Training mode discussion

I love the training mode in VF5FS but i wanted to ask you guys what are some of the things you do in training mode?

Things that I do in training mode:
*Practice against the CPU
*Record strings and practicing finding holes
*Work on Staggering out of situations

Right now, I feel like I am just too slow at recognizing certain things. Yes I know, game just came out, and I am not going to see everything. But what are some of the things you guys do to improve?

 

I actually spend like 75% of my VF-Time in training mode and I'm enjoying it.

Here are some of the things I do, without getting too specific (but maybe later I will get specific):

* Drills - I especially do this with the record feature. These are usually option select related.

* Fight the AI with Detailed Stats ON. BTW, fighting the AI is not a replacement for fighting humans, but as I explained to a friend--it is incredibly useful because you can at least work on things like guaranteed-punishment, character specific combos (including stance based combos), training yourself to sharply respond to things according to your flowchart, work out various flowchart options, execute setups, whiff-punishing, work on confirming and pre-confirming (what I call the sort of confirm that happens because you see how the attacks will collide--seeing it before it happens), etc... People can whine all they want about the AI, but I find the AI in VF incredibly useful for the above things. It's not a substitute for a human, but it's an incredibly useful tool that comes with the game and has some value.

* De/Reprogramming Myself - Like almost everyone else here, I have a lot of horrible habits. Record feature is great in that it can help you try to de-program or re-program yourself. Pick the move that troubles you because you seem to have no control over your impulse when someone randomly does that attack to you. Mix it with like two other "recorded programs" to keep yourself honest. Use that randomness to keep drilling yourself to do a better response when it does happen. OR BETTER YET, give yourself a set of options and allow yourself to do what you feel is good or even random when this situation pops up--this helps you put "choice" back into your gameplay in that situation. And I find that incredibly important.

* I use the training mode to train some friends, often by having them control player 1 while I take over the Player 2 controls in training mode.

* Practice combos. Test for guarantees.

* Train against common situations.

* Test my sequences against myself (recorder ftw!).

Anyways, these are all broad, but I'm not kidding when I say 75% of my time is in training mode. I'd say 20% is played offline versus, 3% is used on Special Sparring (which I like actually!), and the remaining 2% is probably online (I will play more online later but right now I don't feel the need as my area has enough offline play (well, you can never get enough offline play) and the training mode in the game gives me a lot of what I really want outside of online play actually.

But I will play more online later ^_^

Anyhow, wonderful training mode stuff. Also not sure if this thread will get moved to Console section