SSF4 AE PC -Different Learning Techniques

#1

Greetings,

First off let me tell you all that I love the game, I got into Street Fighter when the 4th came out. Did a couple of matches back in the 3s days but never really thought it was my cup of tea.
But when the fourth came out I bought Vanilla right away. Then I bought all versions for XB and PS3.

Im not that great in the game overall, but my win percentage so far is ~65% (with the whole cast)
And 70% with Ryu.

Im not mutch for staying in Training mode alot. Sure I warm up in Training before connecting to Live just to make sure my cancels and some shenanigans are working decently. But never that i could spend hours and hours in training mode to perfect my gamestyle.

Im more of the type of player that jumps into the action and get my ass kicked or kick ass and learn from it the best i can. Its a long process and i feel like im missing out alot of crucial training momentum due to the random factor of playing against a human (and lag from time to time).
I just recently started thinking that sure, its a working process but it takes time…ALOT of time to improve your gamestyle. But hitting a poor non-moving npc just gets too boring for me.
Sure, there are times I feel like going berserk throwing my stick out the window when the same guy/girl joins my room and constantly kicks my ass without me really realising what im doing wrong.

My question now is:
Does anyone else like this kind of “trial by fire” training and how far did it get you?

#2

It got me pretty far. I get terribly bored with training mode, I much prefer to play an actual game. If I want to practice some basic combos or test a very specific set-up, I’ll go into training mode, but never longer than hour. Playing a live match teaches you how to play the game properly by focusing on other aspects of your fundamentals, which is far important than doing an awesome combo. For the vast majority of the time you’re playing, you’re not doing a combo, so it’s important to learn how to create opportunities to land damage.

That being said, people learn differently. Some people ONLY go into training mode and practice their stuff, while others do a mix of both, or they never hit the lab at all. Practice in whatever environment makes you the most comfortable, and allows you to make each practice session count towards improving your skill at fighting games.