A Godly Anti-Air game. Anti-airing IMO is the single most important aspect in having a great fireball game. The second people respect your AA game and your AA spacing, they will have no choice but to respect your FB game.
Look at every top Sagat you’ve ever played or seen, they rarely, rarely let jump ins go unpunished. They’ll do unconventional ways to AA you(aside from the obvious DP) I.E Kara uppercuts on reaction(not setups), AA tiger shots, AA normals, Air to Airs or even full screen ultra 2(punish every single jump minus characters with teleports and arch changing moves).
I consider my AA game good, and not great, and thats one of the biggest reasons my FB game is far from great. But I am going to grind at it and improve.
How do you get people to respect your AA game though? Often times I try to establish my AA dominance by waiting for jump ins, but it usually gets me in trouble. and when I think I have a read on an opponent and try to throw a fireball, I get jumped on.
True. Easier said than done though. Been playing Sagat as of late, it’s harder to adapt because I play Bison as my main. Fast walk speed, escapes, footsie game. Sagat is the complete opposite, I had no trouble keeping some Cammy/Akuma/Ibuki players out, cause they respected my fireball game. Beat a Gouken/Guile in the fireball game. Then along came a Yolokoto and Juri…
every time you get the urge to throw a fireball: don’t
that’s what I do and it works pretty well. people get a feel of when a character when and wont throw a fireball in certain situations based on what people generally want to do and breaking out of that is what stops you from getting guess jumped on.
i got myself used to pressing a single jab every time i WANT to throw a fireball. very low commitment. it’ similar to what bonchan does which is basically ALWAYS do fireball wiggle all the time no matter what but, not quite as good.
the number 1 key to fireball game is to know when to not fireball, and to know when you’re not supposed to fireball but fireballing anyway because your opponent doesn’t think you will