Becoming a good player from the ground up: Part 1

I've been wanting to do a blog now for quite awhile.  I've been putting it off constantly, but finally I'm all of a sudden inspired to write.  So with that, I wanted to blog about my personal "basis" of separating yourself from a player who is good, and a player who is great.  I wanted to write down the steps of becoming better (my personal opinions of course) from beginner to tops.  To be honest, in my personal opinion, I believe that just about anyone can become a great player.  It all really depends on if they grasp the certain concepts that are needed to be understood to be a great player.  I've even personally realized, that at times, it's not enough to even grasp the concept, but instead to value the concept.  For instance, I grasped the concept of "attacking for a reason" (better known as "testing") however never valued it until the past 6 months.  To expand on that, I understood why you test your opponent, however never really used it much as I was still at the point where I was more focused on "playing solid" (something I'll explain later as well).  Finally I gave "testing" a chance...and slowly, it hit me on WHY you test your opponent, and what you GAIN from testing an opponent.  To put it simply, I truly appreciated it and valued the concept of testing my opponent, and thus, I now constantly test my opponent in every match!  All in all, this blog will be about the steps of becoming a better player, from complete beginner, to top player.  By the way, this'll be a 2 parter since I ramble so much.  

I could go on and on about the specific "advanced thought process" of a top player, however it wouldn't mean anything to someone who doesn't understand the basics of fighting games.  For instance, I'll tell a lot of people that Street Fighter breaks down to 3 aspects...physically, mentally, and emotionally (a blog for another day).  Physically speaking, all you really do is press buttons and move a joystick.  It's not physically straining at all really.  However, tell this to a player who plays on pad, that doesn't understand why they should even play on a stick!  There's 2 points here, the first being physically SF only demands that you execute correctly.  Wether it be combos, trying to tech a throw, whatever the case, execution is pretty much the only physical aspect of Street Fighter.  The 2nd point being that the player playing pad doesn't understand why it would be good to play on a stick, the explanation would be the same if I were to explain to a beginner why you should try to read your opponent each match.   In other words, it's just not understood at that level.  So we need to talk basics, and put things in perspective at what THEIR level is.  The way that I look at it, when a player first begins playing fighting games competitively, they go through certain steps to get to the next level of skill.  It looks a bit like this:

 -  Learns what button does what, how to block, how to dash, how to jump and throw 

 -  Learns special moves/specific character's move set including ultra's/supers

This is the most common foundation of learning a fighting game.  And to be honest with you, not many players go past this tiny foundation.  These players are quite apparent as well, they're what you call a random Ken who constantly shoryuken's (because it looks so cool!) anywhere he is on the play field.  All in all, they have no skill whatsoever, yet most of them think that they can play the game well, or they think they're tight since they can do an SRK.  Lets move to the next set of steps to improving...

 -  Very basic understanding of zoning (footsies, anti airing and space control)

 -  Begins learning basic combos and basic block strings (when the combos' blocked)

The player that takes the time to delve into learning these steps, is the player that wants to start becoming "serious" or competitive for that matter.  The only reason why a player starts learning these aspects is to become above your typical scrub and become BETTER.  There are many players at this range.  Though this player understands only the basics of how to play, they are on their way to becoming better.  The understanding of zoning, and controlling space through pokes, anti airs, fireballs, or whatever the like becomes a bit more apparent.  The player has a weak ground game, however understands that it is needed.  Basic combos such as: jab, jab, jab, hadouken are used.  Maybe even c.mk hadouken.  The point is that they begin to realize how to combo a bit.  Nothing to serious, however there is a clear effort that the player is trying to combo.  I should note that, at this skill level, these players don't anti air much however know that they should be anti air'ing.  The block strings are also probably a bit choppy, and the ground game may need a bit of work, however it's only the beginning of strengthening these basic aspects.

 -  Slight understanding of what to do after a knockdown (crossover, go for another combo)

 -  Improvement in anti'airing and ground game

 -  Begins to hit confirm combos as well as learns more technical combos

 -  Basic understanding of "punishment"

 -  Understand game mechanics more in depth (SA or SADC, throws beat blocks, etc.)

 -  Slight understanding of mixups

 -  Starts to realize character strengths (mixups, or gimmicks, specific pokes to use, anti air, etc.)

