Ryu's Fundamentals Part 3

Ryu Defense:

Ryu has a decent defense and wakeup plan especially with two meters and SRK xx FADC. But without meter or against an opponent that is good at reading, you must mix it up between blocking, teching, backdashing and reversal srk.

Teching Throws:

When we are trying to defend ourselves, one thing we are all concerned about is getting thrown. A lot of people been asking me how to improve their teching. But to be honest there isn't really a sure way to practice. Anyhow, here I will write about how I tech. I am pretty sure some of you guys whose been watching Daigo or my replays with command inputs on and maybe noticing that we tech with 3 buttons (lk+lp+mp). So this is a little trick...when you are crouching teching with these 3 buttons, your cr.mp will come out instead of your cr.lk which still allows you to tech properly. In case you guys don't know, in this game, no matter how many buttons you press, the higher priority/stronger normal will come out instead (that's why plinking exists). And this works awfully well against dive kick characters better than having your light kick out and getting stomped since crouching medium punch is a great way to stuff a lot of those moves.

*I do know that there are NON-Ryu players reading my blog, therefore if you use a character with 3 frame cancelable light kick please do not use this method to tech, its not worth it. JUST MASH with your 3 frame light kick tech!!! (BISON, CHUN LI etc)

There is another way of teching I like to the “TKD Method” because I think he's the only one that does it. First tech (lk+lp) crouching and then right away stand up and tech within a split second. In other words, press lp+lk to tech two times or MASH tech first crouching then immediately stand tech. TKD has around 85% tech rate with this method. However, the best "tech throw" player is Aojiru Guile..he can do it almost 95%...or even higher..it's very very rare that you see him get thrown or throw him.

Guarding yourself:

People would just assume i am going to write about how to BLOCK properly. When it comes to defending, it's not just about tech throws and blocking all your opponents moves. It's also about distancing yourself with your best pokes, jumping back, walking back, back dashing and even walking forward. Huh? Walking forward? OHHh yes, especially against charge based characters. Even if they're trying to charge their moves, it forces them to walk back (unless they're crouching). When you are trying to defend yourself, you DO NOT want to put yourself in the corner no matter against which character, therefore walking forward might be the safest option where you can just slowly get out of that situation.  

Attack = defense?:

After a knock down, even though you are in a comfortable lead, don't hesitate to jump in and attack characters without a 3 frame anti-air (this has to be an untechable knock down if you are doing this). Jump in with any HP or HK, allowing yourself to be in frame advantage after block and end with safe poke strings just so that you are able to build meter while pushing them back, forcing them to guess and you can end your safe string with a fireball for chip damage. Though you can make your offense as defense, you might not want to do any risky things such as sweep, throwing fireballs or focusing fireballs, etc.

*You can't block forever...it will just give your opponent an easy time to attack you. Breaking your guard is just a matter of time.*

Calculating your health points:

This is really important. When your opponent is desperate for a come back, most likely they will do some kind of frame trap or whatever attack they can do that deals more damage than a throw. Here you should look at your life ( see how many throws you can afford ) and probably just don't even try to tech, instead just take the throw and reset the situation. Remember, Ryu has 1000 health, and an average throw is about 130 damage so, being thrown costs a little more than 10% of your life.

There are also situations like where backdashing is an option just to get out the mix ups. You’ll get hit out of the backdash many times, but you’ll reset the situation on your feet and not be so vulnerable.

Defense is a very advanced topic and is very situational because there are so many variables involved. The best way to learn is to be patient and practice all of the defensive options Ryu has.