3-Minute Fundamentals: Hit-Confirming

This is the first video in a series I'm calling "3-Minute Fundamentals", where I cover aspects of competitive Street Fighter play in the span of (approx.) 3 minutes time.
Hit-confirming is the act of giving your mind enough time to react to a situation.
Instead of going for an unsafe combo and hoping it'll connect, ideally you would leave "mental padding" in the form of quick normal attacks that can be linked together, which will give the mind the time to process whether your attacks are connecting or being blocked.
If the attacks land, you can then go into a damaging combo, and if the attacks are blocked, you aren't forced to guess with a highly punishable maneuver.
Song is "Speed Dry Manglehead" from the Jump Britain OST, by Ian Masterson & Thomas Beach.

[@AyyoNevNev]

8 years later and your still helping a homie out !

[@AMRJR4588]

10 and counting, lol

[@blueicydasani4543]

Mhm

[@DelasVC]

@@AMRJR4588 make that 11

[@X_Omen_Z]

13 years. This video is now a teenager.

[@pharohnintey]

13 years…..I owe soooo much of my improved skill in every fighting game to date to this old but gold video! Idk if you still monitor this channel but THANK YOU!!!

[@ghettoshampoo]

Awesome to hear. Yep, still here. Thanks for watching!

[@zom1587]

12 years later and this is still helpful

[@IamBason]

Such an old guide, yet such an informative one too

[@iookpareke]

LordofUltima....dude... I think u are like freakin' awesome! It's great that you spend ALL of this time to create these DETAILED videos... Keep up the good work! very benefitial for Gouki players like myself.

[@Madeen]

I already know everything i saw in this video, but its smoothly explained to anyone who dosent know about confirming, and i recommend this to every street fighter noobie. Props man

[@kevaughn69]

This was EXCELLENTLY done. I've been playing fighting games for years and although I've already learnt this through battle, you've done BEAUTIFULLY in illustrating the theory. You've not only shown how, you've shown when; Fight science and it's applicable context. As a fighter, I can't salute you enough. Well done, sir. Obviously 3 ppl hit-confirm when they shouldn't and 2 just can't do it at all. :-p

[@jazzdarkside]

One of the best tutorial vdo I've ever seen !!, great filming and of course great ending !

[@muximusdecimus]

can't believe i only just found this page #legend

[@ghettoshampoo]

muxzhy_oL I will be doing more fighting game tutorials when Street Fighter V hits. So stay tuned.

[@Juan_rivera]

lordofultima can you do the combos easier with joy stick or just as easily with d-pad

[@micpango]

+lordofultima so glad

[@BassChamber]

VERY GOOD video, this is what improves the scene helping new players to reach higher play levels. 5 stars man!!

[@ocping]

Great vid. The only "rule of thumb" is use a jab/short string YOU yourself can react and combo CONSISTENTLY from =) 1 jab is hard to react (for those of us with godly reaction times), 2 jab is the norm, 3 is great but do keep in mind that damage scaling will reduce the damage for 3-jab-hit-confirmed combos. Also with 3 jab-confirms the opponent might be too far away from the block-pushback and your next link/combo might whiff.

[@NuclearConvoy]

Thanks for these videos, i love fighting games but never had much of anyone to play against who was any good and i couldnt really get better against the computer. I heard and read people using these terms but had no idea what they meant. When I finally get a new system with online play i'll certainly take this knowledge with me.

[@edtitus2]

ok your editing skills are great. love the way you did this video. keep up the good work!

[@Aadonis219]

Im a noob despite playing SSF4 since it came out. I dont have time to learn all these things on my own, so these videos come in handy. Thanks.

[@golem2154]

Very informative, thanks for the video.

[@SolidSonicTH]

Oddly, I learned this principle from an SVC Chaos BradyGames strategy guide. I always kind of had a feel for the thought process of safe combo creation but seeing it written and explained in full made the whole concept come together.

[@TheBaioken]

Third Strike: short short Super pretty much taught me hitconfirming, incredibly well.

