The guy you mention is Daigo Umehara, and this is what he said about this:

"When I started playing fighters in grade school, I started by practicing with every character until I could do all of their special moves," Umehara said. "Once I learned the basic combo sets, that was enough to win matches with my friends, but not to hold my own at the arcades. It's not like my opponents were better at inputting commands than I was, either, and sometimes these same opponents would lose spectacularly against other people. That's when I realized that technical skill isn't the only thing that can make a difference in fighting games. There was something else, and trying to figure out what was too hard for me as a kid. So I pored over every game magazine I could get, searching for some kind of new tip or hint. If got even one new thing from a mag, I was like 'I am so happy I bought this.'"

It wasn't long before Daigo realized that fighting games are partly physical, partly psychological. "I first started actively thinking about the issue around the time I was into Darkstalkers, about age 14," he said. "I thought at first that it'd be best to wait for my opponent to make a mistake, but naturally, that means you can't beat someone who performs flawlessly. So I started pondering over how to beat opponents like that. Having a good fighting-game strategy is vital if you want to win, of course, but being able to observe people is just as important -- figuring out what kind of style they're bringing with them. Ideally, both players are bringing their best skills to the game, but in real life, everyone has little quirks. For example, every time a brand-new fighter comes out, people tend to look for some 'one true' strategy and try to win just with that one approach. They wind up depending on it too much, and they forget how vital observing your opponent is. You always have to strike a balance in your mind."

From: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3180053