Part 1     Part 2

Hey there! Thanks for sticking with me! This is the final part of my guide to using training mode effectively. If you haven’t had a chance to look at the first and second parts, check out the two links above. I say that because it is actually somewhat important to have that knowledge before moving forward here. Anyway, the first two parts cover training for repetition and also training for understanding. In this final part I’m going to show you training for creation. This would initially be really hard to do on your own, BUT since you’ve made it this far I’ve technically already given you all the tools you’ll need to be successful. So what exactly is training for creation?

Training for creation utilizes your understanding and knowledge of the game to create new, well-researched, and practiced situations to give yourself a competitive advantage in a real match.

Normally I hate those kinds of written pieces that give you a statement then give some explanation of it, but here I feel it’s absolutely necessary so I’ll be as brief as possible. Basically, before you learned how to look at a situation in a match and ask questions to break it down. Finally I gave you a goal of looking at each situation to create the lowest risk way to escape it [Check back at part 2, it’s italicized]. So in essence you’ve already trained for a specific goal using knowledge and understanding of the game’s mechanics before. “Hell, this should be a cakewalk then.” is what you should be telling yourself now.

So at this point all you need to do is change your goal. Before you even go into training mode, have a purpose. What kind of purposes or goals can you have, you ask? Take a look at the following situation:

• Go into training mode and choose Dudley as the first player character, and Ryu as the second player character.
• Try doing Dudley’s crouching light punch linked into another crouching light punch, and finally linked into a standing heavy kick. This should do 104 damage.
• As a punish, this is not optimal damage. Your goal: Find a stronger combo [for the sake of this exercise, lets just use directions and  normal buttons, no special moves, and no jumping]. Take a little time to explore your options. What can you find? For the sake of brevity I’ll share with you one of the stronger combos I’ve found: forward medium kick linked into standing heavy kick. [180 Damage]
• Ryu is a character who has 1000 health, but larger characters like Abel and Zangief tend to have more life, which means our previous combo doesn’t cut it. So now I want to you change the 2nd character to Abel in training mode. Your goal:  Find a combo that does even more damage than the one I suggested [same rules apply as before]. Can you do it?
• Again for brevity, the combo I found is forward medium kick, linked into standing medium punch, linked into standing heavy kick. [224 Damage. DAMN?!]

You’ll find that larger characters tend to get hit by more moves because of their reeling animations. That’s why this combo will work on someone like Abel and not a regular size character link Ryu. Try it out on other large characters. Some characters have some really strange reeling animations that allows you to do even more damage. For example, against DeeJay, Dudley can do forward medium kick, linked into two standing medium punches, linked into standing heavy kick.

So that is just one example of using knowledge of the game mechanics to create a competitive advantage in a given situation. Once you can find the situation, you need to use training for repetition to perfect the timing. These two things together should allow you to perform it in a real match. But combos are just the tip of the iceberg. You can use training for creation for a myriad of things. Combos, Option-selects, knockdown situations, set-play, etc.

Here are a few things I’ve figured out: Beating backdashes with jab option-selected sweeps. Creating meaty set-ups for Dudley after a knockdown. Making stun set-play for Yang. Plinking the combination of punch and kick buttons to do Adon tiger-knee’d jaguar kicks at the lowest possible height [wow, that’s a mouthful]. Anywho, I say all of this to show you the breadth of things you can do with creation. You just need to go into training mode with a goal, and use what you know, or learn more to achieve it. That being said, I feel I should come in here, and let you know that sometimes, what you want to achieve just isn’t possible with your character’s tools, or your knowledge alone. For this reason, sharing information with others is a really good idea. Putting a ton of heads on an idea is way more beneficial.

Well, this is getting a bit long, so I’ll wrap up here. Now you should have all the tools you need to make the most of your training mode time. You know how to train to perfect your timing, to understand the game, and to use that understanding to create a competitive advantage.

One last time, you guys can send out a big thank you to Gootecks [@gootecks] on twitter. He was the one who inspired me to do this guide! Anyway, if you have any questions, or would like to submit ideas for another tutorial series, please hit me up on either my twitter [check to the right] or my ask.fm account.  Here’s to making your own success.

Good players use training mode to practice combos. Great players use it as a lab to study. Top players use it create their path to victory.