Maximizing your Shimmy combos

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
1

So for those of you that don’t know, the “shimmy” is a technique with Balrog where you fake a throw by putting the opponent into block stun either from a crouching LP or a jump-in attack then you walk back (instead of walking in for a throw) and punish their whiffed throw or crouch tech with your crouching MP canceled into a rush punch and even into a super if you have it. It is a very powerful technique because if it is mixed in to your pressure properly, it will make the opponent afraid to press any buttons or tech throws. The purpose of this thread is to teach players how to get the most damage and stun from a successful shimmy.

Most good Rog players only start going for the shimmy once they have a super but you can actually get more from a shimmy with less meter. The common shimmy combo is walk back cr. MP xx LP dash straight xx Super (446 damage / 200 stun). While that damage is very good, the stun is low and Balrog is left with no meter after it so overall it doesn’t have as much utility as the shimmy combos I am going to post which use less meter, deal more stun, and still deal good damage.

2 Meters

  1. Cr. MP xx HP Dash Straight xx FADC, Cr. LP, CL. HK, St. LP, Cr. HK (333 Damage/570 Stun)
  2. Cr. MP xx HP Dash Straight xx FADC, Cr. LP, CL. MP, Cr. LP, Cr. MP xx HK Rush Upper (350 Damage/570 Stun) ** You can end the combo in MK rush upper instead of HK rush upper because it recovers at point blank distance for a throw reset **
  3. Cr. MP xx HP Dash Straight xx FADC, Cr. LP, CL. HK, St. LP, St. HK (343 Damage/610 Stun)
  4. Cr. MP xx HP Dash Straight xx FADC, Cr. LP, CL. HK, Cr. MP xx HK Rush Upper (378 Damage/640 Stun) ** You can end the combo in MK rush upper instead of HK rush upper because it recovers at point blank distance for a throw reset **
  5. Cr. MP xx HP Dash Straight xx FADC, Cr. LP, Cr. LP, Cr. MP xx HP Buffalo Headbutt (332 Damage/535 Stun) ** You can combo into Ultra 1 after the headbutt for a little more damage if you need it **

3 Meters

  1. Cr. MP xx HP Dash Straight xx FADC, Cr. LP, CL. HK, Cr. MP xx EX Rush Upper, Cr. LP, Cr. MP xx HP Buffalo Headbutt (435 Damage/730 Stun) ** You can combo into Ultra 1 after the headbutt for a little more damage if you need it **

4 Meters

  1. Cr. MP xx HP Dash Straight xx FADC, Cr. LP, CL. HK, Cr. MP xx EX Rush Upper, Cr. LP, Cr. MP xx EX Rush Upper, Cr. LP, Cr. MP xx HP Buffalo Headbutt (454 Damage/765 Stun) ** You can combo into Ultra 1 after the headbutt for a little more damage if you need it **
  2. Cr. MP xx HP Dash Straight xx FADC, Cr. LP, CL. HK, Cr. MP xx HK Rush Upper xx FADC, Cr. LP, CL. HK, Cr. MP xx HK Rush Upper (442 Damage/760 Stun) * You can end the combo in MK rush upper instead of HK rush upper because it recovers at point blank distance for a throw reset **

The reason these combos are possible is because the HP Dash Straight after the initial Cr. MP (the shimmy) forces stand on the opponent so follow up combos are possible even if you hit the opponent while they were crouching. The only drawback to these combos is that they require good execution but once they are mastered, they will definitely make Balrog’s overall damage/stun output much higher.

P.S. - For those of you that are wondering where the term “shimmy” came from, it actually came from “gootecks shimmy”. The actual Gootecks shimmy name was taken from a video of him dancing to some techno song but the technique itself was made known by Gootecks in vanilla SF4 when he won the first East vs. West SF4 tournament called Sinsation back in February 2009. Here’s the video when Gootecks first used it [media=youtube]AACvZ_LVkT8[/media] . Over time, people just associated the technique with Gootecks so they called it the “Gootecks shimmy” and now it’s just “the shimmy”.

2

Also, i’d like to point out that most of the combos Jav1ts pointed out will work on both a crouching and standing opponent. In the event your opponent stand-techs (goes for a throw), you can use cr.mp xx ex.ru and save the bar. Given HP.ds xx FADC is the better confirm as it works on all situations, this is also an option.

Shimmy also works from an mk.ru (+1 on hit). Frame Trap 3 video also has some stun combos involving shimmy. (shameless plug) @1:15
[media=youtube]JikvTfSWC5I[/media]

3

Nice posts guys. You don’t think that shimmy’ing with cr.jab/mp into EX RU, jab, short, HP headbutt for 1 meter is worth noting? As far as execution goes, it’s a lot easier to be consistent than those combos and only uses 1 meter.

The damage on those FADC combos looks good, but I don’t know if it’s worth spending the meter and there’s higher chance of dropping the combo altogether. For me, I rather spend 1 meter and still have the chance of building up a Super for situations such as - keeping projectile characters nervous, reversal punishes, or even chip. Also, you just never know when you might need an EX dash punch or EX headbutt, or when you might need to safely FADC your dash punch (if you realised it’s been focused) or sweep. That’s just my opinion though.

4

The main reason Jav1ts used those combos is because they are 100% confirms that are also safe. I agree, definitely not easier (as are most things). But only cr.mp xx lp.ds is safeish, works against a crouching opponent and doesn’t require heavy meter usage. The FADC combos will catch both crouch-techs and stand-techs. And the thread is about “MAXIMIZING” versus ease of execution. Definitely not something (maximizing damage) most Balrog players don’t do (IMO, myself included).

5

Alright point taken.

6

OOHHHH, HE HIT HIM WITH THE GOOTECKS

7

I did state at the end of my post that the only drawback to these combos is that they require good execution. However, I feel that incorporating these combos into your game will certainly take your Balrog to the next level because the damage & stun is just way too much to pass up for just 2 or 3 meters. This is the next phase for Balrog blayers to master similar to how people started P-Linking to add cr. MP’s into their combos instead of just cr. LK’s. I certainly will be adding Counter Hit Close standing HK linked into Dash Straight which I didn’t know was possible until I just saw 3nigma1c’s video. That’s so good because cr. MP doesn’t link on some characters after a CH close HK so that’s a great way to confirm into big damage from a counter hit. Right now I’m going to test if CH close HK link to EX dash straight will hit late on crouching Blanka and still be able to combo. It’s a long shot but it might be a very damage force stand combo for 1 meter on crouching Blanka. Thanks 3nigma1c!