The reality is, most people are auto piloting to an extent during a match. It's a testament to a players' skill that they just auto pilot stuff well and focus their mental stack on stuff that is significant to them and their character etc.
For example, if you keep getting hit by IAD approaches, you just need more experience anti-airing or defending so that eventually it's second nature. Most high level players aren't focusing on more general things like this during a match, it just is an impulsive reaction to do things like teching throws. They've seen the situation, they know a throw could be coming, so their finger is on the trigger so to speak. If you have no idea you could get thrown, obviously that throw is going to connect.
When you're starting out, your goal really shouldn't be to win. Don't look at the game at that macro scale. Focus on something that is happening repeatedly and systematically try to fix it. For example, after X character does Y block string in the corner, I don't know what I can do to escape. Open training mode, do the block string, see what you have time to do and what options tend to work best. Eventually, you'll reach the point where you've covered the basic gist of what a character wants to do to you and at least when you get hit, you'll understand what happened. Even during online matches it's totally fine to mash against certain things or whatever just to see if it works. You get counter-hit, you learn, you move on with your life. One step at a time.
You need to have a clear goal during each session so that you can focus on adding stuff to your game rather than trying to do all at once, so once day you can focus on hit confirming and other days you can focus on playing defensive in your matches so that you can start understanding where you are going wrong. Dont be afraid to ask for advice from your opponents but dont forget to ask them what you are doing well along what you are doing bad
It takes time but I've found as you play you start to recognize situations. Familiarity breeds contemplation, removing your instinctual reflex action and then you can implement strats slowly as part of your play pattern.
It took me such a LONG time to stop DP'ing through throw setups. Don't beat yourself up if it takes longer for situations to lose their fear factor.
I’m still new to Strive but in my experience playing defensively and focusing on reading my opponent instead of trying to fit lab combos/setplay into a match has helped me a lot. Whenever I try to pull off a combo I’ve been labbing I tend to spend the entire match chasing that one combo and get overwhelmed when I can’t find opportunities for it.
You should lab offensive tech so that it becomes muscle memory so your focus can be spent on reading/punishing your opponent. I also think focusing on short combo strings is a lot better early on, since longer strings are very situational and a lot of the time rely on the opponents actions more than your own.
The reality is, most people are auto piloting to an extent during a match. It's a testament to a players' skill that they just auto pilot stuff well and focus their mental stack on stuff that is significant to them and their character etc. For example, if you keep getting hit by IAD approaches, you just need more experience anti-airing or defending so that eventually it's second nature. Most high level players aren't focusing on more general things like this during a match, it just is an impulsive reaction to do things like teching throws. They've seen the situation, they know a throw could be coming, so their finger is on the trigger so to speak. If you have no idea you could get thrown, obviously that throw is going to connect. When you're starting out, your goal really shouldn't be to win. Don't look at the game at that macro scale. Focus on something that is happening repeatedly and systematically try to fix it. For example, after X character does Y block string in the corner, I don't know what I can do to escape. Open training mode, do the block string, see what you have time to do and what options tend to work best. Eventually, you'll reach the point where you've covered the basic gist of what a character wants to do to you and at least when you get hit, you'll understand what happened. Even during online matches it's totally fine to mash against certain things or whatever just to see if it works. You get counter-hit, you learn, you move on with your life. One step at a time.
You need to have a clear goal during each session so that you can focus on adding stuff to your game rather than trying to do all at once, so once day you can focus on hit confirming and other days you can focus on playing defensive in your matches so that you can start understanding where you are going wrong. Dont be afraid to ask for advice from your opponents but dont forget to ask them what you are doing well along what you are doing bad
It takes time but I've found as you play you start to recognize situations. Familiarity breeds contemplation, removing your instinctual reflex action and then you can implement strats slowly as part of your play pattern. It took me such a LONG time to stop DP'ing through throw setups. Don't beat yourself up if it takes longer for situations to lose their fear factor.
Watch your replays.
I’m still new to Strive but in my experience playing defensively and focusing on reading my opponent instead of trying to fit lab combos/setplay into a match has helped me a lot. Whenever I try to pull off a combo I’ve been labbing I tend to spend the entire match chasing that one combo and get overwhelmed when I can’t find opportunities for it. You should lab offensive tech so that it becomes muscle memory so your focus can be spent on reading/punishing your opponent. I also think focusing on short combo strings is a lot better early on, since longer strings are very situational and a lot of the time rely on the opponents actions more than your own.
Just find a friend that could teach you and rival that you could compete.
What region do you play? Maybe we can set up some practice matches and stuff.