"That was very calculated!"

The ability to play "calculated" is something that takes a LOT of time to get a good grasp on. I see a lot of players lose to brash decisions that weren't calculated out. So many players play without thought, and instead of thinking, they just do things unknowingly without calculation or thought put into their attacks. I personally believe that playing "calculated" means...just playing smart. It's not like you have to know every counter in the book to play smart. All in all, playing calculated at it's core, is the ability to analyze the risk/reward aspect of situations. It can be as simple as "should I throw a fireball right now, or not." I've heard from so many players that they're "always getting jumped in on" when they throw fireballs. This is a result of not throwing fireballs smart. The player didn't calculate the risks of throwing the fireball, and they OBVIOUSLY didn't calculate the rewards of throwing the fireball either. By understanding the risk/reward factor, you play knowing all the possibilities of what your opponent has as well as what YOU have.

Here's a quick situation/example: Say that your up one round against a Sagat. Both health bars are on their last legs and can only withstand one hit. Sagat is throwing tiger shots from a distance keeping you on the other side of the screen. Eventually you manage to get a tiny bit of distance covered, and you can see that if you jump in you'll be able to reach a hit. While this thought occurs, Sagat continues throwing his shots, trying to push you back and make you eat some chip damage. With you being up one round, the possibility to land ONE hit to win the entire match is something to be appreciated with much value. Basically, if Sagat throws another shot, you can make one simple jump, and end the match making you the victor. At the same time, if Sagat thinks your going to jump, he's going to be ready for the anti air, making HIM the victor. So what to do?

By quickly analyzing the situation at hand, you begin understanding the risk to reward factor that comes with the given situation. What can you gain? What will you lose? If the gain is higher then the loss, then 9 times out of 10 I would say that it's worth it to go for the riskier option. In the situation above, I personally would play risky if I felt as if the Sagat didn't respect my option to win with one jump. I'm up one round, if I get the jump in attack, I'll win the match. And if it doesn't go my way...the worst thing that happens is that I play out the next round. In a way I see it as risking the opportunity to take the win, however even if you lose, you still have another round to play out.

From an outsider looking in, many spectators would say that the jump in would be something of impatience or stupidity. However the fact of the matter is that I look at the jump as being very calculated. The player obviously thought out the risks and rewards that came with the situation, so how can the jump be considered dumb? This is what is known as playing calculated.

So if you ever find yourself attacking head on without much thought put into the actual sequence of attacks...start thinking about the risks and rewards that come with the situation. Start analyzing attacks from your opponent, as well as your own attacks...start playing with thought instead of just attacking blindly.

- Mickey D'

Training log

I'm going to be participating in some major tournaments coming up, and I really want to up my game in order to do well in them. Daigo said he played 5 hours a day in order to train for Evo...Justin says he plays 8 hours a day...It's obvious that it takes dedication and time in order to be looked at as one of the best. My personal goal is to play about 2 to 3 hours a day, though I want to play more, work and real life take in priority over SF.

With practicing more, I also decided to couple it up with having a "training log" where I record everything that I've learned from matches and such. I personally only play player matches as I can actually get a complete set in with the person (rather then in championship mode where I only get 1 game). After the session with the person I write about who I played (character), how I tried to win the match, what I learned from the match itself, as well as the estimated time of the session (I want to figure out how many hours a day I can play). The goal is to be able to take something away from EVERY session. I was talking to my buddy and brought up that Daigo had trained 5 hours a day...my buddy brought up a good point. He said that though Daigo was playing for 5 hours a day, he also played great competition, and that he most likely took something from each session EVERY session.

I'm not sure how long I'm going to have this log, but I'll try to record every time I play at home. Obviously I'll take breaks, or have sessions at people's houses, but I'll still record what I learned at other "in person" sessions. It's important to consistently update the log. Without consistency, I won't put myself into the habit.

