How to Practice EFFECTIVELY

My PS3 is dead.  I got the code of death, 80010514.  Game over, until my Sony Japan warranty goes through.

Doesn't mean the blog is finished.  I'm here with an installment regarding practice.

Every modern street fighter game has a training mode, all are useful but only if used with a purpose and used correctly.  I'm going to help with that purpose, and the rest is up to you.  A well known player, Julien Beasley (tea-hawk.blogspot.com), has his own ideas about practicing, namely how many repetitions of a move to do to get your muscle memory trained.  Although I agree with him in many ways and of course believe that reptitions are the best thing to do, there are some mental things that most guides to improvement don't address.

Set a goal.  What do you want to do, and when do you want to do it by?  Be realistic.  If you're trying to learn Magneto's ROM infinite in Marvel it's not going to happen immediately.  There isn't a rush, these games have been played and will be played for years and years to come.

"Anything worth doing well is worth doing poorly" -  When a new game comes out, or if you're picking up an old game, or even a new character there are undoubtedly things that you will need to learn.  You must be perseverant and not lose sight of your goals, if you want to put in the time to be great, you have to suck (relatively speaking) first.  Street Fighter IV has been a big eye opener for a lot of players, everything is different in this game some even saying that execution is more difficult than in other games.  Don't get discouraged and beat yourself up, even if you're practicing El Fuerte's RSF, you will eventually be able to do it.  There is nobody watching you, there's nobody laughing, fucking up a combo a hundred times won't make your penis smaller.

There's a saying as well, time waits for no man.  Your execution will not improve by watching match videos, it will only improve by putting in the time at training mode or during matches if you're not worried about trying new tactics.  You won't get better by osmosis, wasting time, drinking beer, smoking pot etc... if you want to get better at Street Fighter you have to GET BETTER AT STREET FIGHTER.  PERIOD.  Watching Match videos is ok, but only to analyze and only after playing yourself.  With the relatively good netcode for things like GGPO, 2DF, SFIV, HD Remix you can get in games any time even without a console.

Don't stop training.  Wade Boggs used to go out every day for batting practice, though it can easily be seen that he had a natural talent.  If he went out there every day during his career for practice, why wouldn't you?  The best players keep themselves sharp by practicing and playing, the top Japanese players like Tokido practice 10 hours a day!  It's going to come down to your level of commitment how good you can become.

Theory fighter is just that, theory.  A street fighter player with poor execution is going to be in a tough spot in match, where that one mistimed shoryu or "ghetto" version of a combo can cost you the match, the round, and maybe even the tournament.

Let me know what you think.