How did you start developing/improving new/existing habits?

[kostikla]

In the pursuit of getting better and improving my gameplay I made a list of things that I need to work on, and periodically look at that list and try to see if anything criteria or point from the list has changed or not.

But some things I don’t know how to make stick, especially Up Blocks and Dash Cancelling. It will probably take 5 jump in kicks till I remember that I need to Up Block, or that dashing backwards or forwards is much faster to create space or close the gap on someone. I lab these things as well and try to create practice scenarios to use them so it becomes a bit muscle memory, but then get so focused on the fight that I forget everything.

How did you learn do tame these sort of behaviours?

Thanks!

 

[FredoTwoWheels]

I set out specifically to try to land or attempt 2 or 3 of whatever I am looking to learn per game. I do it in Kasuals and I dont focus on a win, I focus on a change.

 

[kostikla]

I set out specifically to try to land or attempt 2 or 3 of whatever I am looking to learn per game. I do it in Kasuals and I dont focus on a win, I focus on a change.

Thanks for the tip. I learned that in Robocop’s course but am yet to apply it.

 

[Juggs]

I go into matches not with the goal of winning, but with different goals. For instance if I want to work on dash blocking as you said. I’ll go into a match where I ONLY move by dash blocking regardless if it costs me the game. As in, I’m not allowed to move any other way. Can’t walk forwards or backwards, can’t jump, etc. Same with any other habit. Most people aren’t okay with losing in general, but especially not due to working on improving in certain areas or certain habits. Aka not actively trying to win but trying to improve. This is especially the case when it’s online, winning is fairly meaningless, even in KL. If your goal is to improve and get better, simply “winning” isn’t really going to help you all that much. Especially if you’re playing against someone worse than you. Which is another thing you need to do, find players on your level or better. Better players should be forcing you to make less mistakes because they’ll punish you pretty much every time you make one, and their punish will be close to optimal. Where as a worse player will let you get away with A LOT of stuff. So instead of forcing you to play better, they force you into bad habits that don’t actually work against good players. Playing against good players will also force you to capitalize on your opponent’s mistakes more often as well, because they make far fewer of them. So if you don’t capitalize on the very few mistakes they make, you won’t ever be doing well against them or anyone else that’s as good as you or better. Where as a worse player makes tons of mistakes so if you don’t capitalize on every mistake it’s not as big of a deal.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

Learn to play with your mind first, rather than leading with your fingers. That change alone will probably make the biggest difference in your improvement as a fighting game player.

It’ll feel slow/weird at first, but once you adjust to it, you’ll look back at your old matches and wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

In the pursuit of getting better and improving my gameplay I made a list of things that I need to work on, and periodically look at that list and try to see if anything criteria or point from the list has changed or not.

But some things I don’t know how to make stick, especially Up Blocks and Dash Cancelling. It will probably take 5 jump in kicks till I remember that I need to Up Block, or that dashing backwards or forwards is much faster to create space or close the gap on someone. I lab these things as well and try to create practice scenarios to use them so it becomes a bit muscle memory, but then get so focused on the fight that I forget everything.

How did you learn do tame these sort of behaviours?

Thanks!

Things like that come when you're fully comfortable with your character. When you don't need to think about proper punishes, or what to do in neutral your mind is more open to focusing on other aspects of the game.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

One more thing: anticipating is easier than raw reactions. You react best to things you already expect to happen. To do this you need to create a feedback loop in your head that looks at every situation and analyzes your opponent's possible options.

You can start by actually verbalizing this to yourself mid-match, or just by thinking about it intentionally if that works for you. Like "If they jump, I'm gonna do this. If they dash in, I'm gonna do this. If they throw a fireball, I'm gonna do this". Start repeating this stuff to yourself while you play until it becomes second nature.

Learn to play around what your opponent wants to do at any given moment, rather than being surprised by everything. Once you start thinking that way, it becomes easier to react with stuff like proper anti-airs, because in your mind you're already thinking "ok, he's just about at jump distance and he's jumped in twice before in this situation.. I'm gonna have that upblock ready now just in case" etc. This also applies to dealing with wakeups, blockstring pressure and staggers, etc.

 

[kostikla]

I go into matches not with the goal of winning, but with different goals. For instance if I want to work on dash blocking as you said. I’ll go into a match where I ONLY move by dash blocking regardless if it costs me the game. As in, I’m not allowed to move any other way. Can’t walk forwards or backwards, can’t jump, etc. Same with any other habit. Most people aren’t okay with losing in general, but especially not due to working on improving in certain areas or certain habits. Aka not actively trying to win but trying to improve. This is especially the case when it’s online, winning is fairly meaningless, even in KL. If your goal is to improve and get better, simply “winning” isn’t really going to help you all that much. Especially if you’re playing against someone worse than you. Which is another thing you need to do, find players on your level or better. Better players should be forcing you to make less mistakes because they’ll punish you pretty much every time you make one, and their punish will be close to optimal. Where as a worse player will let you get away with A LOT of stuff. So instead of forcing you to play better, they force you into bad habits that don’t actually work against good players. Playing against good players will also force you to capitalize on your opponent’s mistakes more often as well, because they make far fewer of them. So if you don’t capitalize on the very few mistakes they make, you won’t ever be doing well against them or anyone else that’s as good as you or better. Where as a worse player makes tons of mistakes so if you don’t capitalize on every mistake it’s not as big of a deal.

