The basics of a mix-up

This title might be a bit mis-leading since I’m asking for help and not helping but eh whatever.

When you start out with a game like SF4 everybody who tries to help you makes it their goal to teach you the fundamentals or “the funions” as I hear people call it. The question I’m asking today is where do I go next?

I’d like to think I have a pretty strong grasp of the fundamentals and your standard okie, but after that it seems like I’m at a wall, I’ve been having a character crisis for a long time now and I’m thinking that Ken might actually be my dude but to play him to his fullest potential he’s a “rushdown” character. Now what exactly is a rush down character? Someone who adds constant pressure with offense and mix-UPS (at least this is how I see it) now a basic mix-UP can be a Cody neutral jumping you with NJ.fierce to an Akuma setting you up for an unblockable, But basically how I see it Is, what is stopping someone from just slapping buttons and stopping your momentum? I’ve had multiple accounts where I’m going for a cross up and I just get auto-correct Dp’d ending all momentum or I go for a safe jump and I got a block string and a little pressure and then were back at square. I don’t know how to end this novel so potato.

tldr how do I go for mix-UPS without just having some mash dp

disclaimer: I’m actually awful at this game so if you want to correct me on anything I said go right ahead

P.S. I know that mix-UPS aren’t just air oriented I’m just giving an example

thanks for taking your time to help out a scrub :slight_smile:

a mixup doesn’t necessarily mean you make the opponent guess which way to block

a mixup is when you make the opponent guess what option to take, options could be block in a certain direction, reversal, throw, backdash, etc

jump-in mixups that aren’t safe jumps are countered by reversal shoryu, it’s just the way it is. so if you keep on using a jump-in left-right “mixup”, you’re not actually mixing it up because the opponent can just do reversal shoryu every time

empty jump block is also a part of a mixup

so are safe jumps, empty jump throw, walk up throw, walk up walk back sweep, walk up crouching short, empty jump crouching short

there is a lot more to a mix up than just making them guess which way to block, but the things you do for mix-ups depend on which character you’re using, so i suggest you go to the SF4 Ken subforums and read up

You need to understand conditionning.

Read this:

It’s another system, but the principles are the same.

Once your opponent think you’re going for something specific do the counter to what you think they think you’re going to do.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT_phnHOyYj0FUK7oStCQ8ULUOpk62NIn Focuses on Honda, Ryu and Balrog but concepts are applicable to SF4 in general