What to do when you eventually hit a "wall"?

[xicer]

You still don’t have what it takes. You must train harder.

or if all else fails, go home and be a family man…

[grimtooth]

play 8 hours per day like the real pros, quit your job, don’t have a life. (soon you will be the champ)

[clownbot]

“Wall” as in not being able to improve upon anything/reached your peak. Does anyone else feel like they have reached their peak in this game?

I think for the past week or so I have definitely hit a wall so to speak. From February, when I got the game, to mid-June I always felt like I was progressing. I learned general strategies with my main, I learned match-ups, I practiced execution and still do, etc. I always had the feeling that I was getting better the more I learned.

But as of now I really dont know what else to do to progress. I play locally at Chinatown Fair here in NYC and I’m really not getting that feeling of progression like I did the first few months I got the game. I still lose a fair share of matches, but I consider myself an above average player at the very least…of course there comes a time when i face someone who makes me look like an absolute noob. I guess the problem is that I am no longer learning from my losses. I know the match-ups and I know what to expect…I just dont see what areas to improve on to overcome those losses. I mean it is expected that at some point you are going to learn the game inside and out right?

Anyone else ever have this feeling?

i share your sentiments in regards to wall, however i believe mine is a bit different. i’ve hit my “entertainment” wall.

i find it more fun to just jump around wildly and troll the other player at this point.

like only countering w/ jabs/shorts or flying around the stage w/ tatsu

i still haven’t played with a stick so i know i haven’t truly reached my full potential, but i find the game growing very stale. it really isn’t much of a rush anymore to pull out a close win.

[HAV]

OK, now that you’ve gone through mastering execution, learning spacing, learning match-ups, etc… you can finally learn how to play the game.

There’s a whole existential realm out there that you have to figure out now. Figure out yourself, and why you do things that you do. Figure out how much sense that all makes… then try to make more sense of it.

Do that with all of your opponents. Figure out why things happen. Then you can start playing the layered mindgames that really make up any good SF game.

You think you hit a wall, but you just hit a door. You can open it if you feel like. You’ll essentially be starting over, but you’ll be playing a much better game.

[versus]

A lot of good advice in here, I want to add a little bit that deals with our minds. I feel like this is something that we can all work on to improve.

Our mind is basically separated into 2 areas, the conscious and the sub-conscious. I mean the whole subject of consciousness is a tough subject to talk about, but I think simply put things we think about consciously takes precedence, but most of us operate our lives using mostly our sub-conscious.

In street fighter, people often talk about muscle memory and reaction times. Those things are actually activities that we as players practice over and over consciously, until it “sinks” into our sub-conscious and we can do bnb combos or srk a jump-in without having to tell oursevles “need to press f, d, d/f +p”.

I believe to be successful in SF, players need to put as much things into our subconscious as we can. Think about the last time when we learned a new combo, the whole match we’re thinking about it and trying to land it right? and we keep doing it until we can do it “on reaction”. Now what about the last time when you did that, but with spacing? Where the entire session you cared about nothing but do the best spacing you can possibly do? Game after game until you can space properly without thinking about it?

If not, each time you play focus on an area that you’re not good. Even if you lose or play worse and win less, keep focusing on flaws on your game and only that. Slowly try to delegate every action to your subconscious, as much as you can.

What happens after? what happens after is that during a match, everything you do is operated from your subconscious, and it leaves your conscious, thinking mind to deal with the real problems. Your conscious mind now is uncluttered and fast allowing you to think of your opponent’s tendencies, holes in their game, what to avoid, what they’re good at, what they’re bad at. You can use your entire mind on your opponent alone, instead of doing it while thinking about what you should be doing.

Sorry if this all seems like mumble jumble, but I do this for my day job and it helps immensely. Good luck!

[liver_blow]

A lot of good advice in here, I want to add a little bit that deals with our minds. I feel like this is something that we can all work on to improve.

Our mind is basically separated into 2 areas, the conscious and the sub-conscious. I mean the whole subject of consciousness is a tough subject to talk about, but I think simply put things we think about consciously takes precedence, but most of us operate our lives using mostly our sub-conscious.

In street fighter, people often talk about muscle memory and reaction times. Those things are actually activities that we as players practice over and over consciously, until it “sinks” into our sub-conscious and we can do bnb combos or srk a jump-in without having to tell oursevles “need to press f, d, d/f +p”.

I believe to be successful in SF, players need to put as much things into our subconscious as we can. Think about the last time when we learned a new combo, the whole match we’re thinking about it and trying to land it right? and we keep doing it until we can do it “on reaction”. Now what about the last time when you did that, but with spacing? Where the entire session you cared about nothing but do the best spacing you can possibly do? Game after game until you can space properly without thinking about it?

If not, each time you play focus on an area that you’re not good. Even if you lose or play worse and win less, keep focusing on flaws on your game and only that. Slowly try to delegate every action to your subconscious, as much as you can.

What happens after? what happens after is that during a match, everything you do is operated from your subconscious, and it leaves your conscious, thinking mind to deal with the real problems. Your conscious mind now is uncluttered and fast allowing you to think of your opponent’s tendencies, holes in their game, what to avoid, what they’re good at, what they’re bad at. You can use your entire mind on your opponent alone, instead of doing it while thinking about what you should be doing.

