Simple risk vs reward and the fact he’s distracted by her normals, and AA success with s.LP or m.DP is largely spacing dependent. Then there’s the EX with juggle factor as well.
+30 AA or eat a 250-300 punish
-14 chip damage block
Do the math.
The thing I like about using fireballs a lot is what occurs when they believe you’re going to stick with it.
Against karin spamming shoulder you can get a lot of cc sweeps
Link to video?
Watch some Daigo and Tokido videos.
All that backing up and t bag motion are little fake fireballs. HP fireball comes out so fast at mid range that the opponent needs to jump based on a guess plus any deviations in movement. You don’t have to feint the same way they do, but watching their matches with their feints in mind will give you an understanding of those two players fireball games, and why their opponents show so much respect at neutral.
If an opponent waits until they visually confirm a fireball before they jump, they’re going to get hit on the way up or be late with the jump. You can block these jumps or dp if you are aware.
Understanding the psychology of the guess based on the movement of a fake is they key.
If an opponent walks forward and blocks during these fakes, he respects the threat of fireball. You have the option to dash forward and start offensive pressure from this hesitation. You also know you can throw a safe fireball vs this kind of posturing. The opponent is trying not to jump and is showing you a patient approach.
If he walks forward and blocks and bulldogs you all the way into a range where he can poke, you should anticipate the poke coming out. He was patient enough to close in. Now that he reached his goal range, most players will no longer be patient and attack. You can either defend or try to catch them poking and jump in. Another riskier option is to hit them with poke fireballs just as they close into that range. However you need a decent read and good spacing. You’re risking a crush counter during fireball start up and some players jump from here.
If the opponent either walks straight in without hesitation or dashes at you recklessly, they either don’t respect your fakes, or the fakes weren’t good enough, or you’re fighting a reckless player who doesn’t care. If he isn’t just a nut, you need to throw extreme close range fireballs to tell him to respect the fakes again, or try a different kind of feint.
The Daigo/Tokido feint is subtle. A weaker opponent might not pay attention to the motion or be looking for fireballs in the first place. I’ve seen whiff crouch lp, or stand lk, or crouch mp used as fakes as well. Different players key on different actions sometimes.
If it’s a reckless player, you have to switch to a close range counter poke offense or whatever it is that you do to catch the dashes. This kind of player also might jump in randomly a lot whether the fireball threat is there or not.
If you can catch people’s tendencies and understand the choices people are making around the feints you’ll have a much better idea of when to throw the actual fireball.
There’s also match specific spacing and speeds you need for certain characters anti fireball moves, but this general outlook should get you started.
Are you getting counterhit out of your fb start up? If so, it sounds like you’re throwing fireballs a little too close or the opponent doesn’t respect your ground game. If it’s always happening at the same range (e.g. karin st.mk or st.rh), then you need to start walking in and out of that range to see what your opponent does. If they’re hitting you with long pokes, you need to use quick buttons (like st.short) or quickish + high priority buttons (st.strong, cr.strong) to counter poke them. With counter poking, you’re not trying to hit their standing/walking/crouching hurtbox. You’re trying to hit their extended hurtbox that moves forward when they hit a button. You’re essentially throwing out a pre-emptive poke that clips the start up of their normals.
Doing this successfully will force the opponent to start hesitating at their ideal poke range, opening up your fireball option.
That, or they will jump.
The other key to a fireball game is the antiair. If your opponent doesn’t respect your ability to AA, then you can’t have an effective fireball game. They’ll just jump all over you.
Mastering the fireball game is not an easy task but with it you will become a better ryu player
(wrong thread D:)
Just click the link in my signature. There’s other Ryu stuff in there, I sort of made a complete guide/video series.
Oh shit, I didn’t know you were totalsagat.
I’ve been watching your stuff since you started with the sfv ryu vids.
It’s great stuff, yo.
Having trouble against Guile. Any tips? This seems like a hard matchup for Ryu, but I could be doing something drastically wrong.
