A Conversation with Doug

I have this buddy Doug. He's really a very good SF'er, and we go way back to my days playing Jedi Knight II (about 8 years ago roughly). When Doug and I play he scrapes me. I get bodied by his Fei Long, and really sometimes it almost seems like he's not trying until he wants to just turn on the juice. Anyway, Doug is a very chill dude, and always has been really. I know that he gets angry or frustrated just like I do, but he always handles it much better than I do. Today I was in one of my moods on SF and when I get in these moods I just spam my friends with all of my negative thoughts. I throw out a "FUCK, I suck" and they think to themselves "I'll bite" and reply with "No, you don't suck", and then I'll throw out "Yeah, I can't even win against *insert name here* regularly. And they say "you can" and I say "I'm not smart enough to play this game" and an endless tirade of negativity on my part ensues while they continue to be encouraging. This happened today when I was playing Doug as he was beating me down with Gen and El Fuerte I just couldn't take the losing anymore. We had the following conversation, parts of it are missing, but I think there is still some good info here for those that might be running into similiar frustration. It helped give me some clarity as I focus way too much on winning and losing and not enough on improving as a player. I'm still going to struggle with not improving fast enough for my liking, but hopefully if I can take in some of what Doug was talking about I can not notice the time go by as I rise to become a skillful player.

Balmung (Doug): I liked your dhalsim.

Insahn (Me) : dhalsim just makes me angry, really

Insahn: because I wasn't improving with him

Insahn: I just want to see visible signs of improvement

Insahn: and for me those signs are winning more often

Insahn: and I'm not seeing it

Balmung: my signs for improvement are different i guess.

Balmung: winning is secondary to improvement in my positioning and mind games

Balmung: wins come with that

Balmung: i think

Insahn: well, when you win as much as you do, or as often it doesn't have to be a concern

Insahn: because you win enough to satisfy you

Insahn: but if you practiced all of the time and still lost to all of your friends

Insahn: it would start to bother you

Insahn: don't you think?

Balmung: nope, not really. i would get frusterated for sure

Balmung: but when i played third strike

Balmung: i only played on ggpo

Balmung: no training mode

Balmung: no nothing

Balmung: just played people who were dominant

Balmung: ggpo is a super niche community of all arcaders it seems

Balmung: and i would ask them questions and try and mimic other people when i spectated

Balmung: i would lose 30 games in a row

Balmung: to someone who was taunting me

Balmung: i got angry with losing

Balmung: but i also didnt let it effect me so long that i couldn't try again

Balmung: i would try new things

Balmung: every loss wasnt such a horrible thing, it was something i could learn from

Balmung: and thats how i started playing SF

Balmung: my work habit in it is based on that experience now

Balmung: i would love to get my ass beat by Justin Wong for a day straight

Balmung: or even nagger (another friend that plays who is very good)

Balmung: or someone who could teach me something

Balmung: nagger helps my game out a lot

Balmung: he has a good mix up

Balmung: i try and feel him out for the first 5 or so games

Balmung: then i start getting in a rythym]

Balmung: and then maybe he starts getting into one

Balmung: its very good.

Insahn: yeah, I just fight beginners for the most part, and I don't try much new because I don't really know what to try, ryu doesn't suprise many people. I can't take losing 30 in a row without it bothering me also.

Insahn: if I fought you 30 times a day I don't know if I would get better, because I don't think

Insahn: If I can just get over losing and feeling stupid I can improve I think.

Balmung: this

Balmung: you get off your throne

Balmung: its an ego thing

Balmung: you have to be willing to be a beginner

Balmung: a beginners mind set

Balmung: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin

Balmung: that

Balmung: it's your concept of better and worse is whats holding you back

Balmung: you think that for some reason

Balmung: you have to be better than this person

Balmung: that that person and you are even

Balmung: that this guy is good but random

Balmung: you just can't look at it like that, you need to approach each match completely differently

Balmung: "i have trouble with this guy"

Balmung: "i have trouble with that guy"