[@exaltedsky]

this is such a great video, i show it to everyone starting out in street fighter. release more stuff!~

[@Sawta]

Nice breakdown! Really helped me understand what it is that I'm trying to do. :)

[@LeHeartly]

Yes, that's right. As Max was saying earlier, he was buffering the Super input within the crouching fierce's frames of animation. Because of this, the Super will never occur unless the fierce connects because the Super will cancel the remaining frames of that attack, which won't happen if the attack doesn't connect. You can't call this a confirm exactly, but using a 2-in-1 combo (like crouching medium kick canceled into hadouken) for footsies instead (in this matchup, long range footsies).

[@GardioxNebilim]

astounding video quality man! good stuff

[@tazer95]

I get it. It's spacing special attacks with punches and kicks to react to different situations. Awesome

[@Rotsch006]

@vnano what i get watching this... to put it simple, when you attack 2 things happens: you hit or you get blocked hit confirm is knowing when you hit, so you can do combos, and not to do them when you are blocked or you'll get countered. so... you must do small jabs to link combos, if you hit, you go for a big combo, if blocked you do something else. the 0:35 example shows this perfectly

[@Trunks47r786]

these are some awesome tutorials. I'm impressed

[@Zero1Zero1]

@vnano Hit confirm is basically doing a couple of light attacks before something else (eg a dragon punch). If you see them block the two light attacks, throw them instead. If you notice the light attacks are connecting, then cancel into special, super or whatever.

[@Silmerano]

I have heard this term, but wasn't sure what it meant. Now I find out and it's something I already do.

[@Anfmethodjor]

the video quality is outstanding.

[@darksidehavok]

to any1 who still doesn't get what hit confirmation is basically u use normals as the start of or continuance of your combo, keeping in mind that u are looking 2 see if they are hitting your opponent. if they are hitting then u continue with more attacks. if they are blocking then u should react accordingly (block, throw, FADC).

[@Celcarion]

Ultima you deserve way more subs mate!

[@Cabazorro0]

man I suck at hit confriming, gotta go pratice this.

[@ghettoshampoo]

@acidglow Your comments here mis-inform. Not every characters best normals are jabs, Abel for instance has some tough links which involve step kick and fierce. Also, simply doing combos with jabs does not make them hit-confirms. Perhaps 3 minutes is not enough, and we should do a 30 minute tutorial instead?

[@LeHeartly]

(cont.) You can, however, confirm off one hit. For instance, you have enough time to confirm into a max punish from a heavy jump-in attack because of the amount of hitstun they inflict. Certain moves on counter hit require you to confirm on the first hit to combo from. An example would be Ken's step kick, which can combo into fierce DP on CH. Dudley's overhead (f+HK) is another move you can confirm from that single hit alone. A key to this is anticipation dramatically heightens reaction speed.

[@SynKyller]

NIIICEEE! You're vids as well as your production is so top notch! keep it up LoF! One day we'll meet up!

[@Jebusjoose]

@vnano I'll explain it to you without using a fancy video: Hit confirming is simply using a hit string to link into special moves, instead of jumping in and using one move to link into a special move. This allows more time to react to your opponent. If your hit string is blocked, you'll be able to react and not continue into your special move (where you'll be punished). If you didn't hit confirm, you'd throw out a random blocked, punishable special.

[@jettmanas]

Good info. I'm applying this to SFV & other games. Never played SF4.

[@blackhairedgoon8218]

jettmanas Should probably play a better game, SFV is trash

[@metallicaband]

Simple and very helpful, great job. Looking forward to more of these videos =)

[@k3ntris]

@JagerXIII It's a kara-ultra. You basically do an ex dash punch and as soon as you absorb the first hit, input the ultra and it'll activate the ultra.

[@T-Rexed]

Thanks this will really help me alot play as i am not very good at predicting what my oppenent does next.

[@daric_]

Thanks for the vid. I find that hit confirming with Houten is a bit difficult since I can do short x3 or jab x3, for example, but it doesn't really combo easily into a hadouken or palm. I'm still trying to work this out.

