Fighting to Win vs. R&D

A thought occured to me today, that in online battles, such as ranked, endless, etc., you are taken out of the action far too much to get proper R&D in. In fact, it is very difficult to glean any sort of wisdom or experience from the 2-3 minutes (on average) spent actually fighting against your opponent. Not to say you cannot learn anything, however it is quite hard to gain that which you'd hope to from such online matches.

In offline matches, you have the rematch option. This option does not take to a point where it must reload, instantly you are back, sparring with the same opponent. Not even arcade mode has this option! To remedy this shortcoming, there are some suggestions I can make of myself, and in turn, may help anyone who should read this.

1. Use what little time you have in game to do some R&D
This is taking a page from Sirlin's "Playing to Win" article, which you can find easily enough on the internet. Sirlin makes a point of R&D, which is research and development. What stops this move? What works against this tactic? Often times, finding the answers to these questions means losing pressure life bar in trial and fail tactics. While some of this can be remedied by using the record function of the training dummy, strats and tactics that are as unique as the people playing can be hard to nail down. So don't be afraid to lose HP and perhaps the match, if it means gaining that all important piece to your SF game.

2. Abuse the Replay function
Did you lose? Can't figure out why? Perhaps you know why you lost, yet you felt you couldn't do anything. WE have all been there, and thanks to Capcom, we have a wonderful replay feature to use at our disposal. While finding other's replays is a bit more involved (i.e. finding good Juri replays specifically) your own will teach you the most in the long run. It may help to step away from the console for a bit before you do, it'll refresh your mind and make it more likely to see something different.

3. Play offline as much as you can, even if you have to travel outside your house to do so.
Playing in a group setting, as long as it is offline, can help you get a lot of hands-on time with match-ups and in turn a lot of chances to R&D. With casuals you can always ask your friend/brother/acquaintence/strainger to play a certain character in a certain way, or if they main 1 guy, just take as much as you can from upping your knowledge on that match-up. R&D is important, but playing to win conflicts with R&D. It requires balance, which I've not quite struck yet. I can't find much in the way of offline but when my acquaintences have tournies I participate because the casuals before and after can help you learn a lot about your char.

4. Loosen up.
Athletes stretch, debators read, and you need to do the equivelant when it comes to Street Fighter. While the parallel I draw seems abstract, we all can relate to a time when we stressed and strained over something, and the minute we stopped obsessing over it, the thought/idea/etc came to us. If you are getting salty, take a breather, hit training mode for a bit, step away if you have to, but the reason you are getting salty is usually because of your own inadequacy. Not just that, but an inadequacy you can't figure out how to overcome. The Anger and resentment is equivelant to obsessing over a thought you can't remember.

Before you start your online play (as i assume of any SF player this will be the lionshare of their time spent in the game), limber up, relax, do whatever you have to in order to disuade the anxiety you might feel entering the arena. It will keep your mind more open to the myriads of play styles, and allow you to absorb more. Things that take you out of this state are the mind clenching like a fist, unable to grasp anything.

5. Remember why you play.
I will say this, I believe 60 percent (and I am somewhat conservative) of the SSF4 installed userbase desires to play casually competitive to competitive. That is to say, their win/loss record, points, rep etc mean something to them. of that 60 percent, i'd say 1 out of every 10 want to be a Youtube celeb or a Daigo/JWong player. For people like JWong and Daigo, it's their bread and butter (no pun intended). They will play differently than any of us might. Just remember why you picked up the game in the first place, you wanted to have fun. Fighting people, overcoming hurdles and learning my main is all about fun. I still have to remind myself of this, though. I want to be competitive with those I know offline. However, my progression is my responsibility alone, and it is within myself to decide whether the overall cost of that improvement is worth losing some fun value.

My theory is, there is a way to work smarter, not harder. That is why I wrote this, and why I will post future entries. I'm always going to be casual. I'm not going to be Daigo, I'm not even sure I'll make it to any tournaments. Keeping that in perspective, What I can and can't do, I think I can make the strides I want without burning myself out. Thats what work is for :-)