With my patented 3 way testing technique of course. After each knockdown you do one of the following options until one hits and if it does you’ll get an idea of if they are scared to press buttons or if you need to do something else like grab/shimmy to open them up. NOTE: People tend to have a tendency to react in a way they feel most comfortable with at first, however people do adapt so it’s not full proof that the opponent will do the same thing every time. That is why you will sometimes need to mix the options up not only to figure your opponent out but to keep them guessing as well.
- After successfully landing a knockdown in which you can do a meaty (ie after spiral arrow) do:
meaty st lk, cr lp, st lp, cr mp
Did they block? Yes. Ok this means the opponent is either just blocking or doing delayed tech or delayed normals. This is more likely a cautious opponent that is waiting for the right time to strike. They tend to play like turtles so you have to force them to hit buttons by mixing in grabs or doing shimmies to bait them to whiff something you can punish. These are the harder opponents for Cammy to beat.
Did they get hit at any point in the string? Yes. This means they like to hit buttons on wake up or mash jab or some other button in between your block strings. This is more likely an anxious opponent. One that does not like to wait or take pressure. They are more likely to do something random or mash out DPs in the middle of strings so use that to your advantage. These are the easier opponents for Cammy to beat.
- After successfully landing a knockdown in which you can do a meaty (ie after spiral arrow) do:
st lk - tic grab:
Did they tech? Yes. Ok this means the opponent is doing delayed techs so they are susceptible to shimmies. Do that on the next knockdown so you can whiff punish their grab.
Did they get grabbed? Yes. Ok this means they are either bad at teching or they are scared to grab because they don’t want to get shimmied. In most cases it’s the latter. Against these opponents you will need to grab them a lot until they finally give in and start teching. Once they do you can start going for shimmies instead. NOTE Shimmies tend to be more effective when the opponent is near stun or death so keep that in mind.
Did they hit you out with a 3 frame normal? Yes. This means they are either mashing jab or they have a good read on you going for tic grabs. In either case if they do hit you out of this go back to doing option 1 to punish them for attempting to hit you after a st lk into throw.
- After successfully landing a knockdown in which you can do a meaty (ie after spiral arrow) do:
meaty st lk, cr lk, cr lp
Did they block? Yes. This means the opponent is not doing anything on their wake up but holding down back and possibly doing delayed tech/normals. Just like with option 1 this opponent is more cautious or too scared to do anything on their wake up. Mixing in grabs and shimmies will help in opening this opponent up.
Did they get hit by the cr lk? Yes. This means the opponent is trying to walk away from you so they don’t have to deal with your block strings or shimmy attempts. Make sure you learn to hit confirm the cr lk, cr lp into spiral arrow so that you can get another knockdown to continue your pressure. This opponent is scared of Cammy’s pressure game, so they are more than likely to walk themselves into the corner. Use this to your advantage and slowly work them back while keeping your eye out for forward dashes or jumps when they start getting close to the corner and punish them for it.
That’s the basic 3 tests you can do to see what type of opponent you are facing as far as if they like to mash buttons, block or walk back. Hope this helps.