The player here is starting to become much stronger.  He understands slightly how to press the advantage (after knockdowns) by using crossovers or maybe jump ins with a block string or potential combo.  As for his combo's, the player begins to realize how to hit confirm, meaning understand when his combo is blocked and understand when to stop his combo so that his opponent will not punish him for finishing it.  Instead, he stops the combo if he sees his opponent block, yet continues with the combo if he sees his opponent is being hit.  With that, the player learns more damaging combos and his execution becomes a bit more tight.  At this point he's most likely using typical Bnb's fairly well, nothing too flashy or technical, just the basic combos but this time around, they're more tight.  On that note, the players block strings becomes a bit stronger, mixing in throws and trying to have tight strings so that the opponent can't jab through or throw him through the string.  The player also begins to understand the game mechanics a bit more and starts to try and use these new things (such as SA's and SADC's) to learn more about their uses.  More importantly the player begins to learn his character better learning the characters strengths and weaknesses, over all game plan, how to control space, how to press advantage, things like that.  By becoming more "in touch" with the character, the player starts learning what his character is capable of.  Now it's just a matter of strengthening this overall understanding into becoming what I like to call a "solid player."  **Side note**  In my opinion, I think that this is where I personally was when SF4 came out in August.  I was at the point where I had an okay ground game, fair combo ability as well as hit confirming combos, fair understanding of how to press advantage and pressure, understanding of my character, and also understanding of the new SA and SADC's.  

This is going to wrap up part 1, sorry that it's so long.  Part 2 will finish it off...and I'd also like to disclaim that these are my PERSONAL OPINIONS of how to climb the ladder to greatness, so with that, don't take my word as law!

Positioning and the dreaded "Stand Off"

It's been a really long time since my last post, sorry for the long hiatus.  With the arrival of SF4 on console, I've seemed to have neglected writing.  But I'm back at it, with a post regarding "playing chicken" or what I like to call:  The stand off.

Street Fighter is a game where control of space is vital.  We use our characters tools to take up as much space as safely as possible.  The concept is pretty easy actually, you take up more space, you leave as little room for your opponent to move and advance.  The more heated of situations is when 2 players are looking at each other dead eye to eye.  They idle back and forth, assuming and reading their opponent on what attack they are going to decide to use, and how to counter it.  So much thought is put into these mili-seconds that I don't even know how it's possible sometimes for players to react on a whiff, and punish accordingly.  What I wanted to talk about today however, is not the mid screen distance of being able to idle back and forth, but the distance of 2 - 3 jabs or so...more or less the up close stage.  

The up close range will sometimes break you as a player during matches, yet sometimes make you win in matches.  This range is so intricate because as players, we need to know what our opponent is thinking, what he wants, what he wants to bait, and more importantly the best way to stop it.  The same goes for you as an attacker...knowing your defender.  Does he break throws well?  Does he have a nasty habit of trying to throw a lot or possibly jab you out of a throw?  Does he jump back often?  Maybe he's susceptible to meaties!  Once again to reiterate more, you start to realize that Street Fighter becomes more of a thinking game then a "button pressing" game.  At close range, what normally happens to me (against better players when I use SF4 Ryu), I'll get my knockdown, and do a few jab strings, then end with a c.mk xx hado to push my opponent further away.  I'm starting to realize recently however, that maybe it would be more wise of me to NOT do the c.mk xx hado.  For instance, Ryu has a very hard time getting in on his opponent as is already, what favor am I doing for myself in pushing my opponent further away from me?  All in all, what if the situation looked like this:  Throw, walk back, walk forward at about a crouching strongs distance...crouch block!  Simply put...post up right in my opponents face.  Thus we have upclose "The Stand Off"

 

Now by not doing anything, I realize that I'm not "creating" momentum, however the reason why I thought about this situation was mainly because in SF4, there are so many characters who have viable escapes such as DP, SADC....or ex dash punch giving him armor...now these aren't the BEST escape tools, however the point being that a Ryu player must respect them, because any loss of momentum is bad in any circumstance.  By looking my opponent dead in the eye, I begin to realize exactly how he feels when put in a situation...his options are to poke back, jump away, maybe ever reversal blindly or ultra blindly.  Maybe he likes to back dash, during this situation.  All in all, I haven't really used this yet, however would really like to figure out what it would net me.  If I can read into my opponents habits more often, maybe I can capitalize in an event down the line in our next match.  For instance, if he likes to jump back, I'll decide to shoot off a super/ultra to catch him.  Maybe if he likes to pull a poke in that position I'll pull off a psychic DP if I'm feeling extra frisky :), if he back dashes maybe an ex hado will push him back out and give me some more momentum.  I'm not sure what the possibilities are, however I feel as if it will put my opponent out of his or her comfort zone...and thats ALL I need to begin to win a match!

