos on this list.

[2min/side] cr.mp cr.mp cr.mk xx fireball
Solid combo imo, sometimes I crouch tech the first cr.mp just for practice.

[2min/side] cr.lk cr.lp cr.lp cr.mk xx fireball
As u can tell I’m using the basic combos and just going into my specials.

fireball FADC -12minutes

[1min/side] fireball FADC
I feel fireball FADC is pretty important so I practice that here.

[2min/side] fireball FADC cr.hk
Here I follow up into a sweep.

[3min/side] cr.mk xx fireball FADC cr.hk
And here I start from a cr.mk. Removed FADC cr.mk xx tatsu because I feel it is more important to have solid execution on this than half-assed execution on both. Perhaps it would be safer to combo into cr.mk fireball after the FADC (incase I whiff in a real game), but kinda like the sweep.

super and ultra - 18minutes

[3min/side] air tatsu super (cross up and normal)
Still feel this is pretty darn important. Having trouble doing the super motion fast enough when I’m on the left of the dummy. Specially after a cross up.

[6min/side] srk FADC ultra
Really want to get this combo down, trying to invest solid time into getting it to a level where I can actually use it in a real game.

EDIT: Made slight changes Dec 15 2012.
EDIT: More slight changes Dec 16 2012.
EDIT: More changes Des 21 2012. Removed option selects because it was too difficult for me to execute, better I focus on getting plinking down and landing my BnB combos when I can. Won’t practice FA or jump ins more atm, even though I might randomly add them in here and there. Basically most of the combos I have listed an be started off a jump in or after an FA.

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Well that sounds like a good training regimen for a beginner. Becoming good at this game is a process:
-The first part of that process is getting to know your character and learning to do all his/her moves like clockwork. This includes BnB combos, ultra setups, super setups, learning the correct anti-air depending on the spacing and situation, learning your focus attack range, learning your dash forward and dash backwards. Learn your character’s crossups and the distance required for each character. Spend a good amount of time in the training room just repeating your moves and combos over and over. The best players in the world still spend a lot of time in the training room. From the sounds of it you’ll become confident with your character’s move set in no time.
-The second part involves learning the character matchups. As a Ryu player I play completely different against say Blanka than I would T-Hawk. T-Hawk I personally like to rush down, while against Blanka you almost have to turtle a bit and be more calculative. You can learn the matchups in the matchup thread and on eventhubs’ vs character notes. You should keep an eye out for common character tendencies, like for instance Abel’s wheel kick, or Bison’s jump in attempts and his scissor kick, or Gouken’s throwing fireballs diagonally to punish a jump-in attempt. Also understand what moves are punishable and by what. For instance Abel’s wheel kick is punishable with DP if it’s not meaty enough. If you don’t know what “meaty” means, find out! Same goes for Rose’s slide etc. All of this comes with practice and experience.
-The third part involves just learning everything on a deeper level. You should start to try to understand frame data. You can create your own combos if you know your frame data. For instance I learnt that cr.LP, cr.MP xx Fireball is much easier than cr.LP, cr.MK xx Fireball because cr.LP to cr.MP is a 2 frame link, while the other one is a 1 frame link. Understanding frame data also helps you to understand what moves by opponents are punishable and more importantly why they are punishable.

I know this all may sound a bit daunting as there is a lot to learn, but as I said, it’s a process and it takes time. Just take it step by step, there’s no rush to get good. One thing I should warn you about though is that Street Fighter, unlike most other games, doesn’t care about rewarding beginners. You’re gonna lose a lot and you’re gonna get frustrated. You’ll feel helpless against a barrage of attacks and you’ll mess up your combos frequently. It’s all just part of getting better. Even at times you’ll feel like you’re getting worse, it’s just part of getting better. Street Fighter ultimately rewards those best who have the patience and commitment to stick with it. That’s why a lot of reviewers call Street Fighter 4 casual-unfriendly. But I think that’s why it’s so damn good!

Also a quick tip is to learn the Street Fighter terminology so that you know what people are talking about. For instance what you call Shoryu, most people call DP (dragon punch). So just keep practising and enjoy!

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Wow thanks a ton for your lengthy answer! You not only commented on the practice I’ve been doing, but you even talked about learning street fighter as a whole. Thanks a lot, made me realise I really have to dig in and get to knowing my match ups aswell as probably practice normals a bit more to get used to the spacing like u talked about. I’ve already looked at a bit of frame data, that’s how I realised I wanted to practice c.lp c.mp instead of c.lp c.mk (same example u took!), but I can deffinately improve in that field aswell. I’ve started to notice that it is a hard game to get into, but at the same time it just makes it feel more rewarding when I actually manage to beat some1! I too feel it is a part of the appeal of the game.

