Kata #34 v1.0

Difficulty Advanced Kata

Focus AfterImage Effect Resistance

The intention of this kata is to extend the lessons learned in the previous entries in the 30-series of Katas, to being almost completely under defense or pressure from an apparently unpredictable opponent. To improve one's ability to change focus quickly, it is required that one understands why our brains get 'stuck' on particular responses. For the rest of this Kata, and in various other content, we will be referring to the tendency to 'unconsciously execute the last reaction you were thinking about, when triggered to have a new reaction, regardless of anything else' as the 'AfterImage Effect'. This Kata does not involve any required repositioning, and can also be used as a warm-up exercise for higher level players, even if they are familiar with and can easily complete all previous Katas. Players who are aiming to gain extra familiarity with certain characters may also benefit more than average from doing this Kata with a goal of observing very precise spacing interactions. Like previous Katas in the 30-series, it is intended to make players think about when they can or should attack immediately, but in this case it is trying to teach the player how long they can or should pause to identify opposing movement before their counterattack. This advanced kata will vary a bit by character, but even though it depends quite heavily on understanding of your own character, and Rashid's Frame Data, it is unlikely that there are many characters for whom the basic principles of it do not work.

Since RashidBot is designed to teach a different set of things, you will use the CPU at Level 7 or 8 for this kata. There is no need for any special inputs, and you do not need to alter your RashidBot.

As noted, as an advanced kata, it is often necessary to reference frame data to use this, moreso for Rashid than for your own character. If you have not yet tried Kata #23, we strongly suggest you do that first. Some knowledge of frame data will help, but most of what you need to know will be mentioned in this page, and only the basic understanding of frame data overall is required. However, if you wish to use this, there are many frame data apps and resources that you can use to aid you while training. We recommend finding the frame data source that you are most comfortable with to assist you with the more technical aspects of the kata.

Gauge Settings

Settings for 1P for Kata #34 are Health - "Auto-Recover" (when not in 'Full Focus Test' mode), V-Gauge - "Auto-Recover", CA Gauge - "Auto-Recover".

Settings for 2P for Kata #34 are Health - "Auto-Recover" (when not in 'Full Focus Test' mode), V-Gauge - "Normal", CA Gauge - "Normal".

Goals

Katas do not specifically have a point system, as they are intended to be a test of focus and endurance. Instead, this section will explain the why and how of the kata. Aims are still given below in a similar way to Bots and will be referred to as Aim A, Aim B, and so on when explaining.

Situation One -- Watch the Skies

Remember to anti-air. Rashid tends to jump after specific actions on his side. He will jump after a Spinning Mixer or standing MK that whiffs. He will jump if you don't move or stand in certain ways after hitting a few buttons (such as stand medium kick) or whirlwinds in neutral. Your main focus should be, Rashid is doing something just out of range of you, and when one of these 'somethings' whiffs due to range, there is a chance he will jump. Watch for this jump and anti-air it. He also jumps occasionally after you punish him or otherwise push him back, but anti-airing this jump is not the focus of the kata. Rashid can occasionally randomly neutral jump instead, putting stress on the player's watching since you can't just assume him leaving the ground is what you want to look out for. You can move around and see how you can trigger him to jump. Most of the time if Rashid has done the Spinning Mixer and clipped you, he will not jump. This is to get you used to identifying the jump and keeping up with your anti-air AND 'reserving from doing so when it's not the right time to', and to help you advance to the point where it is easy to do so. Until you feel like it is easy to do so, do not move on from this situation. Rashid will also, much more rarely, jump after certain sequences of attacks, which is helpful because Rashid has a lot of ways to make you twitch before it is time to anti-air. The harder you try not to twitch, the harder it will be for you to do your anti-air. For some characters it can be hard to get the right anti-air in time if you try keeping in mind all of the other possibilities and fake-outs for Rashid's movement in mind. If you have a single consistent easy anti-air and want to make it a little harder on yourself, you can practice air-reset approaches and combos, to help add another stack of things to think about.

Both players and CPU often 'telegraph' their jumps, the problem is that they don't always jump. Learn to keep the anti-air reaction in mind for a moment when you see the likely spacing or other indicator.

Situation Two -- Crouching Kick, Enter the AfterImage

If you attempt to block Rashid's pressure primarily by holding back and moving away from him instead of crouch blocking, it will generally raise the chance that he will use his crouching kick attacks. Since you may be alternating between walking backward and crouching, these attacks will alternately whiff entirely or be blocked. When either the Heavy or Medium Kick whiffs you can try for a quick whiff punish. When you happen to block the crouching Heavy Kick you should try to punish fully. Note that the range for your punish may make this difficult. Check the frame data for your character as required in order to decide how to try both of these. You should still watch for the anti-air as in Aim A, but try to punish the mentioned kicks. This is particularly easy for characters who have good backwards walk speed and/or backdash. This is also a good way to trigger the weirder situations more often.

