Do you know how? I’m guessing you do. It’s not as hard as it sounds. I bet everyone’s tried to perfect the computer at some point. I’m sure everyone’s played against runaway specialists and decided to patiently avoid everything instead of chasing them down.

So then, what makes it so difficult to do this when you’re one blocked special move away from death? The fear is all psychological, right? Like the whole beam-walking on the ground versus walking on a beam between skyscrapers quandary.

When you watch Daigo make those crazy comebacks with no life left, does it ever seem like he’s playing scared? When you see Kobe take a game-winner with his team down two points at the buzzer, does it ever look like he thinks he’s going to miss? That’s how you have to play. If you know you can make the shot, don’t allow yourself to think any different simply because of numbers on a clock (or colors on a lifebar).

You know, Kobe doesn’t always make those and Daigo doesn’t always win those, but you’re much better off with that confident mix of focus and determination than without. If you don’t already know exactly what to do in that situation, come up with a plan quickly and execute it. Embrace the moment, because there’s no better way to develop that clutch instinct than forcing yourself to face crunch time head-on.

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During the course of an otherwise effective offensive sequence, you may attempt to bait a reversal which your opponent refuses to take – landing you in an awkward neutral situation. What should you do after a wrong guess costs you momentum?

Well, i don’t think there’s a universal answer to that question. Certain characters might have situation-specific tricks to artificially extend momentum, but it’s a mistake to assume that you ought to cling to momentum forever. Ideally, you want to strike a calculated balance between offensive and defensive play to give yourself the upper hand under all circumstances. Obviously momentum grants significant advantages, but making desperate wagers to preserve it exposes you to dangerous pitfalls.

Well-played matches should look like you’re consistently in control and your strategy is overall superior. You don’t necessarily have to win every single rock/paper/scissors instance. If that were true then the absolute highest regarded moments in Street Fighter history would be lopsided Makoto or Dudley massacres where one player happens to guess right every time. Clearly that’s not the case because we all consider those to be flukes.

Being able to maintain momentum is less important than being able to build it up from neutral equilibrium. To become a great offensive player, you need to develop an arsenal of reliable ways to break through the opponent’s defensive mid-range zone. Once you gain confidence in your ability to accomplish this task at will, you’ll stop overvaluing momentum to the point of risking entire matches to hang onto it.

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Everyone should learn to play Zangief. Every character in Street Fighter has a wonderfully unique gameplay style which emphasizes certain skills above others. While you certainly can develop a strong throw game by using Guile, you’d have to go way out of your way to learn it. On the other hand, picking Gief will put you on the fast track to building all those dirty mental pathways which make for a strong throw game.

Needing to throw to win with Zangief will teach you precisely how to set up that last throw with Guile or how to land that mid-match throw with Cammy to energize your entire offense. It’s as much a psychological challenge as a tactical matter. Using a committed grappler such as SF4 Gief/Abel, ST Gief/T.Hawk/Bison, 3S Makoto/Alex/Hugo, CvS2 Gief/Raiden/Vice, etc. can help you identify and exploit these subtle signs to determine when an opponent becomes highly susceptible to throw attempts.

Ask the right question and every experienced Gief player will tell you that people react differently to throws depending on specific circumstances – whether it’s the first throw attempt in a round, the second throw in succession, or potentially fatal throw setups near the end of a round. Perhaps even more important than the skill required to land throws is the ability to detect an opponent’s growing fear and harness it to steer turtles into the corner for free. Zangief players learn right away that damage from punishing foolish escape attempts is no less valuable than damage from successful throws.

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What should you do when a veteran player is outguessing you at every turn? It’s happened to everyone, where every last thing you do gets hit. Your every medium-range poke gets swept, your every long-range move gets stuffed, and doing nothing opens you up to pressure.

The answer is obvious: block. Sometimes when they’ve got your number, just block. They’re totally playing by your rhythm, so don’t make any moves for a second until they don’t know how to read you anymore.

When you block, don’t do it out of fear. Do it to wait them out. Do it to take away their momentum. Do it to figure out their methods. Do it to plan your next move.

The key here is that there are only two ways to beat someone who’s good at footsies:
1) Outthink them and do everything they’re doing, except better.
2) Work out some alternative strategies to avoid that dangerous zone entirely.