And finally I wasn’t sure to call it shoryuken/dragon punch, hadouken/fireball, tatsumaki/hurricane kick, but I’ll stick to the english names from now on then thanks :wink:

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No problem dude. SSF4 is all about practice and experience. I’m not even that good yet and I’ve put in over 800 hours into this game over the last year and a half. About 500 hours I’d say was spent in the training room (the lab). I’ve played 7500 online ranked matches and won 49.30% of them. I have 2600 PP and 5700 BP atm. However it’s only in the last month that I’ve really began to improve. For so long I was stuck at around 1500PP and 4000BP, going from C+ to B and back again all the time. It was frustrating to keep losing to players in the B class, like I literally lost 20 matches in a row sometimes. But as I said earlier, this game rewards you if you stick to it.

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I haven’t really started playing ranked yet. I play in endless game lobbies when I play, but often I find it’s hard to get a good room because sometimes there are so many people that you barely play and other times I get kicked (maybe because they are friends playing together or cause I have bad stats, not sure) either immediately or after getting owned a game or two. So I’m thinking about starting to play ranked aswell, but maybe it’s just a bad idea until I get better?

Furthermore, I’ve done the combos a few times all the way through now and come to the conclusion it takes a little bit too long to complete everything with my current execution. I have now lowered the amount of succesive repetitions I require myself to do for most combos. I will up the amount of times I do certain combos in the future when I get better, but I can’t sit in the training area for 1.5hrs every time I want to practice. I feel it is better to go through the regimen several times if I really want to practice for a long time. I’ve also removed fj.mk throw since it was just too easy aswell as cr.mk xx super since I feel if I used this in a real match I would just be throwing out a pretty random super. Maybe if I can hit confirm into this, but I already practice hit confirm combos so I won’t bother with super atm.

As a side not my dp FADC ultra is working MUCH better now, I actually did it maybe 1/3 times or so instead of 1/10 which I normally do. Feel like if my opponent actually has to respect my ultra meter, games will become a lot easier so I’m really glad about this improvement!

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I’m not good by any means, so I can’t really offer you much, as I just started out on SFIV too. It’s not my first fighting game though and I did want to say that you’ve definitely got the right plan and attitude for this kinda thing. I’ll be copying your regimen if you don’t mind! Keep up the hard work and I’m sure you’ll make it far. Good luck!

7

A couple of points. Firstly, for now I wouldn’t be too concerned with avoiding ranked matches. It’s not about points for you at this stage, it’s about learning what the characters do, learning their moves, and learning how to consistently execute your moves in the heat of a proper battle. All that comes with experience. To gain the experience you need, you just need to play a lot of matches. In endless you tend to have to wait a while (i.e. while others finish their match), while in ranked you can get more matches in at a faster rate. Also, it’s not about points. The points will come when you get better, it’s all about gaining experience and knowledge. So don’t avoid ranked on the basis of wanting to get a decent amount of BP or PP, these things will come when you begin to learn the matchups, the character’s tendencies etc.

As far as you practice regimen goes you should absolutely adjust it depending on how you feel. This is a good thing. For example in one practice session I had it planned to practice my BnB’s for like 20 minutes non-stop. But after 7 or 8 minutes I felt so comfortable with the combo that I decided to move onto something else that I could improve on, i.e. my dp FADC ultra. This sort of dynamic adjustment is good, it helps you avoid becoming too rigid and robotic in the way you play Street FIghter.

Well done on improving the dp FADC ultra, looks like the practice is paying off! A quick tip regarding this move. It helps also to be able to do this off the hit confirm. It can be risky and also a waste of metre if you just go in with a dp in the hope that it connects. You’ll FADC out of it and end up wasting two bars if your opponent was blocking. Instead if you approach your opponent with something like cr.lp cr.lp, then you’ll have the time to realise whether or not you’re in or not. If your cr.lp is hitting your opponent, then you can be sure to land a definite ultra: cr.lp cr.lp xx dp FADC ultra. It’s a tricky move though to cancel out of cr.lp to dp, so it would be worth adding that to your practice at some stage.

But overall sounds like you’re doing well, good stuff!

8

Awesome thread, might help me allot, since I can do stuff like dp FADC ultra rather easy but am having trouble with links and plink mostly.
As for this part, I think i can help (or rather give you an alternate option).

You can try cr.mk xx fireball FADC cr.hp xx tatsu (or ex tatsu into ultra 1 if in corner)
In corner I also like to do cr.lk cr.lp cr.hp xx ex tatsu into ultra 1, as it is rather easy to do and I feel Ryu’s corner combos are a really important part of his game.
Or if you don’t have ultra meter, you can finish both variants with a cr.mk xx l.tatsu xx m.dp