Balmung: but when i take the time to relax, assess what they are doing

Balmung: see what their bag of tricks consist of

Balmung: i learn

Balmung: i get beat by horrible people

Balmung: i don't let it get me down

Balmung: if i lose to someone from a gimick laggy thing

Balmung: im going to blame the lag and assume i did my best

Balmung: if i just am trying to lie to myself and say it was lag

Balmung: and they caught me with some scrubby shit that i wasnt looking for

Balmung: thats my fault

Balmung: and i need to think about how sometimes new players can catch you with things like that

Balmung: the concept of better and worse should be used very loosely. its like saying whos better, gootecks or mike ross

Balmung: or gootecks and keno

Balmung: or mike ross and moval

Balmung: its like... it doesnt matter

Balmung: mike ross is trying to win his match

Balmung: learning him his mistakes

Balmung: i think you need to train your brain in the middle of a fight to analyze quicker

Balmung: if you think your messing up

Balmung: back away

Balmung: and try and re-assess

Balmung: things like that

Balmung: you aren't an idiot

Balmung: you arn't even slow

Balmung: you just haven't trained your brain mid game yet

Insahn: but how do I do that

Insahn: what is an example you could give me?

Insahn: I don't really know what you mean by 'train my brain'

Balmung: well

Balmung: in the middle of a game

Balmung: try predicting your opponent

Balmung: not always by conditioning them to do things

Balmung: but just straight think about what they are doing

Balmung: just as much as you think about what you're doing

Balmung: think about what you think they will

Balmung: a lot of my psychic focus attacks are like that

Balmung: and i get into the habit of doing it at certain points because i know it catches people a lot

Balmung: and if it doesnt

Balmung: i back up re-assess

Balmung: think as fast as i can

Balmung: and try something new just for the sake of changing my game up

Insahn: I don't notice patterns in this game

Insahn: I used to in jk2

Balmung: there are many patterns

Insahn: but that kind of analysis just dissapeared

Balmung: you have to be thinking about what you would do if you were them

Balmung: how would you beat your ryu

Balmung: if your a gen

Balmung: i would try and catch you with my wall dive

Balmung: after a few hados

Balmung: thats what i would try to do

Insahn: ok, I see what you mean

Balmung: so you have to think about that

Insahn: but I guess when fighting fei long, or gen, I really don't know what those characters would do

Insahn: I know fei might chicken wing at me if I'm throwing fireballs

Insahn: and I try to prepare for it, sometimes I predict it

Balmung: Protip: you have to think about what your opponent is doing just as much as you think about what you're doing"

Insahn: but the shoryuken doesn't come out

Balmung: thats what gootecks said

Balmung: play as fei

Balmung: play as gen

Balmung: a little

Balmung: so you a hve a better idea

Insahn: yeah, but "thinking about what your opponent is doing" is defined differently by those that know how to think about what their opponent is doing.

Insahn: I don't think I would be good enough to do half of the shit those characters have to offer

Insahn: and it would take a lot of time

Insahn: and my ryu would get worse

Balmung: it doesnt matter if you're good or not with them

Balmung: understanding their movements

Balmung: helps greatly

Balmung: understanding some of the tools they have

Balmung: like.

Balmung: do fei and gen's normal trials

Balmung: get a feel for them

Balmung: don't need to practice combos and shit

Hope you guys enjoyed, until next time!

carpe ultra

Hey all,

I attended a tournament yesterday. I did fairly well considering I didn't expect to win at all. I actually pulled out two wins. One was against someone who clearly just started playing the game, and the other was against a decent Fei Long. I lost to the guy that ended up placing third (I did manage to steal a round from him) and another guy who placed 'I think' fifth. It was overall a very fun experience even if, once again, I didn't really say that much while I was there. I did have my ears and eyes open and tried to glean what I could from the matches I had. One of the things I took away from the tourney was that I really need to start capitalizing on opportunities I'm creating for myself. I noticed, even against better players, that I would manage to put them in undesirable situations that I just couldn't follow through on. Watching them play casuals, I noticed that they rarely missed a combo or ultra opportunity and watching the weaker players at the tournament I noticed that they usually always did. Doing big damage when I get the chance is important because those chances don't seem to come by very often. So this comes down to execution practice. A lot of it. My friend Doug, who has formidable Fei Long, says that he goes through Fei's hard trials once a day both sides of the screen for execution practice. He says he can get through them in about 10 minutes now. I would love to be able to do that with Ryu, and so I popped into Challenge Mode today with him and finally got through Hard Trial 2, which is actually easy for me now as opposed to when I tried to do it a few months ago. I can see rolling through these challenges in 10 minutes, and I can definitely see how working on them will strengthen my execution once I'm able to do them automatically. That's the kind of grind you have to go through I think if you really want to play at the high level. That kind of execution is one of the pieces of the puzzle that separates the average from the above average. Now once I get to above average it will be about a lot more than just execution, but for now this is certainly a hurdle that I can overcome and will overcome.

