Hey guys. I’ve been using a stick for a few months now, and I still struggle with this particular problem. I’m only able to perform certain combos on one side, and when I try it on the other, I can’t seem to do it as accurately. Is this due to a lack of practice? Can I really train myself to be able to perform combos on both sides with equal accuracy?
Yes…it’s due to lack of practice on the other side.
That makes sense. For some reason I assumed that just because I was able to perform the combo with moderate ease on one side, that it would mean that I could do it for the other side as well.
It’s the nature of using stick. People always have inherent difficulty with one side or another. Only way to compensate is practicing.
It’s a common problem. Check out the stickies. Practice on both sides.
What I used to do is every time I learned a combo or hit confirm, I’d do it ten times on one side, then ten times on the other. Another thing you can do in games like Street Fighter where corner carry isn’t as far is push your opponent to the corner with the combo, and then push them back to the other corner with the combo from the other side. It’s like running suicides, but with fighting games.
I really appreciate the information. Thanks everyone. @Hyenaboy, yeah I tried the 10x combo practice in training mode, but I just can’t seem to do it. I can only do a particular combo a few times in a row and then I start dropping it. I just don’t know why my hands refuse to obey me. If I can do a particular combo perfectly the first time, then why is my brain fumbling the second or third attempt at it? Granted, I use Evil Ryu and most of his combo’s contain 1 frame links, and I don’t plink so that maybe why.
I practice combos and hit confirms in training mode inbetween ranked matches. I’ll just combo the dummy from corner to corner.
I just picked up poison about 5 days ago and I’m able to do a couple of her BnB combos without problems from both sides now. Its all about programming your muscle memory.
Thanks, that makes sense. So I presume if I neglect practicing regularly, then my muscle memory will suffer as a result, and my accuracy at performing heavy combos will start to diminish, correct?
Because of this exact problem, I wish games put in as a training mode option to select to start from 1P or 2P side. Either I’ve missed it or it’s not common in the games I’ve played.
Just like swinging a bat or throwing a ball there’s a natural and unnatural side. With games like KOFXIII, I like to use this as practice for both ambiguous rolls and hit confirms from either side at the same time. Sweep or throw, vary the run up, roll and react to the outcome.
Practice is the answer.
If you can’t do it 10 times in a row straight away, then start small. Try hitting the combo from each side 3 times in a row, then 5, then 6-8, then 9-10.
Keep in mind, even though the motion/inputs ingame are symmetrical, the ways you move your hand to do them are not. Doing a quarter circle towards the left is a different hand motion than doing one towards the right, so as mentioned already you need to practice both.
Dissect the issue and where you’re going wrong. For instance I used to really struggle doing super cancels on the P1 side and I found that my issue was my hand wasn’t fully doing the double QCF motion and going DB, D, DF and not going all the way up. To remedy that I just practised the double QCF motion and really concentrated on what my hand and wrist was doing as I was performing the motion, I found that if I could feel my stick hitting the side of the square gate when I had hit F from DF and it helped my execution a bunch, now I can do it 100% on both sides(Which was an absolute godsend that I bothered to train it now that SF5 revolves around CA cancels for big damage)
So if your combo is something like cr.lp > cr.hp > l.shoryu > FADC > ultra 1 as Ryu for instance, just break each part of the combo down and try to figure out where the mistake comes from. Usually there’s an issue with the motions just because of your muscle memory only being used to your favourite side. I know some pro players REALLY want their favourite side when games start, I actually think that ApologyMan actively asks for his favourite side every match he has because he’s just stronger on it.