Lately I’ve been having some trouble punishing people due to poor reaction time on my part. I was thinking it might help if I focused on my opponent’s sprite rather than my own, kinda like when you were a kid and you basketball coach told you to keep your head up when you dribble. You should know where the ball is, so keep your eyes up. Do you guys focus on your sprite or your opponent’s?
Almost always on my opponent. I’m not sure why, but I noticed it the one time I started coming down with a migraine headache (I was in college at the time… part of the territory… hahahaha). One symptom is that you develop a larger blind spot in your eye upon the onset of a migraine. I was playing Alpha 3, and staring at my opponent, and my character disappeared! Vanished. Was the freakiest thing ever. But it’s how I found out I looked at my opponent more than I looked at myself. 
- James
How’s this for weird: I look at the space between my opponent and myself. Of course, I glance at my character and my opponent, but I think of looking at them more like glancing at side mirrors while driving.
Definitely look at my opponent more. After all, you know where you are since you moved them there. Whats really of interest is what your opponent is doing.
Why do I have to look at my character? I know what he’s going to do.
I would say that I look at a mix of both my opponent and the distance between the two of us. It helps me gauge what option is best for me when my opponent does a specific move so that I can either block, or punish accordingly. Of course there’s also the factor of reflex and strategy, but that’s a completely different issue =S
I think it’s important to look at yourself SOMETIMES, but if I were to keep going with the driving analogy, looking at yourself would be like glancing at your right mirror - you don’t really do it ALL the time, but it’s there when you need it. Most of the time, you’re glancing at your rear and left mirrors. …or maybe that’s just me? 
I just watch the life bars and press buttons. :bgrin:
Naw really though, interesting topic. I was just thinking about this the other day, and I’m not really sure where I look. I think my eyes move around the screen a lot.
I think good players would watch their oponnents and the spacing in between, but eventually, the opponents because the spacing is obvious one the match starts flowing. You know what you do, so your brain can calculate those factors without the visual input.
This might be a key difference between beginners and pros. At first you need to learn your own timing, once that is settled, all focus goes to your opponent.
Aside from that I noticed how much is just action-reaction in this game, after having been away from it for weeks playing SF4. I just pick up the controller and start playing my game, expanding when the enemy contracts, contracting when the enemy expands. No thoughts of any kind, except for the crucial ‘yomi’ parts. Thats how deep this gameflow can get into your unconscious.
Thats how I beat my beginning friends with ease, while they think I do some kind of magic.
Cool, thanks for the responses. Been having trouble lately with some things stemming from poor reaction time on my part. This should help =)
Ohh this is interesting. Yeah I think you should look at your opponent/spacing more. It’s something I’ll keep in mind and try to be conscious of.
I just watch the pretty backgrounds.