 - Mickey D'

Things to write in the journal

Recently, I've had a lot of want to write in my journal.  I've been keeping it fairly organized recently, and have been holding myself back and stopping myself from writing things that don't pretain to the actual subject at hand right now (which are character break downs).  I'm writing this blog (with the help of a friend, thanks Jacob!) so that I don't forget to include certain topics regarding becoming a better player.  All in all, here are the things we came up with:

Limiting options, reading opponents versus playing analytically, what playing analytically means, training room 101, conditioning opponents and the ability to adapt, playing to win versus playing to learn, mental blocks of all the sort and playing without limits, mindset before during and after the match, grudge matches and how they affect your play, upsets and why they happen, how to take a loss, the importance of having multiple characters, nerves during tournament time, explaining the tiers and how top/mid/low are different regarding how good of a player you must be to win with them, sandbagging and its affects on the scene and player, taking a break and getting out of that slump, Apoc's mythical post, the power of playing everyone to your true potential and underestimating an opponent, psyching out the opponent before or during the match :), sitting on a lead, 

This will be forever changing so, I'll just leave it here for now!  

Training Mode

After talking to a friend concerning SF4, he said that he would be really interested in seeing what kinds of things I do in training mode.  In turn, I told him that I could make a video of doing so, and explanations of what I would be doing...but then I began to think to myself, why not try to make it big and help out the SRK kids?  Basically, what I want to do is to show other people that training mode isn't just about the combos, and that the possibilities with training mode are more then what most people see.  Anyways, I wanted to write down some things that I do in training mode to prepare for making the video.  

In training mode, most people practice combos and practice their execution.  However I like to go a bit further.  I like to set the computer on "All Guard" and practice strings as well.  Even going a step further, I always gauge how far the string puts me, and think about my options after the string.  I like to range out where a combo leaves me or where a string leaves me so that I know what my options are afterwards.  I suppose what it really gets down to is that I like to know what I can setup in situations that I can control (such as guard strings, or after a knockdown or combo).  Some of the first things that I do in training mode is a simple throw.  Throws always leave you at the same distance no matter what, meaning that the range is a controlled state.  By figuring out the ranges of throws, I can think about how to position myself to gain opportune advantage like safe jump ins or crossovers, 

Testing things out against myself is a big thing too.  In Cvs2 I would go into the training room, and use my own setups and strats against myself.  By doing this, I saw what my opponent's options were and by doing so, learned what my most favorable options would be for the given situation.  Similarly, I also like to copy a certain play-style that I'm losing to (or am having trouble with) and learn how to break it.  For example say that I play a Dhalsim vs Ryu matchup quite a bit (I play Ryu) and am having a hard time learning how to deal with far zoning and pokes.  I'll go into training mode and see what normals of mine beat out his, as well as how often (I don't want to be trading c.lp's for s.hp's!).  I find that though this isn't neccesarilly as good as playing an actual person, it can give me a fairly strong foundation of how to go about learning how to beat play-styles that I'm not doing well in.

Training mode's true potential comes out when you begin to realize WHY exactly you are doing things.  I think it's stupid for people to train when they don't even know what they're actually training for.  Knowing how to do a combo is one thing, but knowing what exactly it will net you in the long run is playing with a much smarter mindset.  For example, just as if I were to use a new character, I would like to figure out what all my normals do and what their ranges are so that I know what to use in certain situations such as anti'airing, or in space control/zoning situations.  This kind of goes more along the lines of learning a newer character, however being aware of all your tools is key when learning in training mode.  

Hopefully I can make a video out of this.  But more importantly, I hope that it actually helps people

The journey begins

Looking back on my journal, I found this written on November 12th, 2008:  "Recently I have been feeling stuck as a player I can never play to my standard any more.  I think this is because I am realizing the depths to my character Ryu, were not as deep as I would have liked to think."  At the time, my confidence to play well was just shot.  I started losing to player who I had never lost to in my entire time of playing...records of 12 and 0...would become 12 and 4 after 4 games.  It seemed like I lost my eye of the tiger.  Obviously over time, I was able to get out of the slump thanks to people like Deezo and Apoc.  Apoc made it very apparent to me that coming in with a sour mindset will be a huge deterrent on your actual game play...something I wasn't taking into perspective.  I suppose it was at this time, I realized how important it is to remain confident in your own skill.

After the pep talk, I went to the arcade and popped in my credit.  I sat down and said to myself "You are not bad at this game.  Your not the best, yet your not BAD at this game.  As a matter of fact your DAMN GOOD!  Now play this game to your standard!"  That night I left with something like a 30 win streak.  The win streak really doesn't matter, it was just the fact that the lesson was learned...whatever mindset you bring in before the match, is the same mindset you'll have during the match.  

