SFV noob questions #1 - normals

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

Hello, I have summed together a majority of my brick wall questions that I dont fully understand. I have currently switched from pad to stick which has forced me to relearn the game. My questions are not character specific, but examples would be awsome!
Here are my questions
1.In general, what are the differences in use between punches and kicks? When would each type of move be appropriate?
2.when is a light med or hard punch appropriate?

Thanks!
Yachabuchi

2

  1. There isn’t really an exact difference per se. Kicks generally have further reach, and punches generally come out faster, but that isn’t always the case. See Necalli’s s.MK being more stubbier than his s.MP for instance. It’s better to think of it as having 2 different sets of lights, mediums, and strong buttons, and knowing which of them is more appropriate to use at any given time.

  2. Generally speaking, the properties you want to pay attention to with your normals is how far they reach and how fast does it take to get there. Knowing that you should have a reasonable idea of what button to use. Take for example Ryu. His standing jab is really fast but has zero range, so you know this is a move you want to throw out to stuff your opponent when they are right up your face. His medium and hard punch are slower but have longer reach, so you would throw those out when your jab won’t be able to reach, or so you will just hit your opponent with the very tip of them.

Again this is just a very broad generalisation. There is a whole bunch of other things you have to factor into like certain buttons being great on block and can create frametraps like Ryu’s s.MP. So you would actually use it point blank on an opponent in their blockstun or when they’re waking up. Some buttons causing crush counter so you’d wanna try and fish with them, and some normals have great “priority” meaning that you can just throw them out there and it will usually stuff your opponent out of something like Ryu’s j.LK. That said if you’re an absolute begginer trying to learn what your character’s normals do I would stick with the first paragraph about learning their optimum distances first.

3

Thank you for the information sir,