Is it possible to have reflexes too slow to play fighting games?

[AngeredBovine]

I'm starting to get the feeling that my hands and reflexes are just too slow to be good at fighting games. I've been playing them for awhile now, and I've tried a few different ones (SFIV, TTT2, Injustice, DOA5LR, a tiny bit of BB:CT), but I've always been positively awful. I had stopped playing fighting games because I couldn't really enjoy getting bodied by the medium level CPU, let alone people online, but I heard that SFV was supposedly one of the easier fighting games to play so I decided to give it a shot.

As of now, I'm over 40 hours in and I still feel like it's hopeless. I can't tech throws because I'm too slow, I can't punish anything because I can't combo or react to unsafe moves, I can't hit confirm anything. I can win some matches online, but anyone who plays semi-aggressively crushes me because I can't react to them quickly enough. Even when I am playing alright and getting hits in, my opponent usually still wins because every hit that they get usually leads to a combo and every one of mine is usually just a normal. Most of the time I will see people I am fighting or watching jab out of things like throws and overheads but I just can't see the moves fast enough to hit the button.

I know that I'm going to get the usual responses like "Go to training mode" (which I have done), "Watch your replays" (which I have also done), "You just suck, practice more" (Yes, I've figured that out). I know I'm also bad at other things (like doing too many unsafe moves and jumping too much), but I want to know if you think people with slow reflexes can get good. As it is, I'm not having much fun right now, but I might have more fun if I can actually be competitive and not lose to every rushdown player I meet.

[Similii]

Maybe play with a sparring partner who can teach you?

[Roar]

Trying to get combos out of hit confirms off of stray normals should be like pulling up your zipper after you finish taking a piss. If you take a piss 3 - 6 times a day everyday from when you were but a weee lad. Then u dam well don't even remember the last time u zipped u were zipper because it's become so ingrained in muscle memory it's at a godly level. You just have to apply that to street fighter. MUSCLE MEMORY will beat out reactions almost every time. You just need to create a routine type practice that over time will show results. That being said i'm lazy myself. Sticking to a routine is hard.

[WickedRequiem]

Yes, but honestly... successfully landing combos are more about muscle memory.
Likewise, successfully countering people are also learnt reflex / muscle memory.

People have spent 40 hours or more just practicing in a training room to get those ingrained into their muscle. They don't think "ok, I'll do A, then B, then V-trigger, and then D." It's "ok, punish 1" or "ok, combo 1".

Personally, I haven't. I just don't have a dedication to this game to do that. But many do, and that's how you see people successfully punish/crush counter combo.

[Roar]

https://www.reddit.com/r/StreetFighter/wiki/v/giefsgym

Use the training methods their to get routine type stuff down

[Stressed]

Could be your controller aswell. What are you using?

[Anterk]

Yes, it's possible to be too slow. You'll have to work twice as hard. Or, I've had to work twice as hard :(

[Stationary Traveller]

I don't think the issue is muscle memory but rather intellectual memory. The best players don't react quickly just because they have fast physical responses to what's happening on the screen, but because they have a refined experience of the game that allows them to read very quickly the situation, elaborate the different outcomes and use the proper action to win at any time. It's a little like when you're in a foreign country and you search the words to react when someone says "thank you", but in a few days you'll be able to answer "you're welcome" quickly each time.

In other words, experienced players don't actually react, they predict. They know that when they press MP it can hit or be blocked, and they know which button to press (or not) next to continue with the offensive. You may have the illusion that they're reacting, but in reality they're calculating all the time. That's why you have people in their 30s like Daigo, Infiltration, Justin Wong or Valle that can still kick the a.ss of most young players with much faster reflexes.

My suggestion is therefore very basic: learn how the game works. Observe the common strategies, dissect every single move, learn the frame data and elaborate safe responses for each situation. They don't rush you down because they press the buttons faster than you do, but because you don't know which buttons to press and when. In absence of lag/rollback, pressing said buttons against said attacks in said situations will ALWAYS lead you to the same outcome. Learn said outcome and you'll be reacting as fast as Daigo even with 20 years less of experience.

[Pege]

Come back after playing 1000 hours.