However, I want to write about exactly why I felt I had plateaued with Ryu.  At the time, I had played Ryu like most of the other players who play Ryu...get the knockdown, try for a combo, and play all around solid through footsies.  Now normally I can wreck people with this type of play style.  Ryu's crossup is pretty good, and can be fairly ambiguous at times.  However when playing better players in my area, such as Deezo or Jason Cole, I started realizing that this style of play gets nowhere.  You may be asking "What the heck are you talking about!?"  What I mean is that once I get a knockdown on a player who is GOOD, they are content with eating a possible throw, and merely blocking a string.  When you get down to it, at low to mid level play, this style of playing is acceptable.  However at top level, Ryu can't hang.  Better players realize that Ryu does NOT have options after blocked strings.  Compare this to the rest of the cast, for example the other 2 shoto's:  Ken can use kara grab mixup after strings, and Akuma can use a demon flip or possibly s.hk to keep close.  These are just quick examples, but what it really gets down to is the fact that most Ryu's do damage from combo's, and to do combo's you need to have constant pressure up close.  All in all, Ryu's mixups and tricks are NOT good enough at top level play, instead a more practical and solid way of dealing out damage is needed.  

A few days ago, I watched a few more Daigo videos.  I swear to god, this guy is so inspiring to me as a player because I feel as if I truly understand why he does things.  I almost feel as if Daigo wastes NO movement or attack at all...everything he does has a purpose.  Anyways, let me jump off those nuts real quick and explain what I realized.  After watching matches, I was seeing that Daigo NEVER tries to pressure his opponent like most players do.  I mean, he likes to be in his opponent's face, and play them up close, however never does he try to go for a combo after a knockdown.  I think out of all the videos I've seen, I have witnessed Daigo crossover with j.mk ONCE.  So I had to question it "Why doesn't he pursue the knockdown and press the advantage!?"  I finally came to the realization that if I were to come to the idea that Ryu isn't good enough from the inside at a certain level of play, he MUST have had this realization as well.  However, unlike me, Daigo had already figured a more practical way of dealing damage instead of just combos.  Why crossover and have a blocked string, when you have a more consistent way to gain damage, through baiting, setups, and reading an opponent.  

The epiphany that I've come across is that:  Ryu can only be played at top level ONLY when the player is an instinct player.  What it comes down to is exactly what Mandel told me...2 things that I think I'll remember for a very long time:  "When you don't play to a particular script or anything, and play to your opponents, Ryu becomes crazy...Thats what great Ryu's do, it feels like everything you do is wrong."  Daigo is a player who plays solely off of instincts regarding his opponents.  By setting his opponent up to think a certain way, he baits them into playing into his hand so he can deal out damage.  At the same time, by reading his opponents, it makes it easier for him to set his opponent up.  Like Mandel told me "In the end, it all comes together."  By reading a players behaviors, baiting and setups become instinctual to you as a player, with setups and baiting comes damage.  

So thats it, that's the huge epiphany...the fact that if I'm going to become a great Ryu player, I need to play to my opponent, not to how I want to play...but to what is best against my opponent.  Thus, begins the journey to becoming an instinctual player.  

 - Mickey

It is a secret to everyone

So recently there's been a bit of hype concerning the "Umehara Kumite Special!"  But seriously, what the hell does that mean to you or me?  It means that earlier this month the Japanese held a special event where Daigo Umehara would fight 6 titans of terror in SF4.  The players that attended this "Kumite" were:  Nemo, Joe, Ino, Fuudo, Itazan, and Mago...All of which are very good players in Japan (some of the best).  In the end of it all, Daigo pretty much smashed up on everyone with the exception of Mago who beat Daigo 2-1.  Out of the 18 games, The Beast came out on top in 14 of them, while losing the other 4.  Luckily, I am one of some very few in the US that have seen some of these matches =D.  I'm just here to talk about what I learned from the matches.  

Now being a Ryu player, I watched Daigo's matches very intently.  Lets be honest, there aren't too many better to learn from then the guy who has the best record in Japan.  The first thing to be in awe of is that Daigo has an amazing ability to read his opponent's.  From psychic dragon punches, to psychic hurricane kicks, Daigo shows that he can read his opponent's tendencies and habits in a matter of one round.  The set of videos were very entertaining, however there was one thing that I took out of this set of videos that has changed the way that I play.

