Have you ever noticed how your character takes a little stutter step before a dash comes out? Your opponent did. When someone spies these movements before an animation begins, this is called "telegraphing." Opponents can see you "winding up" and anticipate a dash coming. In short, slow inputs let your opponent see what you are doing before it happens.
Inputting a dash on a traditional joystick lever or DPad will always have one small step before the move comes out. This amount of time between tapping Forward-Forward or Back-Back is the amount of extra frames given to your opponent to react to. And in a competitive environment every frame counts.
Hit Box players are able to dash near-instantly. It is naturally quicker to tap the same direction twice with one finger, but there are additional arcade-button techniques that will lower your dash motion to as low as 3 frames! With that being said, let us not give our opponents any extra information we do not want them by speeding up our inputs. Like all instant techniques, perfection takes practice and knowledge. But with your Hit Box you have the tools, and I am going to give you the knowledge. This is a guide on dashing in Street Fighter 6.
Dashing as We Know It
(release)
Forward
Instant Double Tap Dash
Neutral - After sliding the button springs to Neutral.
Forward - Slide your Index Finger through same button.
The Double Tap technique was originally used on joysticks for attack buttons in combo links to help ensure that a button was not pressed too soon (or too late). Hit box uses the same Sanwa arcade buttons as its directions, meaning this technique can be used for movement too!
The reason this is so much faster than a "normal" dash is twofold:1. We are using two fingers instead of one.
2. We are sliding through the button, not pressing it downward and back up.
The entire process of lifting our finger upwards and re-pressing again is eliminated. Applying the Slide technique to your fingers helps ensure that your input speed will consistently be only touching the button for a small amount frames. With practice you can be on and off a button in 1 to 2 frames nearly every time.
The Middle Finger is recommended for leading the Double Tap equally on both left and right sides, however, even if this means slightly moving your hand left or right to either side. The reasoning is that it is uses the same hand gesture on both the Forward and Back Dash, as well as the fact that these are your most coordinated fingers.
Despite moving your hand in this motion, why not just Double Tap with your Ring Finger? Throughout my years of teaching and demonstrating at FGC events, I have learned that for most people Double Tapping from the Middle-to-Index Finger is the most natural method. To help explain, let us do a few little experiments:1. Alternate your Middle Finger and Index Finger up and down opposite of each other; now similarly alternate your Ring and Middle Fingers up and down instead. Chances are your Middle + Index Fingers are much more independent of each other.
2. Take your left hand and roll your fingers across a table (like you are bored). Most likely your hand rolled from left -to-right; from Pinky to Index. This is a more natural finger progression than Index-to-Middle for most.
If both of these apply to you, your most natural motion is to lead with your Middle Finger first and then chase behind with your Index Finger:
The last bit of advice for mastery is a small detail for your Index Finger. Watching the video again you will notice how I slightly raise my Index Finger to create artificial distance between the first and second hit. This helps measure out the timing physically to ensure your fingers do not get muddled up together! Remember: you need one frame of Neutral between the button hits.
INSTANT SOCD DASH
SOCD Neutral - Slide through the opposite directional button (Forward + Back).
Forward - After sliding through, the Back button is naturally released from SOCD Neutral. The Forward button is still held to complete the dash on release.
When we hold Left + Right, they cancel each other out.
Releasing the opposite (Back) direction from the SOCD Neutral position is what completes the dashing technique. The SOCD is no longer cleaning inputs and you are returned to holding a direction as normal! This gives us a clean Forward-Neutral-Forward dash input.
Forward -- SOCD Neutral -- Forward
Once mastered, this is a more consistent hand technique than Double Tapping. It is a very similar motion, but by holding the initial Forward direction, SOCD Neutral eliminates the speed required of the first finger finger. There is much less danger of your fingers tripping over each other -- no space for Neutral means no dash. The SOCD dash encourages your second finger to hit the very next frame since we are commanding Neutral as a button press, not a release frame between taps.
When sliding the opposite direction through the Back button (SOCD Neutral), returning to a Forward input happens immediately. The only timing here is how fast you were able to slide through the button.
It may seem awkward at first to coordinate this motion between your Ring and Index fingers, but it becomes thoughtless with experience. It will be safe and easy to finish your dash instantly in 3 to 5 frames (every time). Personally, I aim my dash timing for ~4 or 5 frames for safety so that if I get too excited in a match, I will not accidentally fly through the motion in 2 frames. Yes, you heard right: Your fingers can cleanly move together faster than 60 fps!
Opponents are not used to dashes coming instantly out of nowhere. They might not even realize why their reactions are "slow today." So practice up your favorite technique in this guide and show no mercy with your new superpower: the Instant Dash!
Happy Training,HBDustin