[Ha? Hamdok]

Publicado originalmente por Roar:

https://www.reddit.com/r/StreetFighter/wiki/v/giefsgym

Use the training methods their to get routine type stuff down

Homaygad thanks for this!

@OP
I used to be good in fighting games about twenty years ago. Playing Samurai Shodown and KOF on a Neo Geo system and SF/Tekken/Soul Calibur games on arcade machines. I stopped playing some games, including fighting games, after graduating in college . Then, I started playing again thru USFIV two years ago and I found out how I completely lost my fighting game skills. I only played over 50 hours of USFIV before giving up so apparently, I am sucking in SFV.

I think it really comes with practice and getting used to. A lot of it. But I do feel that I got slower hands now as I aged lol. So a tons of practice must be done.

[Pege]

Publicado originalmente por 1/10 would feed again:

Publicado originalmente por Roar:

https://www.reddit.com/r/StreetFighter/wiki/v/giefsgym

Use the training methods their to get routine type stuff down

Homaygad thanks for this!

@OP
I used to be good in fighting games about twenty years ago. Playing Samurai Shodown and KOF on a Neo Geo system and SF/Tekken/Soul Calibur games on arcade machines. I stopped playing some games, including fighting games, after graduating in college . Then, I started playing again thru USFIV two years ago and I found out how I completely lost my fighting game skills. I only played over 50 hours of USFIV before giving up so apparently, I am sucking in SFV.

I think it really comes with practice and getting used to. A lot of it. But I do feel that I got slower hands now as I aged lol. So a tons of practice must be done.

Over 50 hours? That's literally nothing in the world of fighting games. It's nothing. You cannot tell your own potential in that time. At all. Play for 500 hours at least and then come back. Train efficiently.

[AngeredBovine]

@Stressed
I'm using a fightstick (not a great one, but it works). I used to use regular controllers, but I couldn't do the inputs well at all. I did notice an increase in my execution once I switched, but my slow fingers still have trouble finding the right buttons at the right time.

Thank you, most of you, for your well thought out responses. For those of you that provided resources, I'll try to work with them and see where they get me. I've been trying to learn combos and which moves are good responses for various situations, but so far I'm usually unable to input most of them fast enough to succeed. (My biggest failing is with critical arts, I usually try to punish whiffed Shoryuken's with a CA if I'm down a round, but I always am too slow on the input and allow them to block it.)

@Skeptic Gamer
Why would anyone struggling with a game and not having fun play for 500 or 1000 hours before deciding whether or not they should quit? That is almost three straight weeks of no food, no sleep, no bathroom breaks, nothing but playing Street Fighter. (There are 7 * 24 * 3 = 168 * 3 = 504 hours total in a week, in case you're struggling with arithmetic.) Scaled in with life commitements such as college, work, sleep, etc., which adults have, this is months of playing a single game that you aren't having any fun with. Here are some things that you could do with 500 hours instead:
-Make $3,625 working a minimum wage job in the USA
-Read Tolstoy's "War and Peace" 10 times (if you read slightly slower than the average US 8th grader)
-Walk from the Washington D.C. to Chicago and back (if you are slightly slower than the 3.1 mph average)

For these reasons, I do not find it to be a worthwhile investment of my time to play this game for that many hours just to determine if I should quit or not. If, at some time well before the 500 hour mark I start enjoying it, then I would be willing to play that many hours and more, but it would be silly, irresponsible, and unhealthy of me to play that long if I am not enjoying it most of the time.

[Pege]

Publicado originalmente por AngeredBovine:

@Stressed
I'm using a fightstick (not a great one, but it works). I used to use regular controllers, but I couldn't do the inputs well at all. I did notice an increase in my execution once I switched, but my slow fingers still have trouble finding the right buttons at the right time.

Thank you, most of you, for your well thought out responses. For those of you that provided resources, I'll try to work with them and see where they get me. I've been trying to learn combos and which moves are good responses for various situations, but so far I'm usually unable to input most of them fast enough to succeed. (My biggest failing is with critical arts, I usually try to punish whiffed Shoryuken's with a CA if I'm down a round, but I always am too slow on the input and allow them to block it.)

