Long time lurker…decided to chronicle my journey.
I recently acquired a PS4 to take part in the currently non-working SF5 beta, and I also purchased HRAP v4 stick. The stick I have used for the past 12-13 years has been my SF 20th anny stick (which was a beast size wise). More so, all my stick experiences prior to that have been HAPP/IL. In summary, the HRAP is my first time ever playing a Japanese stick.
I’m sure thousands of other players had a similar experience but mine has a specific nuance.
Currently there are two problems plaguing me:
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I have big hands…how big you ask? Since the NFL and NBA started tracking hand sizes, only one professional athlete has registered a bigger hand size than mine, and that was only by 1/8th of an inch. Plus I have real burly fingers. My hand on the HRAP is the equivalent of an eclipse. At the moment I am using some weird modified vulcan nerve pinch technique to operate the stick…not crisp but it will have to settle for now. My hand literally drags on the case when I operate the stick…it takes up that much real estate.
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The square gate…I have embedded in my body 20+ years of circle gate muscle memory. Coupling this with my my modified vulcan nerve pinch hold feels like the training wheels are back on.
I have every intent of modding the stick as best as possible to accommodate my hand size; and I plan on putting in the some time with the square gate. I simply hope these efforts pay off in performance and execution. I’ve managed to eke out some wins against high ranked players on 3s online but my consistency is shit.
Will follow up with this over time.