Gate Tutorial
Riding the gate. For example you are Ryu and you want to throw a fireball.
When you do the Quarter Circle forward motion(236 or 214 on your keyboard number pad is a quarter circle forward motion depending on which side of the screen you are for future reference. Number's are how the community denote motion inputs) for fireball you don't want to be riding up against the gate restriction for the quarter circle forward motion because it wastes execution time. The Gate restriction = The Black outline on all of the gates
Your Te2+ Joystick(The actual ball joystick part of the controller) comes with a square gate rectrictor by default which you can see on the far right.
The other popular option for fighting games is the Octagonal gate because it feels more natural when you are doing a 236 motion(Or any 'circular' motion) for example.
Circle Gates are rarely used except in old school American arcade games.
The square gates have an equal distribution throughout their zones so it should always take the same amount of pressure on the joystick to move regardless of what direction you are moving. In comparison to an Octagonal gate for example where if you are blocking down at an angle the space to block down and back(6%) is lower than everything else thus you might be only crouching down into the 14% area instead of specifically blocking down and back like with the corner of the square gate restrictor(11%).
Gate tutorial End...
The only time the stick should come into contact with the wall of the gate restrictor is when your are blocking, crouching, jumping, moving(Forward or Backwards), or you are using a charge character.
The point is that when you are performing a special move you don't want to be going so far to the point that the joystick is touching the wall of the gate restrictor because it is wasted effort. It'll feel very awkward at first and you'll want to do all your special moves where you are riding the wall of the gate restrictor, especially since a square doesn't lend itself to feeling as natural when you are trying to do Circular motions(especially Shoryuken motions). Something as small as this however can make your execution skill jump levels.
I think everyone starts out with a side that they prefer(I still love being on the Player 1 side). It's the whole left brain/right brain thing. Make sure that you practice equally on both even with the awkward feeling.