Homework... Part I

Hey guys,

This week I was given a little homework assignment by a Ryu player that I look up to as a mentor, Mickey D. We had a long talk about where I was headed with Ryu and also making sure that I was in the right frame of mind to improve and stick with the game. He wanted me to think about what he calls the 'five fundamentals of street fighter'. These five fundementals are: discipline, zoning, momentum, execution, and adaptation. He challenged me to "truly think about" what they mean to me as a player. Not only think of what they "mean" but think of how I use them as a player during my matches and while doing this, explain myself as a player, explain the weaknesses and strengths I have when thinking about the core fundamentals. I told him that I would chronicle my answer in my blog so that others may pose the same questions to themselves, but also maybe glean something from my own answer and self-analysis.

Discipline

I kind of see this fundamental as having multiple meanings. I practice as religiously as I possibly can. I can sit for hours in training mode working on links, combos, and counters and so in this sense I have an extreme amount of discipline when it comes to repetitive practice that others might find boring. I lack discipline when it comes to controlling my emotions before, during, and after a fight. This to me is something that I could probably work on the most as it could end up being detrimental to the longevity of my street fighter career. Meaning that if I'm getting angry about losing or I am embarrassed to fight my friends because they are above and beyond my skill level then I am more likely to want to quit playing the game all together at some point because I'm not enjoying it. Emotional control is a huge piece of the puzzle and having the discipline to have that control is huge for me. On the micro scale I also see "in-game" discipline as being important. Knowing when to NOT to go for that jump in or wake-up shoryuken is huge, but this goes hand in hand with emotional discipline before/after/during a match. If I can remain calm, then I can remain calculated. A clear mind is best for making the quick, smart decisions that Street Fighter requires.

Zoning

Having started out as a Dhalsim player I feel as though I have a pretty good grasp of what zoning is and also how important it is winning consistently. For me, this is Street Fighter at its very core. If I am controlling space better than my opponent then I am most likely winning. I try to focus on zoning with Ryu. I know that some people focus on combos and combo opportunities, but for me at least, this is secondary to zoning. Now, while I have a good grasp on what zoning is and how to zone this doesn't mean that I am necessarily that good at it. Controlling horizontal space can be done with Ryu's fireball and his pokes. I feel as though my horizontal pokes or "Ground Game" as its called, is average at best. I still use the fireball recklessly at times and get punished severely for it. I get caught poking on the ground a lot as well. I whiff a ton of pokes by either doing it when they are out of range or right as they jump in. This seems to be the biggest reason that I get dominated when I do get dominated by superior players. That feeling that I just can't do anything right sometimes isn't about luck or lucky guess from the opponent it comes from improper zoning on my part. Whiffing pokes, unsafe fireballs, and the big one... not anti-airing quickly enough or properly. This is a tough one for me though, how do I improve my ground game? How do I learn to not whiff crouching forward/crouching strong or when its ok to poke without getting jumped in on? It's something that I am sure there is no concrete answer to. It basically will come down to experience. Just being conscious that I am failing in those areas is a good first step to improving them.

