Tips on defending?

#1

One of the things I havent overcome yet is playing on the defensive. I get beatsed on alot mainly cause I’m getting hit too damn much/often when I could be preventing it. I’m a Ken user. My current habits are:

-Trying to predict and parry when I wake up
-Turtling briefly only after a failed attack or rushdown attempt
-Bouncing fowards and backwards almost all the time when not cornered
-Dashing up to someone after I knock them down, and try to throw out something unpredicted, which usually ends up in me getting parried > hit. I usually prance around back and forth and throw out a UOH, back+mk, or c.lp into a throw
-Turtling in a corner, then throwing out an SRK when I see a chance, or try to parry > attack

Right track, or should I stop some of this?

#2

-Trying to predict and parry when I wake up

vs most characters you will probably play (mid-top tier), the best option is to block on wake up. Just learn to react quickly to highs and lows. after a failed wake up attack attempt, most people will somewhat auto-pilot into a rushdown, where habits will more likely to be noticed. Parry once you are confident in what your opponent will do.

-Bouncing fowards and backwards almost all the time when not cornered

When you dash, you can’t block. Dash when you need to, but otherwise… walk

-Dashing up to someone after I knock them down, and try to throw out something unpredicted, which usually ends up in me getting parried > hit. I usually prance around back and forth and throw out a UOH, back+mk, or c.lp into a throw

c.lk and s.mp (close) is your bread and butter on wake up. Those other ones you are doing are more risky, and more prone to blocks and parries. Tick throwing is ok. you can just go straight into throws too. You don’t always have to rush down a knocked down opponent. Sometimes start from a little distance, like maximum c.mk range.

-Turtling in a corner, then throwing out an SRK when I see a chance, or try to parry > attack

Although your best option in the corner is to block, Ken is very good at fighting his way out of the corner. Your best option is probably to punish something with a c.mk x SAIII.

#3

In general make sure there is meaning to when you are dashing. Don’t just dash back and forth for the sake of looking active. If you want to look like you are doing stuff, throw out random jabs and stuff, but dashing makes you extremely vulnerable.

#4

just block low.

#5

you can whiff close stand mp before they get up and walk back at the last sec, normally they’ll try to throw or DP so you can punish.

Before you start attacking them freely on their wakeup, you need to make them believe its smarter to block then Shoryu/Super against you, and then you mix-up/throw.

About defending, watch some match vids of usual mix-up patterns and

here’s a tip:It’s better to get thrown than eating a combo into super.

#6

turtleing - intead of doing this you could combo a heck of alot instead.

Bouncing - noob? dont bouce, you just asking to get hit?

dont bother trying to parry when you get up, just block and wait for an oppotunity

#7

dash forward backward, only if you can cross under an opponent or he is knocked down at a distance.
Dont bounce fullstop, unless your chun and me,
Stay on the ground get used to footsies
on wakeup, SGGK, forward then LP+LK OR down,back = BLOCK

block block block block block

#8

So true. I would give you rep if I had premium or the ability to steal it off someone.

#9

[media=youtube]3J5ynQmUioQ[/media]

Small match of me and some guy on XBL. Shows my usual habits.

#10

Why? Your rep would be meaningless since you’re showing red by a good margin.

As for a tip on defending, don’t srk.

#11

One round was enough, here are your MAJOR problems.

A- why do you down.HK so close to an opponent, it takes ages to come out and if blocked you will still get punished, slow slow move, use it from far out if you opponent is standing.
[in exchange you should use mk to poke, if youre close you can MK then SRK for combo ? etc etc]

C- at the start when oro jumped infron of you, you were still HK ing? either throw, or LP SRK

D- what is with the RANDOM SA3 ? without hit confirm? d.mk sa3

you need to watch alot alot alot alot alot of videos, see what the pros do.
practice doing hit confirms, either block down, or srk or wake up, learn kara srk,
learn what moves link to what, uoh etc etc alot to learn here.

#12

He doesn’t need to watch videos. He needs to play more, and against people that won’t encourage those habits.

Without proper guidance, he won’t understand why the ‘pros’ do what they do anyway. Just stick to basics and learn the game more.

Learning kara-srk won’t help him much. He should focus most of his efforts on the simple hit confirms, like MP -> HP xx Fireball xx Shippu, c.LK -> c.LP -> c.LK xx Shippu, and b+MK link to Shippu. If he can do those three, he suddenly has all the wakeup options he’ll need:

  1. Nothing/Block/Bait-Parry
  2. Throw
  3. Tick throw
  4. High mixup
  5. Low mixup
  6. Overhead mixup

If he can mix in c.MP -> Shippu link into his game, then he’ll suddenly have a poking game against most characters.

But the most important piece of advice I can throw out is that knowing how to block effectively is more important than teching. When you are learning how to play, just pretend that parrying doesn’t exist outside of snuffing fireballs and stuff. Don’t try to bait moves into your parries, just block and learn that way. Parrying comes later.

c.HK is a great move, but it’s slow and can be reversal supered by a lot of characters. It’s best used at max range on meterless characters with slow wakeup animations so you can close the gap and force them into your mixups. Chun is a prime example. Sweep that bitch and get in her in the corner.

#13

Ok there faggot. Next time you feel like posting some garbage that doesn’t even involve you, ask yourself this. Am I a douche bag and should I be typing this? If the answer is yes, no, or maybe, STFU.

#14

Thanks for the tips guys. :slight_smile:

For reference, another video. Vs Same Oro.

#15

  • Your first instinct in a lot of situations seems to be to sweep. STOP DOING IT.

  • CONFIRM your combos. Stop doing close s.MP cancelled to random shoryu, and stop doing c.MK cancelled to random shoryu.

  • Sweeping Oro is hard because of his s.MK.

  • You dash too much. A lot of times you get hit because you try to dash in and you just get plowed. Start walking.

  • In the first round or so, every time you get knocked down you eat meaties. That means you’re either trying to parry or you just aren’t blocking. BLOCK MORE.

#16

Thanks. I’m just gonna keep on playing. Eventually I’ll pick it up.

#17

if youre going to be hitting someone high on wakeup and youre right next to them i usually always do strong fierce because if you see it hit then you can just roll the hadou and shippu out and land a super

#18

I’m a fan of the parry-everything strategy.

#19

ROFL that Oro makes me hurt inside… he can’t even chicken combo consistently!

Yeah dude, stop sweeping… and NEVER do HP shoryu… LP shoryu is Ken’s best friend… that shit’s like the game’s CapCom assist hahaha.

#20

Use hp shoryu against people that are jumping in on you but thats the only time u should really use it