What is the most effective way to practice links?
I read previous threads and understand the the concept behind links, I'm wondering what do most effective way of practicing them. Should I be looking at character animation or counting buttons inputs as rhythms?
Responses (4 total)
I think counting button inputs and finding a rhythm is looking too deep into it. You could always just practice and find your own second-nature rhythm and use muscle memory. Timing in this game (and most other fighting games) is literally on reaction and hand eye coordination. If you practice your combos more (the easy ones), it will literally just come automatic once you get it down.
The worst would be in the heat of a match, trying to count your button inputs and button presses, etc etc. You will just get burned.
I guess the most important thing to understand about combos are links and cancels and the differences between the two.
Let's take the example that Nick Vila used - cr. mp, cr. mp, cr. mk xx Hadoken
the Links are separated by the commas and the the Cancel is indicated by the "xx"
cr. mp, cr. mp, cr. mk is a Link. This means you will press mp and then you have to wait until the animation is finished before you can input the next mp, and then wait until that's finished before you can input the cr. mk.
Depending on the links and what the frame data is, you can approach it with muscle memory, or use methods like double-tapping and p-linking, for links that require precise timing and execution.
cr. mk xx Hadoken is a Cancel. This means, you can execute a hadoken to cancel the mk (which had landed). The Hadoken input is Down, Down-Forward, Forward + Punch. The cr. mk input is Down + MK. To cancel a cr. mk to a Hadoken, you simply can use the "Down" part of of the Down, Down-Forward, Forward motion for the Down + MK.
so cr. mk xx Hadoken can be input like this: Down + MK, Down-Forward, Forward + Punch.
Usually canceling is much easier than linking. But give that combo a try and you should have a better understanding.
I've always felt that Ryu has the easiest normals to link. So i would try to practice with him using any of the afformentioned techniques. Once you can do it with him I think it comes easier, that's how i learned at first.
rage_cat's answer is mostly true but practicing the rhythm shouldn't be dismissed though. I find some of the combos easier when I time the beat from Queen's We Will Rock You into the links. If you think you have a good sense of rhythm you definitely should take advantage of it but there really isn't one true answer for practicing them.
Getting consistent through muscle memory is what you will eventually want to achieve, but to you get there you should feel free to try any methods that fit your learning style. Some practice by rhythm, others look for visual cues.. way back I shouted ISSEN in the back of my mind to get my timing (shut up, it kinda works :D). Mindless button pressing without some visual/audio aid won't help you get those links down. Ever.
Auto-block is a friend when practicing. If the dummy blocks your next hit, you pressed it too slow. If your next move didn't come out then you pressed it too early. Keep polishing your timing with any process that you think helps.
I'm not a very experienced player, but when practicing links i feel both the character animation and finding the rhythm is very important. What I do to make sure I have the combo down is breaking it down as little as possible. Say the first three inputs are normals and the forth is a command input, I'll practice the first 3 normals till i get them perfectly a couple of times in a row. Then i'll take that last normal and practice canceling into the command.
example:
with ryu you could
cr.mp
cr.mp
cr.mk
Hadoken
I would practice the first 2. Then practice cr.mp to cr.mk separately. Then the rest obviously until it all connects with ease.
