Defense is one of the most important things to learn when starting out in fighting games, as it is one of the hardest things to learn and adapt to. Although starting out it may seem as simple as just holding down back or holding down the block button, there is far more to it. Using Street Fighter 4 as a template, we will discuss what it truly means to defend and how you should go about doing it.
The first thing you should take into consideration is High attacks, Middle attacks, and Low attacks. These are the three directions that an aggressor can make on you while you are on the defense. High attacks can hit you when you are blocking while crouching, middle attacks can be blocked while either crouching or standing, and low attacks can hit you while you are standing. This is the most basic attack mix-up presented to you when you are on the defense and as such should be the foremost thing on your mind when in a defensive situation. For example let’s say that Ryu has you backed into a corner and has dashed in, from this position he has access to all three ranges in the form of any of his crouching attacks for his low , his toward strong button for his overhead, and any standing normal for a medium attack. Ryu can combo from his low or medium attacks however in most situations he cannot from his overhead as such he is more likely to go for low or medium, so your priority should be to block while crouching; however he may predict your choice and opt for the overhead to open you up and continue his pressure.
You can see how even this basic mix-up can become hard to adapt to, however there is still plenty of other options available to Ryu besides this high-low mix-up. When the aggressor is on you he can opt for a throw instead of a move to bypass your blocking and establish pressure as you are waking up. However when on the defense you can throw tech to break the throw and give yourself some room to maybe establish your own offensive, so how do you do this while blocking?
In SSF4 you can hit the throw tech during a string of attack without being punished by having a normal come out. For example when your press LP +LK while crouch blocking you will either see a jab or a short come out instead of a throw attempt, but if your opponent tries to throw you and you do this instead of the jab or short the throw tech will come out and break your opponents throw. This is the most basic form of a “option-select” which is when you press a series of buttons that do multiple things and the game chooses the best thing in that situation for you. So while Ryu is inputting a block string you are able to hit the throw tech over and over with no repercussions until Ryu attempts a throw, which you then throw tech!
So now you have the perfect defense right? The Ryu is on the offensive again, and he tries something a bit different. Ryu starts with cr. Mp and then another cr. Mp and you are mashing out the throw tech in preparation for the throw, but your short comes out and you get hit with the cr.Mp and he combos from it! What happened? What the Ryu performed was a basic frame trap. A frame trap is a series of moves that leave just enough space in-between them to not be considered a real block string. As such when someone is pressing buttons during a frame trap that move will come out instead the player continuing to block, and they will get hit. Frame traps are the reason you cannot repeatedly press throw tech during your block and is another option you must consider while on the defensive. You now have five different things you must worry about while on the defensive, and this is just the beginning.
This is just scratching the surface of proper defense. The next article will cover the properties of the cross-up and the dreaded vortex as well as answers to get out of aggressive situations.
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