[@sheeplols]

Splendid! Marvelous!

[@LeviathanCove]

good advice, hit confirms i think are easy to overlook for beginners (ie. me).

[@Ktnmoo]

Thanks for the explanation lordofultima, it was very helpful! :]

[@Amershot]

Beautiful editing.

[@Nitiiii11]

love your vids, keep up the good work!

[@protodevilin]

@hxzxxl They both do the same intial attack (Demon Flip into dive kick), but the guy on the right follows up by hit-confirming a few crouching jabs, BEFORE finishing up with Tatsu > Shoryuken. The guy on the left instead goes for a standing HP > Tatsu > Shoryuken, which does more damage, but is not as safe and could be punished if blocked.

[@Merknilash]

this is a fantastic video man

[@kyraxx]

Thanks for this LordOfUltima.

[@delivrex]

Thanks for the demonstration.

[@graaena]

Wonderful, quick and simple! Thanks! :)

[@HouseBauer]

Excellent job on this.

[@ghettoshampoo]

I use a Madcatz TE Fightstick. It's the 360 model, but it obviously works on PC as well, which is what I record my tutorials on.

[@Jacob.Streiff]

i have a contribution to make... the only time you would hit confirm after an opponent has for example whiffed a heavy shoryuken (as shown in your video) is when using a charge chartacter. you may need to hit confirm to give yourself time for a charge.... example, balrog is standing and blockeds a shoryuken near the end of the round, he would then need to crouching jab jab short (to load the down charge) headbutt > ultra

[@Xmanonly]

@Ghetto Shampoo Hey.. been trying to download the speed dry manglehead song, but to no avail. Do you happen to have a link I could use to download if you still have it. Thanks.

[@ghettoshampoo]

It was in a parkour/freerunning documentary in 2005 called Jump Britain, which had a soundtrack that came with it, by Thomas Beach & Ian Masterson. Not sure if it's available digitally anymore, but it was released on iTunes way back then. you might be able to track down a copy of the Jump Britain DVD, which had the soundtrack as a bonus. Good luck and let me know if you find out anything.

[@jamduke]

@vnano If you hit, then you don't go straight into a risky attack (which might be more powerful), instead you use a less risky attack which still combos. This gives you more time to think and see his reaction: if he blocks it, you can still run away before he counterattacks, but if he isn't blocking it, you're free to continue comboing him...

[@ghettoshampoo]

@iam7617115 Yeah I couldn't really go in depth with this since it was three minutes but, start-up invincibility on the ultra and other moves play a large part in this being punished. I still use block strings with fireballs, but I was just demonstrating that they aren't true block strings, and if you become predictable, they can use an invincible move to go through the fireball.

[@Textrosity]

6 and more in the future. That is the number of people who didn't hit confirm and got punished. Hard.

[@ghettoshampoo]

@goldenbalz Option Selects are definitely on the menu, way ahead of you. Damage scales back in percentages, the more hits added to larger percentage of scaling, thus starting off with multiple light attacks make the following special moves do less damage and nerf the combo.

[@Gawernator]

beautiful.

[@Lahtinen87]

Really informative video, thanks!

[@irpacynot]

Such a helpful video for a noob like me. Thanks a million!

[@patpatparuupat]

wow these are great explanations thanks

[@jpdstan]

great explanation, thanks!

[@halonight0]

makes sense, it kinda made it it more easy for me to understand wuht im doing lol thanks for uploading!

[@M0HAK0]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! wow that makes alot of sense. i really need to use this for my chunli and C viper sense i wanna be able to use 3 more people besides ryu thank you so much im subscribing to your vids. :)

[@ghettoshampoo]

@iraqisarmad For cross-up air fireball? You use Jab (Light Punch). Any other punch fireball will not hit them at all. If you're talking about hit-confirming or in general...well. Light attacks do less damage, but come out faster and are safer on block as a result.