So that's primarily the goal...to get myself in the habit of trying to take something away from every match/session. By doing this, I'll be able to learn the most from my sessions even though I don't have as much time as the others. I personally suggest that if you feel that you are in a rutt or plateau, you should look into holding a training log as well, as it might help you understand how to better learn from matches.

- Mickey D'

My Ryu: Progress and New things to work on

August 26th, I made a post regarding what my overall game plan was concerning Ryu. Additionally I jotted down some aspects I needed to improve on as well. With that, this is the follow up towards my progress towards those goals.

- Using c.mk, hadou, sadc, hurricane or sweep in footsie battles. I've been doing fairly well with this. My execution and hit confirming are on point, however I need to start remembering to do this in all my matches. Basically what I need to work on is doing it more often in matches.

- Use more empty jump, crouch short combo's after untechable knockdown's. I've been using this technique a lot more often. It seems very strong however when playing against mashers (on wakeup) it'll lose. At the same time, it's not as if I should throw out the tactic at all...using it can get me a free ultra setup after a throw. Great tactic, and I use it pretty often, however knowing when to use it (not against throw spammer's) is the more important part.

- Make it a goal to hit F+Hp every match. I've found that I often times forget to use this move, and still need to remind myself to use it more often. I also think that against certain opponents, this move is almost never going to be thrown out. Characters like: Gief, Vega, Fuerte, Viper...these characters seem fairly "null" as far as this move is concerned because of their mobility (or in Gief's case his options on block). All in all, I still need to remember to use this move more often.

- Start using: FA, absorb hit, Dash in. This is something that I've been using a lot more often. It's actually vital to certain matchups in my opinion, most notably Dhalsim. I've been using it a lot more often, and I think I'm okay as to the amount I use it. Knowing when to use it is vital as well obviously, and it's best used when trying to punish opponents who are trying to use high priority pokes that beat Ryu's c.mk.

- Start jumping over fireballs on REACTION instead of guessing. This has been the most vital part of my game plan as of recently. I've practically MADE it my play style, to throw fireballs, and see if my opponent reaction jumps or not. Depending on their reaction, I'll know one of 2 things...if I can abuse fireballs from up close, or if they psychic jump. Knowing these options, I also know the benefits and disadvantages to both. All in all, I think I've officially trained myself to jump over fireballs on reaction, however it IS important to sometimes psychic jump as well. I have a specific tactic, where I psychic jump, but don't throw out an aerial attack (in case they didn't throw a fireball...anti air'ing will be harder because of a smaller hit box). By doing this, I gain ground and I can POSSIBLY gain a combo...how? If they throw a fireball during my psychic jump, I simply react by pressing a button to begin an aerial attack (mostly j.hk). In this case, I'll either hit the opponent, or they block, all the while granting me momentum.

- Start using walk forward shoryu when not in distance to anti air normally. I haven't really been using this tactic mainly because I don't throw fireballs where reaction jumpers jump so my anti air will whiff. Basically, I haven't needed to use this tactic much. I'm beginning to think it's not that great essential of a tool to bring out.

Conclusion: The things I'd like to begin working on are: using f+hp more often as well as c.mk, hadou, sadc, sweep/hurricane more often. I also want to hone my fireball zoning. Understanding when an opponent is going to jump at me is vital (free ultra anyone?). Lastly, I want to build my anti-air skills. I don't want my opponents getting free jumps on me any more.

Importance of secondary characters

Ever since Evo, I've realized that having a secondary character that compliments your main can be a vital asset towards bad matchups that your main character might have. I personally main Ryu, and over the course of time I've found that some of the matchups that I have trouble with are characters like: Blanka, Dhalsim, Sagat, and Viper come to mind. With that, I've decided to pick up Akuma as a secondary. I feel as if he compliments Ryu pretty well as far as specific matchups that might be a bit more difficult for Ryu. Also, Akuma's overall strategy is drastically different then Ryu's in my opinion, setting different goals for different matchups. For instance, Akuma has a lot more tools as far as gaining ground compared to Ryu, through moves like ex demon flip, ex air hadou. In matches that keep Ryu zoned out (Dhalsim and Sagat), Akuma can get in their a bit easier compared to Ryu.

