SFV: How to Punish Whiffed Lights/Mediums

Hey all,

I’ve run up against a particular tactic a few times now, and I am struggling to beat it ( this is down in Bronze btw ). I’m hoping somebody here might give me some advice.

Basically, this is a situation where my opponent is intentionally whiffing fast attacks ( Lights/Mediums ) in front of me. It isn’t “spam” necessarily, as they aren’t doing it non-stop. But they will do this when I approach, and they will do this as a follow-up for simple pokes.

I took this into the lab, and I am having a hard time finding a good counter ( playing M. Bison ). I know that in theory, every whiff is punishable during recovery. But the problem is, when somebody does a bunch of jabs in a row, it’s actually really hard to find that magic window to land a Medium from a distance. Usually I just get counter-hit. I am comfortable beating these kinds of attacks after blockstun, but when they are whiffed into the air, the timing just feels totally random.

If I were Ryu, I’d just throw a fireball, but as M. Bison I don’t know what to do. Both scissor kicks and slide actually get counter-hit most of the time. Psycho blast might work, but requires charge ( won’t work when I am approaching ). Am I missing some really obvious way to punish this stuff?

Thanks for any advice.

There is no clean (reactable) way to punish whiffed lights/mediums. You either guess the what will do next and look for that magic window or you just don’t bother at all. If u wanna fish for counterhits do it with a CC button. Risk/reward is clearly on your side if you are only in danger of eating light/medium attack but might get a CC combo. Otherwise just jump/headstomp or let’em punch the air till they do something else.