@Skeptic Gamer
Why would anyone struggling with a game and not having fun play for 500 or 1000 hours before deciding whether or not they should quit? That is almost three straight weeks of no food, no sleep, no bathroom breaks, nothing but playing Street Fighter. (There are 7 * 24 * 3 = 168 * 3 = 504 hours total in a week, in case you're struggling with arithmetic.) Scaled in with life commitements such as college, work, sleep, etc., which adults have, this is months of playing a single game that you aren't having any fun with. Here are some things that you could do with 500 hours instead:
-Make $3,625 working a minimum wage job in the USA
-Read Tolstoy's "War and Peace" 10 times (if you read slightly slower than the average US 8th grader)
-Walk from the Washington D.C. to Chicago and back (if you are slightly slower than the 3.1 mph average)

For these reasons, I do not find it to be a worthwhile investment of my time to play this game for that many hours just to determine if I should quit or not. If, at some time well before the 500 hour mark I start enjoying it, then I would be willing to play that many hours and more, but it would be silly, irresponsible, and unhealthy of me to play that long if I am not enjoying it most of the time.

We all sucked ass when we started. We all disliked training at first to become decent. But that's what you have to do. Otherwise, you'll stay a scrub. For me, training room is the second most fun thing. Aside from the actual online. So either you accept the fact that getting good takes time and effort, or you piss off and give up.

[Stationary Traveller]

Publicado originalmente por AngeredBovine:

Why would anyone struggling with a game and not having fun play for 500 or 1000 hours before deciding whether or not they should quit? That is almost three straight weeks of no food, no sleep, no bathroom breaks, nothing but playing Street Fighter. (There are 7 * 24 * 3 = 168 * 3 = 504 hours total in a week, in case you're struggling with arithmetic.) Scaled in with life commitements such as college, work, sleep, etc., which adults have, this is months of playing a single game that you aren't having any fun with. Here are some things that you could do with 500 hours instead:
-Make $3,625 working a minimum wage job in the USA
-Read Tolstoy's "War and Peace" 10 times (if you read slightly slower than the average US 8th grader)
-Walk from the Washington D.C. to Chicago and back (if you are slightly slower than the 3.1 mph average)

For these reasons, I do not find it to be a worthwhile investment of my time to play this game for that many hours just to determine if I should quit or not. If, at some time well before the 500 hour mark I start enjoying it, then I would be willing to play that many hours and more, but it would be silly, irresponsible, and unhealthy of me to play that long if I am not enjoying it most of the time.

You usually do the 500-1000 hours in a few years of playing, not in three weeks.
By the way they're exaggerating with the 1k hours. You can get at a decent level with 50-100 hours of play if you have the right mindset. What you really need is to read or watch videos a lot and to constantly try to understand what's wrong in your way of playing. If you're patient and willing to correct your own mistakes you can paradoxically get better much quicker.

[Nichole24]

Honestly unless you have a specific disorder or something, probably not. You might never win Evo, but I would imagine most normal people could get good with even below average reaction time. As you play and practice more your hands will naturally get better at moving on their own and you'll start being able to see what your opponents options are which makes it easier to respond.

Overall I'd say experience and mental fortitude matter much more for it than straight up reflexes. And honestly 40 hours isn't that long of a time, especially if this is your first fighting game youre getting into seriously.

Also yeah no one is telling you to drop out of college or quit your day job or abandon other hobbies just to focus on Street Fighter. Usually people can tell decently early in they think Street Fighter is a fun game or something they'd like to get good at or continue playing. You don't have to wait to 500 hours to decide that or be able to find the answer to that. If you watch higher level play and say "that looks fun I want to do that" or "this game is fun I'm just frustrated because I'm losing" then just keep playing. But if you're not having fun because you think the game is boring, thn you should probably stop.

In general I would say most people who get into fighting games spend more of their time that they would use playing other videogames by just playing Street Fighter. In that sense its a bit of an investment as you get to see improvement in yourself and you would be spending less money on the next big game and switching from game to game. A lot of people find that aspect appealing. If you like reading or jogging or art or music, you don't need to replace that with Street Fighter to get good.

[Open-Throttle]

yes its possible