This is an on-going series where I discuss the thinking involved in Street Fighter that I’ve applied to basketball. If you want to see earlier entries in the series, hit the link: Part 1: Spacing, Part 2: Punishing Mistakes
Resource Management
The goal of Street Fighter is to completely drain your opponent’s health meter before they can do the same to you. You achieve this by attacking your opponent. How you attack your opponent or defend yourself can vary wildly depending on what the health situation is. The easiest health situation to discuss resource management I can think of is when your opponent has a major life lead over you. When your opponent can finish you with one or two hits, you need to play much more conservatively in order to stand a chance of winning. Conversely, if you have a major life lead on your opponent, you may be able to win by “chipping them out” on wake-up with a projectile attack to avoid the risk of eating a last-ditch super move that could turn the tide.
While it is unlikely that you will make your opponent completely collapse of fatigue in basketball, understanding and managing your energy as well as knowing your opponent’s energy level. If you notice your opponent is notably more tired than you, make them work harder. If you’re tired and your opponent still seems to be in good shape, rely more on smarts rather than physical energy to get you through.
You also want to pace yourself so that you don’t run out of gas before the game is over, which is more like EX meters in Street Fighter IV. Do you burn all your energy in one shot during a critical moment in the game or do you pace yourself in a way that you’ll be able to draw smaller bursts of energy throughout? In Street Fighter IV, Dhalsim has a great super move, which you may want to burn in one shot once you’ve built up your meters. On the other hand, you have a character like Rufus, whose more dangerous when he burns his meter in small chunks for EX Messiah Kicks.
As a basketball player, you need to decide how you pace your energy so that you have the best chance of winning. Nothing sucks more than going off to a hot start and then having your opponent come back because you ran out of steam. On the other hand, sometimes you can turn a situation around by putting everything you have into one run. Keeping tabs on how much I have left in the tank is critical to success.
In Third Person 