All in all the benefits to having a secondary that compliments your main can be quite useful! There are a few top players who have mains to compliment their secondaries as well...Momochi, Kindevu, Justin Wong all come to mind. Reading the Singaporean SF4 blog, I was reading how Japanese players say that they like to stick to their characters through thick and thin, no matter how high they are on the tier list, they tough it out and try to main their character to the fullest. I think it's a good mentality, and it's not to say that having a secondary would be bad...but I will say that being able to understand the situation you put yourself in is important as well. Valle had a quote that I remember him saying: "If you can't beat a character that you have a disadvantage against, you're going to need to pick up a character that puts the odds at even or in your advantage." The mindset is pretty simple to understand...even if your main can't stand up to your opponent, your going to have to put the odds in your favor in some sort of way...having a secondary character is probably the best way to do so.

- Mickey

My Ryu: Gameplan and improvements

There are some things in which I've personally been trying to practice on with my Ryu.  After Evo I learned a whole lot regarding how to improve, and with that, I made a general gameplan towards my strengths as a player.  My strength mainly resides in my opponents mistakes...or to put it simply, I punish hard for mistakes.  I realized that if I can play a playstyle of punishing, I'll be able to play towards my strength and have a set goal of what I want in my match.  With this play style in mind, I also came to understand that to punish, I would also need to become good at baiting my opponent into mistakes (instead of just hoping that they come to me).  All in all, this post is just a quick "status update" as to what my personal game plan is with Ryu, as well as some other aspects I'm trying to work on with my Ryu.

Game Plan:  During the first match, try to learn as much about your opponent as you can in order to understand how you can learn his play style.  In this first match, play VERY disciplined to learn opponent's habits, patterns, and strengths and weaknesses.  After being able to understand the opponent's play style, learn how to counter it, and possibly set up for baiting later in the set.

Ryu improvements:

 -  Start using: c.mk hadou, sadc, c.mk hurricane/c.hk during footsies to maximize damage and grab momentum from footsie range

 -  Use more empty jump, crouch short combo's after un'techable knockdown's.  

 -  Make it a goal to try to hit f+hp every match.  Figure out how to succesfully hit this attack to execute hard hitting combo's

 - Start using "FA, absorb hit, dash in" more often against pokes or attacks with larger recovery in order to possibly get a free combo.  For example:  Rufus c.hp, Akuma c.hk, Bison s.hk, etc.

 - Start jumping over fireballs on REACTION instead of guessing.  

 - Start using "walk forward, hp shoryuken" as an anti air when not in distance to normally hit the SRK.  Air was doing this to me like crazy...it basically took away jumps in which I thought normally to be safe.  

What you can learn from a beat down!

Been a long time since I've posted...I wanted to talk about my money match with "Air" (a really strong Ryu player) and discuss what I learned through playing him.  After playing Air, I thought about why he won, and it really seemed as if his fundamentals were just plain better then mine were.  I think the essential traits that make up fundamentals are:  spacing/zoning, execution, momentum, adaptation, and discipline.

 = Spacing and zoning is a fairly basic concept...keeping the opponent at bay through controlling space (mainly through using pokes, anti'airs and fireballs).  Air made me realize that it's important to realize exactly WHAT pokes your opponent uses, in order to counter them with the proper poke for next time (adapting while spacing).  Basically, it's one thing to know what your character's best pokes are, but it's another to realize what your opponent is using and adapt to his pokes with a more high priority poke.  Air also showed me that it's VERY important to know your distances to a T, and to NEVER throw out pokes unless I was in range of hitting them.  There were to many times where I would throw a hadouken from a wrong distance, where he would react with a jump in to punish...or he would let me whiff a c.hk (by staying out of it's range) and jump in on me for free, leading to immediate momentum for him.

