Developing from a COMPLETE newb

[Strudelicious]

Hey Dreamcancel, my goal is to become relevant to the Chinese scene at KOF. Currently not only is that goal far away its almost unfeasible. The biggest reason I cannot progress is my execution. So much theory exists in my head but not enough in my fingers. I can't destroy if I can't do more than   all day or throw a super on its own to zone. As a result I'm committing an hour a day to execution practice. I don't like Andy as a character because of his average normals but he happens to be the character to whom more of the inputs work for me at a cursory run at his trials. As a result I figure this is a good base to start. Seeing as how he is the only character I have had a modicum of success in I have resolved to use him as the basis for my development at KOF (tell me if this thought process is wrong) despite my dislike of the actual character.

Currently I'm sticking to just this:
1. 10 hops
2. 10 reps of   to  
3. 10 reps of   to   to Zan'eiken
4. 10 reps of   to   to Zan'eiken to Kuuhadan Brake
5. 10 reps of   to   to Zan'eiken to Kuuhadan Brake to Zan'eiken
6. 10 reps of   to   to Zan'eiken to Kuuhadan Brake to Zan'eiken to Kuuhadan Brake
7. 10 reps of   to   to Zan'eiken to Kuuhadan Brake to Zan'eiken to Kuuhadan Brake to Zan'eiken

Is this wise? Is this too much? Should I be spending my time elsewhere? currently I can get to step 6 minus the brake in execution but not in consistency (meaning I might be able to get it if I'm feeling ballsy. I can't even get a 10/10 on demand zan'eiken to Kuuhadan Brake at the moment). Also I am having trouble with hops. I can get 10/10 after trying 50 times but I cannot execute a hop and without knowing at the screen or seeing the outcome feel 100 percent confident that I got a hop and not a jump. Sometimes in my desire to do a hop I actually get NOTHING happening despite hearing the click of my stick... (I suspect that i   then   in split second timing rather than   but I don't really know...)

My desires lie in Takuma and Duolon but without even being able to execute a 3/3 on demand Rekka I don't know if that's wise, and in order to speed development I've simpled... settled for Andy.

Thoughts guys?

[desmond_kof]

I'm confused. Why are you starting from  ? It's best to start from a low attack such as  then into  .

Plus Andy has a good target combo with  ,  ,  .

Also, you shouldn't judge a character's ability based on the trials in mission mode. Are you having trouble finding easy useful bnb's?

[Strudelicious]

I sincerely appreciate the help. I think you may be overestimating my abilities. I am not judging a character's ability or utility through trial mode. Analysis of this game has led me to the understanding that each character's utility is withing 2 points of each other on a scale of 1-10. The issue lies not in the character's utility it lies in my ability to execute even simple combos. The reason why I choose down a's is because the timing is a lot more tight and restrictive than down b's. I'm trying to develop my execution. Andy is the only character I'm having ANY success with.

I know you should go with characters you like but I like Leona, Duo Lon, Kensou, Takuma, and Terry. I have very little success with these characters. I mean if I really want to I could buckle down and just decide to devote my time to these characters, however charge motions are the bane of my existence in terms of executions because of the added requirement of a 30 frame charge. With SF I can hit rekka commands no problem but for some reason I have trouble with 100 percent execution with Duo Lon's sequence. When I first started out playing KOF it was a special move fest. I got destroyed in the arcades because of the recovery time and the fact that my opponents were local Chinese that had twitch memorization for lots of combos. I tried again the other day and through the rule of only using normals I was able to knock out 2 out of 3 characters for one of the more spastic emotional players.

Also any tips about my hop issue or is this just my pure lack of ability showing? Regardless I plan to get competent at this game one way or another.

[desmond_kof]

I think you are making things way more harder and complex for yourself. If you keep going that route, your progress will continue to be slow. I strongly suggest you just keep trying but practice smarter not harder. I understand it's a bit difficult for you but try to encourage yourself more and celebrate small victories (like landing certain combos).

Regarding hops, it took me weeks and weeks to get hops down (I was playing KOF98 and KOFXII at the time). Just remember it's a light and fast joystick movement either up-back or up-forward.

One more thing, I would honestly try to learn and understand characters normal attacks and proper defense (blocking, using GCAB/GCCD and using normals to keep opponents out) next to combo practice.

With Andy, I suggest you leave the  stuff alone and just do either close  ,  into whatever, and his crouching  confirms as I mentioned to build good habits and muscle memory.

With Terry do close  / into df+ and try  ,  , .

[Strudelicious]

Thanks. I think I'm going to just.... ease up a little bit in my expectations towards the rate of my improvement. I also am going to pick up characters I like rather than characters I have minor success at simply because 2 steps forward at the beginning is great and all but if I'm in it for the long run I might as well enjoy what I'm doing.

Thank you for the advice, thank you for the encouragement too.

BTW, saw you in Juicebox's stream lol.

[Coliflowerz]

Yeah, it takes awhile to get stuff down. Don't push yourself too hard. Focus on understanding your normals and specials, and what they do/are useful for. Try learning another character that relies mostly on normals (claw Iori, Daimon, Kyo) sometime later, and try to apply the theory behind those characters to Andy; your success will be great, I'm sure.

Don't give up!

[Strudelicious]

Thanks a lot guys. I decided to feel around more for characters I actually enjoy and settled down finally on Kensou. 1 in 3 isn't anywhere near close to the end of the road but at least it's something. After working on him for a little bit I'm still VERY VERY rough but I'm seeing a LOT MORE results in my game. It feels good winning 3 out of 5 at an arcade. Obviously the other guy was a scrub too but... now I can see punishes and pro-active actions to take. My mixup game is coming along well enough too.

I'm still having trouble with Kensou in regards to mashing his dp stomach barrage correctly. That and his DP kick to divepunch timing on the 4th hit is still AWFUL, however I'm very happy these days :D

At this point do I continue grinding away at kensou or start also developing a feel for another character's basics?

[Coliflowerz]

Of course, grind away, but occasionally still explore other characters for multiple reasons:

1) You can find a 2nd and/or 3rd character
2) You can learn about other characters, which will help you fight them
3) You can find ideas that you can transfer to Kensou

Don't worry about his DP punches, they're useless XD
Drive canceling into the dive punch is hella annoying. Takes a lot of practice. So you know what to do... practice