You've been a pad player for awhile, but you've heard about the great things you can do with a joystick, so you finally took the plunge and bought a stick. The problem? You suck with it, and like Blanka is doing in the picture above you've probably have been tempted at one point or another to bite the controller, throw it through a window or do something else horrible to it.
This is a very common and normal issue that pad players have brought up, and there's a number of things you can do to ease the transition. Here's a run down.
One of the things that may not occur to you right away is how you're holding the joystick. There's a variety of ways to do this, but here's some things to keep in mind.
Here's some of the more popular grips used by Street Fighter players. Remember, there's no right or wrong way to grab a joystick. Quite simply, if it works — go for it.
Important Note: Most players do not keep their hand it the exact same position all of time. They keep it loose and let it flow into comfortable positions as dictated by the moves.
Now it's time to decide what surface you want to place your stick on, and it's usually one of two choices. Either your lap, or something else that's more stable, like a coffee table, chair, TV stand, lamp stand, etc.
Your lap: The problem with playing on your lap, is some people people have a difficult time keeping the joystick steady when they're doing big complicated motions like 720s, double fireballs, etc.
The big plus though is that wherever you go — you've got a surface to play on. The only thing is keeping the joystick from bouncing around while you're doing moves, but if your lap provides a steady surface — use it.
Other surfaces: If you're going to use a surface, there's two important things to keep in mind. One, does it keep the joystick steady while playing? And two, is it comfortable?
The floor, a chair, a custom arcade cabinet, whatever you can find that will work will do the job, and as long as the two rules above are met, you should be good to go.
Now it's time to practice, a lot. If you're pretty good at fighting games, you probably don't have to think about executing most moves, you just do them as needed.
It wasn't that way when you first started playing though, it probably took months or even years to develop your skills.
While switching from a pad to a joystick isn't starting all over again, it will take some getting used to before you train your 'muscle memory' to automatically do the moves without thinking again.
While running execution drills might seem boring, it's a quicker way to get your technique back up to par. Hit training mode and throw 50 fireballs on the left side, switch sides and do 50 more. 50 Shoryukens on the left side, switch sides and do 50 more, etc. etc.
This is tedious, but it's often faster than playing games because you're working on the motions over and over again without having to worry about things like blocking, counters and actually playing.
No player has perfect execution, but if you find there's a certain move or technique that you consistently have trouble with there's a few things you can do to improve.
Capcom's Street Fighter games feature a number of tricks you can do to improve special move execution. Some of the tricks are universal to all of their games, like Piano Key button presses, while others will only work in a specific title like Street Fighter 4 (Shortcut motions for Shoryukens).
But all of these guides can be helpful, so they're worth checking out.
When if playin sf4, i change between method 2&6 for me any of those two are the best
oh yh and...SSF4 FTW!!! :D
I have just bought a joystick and hold mine with my index finger wrapped around the top with my thumb around the right side and my middle finger curled on the left side of the stick, Is this a good grip?