I made it a goal in a previous post to explain something I didn’t understand when I first started SF5. So today’s topic will be “How to improve in SF5” since it is one of the things I am still trying to get my head wrapped around. The aim of this goal has 2 parts. First, by sharing my personal experience of banging my head against a wall I will hopefully save some else some bruises along the way in this process. Secondly, it is an evaluation of myself to see if I’m using all of my resources to get better and using them to the best of my ability.
Recently, my friend yizzyFGC shared a video with me on getting better in Street Fighter 5. It’s called “7 Tips For Improving In SFV” and can be found by clicking here. In my time with SF5 I have touched on each one of these points at least once and I’d like to share my experiences with each step and put my 2 cents in on the topics. Overview of topics:
Step 0. GO TO YOUR LOCAL FIGHTING GAME MEETUPS!
Step 1. Study your replays
Step 2. Search for replays
Step 3. Find a favorite to learn from
Step 4. Muscle memory drills
Step 5. Learn matchups in detail
Step 6. Sharpen your reactions
Step 7. Take notes/set goals
Step 8. Accept responsibility
Step 9. Other things or stuff that deserve a whole post on their own
So without further ado, here’s a summary of how I personally went about getting better at SF5 using the points from the video as a guideline:
Step 0. GO TO YOUR LOCAL FIGHTING GAME MEETUPS!
This isn’t in the video but I had to find a place somewhere early on in this post to stress this. Shoutouts to the SFV players in the Huntsville FGC: Tajh, Caleb, Dalian, Henry, Jeffery, Brandon, and alot of others in my local fight scene for teaching me about fighting games in general.
Step 1. Study your replays
I wholeheartedly agree with studying replay of yourself because of the great job Capcom has done with SFV’s replay cabilities. I’ll constantly go to CFN (capcom fighter’s network) in the game and watch replays with both of the options “key display” and “frame data” turned on. Watching replays of your losses provided me a great basis for what I needed to work on. I recently learned Chris Tatarian (a SoCal Ken player) where he searches for one of his past replays that dates back to to a couple days or weeks prior to help him get an objective outlook on a replay. I was amazed by how many tendencies I found that I didn’t know I had.
“But Jeffrey, what am I supposed to be looking for in my a replays!?” I’m glad you asked! I’ll analyze my game by watching my replay in 2 phases. The first time I watch the replay, I’ll watch it full speed and without interruption/pauses to get a wholistic view of what’s going on in the match. Then I’ll watch it a 2nd time and target any specific details I could work on. The details I find most important and helpful in getting better is by using
Frame Advantages’ approach. So I’ll do what Tyrant and Packz recommend which is to answer these 3 questions when watching the replays:
- How did I take damage?
- How can I optimize my damage?
- How did I get into the bad situation in the first place?
2. Search for replays
I always make sure to find people who are more skilled than I am. When I started out with SF5 I would search for all the godlike players in the game and try to learn from them. What I ended up finding out myself is that I improved the most when I started viewing replays of someone who is a little bit or moderately more skilled relative to where I was. When I would watch replays of high level players (Grand masters and above when I was a rookie/bronze player), they would make decisions and movements that were completely out of context to me. I couldn’t follow their rationale. However, when I started watching replays from a player that was slightly/moderately more skilled than I was I would be able to recognize the flow of situtations. It started becoming a conversation of “Oh snap, I see what he did there. That’s smart.” Or “Oh they dun goofed. Let’s see what play they make to recover.”
If I’m having trouble developing a strategy against a certain character or generally struggling with a match up, I get my ass on Youtube!! Search “Street fighter 5 _**insert your character name here**_ vs _**insert other character name here**_". There are plenty of players who are eager to upload their highlights of them bodying other characters that you can learn from. Also, CFN has this cool search feature in game where you can filter replays by character and league points. It’s super helpful and wish I had known about it sooner.
3. Find a favorite to learn from
Until we are winning premiere and major tournmanets there is always someone better than you and out-hussling you. Learn a lesson from them. I, myself, subscribe to a bunch of people and join their twitch streams/discord chats all the time. It’s good practice to view the ways of the world and get an outside perspective. This gets into the social aspect of the game where I describe later.
4. Muscle memory drills
Training mode. Training mode. Training mode. It’s a very powerful tool to build MUSCLE POWER… err… I mean muscle memory. In my opinion you’re never too good to go back to fundamentals. All the greatest individuals that practice their craft will practice day 1 stuff so it becomes second nature so they won’t have to think about it when the situation arises.
So before a ranked grind session or tournament, I’ll do something called laps by opening up training mode and simply dashing across the stage 10 times. 5 times to the left and 5 times to the right. It gets me loose. Then I’ll practice my bread-n-butter (b-n-b) combos. I’ll do each combo 10 times in a row and if I drop a combo before I hit 10, I’ll start the counter back at 1. Then I’ll practice meaty setups. I’ll do the same 10 reps in a row as the b-n-b combos. I’ll also do some hit confirm training where I set the training dummy on “block random” and practice stopping my combo short if they block or continuing it if they do not block.
5. Learn matchups in detail
I don’t do this to the extent I should. It is definitely something I can work on. There are levels to everything but this is one where you can go deep down the rabit hole. I’d generally start with myself and my character. What attacks are plus on block? How does my hurtbox behave when throwing out a certain move? At what range does my character operate most effectively? Answering these questions will help you develop a sense of self-awareness on what you should and shouldn’t do.
I’ll go on down the list of opponenents I have faced and for each one try and figure out how my character can correctly respond with an opponents array of moves. The goal is to get to the point where you can automatically recognize what buttons you should rely on most and how you can use characters strengths to overcome the opponent. For instance, I recently learned more about the Karin Vs. Laura matchup. Laura has to play very risky because her buttons are not as good as Karin’s in the neutral range. So in using that information that will set me up to look for dashes and overheads more than usual because that’s her general effective game plan.
6. Sharpen reactions
This is another thing I need to work on. Go the the lab and set the dummy to either jump in, walk in, press a button, or do a special move. Challenge yourself to counter or successfully nullify their movements consistently.
7. Take notes/set goals
The way I take notes is with a journal. I’ll make notes of my performance at the end of the day so I can visually keep track of my progress/mistakes. When all the details are in my head, it’s hard for me to reflect upon. I have to get it out on paper. Or even in a blog, similar to the one I’m writing for people to read right now.
So taking notes and writing things down can help in setting goals. My goals in the beginning were things like consistenly land a punish combo. If I’m getting countered alot, stop pressing a button or doing the move and evaluate why I’m getting hit. Your goals will make you a stronger player when it’s time to perform against other folks. I enter into tournaments all the time to evaluate what I’ve been working on. Reddit hosts an online tournment every Monday. I do this as a measure of what I’ve been working on. Everyone is different though. Competition is not everything. It is just my ninja way.
8. Accept responsibility
This isn’t in the video and I won’t speak too much on this subject. I just believe it is worth mentioning. I try to accept responsibility and hold myself accountable for my own decisions and actions. I ask questions all day but relying on the phrase “I haven’t learned that yet” or “No one told me about that” only took me so far. I play my game with the philosphy of, “Play as if you are a master, but learn like you are a student.”
9. Other things or stuff that deserve a whole post on their own
Get social. Join a discord. Find a google doc that is maintained by a community about a specific character (like the R.Mika bible).