How to drop bad habits/flukes?

[Jerain]

Recently, I've picked up P4AU and a fight stick in hopes to learn a traditional fighter. I've played some competitive SSBB in the past, but that's a totally different monster. Otherwise, the only real experience I've had with these kinds of fighters were the two weeks I tried to learn Skullgirls and when I'd go with a few friend to an arcade and screw around on the SF4 machine. After reading up on guides on this site and playing for a bit, I immediately realized a few flukes and habits that inhibit gameplay. I'm making this thread for tips on how to improve on mechanics and drop these habits.

 

1. Button mashing

While its getting better, I sometimes can't help but input a single command two or three times when I'm rehearsing a combo. I also noticed that in an actual match instead of training mode, I stop consciously thinking "stop mashing" and go straight back into it. Is this just a thing that improves over time, or is there a certain method to prevent this from happening?

 

2. Adjusting my B&B combo

When I had just started playing, I bought Marie and pulled up a few simple combos to rehearse. Good news: one combo stuck, which I can basically perfectly pull out now. Bad news: muscle memory is making it hard to do anything else. Whenever I see a situation where after a 5AA, it would be better to string into 5C > 5BB > j.c...., I automatically go into 5B > 5C > 2AB... etc. I feel like just spending more time in training mode doing other combos can help with my variability, but after a while I'm not really feeling any different. 

 

3. Reaction times

Besides just playing more, is there a way to improve reaction speeds? For example, I would sometimes whiff an attack accidentally online, and instead of immediately playing more defensively/zone, I would basically go brain dead for half a second and get punished because of this. Especially on Marie, where the 5C has quite a bit of lag if it isn't cancelled, I just can't fathom in time what to do during that period, which ends up in losing a card and probably getting caught in a combo.

 

Might add more later if I find some more problems to fix.

[Soviet Bear]

I'm guessing different methods work for different people, but here's what I do to learn stuff:

 

1) Whenever I am at a disadvantage for mashing (like spending 100% of my tension instead of 50% for a cancel because I mashed), I take that as a hint for more self-control.

 

2) Practice, try doing fancy stuff online, don't be afraid to experiment. It's online casuals, so if your plan messes up, the worst that can happen is someone will send you a message "Learn 2 BnB n00blet lol go back to ultra casual fighter 4 ". Even if you don't know how to do a specific combo, try to do it if you know it in theory. You'll see where you're dropping it and then spend time figuring out what to adjust.

 

3) Don't panic and don't space out.

 

Essentially, if you mess up, your opponent will slap you and then you'll be all "I keep doing this and I keep getting slapped. Maybe I should try something else." Then you'll reach a point where you're slapping others for their mistakes.

[RifleAvenger]

3. It probably isn't your reaction time; it's how you've conditioned yourself to act in a given situation. With time and practice, responding properly to situations will become second nature. The secret to fighting games is that you want a lot of the trivial decisions like executing combos and knowing what buttons to press in simple situations to become almost unconscious. That frees up space for you to think about more important things, predicting the opponent, and makes reacting to stuff easier too.

[StylisH]

What works for me is actually simple:  Learn a brand new character from the ground up, one whose play style you're not used to.  It's a good way IMO to kind of tune out bad habits by re-wiring yourself to a different mindset.

[APinkBuny]

Button Mashing - What causes it and how to stop it.

Causes

1. Speed of the Game. The game whether it be the meta, character speed, or Frames may be to fast for your eyes.

2. Inexperience - Being but into block strings, corner combos, and combos in general that you don't know when to poke out.

3. Brain Shutting Down - During a fighting game you are making decisions. 70% of those decisions are reaction/habbit. 40% are real on the fly decisions. The 40% is where button mashing can accrue do to unfamiliarity.  

 

Fixes

1. Speed of the Game - This is a time thing. Given enough time your eyes will adjust to speed. The time it takes to adjust is a person to person thing. However soon enough your eyes will eventually catch up to the speed of the frames.

2. Inexperience - Training mode is the key here. IF you are able to use other characters corner combo's and put them in training mode you can practice poking out of them. This is one of the many reasons training mode is in the game. Learning when to push a button during another persons string is a long and hard road. If you CAN NOT do other characters combos this ok, you can use training mode to and make the other character use his normal's against yours and see which one of your's will beat his.

3. Brain Shutting Down - This is usually and experience thing. This will stop happening once you've fully learned your character. Fully learning a character is a time sink that varies from person to person. You don't need to learn every combo ever found. You just need to learn how to get into the combo's you know. A combo means nothing if you can't learn how to put your self into position to use it. Once this is mastered your 40% will be used to block, counter hit, and start combos.

 

Beard and Butter Combos

Standard BnB's are usually easy to use combos that net decent damage. Finding ways into these combo's are where most players have a hard time. Here are tips into combos.

1. Counter Hits - This goes back to training mode where you figure out which of your attacks is a faster poke than the other characters. Counter poking is one of the big ways into BnB's.

2. Chain Combo's - A chain combo is when you link normal attacks. Learning which moves you can do to open up a character is key to landing those BnB's. Figuring out which moves lead into other moves is a HUGE part of any characters game plan.

 

Reaction Time

Getting your reaction time up is the hardest part of fighting games. There are ways to increase it and there are ways around it. Here's the thing about reactions. Your eye's see it all, every frame, every move..ect. What is not happening your brain. The eye's see it but your brain can toss it out or will not act fast enough to send a signal to your hand to react. Increasing this process is time. If you put yourself in situations that require fast reaction speeds your brain will eventually catch up. However it will only catch up if your actively playing. 

 

Actively Playing

I know your thinking but I am playing so I am being active. Your right and your wrong. Actively playing means you are playing the game and thinking the whole time. Every thing you do whether its jumping, hitting a button...ect think about it before you do it. If during a match you say "Damn I can't believe I didn't anti air". Your thinking and you keep thinking. Think before you do every move. Doing this will at first slow you game down a lot. However in around a few weeks your game will be better. Your timing will be better. Your Reactions will be faster. Playing this way is how people can see fast frame moves.

 

The Last thing I will say is this. When it comes to online it's an uphill battle. Lag is the killer of progress. You can be better than a person online but due to lag (Added Frames) you can suck. If you play a character with tight windows (2F) links and you add 3,4,5,9 Frames of Delay you will fail. It's also good that you failed. In a real match at a local or major there is no delay. If you want to get better online is good but only if you find some one with good internet where the delay is under 3frames. Other wise the best place to practice is with real people in your area.

 

I hope this helps. I know this is a really long post but I figure I might be able to help more people with this kinda of set up for your questions.