Sorry if this all seems like mumble jumble, but I do this for my day job and it helps immensely. Good luck!

Just out of curiosity, what IS your day job? It sounds interesting.

[daimonquark]

How do you play SF?

Pick your character, go into the matchup. Feel the opponent out with some pokes. Try to read what they are going to do and react accordingly. Perhaps you have a few mixup tricks to help lower their defenses.

If you do this, and you can do it fairly well, it will make you a good, solid player. But not top-level.

Over the past 2 days I’ve played against a top-level Ryu, Sagat, and Akuma. The difference with these players is that they don’t just do things - they set up situations so they can take advantage of it. For example, the Ryu player hits me with a block string. Its not a random block string, this block string happens to put Ryu at Chun’s sweep distance when it ends. The vast majority of Chun players will sweep here. We may not even think about it, our fingers just might move reflexively to the roundhouse button. But this Ryu player knew that. With one step backwards, he could move out of sweep range - one step forward, he can sweep Chun while she is still in recovery. Knock her down, set her up for the next attack. Or, he can use the FA dash like a parry, and go hit her with one of his hardest combos.

This was a high-level bait. It was far more than just hovering around on wakeup and trying to bait out a reversal. No, he used very specific knowledge of normals, spacing, and both characters toolsets to create this opportunity. It wasn’t just “I think the Chun player will sweep here”, but “how can I make this Chun player sweep, and what can I do about it?” To me, this is what makes high-level play. If you just try to react to your opponent, and maybe even if you have a few tricks or set-ups, you can be better than most of the masses, but it won’t be enough to make you top-level.

The Ryu vs Chun example is specific to Chun, but this Ryu player fought off a variety of characters during his win streak. He beat a Master class Akuma - I watched him bait out air fireballs from a very specific distance, and counter with a DP at the right timing/angle to go through it. He put himself into positions where Gief would want to go for Ultra, jumped out of it, and punished. He just knew the game.

This was a wall I hit myself, so I think maybe its one other players might face if they want to improve. Being able to create these situations where you can do damage, and doing so through multi-layered offensive and defensive moves. And not only that, but recognizing when this is being done to you and successfully avoiding it. Knowing which move beats what, and at precisely the right distance/timing. Its not a simple thing, but that’s why there aren’t so many top players.

Riveting tale, chap. This is the perfect counter-point to someone who says “I’ve learned all there is to know and I hit a wall”, IMO. There are worlds within worlds, Arkeen. You haven’t hit a wall until you’re undefeatable.

[Phillies64]

Do what the Mongols did…go around it.

They didn’t go around it. They just sacked all the incoming supplies, forcing their enemies to open up the gates after too many people were starving to death.

So ummm…I guess if you’re hitting a wall…you could starve someone to death until you get better execution.

[entrerix]

OK, now that you’ve gone through mastering execution, learning spacing, learning match-ups, etc… you can finally learn how to play the game.

…

You think you hit a wall, but you just hit a door. You can open it if you feel like. You’ll essentially be starting over, but you’ll be playing a much better game.

best quote ever

[stupid_nerd]

The game seems to be patched unannounced sometimes, either that or people don’t play the same as if there were all robot clones.

[System_1]

This makes perfect sense now. Chinatown Fair is the perfect place to put a wall in place for you to get discouraged. (Especially when you play the game for a dollar) I quit Tekken because those assholes at sony stuck my beloved game on the PS3 and PSP. I tried to play T6 but it was way to expensive and I had no way to practice…Im a @#$%!@! Mishima player for christ sakes!!! Oh I’m sorry I didn’t mean to get carried away. I had a wall in SF4 I overcame last night. It was only having easy to use Blanka as a main. Now I have a Chun and hopefully I’ll have a Cammy soon to. I try my best to stay away from CF. A dollar per play is god awful. Since my Tekken buds think I quit Tekken, I usually show up for a cameo and show them I still got it. You know what though…I’m ten times better than before because I took a break.

[System_1]

I’m pretty new to fighting games on this level of seriousness, and there are things that make wanna to throw in the towel. But I like fighting games. That’s it. I like the one-on-one test of might and psyche. If I lose a good match that’s cool, we both had a good match.

As long as good matches come my way, I’ll be motivated and inspired to learn and improve.

[evilweevle]

[quote=“HAV, post:44, topic:75404”]

OK, now that you’ve gone through mastering execution, learning spacing, learning match-ups, etc… you can finally learn how to play the game.
QUOTE]

ha ha reminds me of that part in south park"make love not warcraft" when they finally beat the douche whos been killing everybody

“now whadda we do?”
“what do you mean? now we can finally play the game…”

[System_1]

Yeah, just take a break

I would say play a completely different genre , I’m talking about like Madden or Final Fantasy. When you come back you’ll feel better

If fighting games are your fancy period, i would say try a game with harder execution? like BlazBlue, or if your trying to let go of the stress of precision, then play a corky fun fighting game like Smash Bros, or DoA , MK vs DC, or my personally little fav Castle Crashers ftw

[R_Panda]

If fighting games are your fancy period, i would say try a game with harder execution? like BlazBlue…

Only if you play Litchi. Otherwise BB is both slower and easier in execution by half compared to Street Fighter 4. But maybe my personal experience is skewed. (going from Viper to Nu)