
Hit confirming is arguably the most crucial skill you can learn in any fighting game. Without it, your chances of becoming a competent player are slim. Hit confirming is a key factor that separates casual players from advanced and serious competitors. If you’re content with casual play, that’s perfectly fine, but if you’re aiming to elevate your fighting game skills to a higher level, mastering hit confirming is essential.
Understanding Hit Confirming
Hit confirming is a combination of your ability to react to what you see on screen and your input execution. One common mistake is assuming that hit confirming doesn’t require practice—this couldn’t be further from the truth. Like any other advanced skill, hit confirming demands time and effort in the lab. Unless you’re an exceptional prodigy who can flawlessly execute hit confirms immediately after learning about them, you’ll need to put in the work.
When muscle memory sets in, you’ll find it much easier to react to visual cues in the game. This article will guide you through specific drills designed to help you master hit confirming more efficiently.
The Fundamentals of Hit Confirming
Before diving into the drills, it’s important to understand the visual and audio cues that indicate whether your attack has connected or been blocked. In most fighting games, a blue oval shape or similar effect will appear when your attack is blocked. On the other hand, when your attack hits, the visual effect is usually more pronounced, often resembling an orange explosion or burst.
Audio cues are equally important. A blocked hit typically sounds like a dull thud, while a successful hit is accompanied by a more impactful sound, reminiscent of the exaggerated sound effects from 1980s martial arts films. To practice hit confirming, start by focusing on these visual cues without relying on audio. Once you’re comfortable, switch to using only audio cues—close your eyes, put on headphones, and listen carefully.
Combining both visual and audio cues will give you a more robust skill set for hit confirming, allowing you to react quickly and accurately in various situations.
Hit Confirming Drills
Now, let’s dive into the drills. These exercises are tailored for practicing hit confirming with Dudley in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, but the principles apply across many fighting games. You have hit confirms for Street Fighter, also hit confirms for Mortal Kombat, for KOF, for Tekken, and so on.
Drill 1: Confirming the Hit Without Super Activation In this drill, you’ll practice confirming a hit but failing to execute the super move. This drill is crucial because it teaches you to return to a safe defensive position (down-back) if the super doesn’t come out. This habit will protect you from potential punishment if your execution falters.
Drill 2: Buffering Without Committing This drill focuses on buffering the motions for the super move during an overhead attack, but only pressing the buttons to activate the super if the hit connects. You’ll perform all the necessary inputs except for the final button press, allowing you to safely abort the super if the hit doesn’t land.
Drill 3: Confirming the Hit and Activating the Super This is the ideal scenario—confirming the hit and successfully executing the super move. By practicing this drill, you’ll ensure that your hit confirms are reliable and that you won’t leave yourself vulnerable by prematurely committing to a super.
Drill 4: Two-Jab Hit Confirm In this drill, you’ll practice confirming hits with two quick jabs before deciding whether to follow up with a super move. The speed of the jabs allows you enough time to assess whether they connect, giving you a reliable window for hit confirming.
Conclusion
Hit confirming is not an easy skill to master, but with consistent practice, it will become second nature. By dedicating time to these drills, you’ll significantly improve your ability to hit confirm, making you a more formidable opponent. Many players lose matches simply because they don’t take the time to learn this skill—don’t let that be you.
Take the time to lab, practice, and refine your hit confirms, and you’ll see noticeable improvements in your gameplay.