[quote]Assume I'm completely new to the genre. I have read up on advice already but I don't feel like I'm getting very far. In short - I know to have no more than three mains, I am well versed in those characters' moves, combos and traversal, and I understand the characters and the mechanics well enough. What I'm struggling with is the whens and the whys. Whens - Like I said, I understand my characters and their moves, I just can't figure out how I know when to use those moves. Like, I know (let's call it) Move A attacks directly above me, so I should use it when my opponent jumps, but aside from that I just don't know when to use each move, and when it's most effective. Whys - I usually lose fights, and I don't know why. Sometimes I win, and I still don't know why. Aside from being able to tell that a player is clearly better than me, I don't know [i]how[/i] or [i]why[/i]. It [i]looks[/i] like they're randomly choosing attacks, except I clearly know that they are not, because if they were it wouldn't be working this well for them. [b][u]Tl;dr[/u][/b] I suck at fighting games. How do I not?[/quote] Practice. Practice. Practice. When: learn by trial and error Why: you need to focus more on being better than your yesterday. It seems that you’re overthinking it. Why and when would you walk? Why and when would you use a car? Why and when would you choose to use a sword or a shield or a gun or a staff or your bare fists? You don’t really think about those things. You just are proficient at them (or not) and you use them as the opportunities present themselves. Just play. Practice tech skills. There’s a fight scene in a Sherlock Holmes movie staring Robert Downey Jr where he breaks down and thinks about all of his moves and when and why [u]in the middle of a fight.[/u] But you never do that in real life. You don’t have time in the middle of a fight to do that. That’s why you practice and train and study before hand. Doing so programs and drills all of that information into your subconscious and your muscle memory so that it all becomes natural.