I feel like I need to preface this by saying, I’m about to say a lot of stuff with the caveat of “In general”. These aren’t the only reasons people plateau and I can imagine someone reading this and going “Well I don’t do any of these things and I’m still stuck” Which maybe true (or you are lying to yourself), these are just the 4 things I hear the most.





“What’s the secret to beating this guy? What’s the trick to winning?”





Have you ever watched those commercials that are screened at 2AM trying to convince you you have been doing it wrong all your life but don’t worry with this “One simple trick” you can have it all fixed.

I see this often happen especially when players find some trick or gimmick that will land them a lot of wins, and then all of a sudden it will stop working and they won’t really understand why. So they will try some other trick, and eventually that stops working.

The problem is your brain is trying to solve problems by going “Ah, I need to find the right trick, and then ill be good”. That the only difference between you and a pro is you are missing some key insight that they know and you don’t yet and that is what’s causing the skill difference.

You can imagine this happening in really obvious places, for example the Ken player relying on the hk.tatsu into throw/ex.dp but it can happen more subtle as well. But the most evident example is when players feel they need a secondary. “My main just loses in this match up, I can’t do anything. I need to find someone that wins this match up”

I remember talking with Travis Styles (arguably the best player in Australia) on commentary and he talked about players being too quick to try and solve solutions by totally switching characters for a match up.

There maybe a time you will need to do that, but only after you have exhausted every other option first. Travis talked about when trying to improve with Balrog for example, he would watch players like Brian F and Smug and they do things that he never would have thought about before and would work on implementing them as tools he can use to face new problems.

These players have clearly understood something he hasn’t yet so there is a clear process to advance and improve, adding an understanding to help him come up with new solutions against different players. If they can do it, and they are able to figure it out, I can do it too.

And that is the clearest difference. Instead of thinking in terms of “Knowing secrets = Skill” think “Process = Skill”. Think building an understanding over time, with process it can allow you to make decisions to problems, even if they are problems you may never have faced before but its okay because you have an understanding of the tools, that can allow you to come up with solutions on the fly or course correct based on what you see working and what doesn’t.





“I can’t win until I land the stuff <insert player here> does, that’s why they wins games”

There is a quote from John Wooden (revered college basketball coach)and he said: When you see a successful individual, a champion, a “winner,” you can be very sure that you are looking at an individual who pays great attention to the perfection of minor details



The term “fundamentals” can get lost a little bit sometimes especially when you are first learning. And its especially difficult because when you watch the pro players your first thoughts turn to the things that look flashy and brilliant, and its natural you want to emulate those things.



But notice that in that quote Wooden does not talk about the players who have the most skill/talent, its not about the players who can pull off the most amazing plays. He talks of the people that are just so fundamental sound. Bringing absolute perfection to the small details, the things that most people look at once, read up once, land it once and immediately close that book because they think “I’ve learned that, I don’t have to do it any more, I’m past that level”.

One of the most common scenarios I’ve come across when coaching is someone will learn some very complex but of tech like a kara demon setup a v-trigger mixup, a 550 high damage combo, and they can execute it perfectly. But they can’t Anti air, they can’t punish a tatsu on block. They know the combo, I know they know the combo because when they are aggressive jumping in they can hit it every time.

Even if you just ignore for a moment the reasons to be fundamentally sound. Just simply consider this. How often does the situation of Anti Airing come up versus the situation to land a kara demon for example. If you are good at Anti airing, you are good at an aspect that is useful and applicable in 25-40% of the time (conservative estimate). If you are good at a kara demon, you are good in an aspect that only comes around maybe 1-2% of the time. If you are putting the same number of hours into getting good at one or the other, you tell me what’s more worthwhile.

Mastering fundamentals is boring frankly. It is a grinding mentality because its not just that you have to learn them, or you can’t form a base to move forward without having them, its also the fact that they require that they be maintained, that they are constantly being reassessed and looked after.

Think about the best players in the world in their given sport, do you think a player like Ronaldo is constantly practicing his dribbling, or Lebron James is constantly practicing his jump shot. The things that you would get told day 1 when learning the sport for the first time, they are still being drilled and practiced even when you do get to that professional level. It shouldn’t be any different for fighting games either.

What I think this topic shows more then anything else is this kind of practice lets you have the ability to be able to hit the easy stuff not 6/10 times but 9/10 or 10/10. This is what will drive your consistency. If you hear people that say “this guy is a great player, but he can be inconsistent” this is the reasoning. This is training the ability to let you win games when you aren’t at 100% when you aren’t playing at your best. The flashy plays, the complex setup is what will win you games, the fundamentals is what wins you tournaments.





Holy crap these are taking longer then I thought, wait up for part two when I talk about the player that feel they “deserved to win” and the players decision making boil down to “I do it because it works”.