Momentum

This was kind of tough for me to define. I touched on it briefly in another post, but controlling the momentum is controlling the perception of pressure for me. This is something I struggle with mightily. The reason for this is that I'm a beginner, for me, its that simple. When I first started playing street fighter I would get the momentum or 'control of the fight' and I would just hand it back over willingly. I was afraid to have the momentum because I really didn't know what to do with it and often times I still don't! I am getting better at recognizing when I have the momentum and trying to maintain it, but for a new player this is one of the hardest things to do because the more experienced player will be calmly thinking about how they can retake the momentum. Also knowing this, the less experienced player can be intimidated by this and give away the momentum prematurely because mentally he already has. This happened to me just today. I was fighting a Sakura with 14000+ GP and normally when I see that the first thought that comes into my mind is "great...here comes a loss." So even before the fight has began I am kind of letting them control the momentum in a sense. I ended up winning the first round, losing out in the second because I took a few too many risks, and in the third I took a commanding life lead early on with great zoning (I was using Dhalsim, which I rarely do anymore) but then I let the momentum slip from my grasp. I began to think that if anyone could come back it would probably be this guy, and that my lack of experience closing out fights like this could come back to haunt me, and sure enough, it did. Not because of my lack of experience directly, but because I let myself believe that. I gave up when I was in the lead. I essentially said "here take the momentum I had, I don't want it".

That is all for part one of my answer to Mickey's question, I hope it has been insightful and somewhat interesting to read. Stay tuned for Part II coming soon...

Rough Night

It's friday night. I work the night shift as a government contractor and my family is usually asleep when I get home. The nightly ritual is to sit down for a few matches which here for the past couple of days have been turning into frustration for me. I feel like I spend all of my time at work, I don't get to see the family much, and the one hobby that I enjoy for the time being, Street Fighter, I'm terrible at. Tonight, for instance, I couldn't even ultra... instead of ultra, ex shoryuken was coming out endlessly... nothing was going right. I would go for shoryuken and get super instead. I just couldn't execute! The controls felt horribly awkward. I thought things were going a little better for me execution-wise, but tonight it feels like I'm starting from scratch. I'm sure I can probably chalk this up to not getting to play as much as I would like. Lets face it, I'm 30 years old, with a family, and a job, and obligations and Street Fighter is a difficult game that requires a lot of time. Time isn't something I have much of. It's very hard for me to be satisfied with being mediocre due to time constraints. One cliche phrase that I have been trying to keep in mind for the past couple of days "slow and steady wins the race". If I keep playing, eventually my execution will improve even if I don't have 3-4 hours to work on it every night, my match-up knowledge will most likely improve too. If I continue to play over the course of the coming years, I should be better than I am now. How much better? A lot better I hope. If I'm not practicing the right way, or with the right mindset of "slow and steady wins the race" and with some sort of reluctant acceptance of where I am now as a player I don't think I will ever improve regardless of time. Why? Because my frustration at not improving quickly enough will most likely lead me to quit playing all together. I have to turn some of my desire to be good at SF4 into patience.

On a positive note, I watched a video of myself playing a fairly decent Guile and I noticed that I wasn't giving up ground nearly as much as I used to in older videos. This made me happy because it's a habit I've been forcing myself to get into and its starting to become a little more automatic. In older videos of myself (a few weeks ago) I would do a lot of needless distancing i.e. jumping back for no reason other than fear of having to react to a poke or react to a jump-in attack. In street fighter, I feel comfortable with space in between me and the opponent. If that space isn't there it forces me to make quick decisions and often times due to lack of experience those decisions might be the wrong ones. I have less time in those instances to think about what I am doing and so it feels unsafe to me. Well, lately, I've been trying to put myself in the opponents shoes and force them into that same unsafe feeling. I'm trying to give them that feeling as often as possible by simply not backing down from them. I'm not necessarily attacking, I might just be blocking a fireball and walking a half step forward back to where I was when I blocked it. This seems to create the illusion that I'm 'pushing' them into the corner. Basically what I'm getting at with this is that if there isn't a reason to give up space that I have earned, then I shouldn't be. The less space the opponent controls the fewer options they have and the less time they have to react to what is happening. I am trying to use that knowledge to my advantage by speeding up my decision making process in those instances while their's might be slowing down as they run out of options.

Back on a subject I've been hitting on in nearly every blog, the c.mk xxx hado while moving forward... the secret? Hold down back instead of down for the fireball and do basically a half circle motion on the stick. Simple. Now incorporating that into my pressure game is another matter, but the technique works.

Slow and steady wins the race.