Anyone have tips against ibuki? Sadly I ate a lot of her cr mp into ex kunai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRy4R2Oekz0
Some anti Bison tech I came up with, not sure if this is practical but still interesting. After blocked psycho axe (+1) it’s best to press st.lp to force a trade and be put back at 0. After this Bison’s love to press medium buttons, or dash. Pressing cr.hp after the trade will beat all mediums, and only lose to dash. You can buffer in tatsu aswell from the cr hp as if they do cr.mp or cr.mk, you will beat them clean and be able to combo. Cr.mp after the trade is good too but loses to st.mk. Sweep seems good too as it will CC every button they do and will beat dash, but if they block its very unsafe. st.hp seems good too. Worth experimenting with, what do you guys think?
General tips in the Guile matchup? Have a hell of a time vs a boom throwing Guile. I try to get in using tatsu or jump reads.
I am getting used to do a parry against plus moves with long animations like thoses, been successful so far.
fang cr.mk and f.hk are others which comes to mind, they always press something after.
Try mixing up your use of parry, tatsus, and j.LK (especially when not crouching). Go for knockdowns with pre-emptive c.HK in neutral to setup meaties on wakeup and exploit his lack of a meterless reversal. s.HK is effective at creating CC opportunities against the slow startup of booms and normals. Backdashing helps to space fireball zoning safely and will also bait jumps for DP. The only normal you really need to worry about his his CC f.HP which sets up his best punish but it whiffs crouching normals.
I’m having a hard time against a super defensive Laura who never disrespect me on wakeup and always jumps when i throw a fireball(which is why i don’t throw fireballs against her),i pretty much win by being super defensive as well but i want to know a way to win in a agressive playstyle.
Always walks back when she does that -2 elbow, most will always pre-emptive tech there, as it puts her in a throw position , and if he is jumping a lot just focus in anti airing and don’t throw fireballs.
I don’t think you can safely jump Ryu’s fireball on reaction, meaning that if you’re eating a lot of jump-ins when you throw fireballs, the opponent has a read on you. If that’s the case, you’ll need to adjust your fireball patterns. Try walking into jump range and just walking back and forth for a bit. If they jump, make sure your anti-airs are on point.
Hitting two or three jumps with a dragon punch will/should encourage them to stay grounded, allowing you to throw more fireballs.
Laura’s pokes aren’t very good, so you should be able to beat her on the ground or force her to take risks (jumping, doing raw overhead or elbow, excessive dashes/vskill dash). Hang out midscreen at that ideal jump range and throw out a few quick pokes like st.short, cr.strong to keep the dashes in check. These pokes are quick enough that you should be able to DP if she jumps.
After you AA her for a knockdown or get frame advantage from a cr.strong, then you can go in.
If she’s teching all your throw attempts, then you’re either being too obvious or falling into patterns.
On her wake up or after getting her to block your jump in, mix up between cr.jab into throw and cr.jab into st.strong. It’s a pure 50/50 that can’t be defended on reaction. She’ll have to guess.
At that range, st.strong should link into cr.forward which can be cancelled into ex.fb, ex.tatsu, or super for damage and a knockdown if you have meter. If she’s standing, you can cancel into tatsu for a meterless knockdown. Fireball might not connect at that range, but it’s free-ish chip.
Ryu’s main damage comes from throw/meaty mixups. St.strong and back roundhouse (axe kick) are Ryu’s two best meaties, giving good damage and easy confirms into full combo. Mix up between those and throw. Laura doesn’t have a good reversal outside of super (I think you can throw ex.elbow on startup), so you can really go in on her wakeup.
edit
What did you mean when you said she never disrespects you on wakeup?
Thanks for these tips,they really helped.And what i meant by the fact that she doesn’t disrespects me on wakeup is that she is always blocking and ready for a throw tech so most times i can’t EX uppercut so i wanted to know if i could take advantage of that in some way. By the way,what does AA mean?
AA means Anti Air. Shoryukens, standing HK, crouching HP are his main anti air moves. You can also use MP and LP. Using them just depends on the situations, but your MP SRK is your most valuable. I think the first 6 frames of that move are completely invincible.