Dominate the air?

I’ve been playing around with T. Hawk a lot lately (in my never-ending search to find a main). I’m just wondering what the general idea is when it comes to the air? I know Zangief is the protector of Russia’s skies, but is T. Hawk the one attacking them? I ask this because I’ve found that a good chunk of my play style with Hawk revolves around the air. I’ve noticed that one of my first goals in a match is to establish some sort of dominance from above, whether its punishing a move with a Condor Dive, hitting a cross-up, or even a good few empty (but safe) jumps, just to try to get my opponent thinking. Is that going to be a bad idea in the long run, or is that a perfectly acceptable strategy with the Hawk man in most cases? I’ve noticed it’s a bad idea to work that way against Blanka, and taking on shotos require a bit smarter of work. But is trying to dominate the air early on a good idea or a bad idea?

I can give you one tip to this.
Every opponent/character must played different.
It’s different to play against Ryu or Rose or Guile.Because one thing about these characters is that they have different recovery to their projectiles.
Most unsafe Rose (you can actually do a CD for free) and most safe Guile’s that you must almost forget CD as a move to hit him it takes a lot of risk against Guile.
It’s different to play against Blanka or Dhalsim but in a way they have some things in common.
And that is that they both have some abusable moves from afar to hit you and keep hold you in distance.
Generally experience is the key word here.
You must play with many characters to see how you should move with T.Hawk and actually how to close your distance safely because T.Hawk must get in for damage and setups.Like he always did.
As an advise try to play offline matches and not online because even with the slightest lag you can’t see how you punish things or how to react in some in time.
Offline you will see perfectly how the frames should be in perfect timing and when you know that you can continue to make your style.

I’m no T. Hawk mainer but I’ve fought some and they all have some rather interesting strategies. It’s true, T. Hawk does control the air to a degree because most players expect a condor dive that they can block and punish while pushing you away because it seems to be the most common way to move towards your opponent. However, you shouldn’t forget the importance of simply walking towards your opponent and intimidating them while focusing their fireballs and getting closer. T. Hawk has huge range even when he’s standing (roundhouse, sweeps to inch closer etc.). His command throw also has an exceptional reach. If you use the jab version he’ll stay nice and close and you can play a crossup game with your enemy or the old down+mp attack in the air that doesn’t hit standing opponents = free throw again trick_^)

I’ve also met T. Hawk players that neutral jump and wait for their opponent to come to them. T. Hawk does have some control over the air because it’s not always easy to hit him before he condor dives and it’s not too wise to get to close on the ground because he can block in time and counter with a command throw.

A third piece of advice I might have to offer is to build bar. Use your command throws to gain an ex condor spire if you have to just so it’ll help you move through projectiles or break focus if you can condition your opponent into doing so. Condor spire also sets up the simplest guessing game: command throw vs tomahawk buster. Back dashes typically can’t get away from the tomahawk buster and if they throw a jab you usually end up throwing them first because the timing is a little tighter for them. Or just do nothing and freak them the hell out.

Everyone plays different but I’m sure you’ll find your style. Best of luck out there.

you can use condor dive to bait AA normals from your opponent and activate it late to punish. Eventually, they’ll start blocking expecting the dive and you get super empty jump fighter 4 for free 720. However, dive gets beat by TONS of stuff so i would advise you to use it exceedingly sparingly. short dive after lp spd mixup can be good, correctly spaced dive after hp spd to bait reversal can work, and you can sometimes beat dive kicks and low pokes with a short dive when up close or if you expect a backdash on your opponent’s wakeup.

because hawk’s jump takes him into the stratosphere, though, it is quite a liability for him for him to up there against solid opponents. stay on the ground. walk forward menacingly. push your opponent to the corner and stay just outside the range of their biggest poke. at this range most people are super uncomfortable and if they jump it’s a free close st.mp for aa or dp/u2. if they poke, it’s a free counter poke or lp spd. the more i play hawk (though i’m sorta taking a break from ssf4 right now) the more i realize that he just needs to be annoying and imposing most of the time to win.

All i see is a wall of text which can be easily explained in three lines.
T.Hawk does not dominate anything.
He has a bunch of Ghetto Anti Airs and Air to Airs that somehow work for him at times and sometimes are utter garbage.

Yup. The only time I ever win in air to air is if I catch someone jumping while doing d.mp or if I read a jump on wakeup.

Hawks “True” anti airs:
Far Roundhouse
DP
Cr. Feirce

Hawks Ghetto Anti Airs
Cl. MP
Thust Peak
Cl. RndHouse
Close LK
Fcking standing Jab

This ghetto anti airs are almost better than his try anti airs tbh.

I find cl.mp works a LOT better than sr.fierce tbh.

I love close medium punch.

I like Cr. Feirce a lot though.

Close medium punch is good against retards to. you know youve seen this

Ryu: Jump in Roundhouse, Lp Lp EMPTY JUMP

so funny

Hahaha, yeah.