[@auron570]

thank you lord of ultima!

[@xIncubusLeox]

Should make more fof these videos.

[@Crestache]

Dude. This vid helped. Thanks man!

[@Nessolfte]

Awesome video

[@LiangHuBBB]

You are awesome. 5/5

[@wiseguy310]

great vids bro need some 3 minute funamentals.

[@MaxKanisha]

He buffered the super after throwing out the crouch fierce. At that range, you can only hit Dhalsim's limbs, so it's safe to buffer the super. If the crouch fierce hits, it will cancel into super. If not, then you'll just whiff a crouch fierce.

[@reyco1987]

good stuff man. this is going to help out a lot...of course its not like im a huge sf enthusiast though...

[@thoraxe5000]

@Li1190 Yes but also because it doesn't have a lot of recovery time and it can't be punished very easily if blocked.

[@Zero1Zero1]

@Schweinsedge Ok, well the thing is I only play Super Turbo, and there isn't much in the way of hit confirms there aside from mostly light attacks as the stronger ones push the characters out of range, or happen so fast that it's hard to confirm (ST is a lot faster than 3S). That and the combo engine isn't as lenient as SF3 or SF4, so you are also limited in that respect (hit confirms with light attacks in ST require special cancels where in other games you just link the super after the normal)

[@ghettoshampoo]

@lxoquendo For cross-up fireball, I just jump, then do fireball. You can use tigerknee shortcuts as well, but I find them not as precise. D, DF, F, UF, F + PUNCH The Cross-up Tatsu is hard to say, just practice man. All about feeling.

[@tungha7509]

I can only hit confirm after 3 hits, i want to be able to hit confirm off 2 hits since i main e.ryu. cr.mk>hadoken fadc bnb combo. But i'm unable to hit confirm the cr.mk>hadoken. Any tips? Please help T.T

[@skiie]

I will say your taste in music is good.

[@dangerboy123]

love your videos and your akuma. if you have xbox live id love to get a session in to see where I can improve my game.

[@beachcomba]

very imformative video!

[@marsh6486]

your awesome man. I

[@ghettoshampoo]

There's nothing to elaborate on, if your tatsu doesn't come out the jabs are too fast, if the jabs don't combo then the jabs are too slow.

[@Sosozanyway]

@CTmetaCT Only from his ground l.tatsu, you can sweep after an air tatsu on anyone.

[@lordyrich]

Nice video thanks! would this explain why gouken is a slightly mid- lower tier. because he cant really link his light normals to anything other then other normals.

[@MastersF3]

@iam7617115 if there are enough frames inbetween to start up an ultra then yes (invincibility frames play into this also)

[@AdAce21]

nice explanation

[@danieliturrino7381]

I can't even link my hits without them being blocked, even if they weren't blocked within like the first 2 hits. Do I have to press attacks at the perfect intervals?

[@JoeBlunt]

great videos!

[@gfxayrton]

great video!!!

[@ghettoshampoo]

@gl600fb Actually, I made this video specifically for the youtube scrubs like you gl600fb! Feel privileged.

[@ghettoshampoo]

@dhocke You're chaining them and not linking. The jabs are easy to mess up if you don't have a rhythm for them, the last jab in a string before the LK tatsu needs to be linked, so you probably have to slow it down a bit.

[@katamari84]

very informative

[@toge64]

good video for the beginner.

[@ShadowFiendIsHere]

@Otacon237 yeah man took the words right outta my mouth.

[@mrtekbunny]

brutal. i need to stop smoking weed when i play fighters. altho this has kinda helped me in mvc3. yay amaterasu.

[@green7light]

good stuff dude

[@ghettoshampoo]

@Didiplouff Adobe After Effects CS4 and Sony Vegas Pro 8

[@JagerXIII]

This totally helped me improve my game, just one noobish question.. How did you do that tech to ultra with balrog? O.O

[@Daniel_Montenegro]

Perfect video! ty!

[@pinoymonkey]

Thank God for Plinking. :)