When should I stop blocking and fight back?

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

Hello, I only recently picked up ultra sfiv and whenever I play online I find myself constantly blocking to the point of holding down and back, until I’m in the corner and it’s already too late. Also whenever I try to hit a shoryuken or any button to try and get out, I just get hit. I’m starting out with Ryu, but if there are any general tips they would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Edit: I have only won a single game so far, and lost enough for my PP to drop to 0. At this point any help at all regarding defense and getting out of a corner would be amazing. Again, thanks so much.

2

Keep playing and get more experience is the best advice. But here are some generic tips.

  • When you get used to what the characters attacks look like and what people usually do, you’ll be much better.
  • If you don’t know about crouch techs, look up some info on it. It’s a must.
  • If you’re trying to get out and you’re getting hit, it means you’re pressing the wrong buttons or shouldn’t be trying to get out at that point.
  • Practice dashing around and backdashing in training room. Sounds silly, but most beginners don’t backdash enough.
  • Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. They can’t attack you if they’re blocking.
3

When you say you try to do a shoryuken and “just get hit,” do you mean that you’re getting hit while trying to do the shoryuken, or that they block the shoryuken and then they punish you? If the first, than that means you’re missing the reversal window, which means that the shoryuken isn’t coming out on the first frame possible on your wake up.

4

I mean that as soon as i try to do the input, i get hit before i can finish or it comes out. But with normals, yeah i probably am missing the window. I’m trying to work on footsies now to try and build some form of offense. Thank you two, it really helps.

5

This isn’t entirely true, the reversal window in SFIV is 5 frames.

At OP, you need to learn to recognize what are safe block strings and specials/normals and which are not. Learning when those elements are at the end is essentially your queue to take as turn on offense.

6

Alright, but if he was actually doing a reversal DP, then regardless of how big the window is he wouldn’t be getting hit out of his invincible special move.

7

You’re correct there. I think what his problem may be that he is waiting to see the recovery of a move before he starts his inputs instead of buffering it during blockstun.

8

Ah that sounds interesting, I’ll look into buffering, it sounds important