Becoming a good player from the ground up: Part 1

I've been wanting to do a blog now for quite awhile.  I've been putting it off constantly, but finally I'm all of a sudden inspired to write.  So with that, I wanted to blog about my personal "basis" of separating yourself from a player who is good, and a player who is great.  I wanted to write down the steps of becoming better (my personal opinions of course) from beginner to tops.  To be honest, in my personal opinion, I believe that just about anyone can become a great player.  It all really depends on if they grasp the certain concepts that are needed to be understood to be a great player.  I've even personally realized, that at times, it's not enough to even grasp the concept, but instead to value the concept.  For instance, I grasped the concept of "attacking for a reason" (better known as "testing") however never valued it until the past 6 months.  To expand on that, I understood why you test your opponent, however never really used it much as I was still at the point where I was more focused on "playing solid" (something I'll explain later as well).  Finally I gave "testing" a chance...and slowly, it hit me on WHY you test your opponent, and what you GAIN from testing an opponent.  To put it simply, I truly appreciated it and valued the concept of testing my opponent, and thus, I now constantly test my opponent in every match!  All in all, this blog will be about the steps of becoming a better player, from complete beginner, to top player.  By the way, this'll be a 2 parter since I ramble so much.  

I could go on and on about the specific "advanced thought process" of a top player, however it wouldn't mean anything to someone who doesn't understand the basics of fighting games.  For instance, I'll tell a lot of people that Street Fighter breaks down to 3 aspects...physically, mentally, and emotionally (a blog for another day).  Physically speaking, all you really do is press buttons and move a joystick.  It's not physically straining at all really.  However, tell this to a player who plays on pad, that doesn't understand why they should even play on a stick!  There's 2 points here, the first being physically SF only demands that you execute correctly.  Wether it be combos, trying to tech a throw, whatever the case, execution is pretty much the only physical aspect of Street Fighter.  The 2nd point being that the player playing pad doesn't understand why it would be good to play on a stick, the explanation would be the same if I were to explain to a beginner why you should try to read your opponent each match.   In other words, it's just not understood at that level.  So we need to talk basics, and put things in perspective at what THEIR level is.  The way that I look at it, when a player first begins playing fighting games competitively, they go through certain steps to get to the next level of skill.  It looks a bit like this:

 -  Learns what button does what, how to block, how to dash, how to jump and throw 

 -  Learns special moves/specific character's move set including ultra's/supers

This is the most common foundation of learning a fighting game.  And to be honest with you, not many players go past this tiny foundation.  These players are quite apparent as well, they're what you call a random Ken who constantly shoryuken's (because it looks so cool!) anywhere he is on the play field.  All in all, they have no skill whatsoever, yet most of them think that they can play the game well, or they think they're tight since they can do an SRK.  Lets move to the next set of steps to improving...

 -  Very basic understanding of zoning (footsies, anti airing and space control)

 -  Begins learning basic combos and basic block strings (when the combos' blocked)

The player that takes the time to delve into learning these steps, is the player that wants to start becoming "serious" or competitive for that matter.  The only reason why a player starts learning these aspects is to become above your typical scrub and become BETTER.  There are many players at this range.  Though this player understands only the basics of how to play, they are on their way to becoming better.  The understanding of zoning, and controlling space through pokes, anti airs, fireballs, or whatever the like becomes a bit more apparent.  The player has a weak ground game, however understands that it is needed.  Basic combos such as: jab, jab, jab, hadouken are used.  Maybe even c.mk hadouken.  The point is that they begin to realize how to combo a bit.  Nothing to serious, however there is a clear effort that the player is trying to combo.  I should note that, at this skill level, these players don't anti air much however know that they should be anti air'ing.  The block strings are also probably a bit choppy, and the ground game may need a bit of work, however it's only the beginning of strengthening these basic aspects.

 -  Slight understanding of what to do after a knockdown (crossover, go for another combo)

 -  Improvement in anti'airing and ground game

 -  Begins to hit confirm combos as well as learns more technical combos

 -  Basic understanding of "punishment"

 -  Understand game mechanics more in depth (SA or SADC, throws beat blocks, etc.)

 -  Slight understanding of mixups

 -  Starts to realize character strengths (mixups, or gimmicks, specific pokes to use, anti air, etc.)

The player here is starting to become much stronger.  He understands slightly how to press the advantage (after knockdowns) by using crossovers or maybe jump ins with a block string or potential combo.  As for his combo's, the player begins to realize how to hit confirm, meaning understand when his combo is blocked and understand when to stop his combo so that his opponent will not punish him for finishing it.  Instead, he stops the combo if he sees his opponent block, yet continues with the combo if he sees his opponent is being hit.  With that, the player learns more damaging combos and his execution becomes a bit more tight.  At this point he's most likely using typical Bnb's fairly well, nothing too flashy or technical, just the basic combos but this time around, they're more tight.  On that note, the players block strings becomes a bit stronger, mixing in throws and trying to have tight strings so that the opponent can't jab through or throw him through the string.  The player also begins to understand the game mechanics a bit more and starts to try and use these new things (such as SA's and SADC's) to learn more about their uses.  More importantly the player begins to learn his character better learning the characters strengths and weaknesses, over all game plan, how to control space, how to press advantage, things like that.  By becoming more "in touch" with the character, the player starts learning what his character is capable of.  Now it's just a matter of strengthening this overall understanding into becoming what I like to call a "solid player."  **Side note**  In my opinion, I think that this is where I personally was when SF4 came out in August.  I was at the point where I had an okay ground game, fair combo ability as well as hit confirming combos, fair understanding of how to press advantage and pressure, understanding of my character, and also understanding of the new SA and SADC's.  

This is going to wrap up part 1, sorry that it's so long.  Part 2 will finish it off...and I'd also like to disclaim that these are my PERSONAL OPINIONS of how to climb the ladder to greatness, so with that, don't take my word as law!