 = Execution is fairly easy to explain.  Air was crisp on almost all of his combo's and come to think of it, I don't think that he missed a single combo on me at all.  He was pulling 1 frame links off like crazy...combo's like f+hp, c.hp, ex tatsu which does 380 damage.  Aside from being amazing at combo's, he also understood how to maximize damage with his combo's...such as using 2 meters to use: c.mk, hadou, sadc, c.hk OR hurricane kick (depending on range).  Basically not only did he have crisp execution, however he also put importance on maximizing damage when getting even SMALL openings (such as the example given during a footsie battle) instead of just large openings (like a whiff'ed dp).

 = Momentum can get a bit lost in translation, but I personally categorize momentum as being able to capitalize off of opportunities in order to pressure your opponent.  What people don't understand is that when most players think "capitalize off of opportunities" they immediately think knockdowns.  However this wasn't the case when I played Air.  For instance, Air didn't get MANY knockdowns on me, however what he DID do was jump at almost the PRECISE ranges in which I couldn't anti air him consistently.  Whenever Air jumped at me, it was a jump so close to me that I couldn't react to anti air him...thus, free crossover into momentum, putting me in a block string potentially leading to mixups (throw, frame trap, overhead, etc.).  

 = Adaptation was Air's weakest of fundamentals (but when I say weak, it only means that the rest were already so high...Air's adaptation was fairly strong compared to the average player).  He was a fairly reaction based player in which he did safe (and smart) attacks which made it hard to do damage on him.  (For instance, he ONLY jumped on reaction to my poorly thrown hadouken's, OR if he was close enough to get a jump over crossover from being so close to me...safe and smart ways to attack).  However I will say that the ONE set that I beat him at was only because of MY adaptation skills.  I was able to see some of his habits in which he let out in our first 2 matches...I caught on a bit and was able to punish accordingly (he did some risky dp's at times and also let me f+hp quite a bit, while he was knocked down, letting me pressure him a bit for no real consequence).  He eventually caught on to his mistakes and took them away, while at the same time making it harder for me to get damage in on him.  All in all, adaptation is a strong fundamental aspect that everyone should work on when they want to strengthen their game.  I could go on about adaptation for days, but to keep it basic, I would encourage everyone to begin learning how to adapt to their opponent's.  As Bruce Lee said "Be like water!"

 = The only real strange "fundamental" there is discipline....which I personally believe that discipline is where a player doesn't make unwise decisions (bad habits or patterns), and instead a player that plays all around solid.  For instance, instead of backdashing or uppercutt'ing through strings, a disciplined player just blocks.  Basically a player that doesn't put himself into making mistakes in which he could potentially lose damage.  By playing disciplined you make it so that your opponent won't get free damage.  Instead, you make your opponent truly work for his damage instead of just giving it to him because of a good read...For instance there have been so many times where I exploit mashers on wakeup with frame traps or straight up walk up DP's....Bad habits and predictability lead to impatience and undisciplined players!  Don't let that be you!

My personal damage checklist

So last blog, I talked about the importance of knowing where your damage comes from. I decided (rather quickly as you'll see, I'm writing this right after the last blog) to write down my own personal checklist for other people (slightly different then the example given in the other blog). This blog's short and sweet, and it basically just sums up my checklists I have with Ryu.

- C.mk (70)

- Hadouken (70)

- Shoryuken (160)

- Throw (130)

- F+mp (80)

- F+hp > Combo (280)

This leads to 790 damage if I can get these every match. They are also very ROUGH estimates (for instance "f+hp to combo" is very broad as it can be doing anywhere from 280 - 610 for all i know) in order to play "against" myself in order to prepare myself for the "worst." All in all, if I can hit all these, I'm only leaving about 200 more damage to attain. This can easily be acquired through either: ground game, or another combo.

- Mickey