Find Your Go-To Moves

The gist: find your pokes and anti-air. Worry about combos later.

Congratulations, you’ve picked your character! But before diving into your first online match, hit up training mode, so you can study your character’s movesets. The purpose of training mode is simple: to find your go-to moves that control vertical and horizontal space..

Controlling space with your attacks is an important yet abstract concept. Some normals/special attacks extend your character’s reach across the screen (e.g., fireballs extending your horizontal range). Others provide a safe way to hit your opponent out of the air (e.g., uppercuts extending your vertical range). Take the time to study each of your character’s moves, understanding their properties, range, and how to apply them to specific situations.

Go through each of your character’s normals and specials, and see how they interact with your surrounding space. Ask yourself the following questions:

Horizontal reach?

Normals with long range and have quick recovery are great as poking tools. (Normals are any attacks executed with a press of a button.) Use these pokes to threaten your opponent, harass them if they get too close, and--when you're panicking--push them out of your immediate space. They can even be used to stop an opponent's attack before it can be fully unleashed.

Vertical reach?

Will this move hit them out of the air (anti-air)?

Look at the attack and how it covers the space in front of you. Does the attack cover a lot of space above you? Does it come out fast enough so you can react to a jump in easily? If yes, you have an answer to people jumping in on you.

Let’s use Ryu as an example. He has several tools to punish jump-ins while standing on the ground, including his classic shoryuken and his crouching Hard Punch. His uppercut special extends his vertical reach above his head. And his crouching Hard Punch lowers his profile and sends his fist straight above.

Fang’s anti-airs are deceptive. They don’t appear to cover a lot of space above him, but they’re fantastic tools to stop jump-ins. When Fang performs his crouching MK, his foot goes right above his head. And his crouching HP covers the top and back area of his head, effectively stopping cross-up attempts.