Let's start off by discussing what movement is, what "good movement" means and how to improve your movement to get an advantage over your enemies.

Movement in Counter-Strike can mean a lot of things, whether it's walking, running, jumping, strafing, counter-strafing, bunny hopping, crouch jumping, ladder-strafing, surfing or run-boosting. In this topic we'll discuss every single one of these mechanics and how to use them to gain advantage.

Walking, running and jumping

Walking, running and jumping are basic movements in Counter-Strike that every player should know how to do. They are basic techniques and a cornerstone to everything else that you do in Counter-Strike. How do I use these effectively to gain an advantage over my enemies? It depends on a lot of different equations; for example, is the situation 1vX or are there more players alive?

When does walking come handy?

In 1vX situations you want to get the most out of your movement by not letting enemies know where you are until it's too late for them to react properly. This is when walking comes in handy: you move silently and it works in your advantage because enemies can't hear you when you sneak around them. You can also scout for opportunities to go forward towards the bombsite by gaining info yourself, moving silently and checking if you can spot the enemy. (Default-key to walk is left shift)

Okay then, when does running come handy?

Let's look at it from this view. You're playing Dust 2 and you're in the middle with bomb as terrorist, and you see from the mini map - or get info - that the last counter-terrorist is in A site. At this point you should start rushing to the B-site as fast as you can. This way you will gain advantage over the counter-terrorist because he has to make a decision to either commit to the site or save his gear.

Let's get more in-depth into the concept of "Good movement" and what it means

Generally it can be said that a player with good movement uses the map, the environment around him and the game mechanics to gain advantage over his enemies. There are quite a few game mechanics you can use to gain an advantage over others. Below you'll see a complete list of movements you can do in-game, how to practice them and eventually master them.

Strafing and Counter-strafing

Strafing means moving in one direction, stopping for a very brief second (0.5), taking your shots and moving to the other way. Excellent way to peek a corner for example. Counter-strafing on the other hand means moving one way, then pressing the opposite direction briefly to halt any movement and taking your shots after stopping completely. This should be used as a repeated action. You should change the position where you'll stop and shoot, thus making your movement unpredictable. You can practice this in deathmatch-servers or especially at the beginning against bots that you've stopped using bot_stop 1 command in your own offline server. Never walk and counter-strafe or you'll get killed in a second.

Strafe jumping

Strafe jumping means pressing the same direction key you're moving your mouse at to gain speed while being mid-air. For example to strafe jump left you need to hold A (default for +left) while moving your mouse to the left.
Strafe jumping right, you'll need to hold D (default for +right) while moving your mouse to the right. (Important! Do not press W {default for +forward} while strafe jumping, or it will ruin your strafe jump completely).

Bunny hopping

Bunny hopping means jumping repeatedly while using strafe jumping technique to gain and hold the maximum speed of 300 units per second in order to move faster from one location to another instead of running. This is by far the hardest movement technique in counter-strike and one which you need to spend countless hours practicing and you still will fail from time to time. You can't consistently bunny hop throughout the map, it is impossible to do without scripts or cheats. However, you can bunny hop well enough to gain advantage over enemies. Do not use scripts or cheats because they can - and eventually will - get you banned. Some hints on how to make bunny hopping easier: Bind jumping into your mouse wheel. You can bind it by typing Bind mwheelup "+jump" or Bind mwheeldown "+jump" in to your developer console. You can also practice this by joining climb-servers or bunny hop servers. Be warned; most of them have automatic bunny hopping enabled which will ruin your practice.

Crouch jumping

Crouch jumping means you crouch (default key left control) before you jump, thus making yourself jump higher. This can be learned really quickly since all you really need to do is crouch right before you jump. Why is it useful? Some places will require you to crouch jump in order to get there - for example some boxes around the maps of CS:GO. This can also mean crouching while mid-air, to make yourself jump longer and higher. One example of a jump that uses this technique is Silo-jump in de_nuke. You can practice this by joining climb-servers or bunny hop servers. Usually there are several different parts where you need to master crouch jumping.

Ladder strafing

Ladder strafing means using the strafing technique while climbing up ladders. How to do this is by looking up and a bit to the left or right, pressing W and A/D at same time in order to move faster up the ladders. This is easy to master and will be useful whenever you need to climb ladders fast. I personally find it easiest to look a tad bit to the left and up while holding W+D.

Surfing

Surfing means sliding against a wall, thus making you move silently and going faster than you normally would be able to. Surfing is hard at the beginning, but once you get used to how it’s done, it’s quite simple. All you have to do is hold your left or right button, whichever is towards the wall, and slide against it. The wall can’t be straight, it needs to be inclined a little. You can use this technique in the current competitive map-pool, most notably in de_overpass around the B-site.

Run-boosting

Run-boosting means running on top of your teammate, and jumping. Game mechanic allows you to jump super-high and super-long using this technique. It is extremely difficult to time properly, but when executed correctly, you can boost to locations you normally wouldn’t be able to.

Crab-walking and shooting

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive you can crouch, move and shoot at the same time while being almost as accurate as you would when standing still. Most notable weapons to use this are AWP, SSG 08 and auto snipers. When scoped in, you can crab-walk and you're dead-accurate whilst doing so. This might give you an small advantage over your not-so-friendly enemy holding an angle as he won't be expecting it, and is probably aiming at your body- or head-level.

Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed and happy practicing everyone!

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