For many years, I’ve been an avid basketball player. I’ve played in a few leagues, on a few school teams and participated in a few basketball camps. I am by no means the next LeBron James, but I had the skills to make some noise on almost any given local court. Over the last few years though, finding the time to hit the court has been extremely difficult. During my basketball downtime though, I got really into Street Fighter IV on a serious level. I began to really pay attention to the concepts behind the game and how to use them to my advantage.
This year, my life has really settled down and I now regularly play basketball again. While I’ve had to work hard to get back into game shape (I lost 20 lbs and counting since I started playing again in April), and I’ll never have the raw physical talent that I did in my prime, I do have something now that I didn’t have before: Street Fighter knowledge.
Oddly, I’ve been able to apply much of the thinking involved in playing Street Fighter into my thinking of basketball. Has it made me a better player? I think it has. I’m not saying that Kobe Bryant should dust off his E. Honda to get better, but having that parallel helps me see basketball in a different way, allowing me to play the game smarter. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to apply these concepts in a one-on-one basketball situation, because adding in more players will make this more difficult to explain than it should be. I have at least four parts to this series ready to go, with more possibly in the future.
I don’t need to set this up any more. Here is part one of Street Fighter concepts that made me a better basketball player.
SPACING
Where you are in relation to where your opponent is will dictate the tactics both competitors will apply. In simplistic Street Fighter terms, a character like Dhalsim wants to keep his opponent as far away as possible to take advantage of his stretchy limbs and projectile attack. On the other hand, a character like Zangief will want to be as close to his opponent as possible to dish out maximum damage with his powerful attacks and grapple moves. That match-up is very difficult for both opponents, because their spacing comfort zones are completely opposite. In most cases, whoever manages to control the space wins the match.
Great defensive spacing makes it difficult for her to shoot or drive
In basketball, understanding the spacing between you, your opponent and the basket will dictate how you handle situations. If you’re a defender, and your opponent has a great long-range jump shot, you want to be right in their face to prevent them from easily taking that shot. If you’re on offense and have a poor jump shot, you’ll want to close the spacing between you and the basket so you can get a layup in. If the defender is hanging back and not respecting your jump shot, maybe you should take the shot because your defender will be too far away to challenge it.
I was always conscious about spacing in basketball, but thinking behind Street Fighter has helped me heighten my sense of space and how to manipulate it to my advantage.
In Third Person 