When walking away from Rashid, some characters will find it easier to perform their anti-air. If you have difficulty anti-airing while walking, working on this is part of the Situation Two for practice. Characters with slower walk speeds, can't quite do this part of the kata without being clipped by Rashid's low kicks, or waiting longer before they start to walk backward, so be aware of this. Most characters can escape the later parts of the CPU Rashid's pressure with backdashes. Backdashes are airborne so while not part of the kata you can still learn some little stuff about your character. If your character can't backdash either they can usually parry or use an evasive attack at approximately the same timing/spacing that one would normally backdash. This means you have to be doubly ready for what follows and a lot quicker about how to do it. This is where you can start to see the effects of after-image. When you need to do something difficult such as counter-poke or parry, when your mind is required to time something, your focus is taken. When your focus is taken then you are in a situation where your mind may focus on that action and you will do it in situations you may not want or intend to do it. There is a hidden part of this, it's not obvious and differs by character, but CPU characters at high levels benefit from being able to 'read your inputs' and react faster than a person could. Rashid will trigger his actions based on certain things once you press them on your pad or stick. For movement, recovery, and blocking, this means that you need to delay your actions until Rashid has started one of his own.

Depending on your character, you can walk away from, or backdash out of, certain pressure strings. Your opponent may try to go for a low attack to stop you but the furthest reaching ones are unsafe or disadvantaged. Take advantage!

Situation Three -- Trouble Overhead

Maintain Aim B, and if easy, also Aim A. There is a chance the overhead comes soon after his crouching HK or MK, but it is partially random and spacing related. He tends to do it when the MK hits you and you were crouch blocking. He generally does not do this in reaction to crouch blocking itself, but will normally do so if you havestayed in crouching block in the same place for too long. His standing MK is also a signal that he will possibly do the overhead if he whiffed that attack and you were crouch blocking at a certain space. In fact, that standing MK is a tell for a lot of things when it whiffs, which makes it a useful thing for the AfterImage training. None of the things are usually unreactable, but the reactions required (block, parry, anti-air) are all different and have slightly staggered timings. So now you have to worry about if he will jump, or if you need to stand block the overhead, or if you stand block too soon if he will switch to his crouching HK instead if you are in range for that. This can cause you to get stuck due to the possibilities if you are too focused on expecting a particular situation. He can even get a cross up with his jumping attack if you are caught off guard. The goal of this situation, therefore, is to get you to mentally 'let go' and 'move on' in stressful situations where it may not be clear if you could have reacted in time without expecting the action.

Rashid's overhead attack 'Beak Assault' is punishable, like most such moves, but timing your defense and spacing your counterattack are key moments that require quick reflexes.

Situation Four -- Storm Watcher

In Situation Four, Aim D comes into play along with at least Aims B and C. Add Aim A if you are feeling confident. Rashid does not do this HK often, and you must pay attention to his whirlwinds as well, since every time you interact with one, it seems to reduce the chance of being in the right spacing for the HK. This move is punishable if you are spaced correctly but only with very fast specials or Light normals, and getting combos or advantages from doing this can be hard. Part of learning this situation is learning if your character has a non-standard punish you will need to use to punish the move, based on the range. Part of this situation is to show you that understanding is not always enough to make you ready for something. Keeping up three or four aims at once can be quite difficult, especially in this Kata where the optimal responses you need for each goal are specifically different. In this case the CPU reading your inputs is useful, unlike some other training situations, as the CPU optimizes Rashid's reactions, but they are still too slow to prevent you from executing your own correct actions. Rashid will, however, win out if you are too slow even by a frame, on many things, so it often forces you to get your reactions to their maximum. Punishing the sweep and punishing the standing HK are the parts of this most likely to show you where the AfterImage is as they both require non-standard quick buttons to punish or counter it. Finally, a simple note that if you find it too easy to see whirlwinds in a darker stage, move to a different brighter stage such as Hillside Plaza.

For most characters, each optimal punish in this Kata is different, putting more strain on your mind along with the high speed reactions required to recognize spacings and moves used, all while on defense.

Full Focus Test Mode

When you feel as if you have a good handle on each situation and all the ways you could deal with the opponent, change 1P CA-Gauge and 1P V-Gauge to "Normal". Both Health Gauges would then also be set to "Normal", but make sure that you go to the regular 'dummy' version of the Training Mode options and set Stun to 'Off' (this setting carries over to bots and CPU). The goal is now to defeat Rashid using the Kata as normal, attempting all Aims. Simply restrict 'times you damage Rashid' to punishes and anti-airs as the Aims indicate. If you manage this before he defeats you, consisently, then your focus is probably enough to handle this sort of situation in real matches. Repeat with familiar characters until you are satisfied with your performance.

Rashid's reactions and relatively complex neutral, are what make up the core of this kata. In the Full Focus Test mode, a lot of the stressors of AfterImage and keeping up so many things at once can become much more apparent. Unlike some other Kata Full Focus tests, Rashid CPU can easily win if you restrict yourself to the 4 Aims for damage. When you beat him by doing the wrong thing, it is usually relatively obvious.

Bot Information

This Kata uses the CPU, not a bot, and therefore you do not need to use the RashidBot 1.0 page. You should use that if you want to deal with Rashid's less safe moves such as EX Spinning Mixer and Eagle Spike, instead. We have tested this Kata with most of the game's characters and Rashid's behaviour changes only subtly between characters, usually in ways that are beneficial to that character's training and matchup (probably due to mostly changing because of spacing) and the core actions all seem to be the same across all characters we have tested. However, we urge you to contact us if you observe Rashid to behave strangely for your character, so that we can help out, or update this page with a disclaimer that the CPU does not allow this Kata to work for that character. If this behaviour changes due to any updates to Street Fighter V in future, this space will be used for notes on how and why.



In-Depth

In Progress.