Otherwise you have no chance of winning. Playing footsies to survive is simply delaying an inevitable loss. Skilled opponents can sense indecisive reluctance and press the advantage. Give 100% effort to footsies or don’t play footsies at all.

The easiest person to play footsies against is that intermediate player who hasn’t quite given up on footsies, but doesn’t play footsies to win. He doesn’t move around much, he doesn’t keep track of long-term patterns, and he plays almost exclusively on a reactionary level. He’s not trying to get you to do anything specific; he’s simply reacting to where you’re standing. He doesn’t think his footsies are good enough to help him win whole matches. He’s being lazy.

Playing footsies with that casual mindset is the mental equivalent of being backed into a permanent corner. If you’re hesitant and uncertain, then your wins will come from luck and your losses will be inexorably fitting.

Do not, under any circumstances, allow your opponent to get inside your head and dictate your gameplan. If your best poke gets beaten by a fluke counter, get over it. Don’t let it startle you. Sure, losing 10% life sucks, but you’ll survive it. What you won’t survive is allowing one exchange to convince you to stop using your best button for the rest of the round. Giving up on moves only does one thing – it reduces your options.

If you get swept, that means you were outsmarted. It doesn’t necessarily mean your opponent is smarter than you and it doesn’t have to mean that you’ll get outsmarted again. Remember: Sweep is 10% damage. You will get back up.

Rule #5: Forget about winning or losing. Go all out or don’t even bother.

After reading over ten chapters on footsies, by now you should have a fairly good idea of what the playing field looks like, where you stand on it, and where to go from here. Well, what if you realize you suck at footies? Worse yet, what if none of this seems appealing to you? My advice would be to keep at it. Developing solid fundamentals requires practice, effort, and time. Don’t bother chasing after shortcuts. You’ll only end up with more holes.

That said, you don’t necessarily have to play footsies if you don’t want to. There are other valid approaches to fighting game success. Of course it’s not as simple as ignoring the matter, because if your opponent knows how to play footsies properly, they’ll draw you into it whether you realize it or not. You’re bound to get demolished whenever you let that happen.

Therefore you must find ways to actively avoid, escape, or otherwise negate your opponent’s ability to hurt you through the offensive methods we’ve reviewed thus far. It’s extremely difficult to manage against seasoned veterans, but then again it’s probably more sensible than trying to beat them at footsies.

The universal solution can be split into two main categories: extreme defense and extreme offense. Both styles are geared toward staying out of mid-range, where skillful footsies are most effective. Additionally, there are countless matchup-specific means of bypassing footsies for various periods to various degrees, but they’re too narrow in scope to discuss here.

Extreme defense involves a lot of blocking, walking backward, and outright running away from the first sign of trouble at every safe opportunity. The goal is to take someone out of their gameplan through sheer frustration. This strategem dumbs down the game enough to level the playing field, thereby reducing the overall effectiveness of ground fundamentals. Simply put, you’re trying to avoid footsies by operating well outside that hazardous mid-range zone.

Extreme offense entails constant reckless attacking, dashing in, crossing up, and maintaining overall consistent pressure. As above, the goal is to rattle someone enough to lure them into equal or greater recklessness, abandoning their gameplan in the process. Obviously this manner of all-or-nothing gambling is highly inconsistent, but on a good day it can lead to lucky wins against even the best players. In other words, you’re trying to negate footsies by crossing over the mid-range boundary and relentlessly sustaining close combat.

Stage position is important as well. It’s critical to keep out of corners at all times when fighting corner pressure specialists like Guile and Sentinel. Against some characters, such as Urien and Gouken, it’s better to stay midscreen in general because their damage potential is far more reasonable away from those combo-empowering walls.

Sometimes it’s simply wiser to run away and build meter, when it would tilt the matchup scales heavily in your favor. For example, ST Dhalsim has direct reactionary counters to everything Ryu can do, but gaining access to his Shinkuu Hadoken super gives Ryu instant comeback potential. It’s also smarter to run away from an opponent who already has meter, rather than face the possibility of single-combo death when you’d need to land three combos to win.

As you can see, there are quite a few situations where it’s easier to avoid playing footsies. Never underestimate the power of blocking, because it’s much safer than trying to be a hero all the time. Calmly do whatever it takes to win tournaments. However in training, i wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to practice footsies against better players, because you’ll probably learn more from an intense loss than a mindless win.