Thanks for the reply. To make things worse I must admit that I rationally accept everything you said and I agree. But when I get into a game my competitive spirit sort of takes over and wants to win, and part of me supports it by saying something along the lines of “it’s play to win, just do everything you can”, and then I forget about everything. One thing I want to try is putting a sheet of paper or an iPad in front of the TV or something that I can peek at while playing and having the time to look around (e.g. round reset, match reset, fatal blows), and I will write in caps something like “UP BLOCK” to remember why I’m doing this. I’m also trying to play ranked so that I get used to fake internet points, but playing with a handicap or a set “challenge” is also a concept I fully support and am yet to try out. Thanks for the reinforcement!

 

[kostikla]

Learn to play with your mind first, rather than leading with your fingers. That change alone will probably make the biggest difference in your improvement as a fighting game player.

It’ll feel slow/weird at first, but once you adjust to it, you’ll look back at your old matches and wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

Agreed, I actually came to this thought recently and was thinking that if I’ll start to play very calculated and safe - I’ll probably start losing half or more of the matched that I usually was winning, since a bunch of the matches were won by a few impudent and impatient moves. Thanks for confirming it, I guess it’s all in front of me and time to start applying it.

 

[kostikla]

One more thing: anticipating is easier than raw reactions. You react best to things you already expect to happen. To do this you need to create a feedback loop in your head that looks at every situation and analyzes your opponent's possible options.

You can start by actually verbalizing this to yourself mid-match, or just by thinking about it intentionally if that works for you. Like "If they jump, I'm gonna do this. If they dash in, I'm gonna do this. If they throw a fireball, I'm gonna do this". Start repeating this stuff to yourself while you play until it becomes second nature.

Part of getting better is learning to play around what your opponent probably wants to do at any given moment, rather than being surprised by everything. Once you start thinking that way, it becomes easier to react with stuff like proper anti-airs, because in your mind you're already thinking "ok, he's just about at jump distance and he's jumped in twice before in this situation.. I'm gonna have that upblock ready now just in case" etc. This also applies to dealing with wakeups, blockstring pressure and staggers, etc.

Thanks for the advice. I think this might actually be very helpful (and a bit weird at first), and I haven’t heard this strategy of building up your anticipation (and thus reaction) awareness - thanks a bunch! I’ll also try to think more conciously about my opponent’s actions, besides mine only. Thinking about his actions first might pivot my course of actions so it’s probably even better than just planning a short term tactic and clashing with his - sort of rock paper scissors. We can do better

 

[Juggs]

Thanks for the reply. To make things worse I must admit that I rationally accept everything you said and I agree. But when I get into a game my competitive spirit sort of takes over and wants to win, and part of me supports it by saying something along the lines of “it’s play to win, just do everything you can”, and then I forget about everything. One thing I want to try is putting a sheet of paper or an iPad in front of the TV or something that I can peek at while playing and having the time to look around (e.g. round reset, match reset, fatal blows), and I will write in caps something like “UP BLOCK” to remember why I’m doing this. I’m also trying to play ranked so that I get used to fake internet points, but playing with a handicap or a set “challenge” is also a concept I fully support and am yet to try out. Thanks for the reinforcement!

Having the “play to win” mentality is super important. And you should do everything in your power in order to win. But when it comes to getting better and improving, winning isn’t anywhere near as important. Because as I said, you can get into pretty bad habits if you’re ONLY playing to win especially if you’re playing worse players than yourself.

Another thing is you really need a training partner that is around your skill level. And you also need to utilize the training mode as much as you can. Like, if I have a set against someone, especially one where I lost, I’ll rewatch the footage and see the things I was doing wrong or see what my opponent was doing that I was doing a good job of defending against. So I’ll go into training mode and have the AI do that exact thing and then learn better ways to deal with it.

Getting good at a fighting game takes a lot of hardwork and effort. Even for the top of the top players, they’re constantly doing these same exact things. Which is why they’re the best players to begin with.

 

[kostikla]

Having the “play to win” mentality is super important. And you should do everything in your power in order to win. But when it comes to getting better and improving, winning isn’t anywhere near as important. Because as I said, you can get into pretty bad habits if you’re ONLY playing to win especially if you’re playing worse players than yourself.

Another thing is you really need a training partner that is around your skill level. And you also need to utilize the training mode as much as you can. Like, if I have a set against someone, especially one where I lost, I’ll rewatch the footage and see the things I was doing wrong or see what my opponent was doing that I was doing a good job of defending against. So I’ll go into training mode and have the AI do that exact thing and then learn better ways to deal with it.

Getting good at a fighting game takes a lot of hardwork and effort. Even for the top of the top players, they’re constantly doing these same exact things. Which is why they’re the best players to begin with.

Yeah, having a training partner is exactly what I’m missing. I might try and find someone… thanks for the help!

 

[Marinjuana]

Watching your match replays really helps. You want to look for obvious little things, like you should react anti air that jump, you should punish that move better, etc. But another big thing is to look for weak spots in your gameplan/strategy, like maybe you armor too often and the opponent blocks and punishes.. maybe some matchpus you don't want to armor at all and save it for breaker or something, that sort of thing

Other thing that killed me over the years is having that asshole character I hate to play against but also having that prevent me from playing that character myself and properly labbing them. In my experience, you are eventually going to get yourself bodied if you let your ego prevent you from learning characters you have to play against