When you really want to take it to the next level? I’m sure some Japanese gamers have done this at some point:
Go into training mode, pick an enemy character, then use every normal, special, and super … to see what your character can counter it with?
Often times I see windows of seeming opportunity and I feel like Im not capitalizing on them. Im sure this is a pretty good way to get used to more situations. However, I dont play every character and know their good block strings or deceptive moves. So training yourself to counter, (your basic gameplay version) of an enemy character might not be all that worth it.
Is it better to just fight more people and eventually learn how to counter their main characters? I think that’s more practical, yet at the same time, I doubt that we’d have learned of so many rare links and juggles if there wasnt lots of time spent in training mode.
It’s really good, actually. Learning a little with the characters you expect to find in the tall grass is always profitable. Learn a couple of combos/blockstrings, and you should be able to see gaps and things that you can use to escape.
Yeah, I remember all the pros at SF2 would say learn every move against every character etc etc. For some reason, I never heard this about 3S, and I never went for it. It just makes sense.
I wanna try this on my weak match ups and then grow it out to more and more characters.
I use this to see what moves I can reversal with a super on block. But expanding it to seeing what normals and specials can counter the enemy character (in various common situations), has got to be very useful too.
I do that in arcade mode. It feels more random to me. Also, the AI has a tendency to establish perfect range to punish watch you do if you miss so it does teach some discipline. Only problem is you can of course, use AI traps and what-not. Like, playing against Akuma in the latter parts of arcade mode is actually a real bitch but what you can learn from there can carry over into similar situation.
^ Thank you. You can tell by the link and combo videos that the pros are doing this in training mode on a console system.
Yeah I noticed some cases the cpu punishes better than a player (MUCH faster reactions.) But I realized the tactics are just not the same. It is good to practice combos on a moving target, but the entry way into the combo may be rigged. For example the CPU has a leniency to eat a jump attack (combo starter.) But you did mention akuma and imo, he is the most like playing a real player when you dont have a real player to fight. All the other characters on hard mode = shoryuken shoryuken and they dead.
Really? I heard from a Japanese that they more often than not don’t own or use the console systems and they just learn by doing in the arcade. Not being fictitious this time.
Imagine when 3s console was released with training mode. You think they wouldnt take pure advantage of that? They fight at the arcade, but train with the console’s capabilities too.
IIRC, MOV, when he was in US, showed some stuffs to practice with training mode and also against the CPU (specifically Gill). He said he practiced that kind of training a lot of times/hours, even nowadays (well, a few years ago).
Also, there are a lot of old vids of jap players playing with ps2/dc, casual matches or exhibition, like the well known rx set of 100%, meaning they indeed spent times in it.
Of course, this is probably less true now.
Anyway, training mode is the best tool to practice pure execution, period.
Training mode is incredibly useful for practicing execution and also for learning what happens in some situations. I spend some time every other day going over spacing and thinking about setups. The more you understand how far a blocked cr.mp will move you back or at what range which moves barely whiff and which connect, etc. the more comfortable you become at controlling a situation. Knowledge is power but that knowledge takes a lot of time and dedication to attain. It’s intuitive knowledge; not stuff like frame data.
I’ve been using Q for a bit and this is one of the first things I did. I wanted to see evidence of my understanding in action so I looked for some footage of TM. Sure enough he sits at exactly the range I expected.
Without involving people you can work on execution and on understanding everything about a character’s moves. Then you can really get a lot out of the time you spend playing other players.
So… Noticing something. I’ve been playing 3rd Strike on my comp and on console. The console AI is FAR easier than the arcade original. Just worth noting.
Yeah I was about to say the same thing. I’ve run through the arcade version so many fucking times and know how almost every character plays that I can get at least XS almost every single time. I’ve managed to get MSF 3 times. But whenever I used to play the PS2 or Xbox version the characters did bizarre ass shit that would never happen in the arcade version.
Anyways, I never really learned how to utilize training mode until SF4. Before all I’d ever use training mode for was execution. Once I really started to break down SF4 I would try to set up all of these situations that I might encounter and then I’d try to deal with them. Everything from countering normals to seeing which supers have enough invincibility that it might be able to save me from chip damage or something. So yeah going through a ton of shit with individual characters is a great way to practice. I personally can’t stand Ibuki (in both games, though I only practiced against her in 4) so I’d go into training mode and set her to do her spin kicks and then see what characters could do what against them. And then I’d try to see if there were any gaps in her poke strings and if her target combos were safe against all characters or just certain characters. I guess this is what frame data is for, but since no one really worried too much about frame data long time ago, I didn’t know how to gain access to it and didn’t really care, I still don’t care most of the time, unless I get really frustrated with something. When you played 3rd Strike, you just kinda knew what worked and what didn’t…especially since training mode sucked/sucks dick
It really did. There was nothing to see your inputs for the 3S console version and as it looks, we wont get to see our inputs in training? I’d really love if they added that simple feature.
I was using training mode to see which moves left a lot of recovery frames to be super’d. Usually you just learn from being in game, but this way you can go through multiple moves to counter. It was only recently that I thought of using it to see what normals /specials can counter the enemy’s normals / specials, basically equip yourself to respond to any situation. It’s more “fun” to learn what counters what in real matches, but sometimes it’s hard to tell if your opponent just fucked up or if it can be done consistently. And as obvious, you’re getting more experience countering it in Training mode so it drills it in your head.
Hmm… Odd, I guess I’m just an outlier with the arcade/console difference. I’ve turned up the difficulty on the console version (anniversary ed.) and characters like Alex, Elana, Chun, and Akuma tend to be more difficult via the arcade. Guess that’s just me then.