Hey guys. My Fightstick is arriving today, and I’d love to learn how to hold it properly, and get used to it. I hear there are tons of different ways to hold it, but I have no clue which one to pick 
. Could anyone help me learn how to properly use it? I feel like it’s going to be very weird, going from Xbox controller to Fightstick.
Oh, some additional info: I play only Super Street Fighter 4 AE, with Dee Jay, M.Bison (charge characters) and Zangief (360s)
There’s pretty much only three ways to hold a stick and it’ll have more to do with your gaming setup than the games/characters you play.
- You’re on a chair without a raised platform in front of you, stick goes on your lap. This is the most common setup I see at tournaments and how I’ve always used the stick aside from at arcades.
- You’re on a chair and you either have another chair or a stool or some kind of platform in front of you where you can put your stick. This kind of emulates what it’s like to use one of the sit-down cabinets in Japan and is pretty comfortable when done right, but it can be tough to replicate the feel at a tournament if you don’t bring your own setup or whatever (minor issue).
- “Floormonster,” meaning you sit on the floor in some method with the stick in front of you. I find this to be really uncomfortable on my back and that my execution is considerably worse than when I play in a chair. Marlinpie was a floormonster for ages and one of the best people in my area is a floormonster, so I guess it really depends on what’s comfortable for you.
Other than that, use the joystick with your left hand and the buttons with your right. You’ll have to figure out what’s comfortable for you and how to translate pad skills to stick skills, but you shouldn’t have that much of a problem. Good luck.
read the stickies in the newbie dojo
there isn’t a universal way everyone should hold their stick. it’s really just whatever you’re comfortable with. you’ll probably have to spend a lot of time figuring it out. i practiced in training mode until i could see 3s akuma combos when i closed my eyes.
I got my stick yesterday and I’ve found that I’ve adapted well to everything but one…single…thing. Seriously, on pad I can nail this every time but as of day 2, during which I’ve managed to translate pad-to-stick quite well, I cannot for the life of me get a consistent pay off after doing Lp.Dp FACD > Ultra 1 with Ryu. I’m faced with dragon punch after dragon punch following the dash. I’ve tried letting the stick go neutral, but then I miss the input timing for the ultra 1 and the guy goes flopping to the floor. I’ve tried about 4 different holds of the stick and all help with one thing or the other…but not…this. I’m going crazy.
I’ve found the most comfortable way for me to play with my Qanba Q4 is laying it in my lap. In regards to using the stick, the buttons you will have to figure out what’s comfortable, but the joystick will be something you will have to figure out as you play. I hold it between my index finger and middle finger and place my thumb on top of the stick to help get my movements in. Essentially you’ll want to start with whatever is comfortable, then once you figure that out you’ll be able to fine tune it to better hone your inputs.
Best of luck!
I only play with a pad, but a Japanese friend show me this link (in Japanese) that have pictures of how to hold the stick for fighting games. There are a variety of different methods shown.
http://arcadestickinfo.web.fc2.com/sousa.html
I cannot understand what it says but some holding methods are preferred depending on what type of move you want to do as well.