Gief's Gym - A Practical Lesson for Learning the 360 Input! A Lesson for Beginners.
Welcome back friends! I hope you all arrived ready to improve. Today’s workout will cover executing special inputs. Get ready to build that muscle memory!
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Learning the 360: The Spinning Pile Driver - Absolute Beginners
The Workout – In training mode pick Zangief vs Zangief. Turn off stun and quick rise to not waste time. Turn on Input Display so you can see exactly how your inputs are being read by the game. We are going to breakdown this motion to its most basic components:
The big secret with performing Spinning Pile Drivers (SPDs, 360s) is that you only need to input 225 degrees of the 360 degrees in order for the command grab to come out. To begin, walk right up next to your opponent then starting from perform a half circle forward , move your control stick to up forward and then press a punch button . Note that you can reverse this input starting from forward and ending in up back to the same effect. Take special note of the effective range depending on which punch button is pressed. Light punch will have the most range and hard punch will have the least. Now perform this motion 10 times in a row. If you fail to perform an SPD start back at zero. Video Here.
The Purpose – Learning how to quickly and efficiently perform an SPD is crucial to get the most out of Zangief’s command grab. Command grabs cannot be teched and typically outrange normal throws. Try to grab the dummy at the maximum possible range given which button you press. Light punch SPD will have a very far range at the cost of damage, stun, and post knockdown pressure while Hard punch SPD is the most damaging, causes the most stun, and provides the most advantage post knockdown at the cost of a very short range. Memorize these ranges in order to know the ranges where Zangief is most dangerous. Variations Include:
The Tick Throw - Zangief’s ability to tick throw is very strong considering the range of his SPD and the typically short range of fast normals in SFV. Learning how to properly tick throw is important once you have trained your opponent to stay on the ground. Perform a tick throw by setting the dummy to guard all. While right next to the dummy, force them to block two crouch light punches or two crouch light kicks then immediately follow with a light punch SPD. Be careful to not cancel out of the light into an SPD because you cannot grab your opponent when they are still in blockstun.
The 720 - Much like how the 360 can be reduced to 225 degrees, a 720 can be reduced to 540 degrees. Performing a standing 540 can be extremely difficult, even for skilled players. Luckily there are smart ways to cheat your inputs to effectively land this devastating grab. The minimum required inputs for a 720 are most easily performed by starting from back , performing a full 360 going from back to down back, to down, etc. Then performing the final 180 with a half circle ending in forward then finally pressing any punch. Note that this motion can be performed in either direction. To prevent yourself from jumping you typically must buffer the 540 motion behind some type of button press or movement. It is easiest to buffer this motion from an empty jump but it is also the most telegraphed. You could perform this motion during your dash animation or during you f+mk command normal. Video Here
The Walking 720 - Perhaps the trickiest setup is the walking 720. In SFV the input buffering window for a walking 720 is rather large. The easiest way to perform a walking 720 is from a standing medium punch. Set the opponent to gaurd all and walk into the range of Zangief’s standing medium punch. Force the dummy to block a standing medium punch and as you see the block animation input your 540 starting from back and end the motion with forward . Continue holding forward until you see Zangief starting to walk forward, walk into range of Zangief’s Critical Art, then press another punch button to activate the walking 720! If you’re having trouble with the walking 720, try performing your 540 as late as possible during the blocked standing medium punch animation or play around with the time spent walking forward. The later you perform the 540, the more time you can spend walking forward. Video Here
If you have any questions or need a spotter for this particular workout, leave a message in the comments.
Posted Feb 22, 2016, 7:17 PM UTC · edited