This isn’t game specific, but SSF4 manages to causes me more frustration with myself than others because of this. Simply put, I tend to pick up bad habits when I first get into the game, and by the time I identify them as being really stupid things to do, I still can’t seem to break them. Probably my most common example would be attempting to apply wake up pressure with meaties or frame traps while the opponent has an invincible start up ultra or super stocked. I know exactly when I make most of my mistakes the moment I input them, but I really can’t seem to make myself stop.
Take a break from playing for a week.
Assuming you’re playing online, this is actually a pretty common problem. I’m going to keep it completely short and sweet:
BAIT. WHIFF. PUNISH.
If your bad habit is respecting or not respecting how to apply proper wake-up pressure, take a dive into the character-specific threads, learn matchups, and go from there. Things like “Safe Jumps”, “Meaty”, “Frame Trap”, and “Unblockables” should be very familiar to you. If they are not, learn them, and adjust how you apply pressure to your opponent.
the same way you learn habits: make a conscious effort to perform. except in this case, it’s a conscious effort to NOT do the habit
stop watching porn ^ ^
This is actually a good idea. A small break from large stints of Street Fighter will give you time to clear your head. It does wonders for me from time to time (And happens inadvertently when it’s a busy week).
Also, cuss yourself out loud when you mess up. Constantly repeat what you did wrong and why you won’t do something so ridiculously stupid in the future. A constant reminder of self-hating depreciation can do a lot for your game.
If you’re fighting a SRK masher and you know they’re a masher, but keep getting tagged, say:
“Why the fuck would I try and frame trap a scrub like that? What’s wrong with me. Block and punish. Block and punish. Dash back… something. Just don’t go for tick throws or frametraps.”
Being able to tailor your gameplan to your opponent is a great skill to have. Sometimes, to beat lousier opponents you need to play a much simpler game. For good opponents, you may play entirely different.
Play opponents that punish your bad habits. Play long sets with good opponents that will download you. If you don’t switch it up then you’re just too dumb to learn.
Meaties aren’t a bad idea. Always doing meaties is a bad idea. You need to have a sense of what your opponent is feeling at any one time and then exploit it. Also learn ways to apply pressure while being safe to reversals. You can delay your meaty so it’s not really meaty so that if they wakeup ultra it won’t come out.
im going to agree with Kikuichimonj here, if you get them (bad habits) beat out of you, and i mean that honestly, they tend to die painful deaths and not come back. find someone WAY better than you and fight them till your fingers bleed. by the end of that, your bad habits will be gone, or at least greatly reduced, and you’ll be a better fighter. also, breaking for a week is a good idea. i trained my brother this way, and he’s now quite the sf monster.
i just told him, “listen, im gonna beat on you for a while and eventually you wont suck as much. if you cant handle that go play cards or something, street fighter is brutal, and not for wusses. if you can keep playing after i savagely destroy your pride, you’ll be awesome.” and he has been thrashing ever since. you have to have the heart of a warrior to play that way though, if your prone to raging, this method will only frustrate you.
the problem with bad habits is that they are comfortable and breaking them is painful no matter how you do it, so this is the fastest most awesome way to destroy fail in all it’s forms. 
there’s bad habits that get you destroyed that are far less obvious than something simple like spamming meaties. what you and Kikuichimonji are talking about are beneficial for getting rid of the obvious bad habits. if you want to get rid of the less obvious ones, you have to identify what they are and forcibly change them by stifling the urge. not really that hard if you can identify the moment
Watch your replays and cuss at your television: “WOW THAT GUY IS A FCKING SCRUB!!! WHY DIDNT YOU {insert thing you didn’t do here}?”
After watching a few replays and cussing yourself out, you’ll soon learn how much you really suck at the game and subconsciously break free from those habits.
agreed! :woot: and i like the idea of watching ur replays and slamming ur self. im going to try then when i lose now. :lovin:
Well, as I tend to only play once every week or two for long sessions, and I already curse at myself/slap myself upside the head when I do something I stupid, I suppose I just need to keep doing it longer. More than a few of them are going on 20 year old baggage, which is why I was hoping I might have missed something. Thanks folks. I really need to take the part about simplifying my game against the lower end of the player spectrum seriously. I’ve had a difficult time switching modes between fighting intermediate comp and anything below.
I think this is the only answer. I think taking breaks to clear your mind is just gonna replace one bad habit with another. When its something like doing too many meaties, the problem isn’t necessarily the meaties, but simply playing lazy intellectually. You need to train yourself to think more.
Watching replays of yourself will help though.
*…I’ve had a difficult time switching modes between fighting intermediate comp and anything below… * this topic deserves it’s own thread, i’d love to go over this :woot:
My tip: just be more patient with the game, just hold down back in situations where you think they can hit you. Also keeping match up notes or just writing down your mistakes/ what could be improved as you go probably helps hammer the idea into your mind.
For me, Ibukis and Hakans used to get me with their slides, my mindset: they’re not gonna be scrub enough to attempt a full screen slide which could be punished hard, but they still do it anyways and since online play isn’t as good as offline arcade play… sometimes I can’t react to it and just get knocked down.
If you look at the people who are successful online, they just tend to play everything slow based, taking advantage of their opponent’s mistakes. Most of them don’t even have the execution down 2 frame links, but they can still do well.
If you slow down your game, you can feel out your opponent and get to know his play style better. If he’s one of those wake up SRK guys, then just bait and punish.
I suggest playing the game with a different kind of controller with an unfamiliar character who uses the inputs you like. Use the muscle memory from that experience to transfer to your prefered character. If you use stick, try a pad, vice versa (i suppose) not for everyone :l