Credit goes to Ryan Hunter at Option-Select.com
So I wound up with some time on my hands, and figured it was good opportunity to write a short article. I've already started a small list of topics I plan to write about (or have already started to write about), but they're mostly advanced concepts, so I figured for this I'd write something for beginner and intermediate players. With that said, this article's topic of discussion is five easy ways beginners can improve their game.
1) Stop Jumping: The most basic yet most commonly needed piece of advice for new players. The faults of jumping have been explained by countless people in a variety of ways, but it always boils down to one core problem. When a player jumps, they are essentially relinquishing control of their character until they reach the ground again. I've seen it explained that it's the equivalent of the player removing their left hand from the stick every time they jump, and when it's put in those kinds of terms it's easy to see why jumping is such a risk.
I've also seen people describe a Street Fighter match as a conversation between the two players. If this is true, a jumping player is saying to his opponent, “I don't feel confident that I can beat you straight up in the ground game, so instead of losing on the ground I'm going to risk giving you a free hit (or worse) for the slim chance that you'll try to attack me at the same time I jump, which will give me a free combo.” In that light, it's even easier to see how bad jumping really is.
That's not to say jumping is always bad, and for some characters it's less bad then others. Characters that can alter their jump arcs and trajectories (like C. Viper and Rufus) have more freedom to jump then those that do not, but even for these characters, jumping is still a risk and cannot be abused. Like everything else in Street Fighter, it has its time and place. However, understanding these times and places is usually beyond the grasp of new players. Therefore, for the purpose of learning and improving, it's best to simply stop jumping completely until the player is experienced enough to understand when jumping can be utilized correctly.
2) Be prepared to anti-air: Just as learning to not jump is important, punishing the opponent for jumping is equally, if not more important. One way a new player can acclimate themselves to anti-airing is to constantly think about it while playing footsies. The player's ground game might be weakened, since they are concentrating on the thought of anti-airing instead of actually paying attention to poking, but by thinking about anti-airing non-stop the new player will be prepared to anti-air as soon as the opponent jumps.
Eventually, using this method, the thought of being prepared to anti-air, and the action of executing the anti-air will become a natural part of the player's ground game, and they wont have to think about it anymore. As mentioned in the first tip, anti-airing consistently is extremely important because if the opponent is allowed to freely take risks (like jumping) without being punished for them, it is no longer a risk, and instead becomes a chance for the opponent to get free damage. It is the player's job to punish openings like this to force the opponent to stop taking the risk.
3) Don't be afraid to block: The second most commonly needed piece of advice for new players, but this one isn't as straightforward. New players without guidance are quick to form some truly horrible habits. Constant reversals, mashing on crouch techs, mashing on jabs or shorts, all of these habits are formed for the purpose of avoiding taking damage. To this end, they work great against other new players, but in the long run, as the new player's competition gets better, these habits will actually cause them more damage then the damage they avoid.
Almost all top players will agree, the hardest aspect of competitive Street Fighter is playing defense, and furthermore, that defense can always be improved and worked on. Therefore, this tip works two-fold. First, by forcing the player to play more solid and avoid unnecessary damage, and second, by forcing them to begin strengthening their defense. Again, this isn't to say there isn't a time and place for reversals, crouch techs, and jabs and shorts. However, just as with jumps, it's more beneficial to a new player to simply remove these things from their game completely until they are at a point where they can understand how to apply them correctly.
So for this tip, new players should force themselves to attempt to block when they are put in a defensive position. A good way to practice defense is for the player to position their fingers over Jab and Short so they are prepared to tech a throw attempt as soon as they see it. Spotting overheads is the other major part of playing good defense, and can be practiced in a similar way.
4) Learn your combos: While this might sound simple, the application of knowing combos can actually be a difficult thing to implement. Most newer players are quick to be excited by their character's combos, and practice their favorite combos in training mode, which is great. The problem is, very few new players realize to make the next step, which is figuring out when to apply them in a real match. In general, any given character only has 3 or 4 main combos that a player needs to know. One bread and butter combo (a hit confirm, ideally off a low hit), one punish combo (usually a variation of the hit confirm combo but with a stronger initial hit), one combo to spend meter (usually a variation of the hit confirm or punish combo using an EX or FADC), and one combo into Ultra.
Once these combos are learned, the new player must practice recognizing opportunities to use each combo in real matches, which can take time if they are still getting comfortable with the combos. For example, if a reversal is blocked, the player must develop the instinct to use their punish combo, rather then use their hit confirm combo. Using the right combos is extremely important because it maximizes damage output. In high level play, maximizing damage off every single hit is a crucial skill because sometimes a player only gets a single opportunity to beat their opponent.
5) Learn to hit confirm: From the concept of learning combos, the practice of hit confirming is important enough to warrant it's own entry on this list. For newer players watching other people play, the speed of the game might make hit confirming seem like a skill only for players lucky enough to be born with superhuman reflexes. In reality, it's a lot simpler then it looks.
Training mode is an invaluable tool for practicing things like hit confirms. Simply set the dummy to “Random Guard” and repeatedly try to hit confirm. Personally, I prefer to also set the dummy to crouch, because I think it's more common to get hit while crouching at point blank, but I've practiced various hit confirms countless times with the dummy both standing and crouching.
By having the threat of hit confirming into a full combo, the player is essentially increasing the risk on anything the opponent would try to do besides block. If they press Jab and get hit, instead of just taking insignificant damage from a random hit, they're now taking real damage from a full combo (and probably getting knocked back down).
So while these are all extremely basic topics, they are all also extremely core concepts that apply throughout Street Fighter, no matter what competition level the game is played at. The sooner these skills are developed, the more beneficial it will be to a new player because they are not simply learned and put away. These are all skills that can be constantly improved upon and increased. But once they are learned to a basic level, the player should immediately see an increase in the quality of their play because understanding these basic concepts are what separates competitive players from people who simply play the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment