Frame data, option selects, safe jumps, and frame traps for a noob? (Ultra Street Fighter IV)

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

Been playing Ultra Street Fighter IV (which is really the first time I’ve ever picked up SF seriously in my life) for like 6 months now and I feel like I’m coming along decently as far as seeing myself make progress. I’m starting to get the hang of the basic concept of comboing, linking, I can plink (not consistently but once I start devoting time to practicing it I can see myself getting it down eventually), starting to get the hang of basic footsies, etc.

Basically I feel like I’m steadily improving little by little but I do want to get as good as I can be and there are some concepts that still are going over my head completely. How much do I have to know about frame data and how do I go about learning what I need to about it? Also the one thing I can’t even understand in my own mind for the life of me is option selects. What I get about it is apparently it’s a way to put in two inputs very fast one after another (almost simultaneously) with a certain timing so that the game engine picks the better move for the given situation based on its own judgement. My question is how exactly (like what is the physical stick motion/button presses) do you option select? Also, I understand the concept of frame traps but when should one break them out in a match? Lastly, I was watching a Yun tutorial on youtube (it was by Tromso TV or something along those lines?) and the guy was going over “safe jumps” but my question is what are safe jumps and what exactly makes them “safe”. Like if I throw a Ryu or a Ken and do a safe jump does it prevent the downed opponent from hitting me with a wake up DP?

I play Yun, Evil Ryu, and Fei Long (probably in that order of priority) atm so if I could get any specific examples using those characters that’d probably make it easier for me to understand. Thanks!

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I’m gonna tackle these as best as I can, but don’t expect a super huge amount of info:

Frame data: really useful theoretically, but frame data is mostly good for creating combos and setups, as well as frame-trapping. The most useful aspect is calculating punishes, however. knowing which moves are unsafe, and by how much, allows you to find optimal punishes. Everything frame data tells you, as far as match-applicable situations go, experience can as well. Don’t sweat it if you can’t really understand frames, because you’ll get the same knowledge through just playing.

option selecting involves masking multiple inputs in one, and depending on the opponent’s actions, one of them comes out. The simplest and most useful OS is the crouch-tech. normally a lk+lp input gets a throw, but because you are crouching, the lk comes out. if the opponent throws you, however, you tech it because you input a throw at the correct time. A more complex one involves sweeping. on wakeup, you hit cr. lp cr. lp+hk. making sure the lp will chain based on timing. If the opponent blocks, two lp will come out because although the hk takes priority over lp, the chain takes priority over the sweep. If the opponent backdashes, however, the second lp cannot chain and the sweep comes out. you can OS pretty much anything if you know how, and they have varying degrees of use. For Yun specifically you can use the dash punch OS instead of sweep to catch backdashes. You can look that up in pretty much any Yun guide.

Break frame traps out when the opponent is crouch-teching. That’s pretty much why frame traps were invented. don’t frame trap if they stand tech.

Safe jumps involve timing a jump attack after a knockdown such that if they block you get free pressure, and if they reversal you land and your move doesn’t come out so you can block. The “safe” part comes from the fact that you cannot get punished. Ryu and Ken have 3 frame DPs that most characters can’t safe jump, but 4 frame and above, go for it.

There are pseudo-safe jumps that involve crossups that hit the reversal from behind, making it whiff if done with reversal timing, but those lose to auto-correct DPs so don’t rely on them too much.

For safe jump examples consult the respective character threads, as I don’t play any of the three at above a basic level.

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I see. I guess the one question I have in regards to your post is about the option select. I’ve actually been crouch teching for a while now but didn’t know that counted as an option select lol. So just to put this in perspective if I wanted to do the wakeup sweep OS you mentioned I would wakeup with a cr lp but when I hit lp I also hit hk? I’m still kinda confused as to what buttons I’m pressing and when I’m supposed to be pressing them for an OS. Also if I wanted to OS with a lunge punch for Yun that gets me a little more confused because that would require a QCF motion and then a punch. So if I wanted to substitute cr hk (sweep) for say fierce/heavy lunge punch how would I do that without an EX lunch punch coming out (I’m ripping my hair out trying to do this in training mode but when I press cr lp and try to press cr lp+heavy lunge as fast as possible the second after I just get ex lunge).

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Ok, so I’ll try to format all of these and explain them for you a little differently than the other guy.

Frame Data: Most importantly it helps you determine the best normals and special moves to use based on their startup and their recovery on hit or block. It has other uses like determining which moves are punishable that don’t seem to be or finding frame specific setups. Obviously there is a lot more to cover.

Frame Traps: Typically use normal’s that recover at a similar but better time than your opponent. For example, a character uses a standing medium punch that allows him +3 frames on block, you will recover 3 frames before your opponent and if after you use a move that is active in 4 frames you will hit the opponent on the first frame they can act. Basically, they have to use something invincible, block or escape by other means or you continue to pressure them.

In essence you offer them a chance to recover and then put something out that limits 80% of their options. Usually the other player perceives an opening because your recoveries are so close. These can be used to punish throw techs as well.

Safe Jumps: Work in a way were the other person has two main options, reversal or block. If they reversal you land and it whiffs or you block it. If they block you are at advantage. Otherwise they get hit.

In general they work like this, you throw them and do something to give you a specific timing you then jump in and attack. They whiff the reversal because of the startup, it takes let’s say 4 frames for a shoryuken to go active, that means you have a 3 frame window to land. If they don’t reversal, they are standing on the first frame (depends on the game) and are forced to block the attack.

Figuring out what safe jumps your character has against all possible reversal attacks is time consuming, so you are better off working with other people’s setups.

Option Selects: This is very complex subject to cover, but the main idea is that you do a series of inputs that, when a certain criteria are met, cause different things to happen.

There are tons of option selects and not all of them are just hitting two buttons.
The easiest one in my opinion to help understand this concept is the DED option select. It works as follows: say you have 7/8ths of a bar of super. You could walk up and crouch medium kick (gaining enough meter) to super them on hit without thinking or confirming it. Or you could use crouch mp which gives just enough meter to super on hit but not enough meter to super on block. Using this option select allows you straight up guess c.mp xx super without any risks attached, so long as you have the proper amount of meter.

As you can see there are more than just buttons involved with option selects.

I’ll explain your Yun example as best I can. You’d do cr.lp, st.lp. the idea here is that in between the two lp’s you do a qcf. It works like this: if the opponent back dashes or reversals, you’ll get a lunge and if they block you get the cr.lp, st.lp chain. The reason being that your cr.lp actually chains into another light normal. So you effectively cancel the last frames of the cr.lp on block and the st.lp comes out. If they back dash the lunge comes out because you actually get the full cr.lp animation, causing it to completely buffer the special move.

The trick is in the timing.

Hope this helped and I covered the stuff you wanted to know.