CS2 Movement Guide: Counter-Strafing, Peeks and Jumping (2026)

Good aim in CS2 starts with your feet. A bullet fired while you're still moving goes somewhere you didn't aim, and a peek with the wrong timing gets you killed before you've seen the enemy. Movement has also changed more than anything else in CS2 since launch: Valve banned automated counter-strafing in 2024, rebuilt jumping on subtick timing in January 2026 and replaced the player animations in April 2026. This guide covers counter-strafing, what's allowed and what gets you kicked, how fast each weapon lets you run, how jumping and bunny hops work now, and a short routine to practise it. Checked 2026-10-25.

Counter-strafing: stop before you shoot

Every weapon is most accurate standing still. When you release a movement key your player slows down over a short time; pressing the opposite key for a moment stops you almost instantly. That's counter-strafing: strafe left to peek, tap right, shoot. Valve doesn't publish inaccuracy figures, but since 23 September 2026 the new dynamic crosshair styles "show you the real weapon spread and inaccuracy", so you can watch the crosshair close as you stop — the crosshair guide explains the styles.

1. Peek with one key.

   Hold A (or D) to move out from cover.

2. Tap the other key.

   Release A and tap D briefly — just long enough to cancel your speed.

3. Shoot one or two bullets.

   Tap or burst; spraying while you start moving again throws the rest away.

4. Strafe back.

   Move into cover and repeat. The rhythm is move – stop – shoot – move.

What Valve banned in August 2024

On 19 August 2024 Valve wrote: "Certain types of movement/shooting input automation such as hardware-assisted counter strafing will now be detected on Valve official servers", with the result being a kick from the match. Its blog post the same day added: "We are no longer going to allow automation (via scripting or hardware) that circumvent these core skills". In practice:

How fast each weapon lets you run

Values from Valve's weapons.vdata (read 2026-10-25) for the weapons in that part of the file; others follow the same rule — the heavier the weapon, the slower you run. Switching to your knife or pistol to rotate is faster than running with a rifle.

Walking (+sprint, Shift by default — CS2's name for the old +speed) makes your footsteps silent at a lower speed, and crouching is slower still but steadies your aim. Neither replaces counter-strafing; they're for moving quietly and holding angles.

Jumping and bunny hops after January 2026

Valve's 21 January 2026 update was the biggest movement change since launch. In its words: "Landing time is now calculated with subtick precision", "Jumping and landing no longer affect stamina.", and "Any jump press within sv_bhop_time_window centered on the landing time … will be treated as a successful bunnyhop.". A follow-up on 22 January 2026 made how fast you're falling when you land affect the landing slow-down as well. What it means for you:

• Consecutive jumps are consistent. No more stamina making the second jump of a combo shorter.
• Bunny hopping is about timing a window, not a tick. A community analysis puts the window at about 7.8125 ms around the landing — tight, and a jump spammed too early is penalised.
• Jump height is consistent anywhere on a map since 28 October 2024.
• Private servers can switch back with sv_legacy_jump.

Every movement change since 2024

1. 19 August 2024Snap Tap-style counter-strafe automation kicks you from Valve servers

   Multi-action binds ignored.

2. 28 October 2024Jump height made consistent anywhere on the map

   cl_showpos 2 shows stamina at take-off.

3. 27 November 2024sv_quantize_movement_input stops analog binds moving you at in-between speeds.
4. 17 September 2025Subtick movement acceleration made independent of frame rate.
5. 21 January 2026Landing timed with subtick precision

   Jumping and landing no longer cost stamina; bunny hops judged by a time window.

6. 1 April 2026Animgraph 2 beta: new player animations, smoother ramps and crouch-jumps.
7. 21 April 2026Camera recoil motion brought closer to CS:GO's — bullet paths unchanged.
8. 23 September 2026New dynamic crosshairs show your real weapon spread while moving.

Smaller fixes matter too: air strafing that gave too much speed was fixed on 29 July 2025, the bunny-hop penalty stopped building up when you weren't jumping on 1 August 2025, and running too fast along walls was fixed on 19 August 2026.

Peeking: wide, shoulder and jiggle

A 10-minute movement routine

1. Two minutes of counter-strafes.

   On any map, strafe and stop between two walls, shooting one bullet at each stop. Watch the dynamic crosshair close.

2. Three minutes of peeks.

   Peek a corner against bots on a practice server and tap the head each time — the practice config sets it up.

3. Three minutes of jumps.

   Jump between two boxes and land on the far one with the post-January-2026 timing.

4. Two minutes walking routes.

   Walk (Shift) your usual rotation and learn where you can run without being heard.

Help with movement and duels

• Peeks and positioning: 1-on-1 coaching — from $18.00 an hour.
• Watch your own peeks: demo analysis.
• Read next: how to improve your aim and subtick explained.