Gief's Gym - Hit Confirms - A Practical Lesson to Test Your Reactions
Welcome back friends! I hope you all arrived ready to improve. Today’s workout will cover hit confirms and working on your ability to make better decisions when pressuring your opponent. Get ready to build that muscle power!
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Hit Confirms - All Levels
The Workout – In training mode pick Ryu vs Ryu. Turn off stun and turn on quick rise to not waste time. Turn on Input Display so you can see exactly how your inputs are being read by the game. In the Dummy Settings, set block to “Random.” As the player character walk up point blank to the Dummy and perform the following combo: st.mp > cr.mp xx mk Tatsumaki Senpukyaku (Tatsu)
However, the trick with this workout is to only complete the combo if the Dummy is hit by the initial st.mp. If the Dummy blocks the st.mp you may still hit the cr.mp but do not cancel into the mk Tatsu. If you perform the mk Tatsu and the Dummy is able to block it, then you have failed to hit confirm on the dummy. Now perform this hit confirm 10 times in a row. If you complete the combo and it is blocked by the dummy start back at zero. Video Here
The Purpose – Hit Confirms are a critical component of your offensive decision making. The situation presented in the workout might be something you pressure your opponent with as they wake up from a knockdown. Consider that both Ryu’s st.mp and cr.mp give him frame advantage on block and there is a very tight 4 frame gap after the st.mp if your opponent does block the initial attack. While this 4 frame gap can be interrupted by a frame perfect 3 frame normal, that 4 frame gap will still keep you safe from throw attempts and other slower normals. If your st.mp does hit the Dummy you should be able to recognize whether or not you’ve made that connection and either finish out the combo, throw out a cr.mp to attempt to catch them mashing throw, throw your opponent if they blocked, or any number of other offensive options. The key here is to be able to register in your head whether or not your attack has landed and have a gameplan if it hits or is blocked. Most characters have offensive strings that are either safe or relatively safe on block that allow them to confirm into more damage and the faster you can determine whether your moves have connected or not the faster you will be canceling into bigger damage and more impressive confirms. Variations Include:
Hit Confirm off Lights - Ryu is a special case in SFV in that he has a hit confirm off of lights that is 3 hits long. Typically most of the cast can only land 2 light attacks before they are out of range to connect a third attack. Replace the combo listed in the original workout with Ryu’s light confirm: cr.lp > st.lp > st.lk xx lk Tatsu
Confirming off of light attacks is important when your opponent does something like put themselves in front of you at a slight disadvantage. For example, Rashid might cancel a normal into unmashed lp Spinning Mixer + on block. In this situation Rashid is -2 frames making it a slight risk for him to do anything other than block. Being able to hit confirm off of a light attack is critical in this situation because your opponent is handing you a slight advantage and you will be a stronger player if you can use that advantage to the best of your ability. For full disclosure, there are other instances where you might not want to press buttons when your opponent puts themselves at a -2 frame advantage but we will cover that in later workouts. Video Here
The Single Hit Confirm - Confirming your combos off of two hits is certainly a skill worth learning, but being able to confirm off of a single hit can absolutely devastate your opponent. Other characters will benefit from the ability to cancel out of one hit more than others but having this ability to react will always come in handy. Replace the combo listed in the original workout with Ryu’s crouching medium kick into hard punch Hadoken confirm: cr.mk xx hp Hadoken (fireball)
The reason that this hit confirm is useful is that Ryu’s fireball is punishable on block as outlined in previous lessons. If your opponent is skilled enough they could punish a blocked fireball with a raw Critical Art. However, if you are able to confirm whether or not your crouching medium kick hit your opponent, you will be keeping yourself safe and possibly bait your opponent into doing something punishable if they automatically expect you to cancel every crouching medium kick into a fireball. Video Here
If you have any questions or need a spotter for this particular workout, leave a message in the comments.
Posted Mar 1, 2016, 1:34 PM UTC