Watching match videos is cool and all, and I can only get so much from it... Of course experience is where the true nuggets come from... Granted, some vids might have some things here and there, but its just that... Watching a vid and suggesting that someone should or could do this or that isn't really that bad imo, unless of course the person suggesting doesn't get his/her hands dirty in the first place. I accept constructive criticism, because people can always give you a different perspective of things, and though you might or might not have the same idea, it can also show you whether you were in the right direction or not when thinking about using whatever move in whatever situation, thus giving you some form of assurance... That isn't to say that that particular character is only to be played like this way or that way, but if you were trying to go in a certain direction, then talking to one who knows that street can be helpful...
Yeah there are plenty of times I'm watching my replays and think, "Man, I could've done this, or that", and I'm guilty of doing my own fair share of "theory fighting", but just like an actual theory, it needs to be tested and results need to come out of that, as to whether or not to toss that strat/setup/combo/whatever... And on the other side of that, I've watched other matches and did the same thing, but I also have to keep in mind that yeah I don't know what the hell this cat was thinking or planning to do... So with that, I approach it as humble as possible, with much respect towards that player, regardless of skill... I keep that in mind all the time, and leave room for "errors", as in "this person wasn't practicing his wavedashes, so he missed an ewgf opportunity", or "this stick had a jacked up
so I couldn't land my strongest meaty combo"... My object is to learn from and with, and to also help as much as possible with whatever game, so that both that person and I can become solid in what we play, and in turn can put on a good show and have even more fun...
Though the Japanese may have a prettier style, that does not guarantee that they will win in a head to head matchup vs. Mexico as the tournament results have clearly shown, so I have shown that this way of thinking is flawed and should be revised!
The problem with this is that the only thing people see in vids are the Japanese playing other Japanese players, and no one else... On top of that, most matches you see involve a slew of safe moves hopefully leading to a damaging combo/setup... I see alot of this in games like Tekken, where there's just a constant stairstepping leading to an "in-and-out" tactic, which is followed by safe attacks only, and maybe one or two moves that are only jab punishable... So you get these cats on youtube seeing only these guys (and Koreans and some Filipinos) playing with say Kazuya and they think that's all there is to him, and start trying to play that particular style... So then that same person gets his game up and fights someone who knows those tricks, and they can't come up with anything to stop it, because they're only playing like Japanese Kazuya and not their own Kazuya... Sometimes you have to take risks, or do something unexpected to get the W... Change the patterns up, come up with new setups, stop being "PREDICTABO", etc...
And on a sidenote, I'd like to see more US vs JP or US vs MX...
I'm not too fond of over-the-shoulder coaching... I was crushing in a MvC3 session, and the only way some dude got me was playing with a character he didn't know (he was only good with Zero), and he had to get coached by some dude mid fight, and the crap was annoying... Do some coaching before and after the fight... That mess is even annoying in kickboxing... Anyway, I've probably spewed a bit of the same stuff other guys have been saying to a degree, so I'll end it here...
