When it comes to learning combos, for myself, I like to spend a lot of time in training mode first to comfortable with doing four combos (in a KOF or SF sort of game...many more for something like GG or AH3) for a character: (1) basic no-resource combo off of typical poke strings, (2) basic efficient metered damage off of typical poke strings, (3) best damage when I want to blow everything I have for a kill (could be the same as (2), especially in older games), and (4) punishment combo for things like baited reversals where I can freely use a high damage starter instead of poking. Once I have those down to the point where I don't have to think about it while actually doing them, it frees up my mind during actual matches to focus on strategy, yomi, hit confirming, etc. I don't have to think about doing the combos because, at that point, they're pretty much automatic once I see that I'm hitting or once I see that my opponent do something unsafe. Once I get to the point where I'm confident in the rest of my play, then I revisit my combos and see if I can do anything to improve them (for instead, if I'm just starting out with Mature in 2002UM, my combo (2) might just be <optional jump-in>, cl.B, qcfx2+A/C...then later <optional jump-in>, cr.B, cr.A, cr.A, qcfx2+A/C...then later a basic BC combo, etc.)
I don't think anyone will argue over whether improving mind games, spacing, etc. is best done by going against other players, nor over whether it takes a lot of time and experience to become a skillful and complete player at any legitimate fighter
unless you use XIII Raiden. However, the topic of this thread is:
Does anybody have any techniques or pratice as far as being able to get the motions down perfectly and consistently? Any basic drills or whatnot that anybody performs to practice?
Getting execution down is something that most people probably aren't comfortable learning while under the stress of an actual match. Learning to have a calm mind and hands so that you can keep near your practiced level of execution during a real match is critical, sure, but topic was about fundamental execution. There's a lot less pressure on you trying to do a combo you've practiced and landed hundreds of times than to just see the notation on a forum and jump into trying it in a match.
This is especially true for games like Blazblue, where you frequently have to adjust your timing or omit/change/reorder attacks depending on the other character (at least for Hazama...not as sure about other characters, since Blazblue isn't as crazy overall in character-specifics as Guilty Gear is), the p1 rating of your opening hit, whether the opener was a normal or counter hit, height for air-to-air confirms, whether your opponent was standing or crouching for X-to-ground confirms, etc. (PS: For Phoenixazure: Don't let all of that intimidate you if you're just starting out. Practice and improve with some basic reasonable combos [say, one no-meter, one with 50% meter, and one off of throws] first, then worry about going into more optimized stuff once you're solid with that
)
Ideally, you should not be actively thinking about all of that during a match, because you should have spent the time to practice all of those scenarios in training mode against all of the cast so that you automatically know what you should do when you land a hit. However, there's no point in doing all of that practice if you're not even confident that you can do basic inputs right, which is what Phoenixazure seemed to be asking for help with.