The match that I was very focused on was Nemo vs Daigo, a Chun/Ryu matchup.  I watched this match very closely as I personally have troubles with Deezo's Chun every time we play.  I figured that maybe by watching Daigo and how he plays the match, I could get an idea of what I am doing wrong.  After watching Daigo, it all became clear...I think that not only did the Chun/Ryu match became clear, however matches that I have trouble with in general became clear.  It's something so basic and logical that I don't see why I couldn't have come to this realization myself.  All in all, it had to do with the simple idea of limiting options.  

In every one of Daigo's matches, Daigo limited his opponent's options to a degree that the opponent became dumb founded, and had no other way to play.  Against Itazan, Daigo uses hadokens at a very close range to limit Zangief's pokes, lariat's and even ex green hand.  Against Joe (Viper), Daigo goes uses neutral jump mp to stop Viper from flame kick'ing around.  By doing this Viper has very few options to gain ground as she does this best in the air.  Now these may seem like very basic ways to limit an opponent's options, however it brings me to the Fuudo (Ryu) and Nemo (Chun) matches. 

Lets look at these 2 characters really quickly.  Chun has incredible mixup, it's pretty much where most of her damage comes from.  At the same time, by staying at full screen/half screen distance she can use kikoken's and pokes to maintain a good set plan to obtain knockdowns.  Simply put, her ground game is solid enough to where it makes the opponent NEED to think of ways to get in on her.  At the same time, Chun's anti airs are very lack luster and sometimes unreliable.  Now lets look at Ryu.  Ryu has devastating combo's at close ranges, however unless he hits them, his options are very limited after a block string.  At full screen ranges he has a good hadoken that can zone his opponent's with.  His pokes are par at best, meaning that he'll trade (or be beaten) with any other character who has better pokes then him.  All in all, his main source of damage comes from his hard hitting combo's.  

So now, we are brought back to the Daigo matches.  Lets talk about Daigo vs Fuudo (the Ryu player).  Now Fuudo makes it apparent that he gets his damage from the inside (just like I said earlier).  So therefore, it's safe to say that Fuudo's prime situation would be to be pressuring his opponent.  So what does Daigo do?  He keeps him out via hadoken's.  Fuudo's only option is to throw hadoken's back or take a risk and hurricane kick over them.  In the match, Fuudo decides to throw hadoken's back, however Daigo (who plans, baits, and reads his opponent) is able to read some of the time's that Fuudo throws hadoken's and jumps in at just the right time to combo.  All in all, Fuudo's goal was to get inside...but was fine with remaining outside, however Daigo made it so that he limited Fuudo's options to get inside, and forced Fuudo to play an outside game in which at times he (Daigo) capitalized on.

So this brings us to the Daigo/Nemo (Chun) match.  During this match, Nemo controls a lot of the play field by good pokes and kikoken's.  However you'll notice that Daigo wins by playing an up close battle, something that Chun has a very hard time with.  Daigo uses a lot of jump ins to close distance since he knows that Chun's anti airs aren't very good.  However during the second round the majority of the match is played from half/full screen distance.  At this range Daigo has quite a bit of trouble, his hadoken's don't really do much to help him in this situation, and he doesn't jump in much because at a full screen range.  Also, at this range Chun's anti airs have a bit more validity.  Basically, since Nemo fought more of an outside battle, Daigo loses this 2nd round.  Since Ryu can't cope with Chun's pokes or kikoken's, Ryu can't win from outside.  In the last round, Daigo turns it into a close up match once again by jumping in more, and eventually takes the match.

After watching these matches, I realized the importance of how to play an opponent based off of their habits mixed with solid matchup knowledge.  Take for example Guile, a character who uses sonic booms and zoning as his main tool to deal damage and create opportunity.  Now if a player was pressuring Guile during the majority of the match, it's safe to say that this limits the way that Guile needs to play.  He needs to figure out a different way of dealing damage and figure out also how to get out of this pressure.  At the same time, there are different ways to play Guile...Say that I come across a Guile who likes to pressure and rush down more then he likes to zone.  In this case, it would be imperative for me to make a decision to try and out zone the Guile player from rushing me down, or possibly play to this player's rush down style.  By knowing the player's tendencies on how he rushes down, and combining it with the knowledge of the matchup that you have as a player, one could build a solid strategy and plan out exactly HOW to fight this type of style of play.  

Here's another quick example.  Lets talk about matchups for Ryu.  Lets look at 5 cast members (out of random):  Blanka, Chun, Viper, Abel, Bison.  Now, lets look at how these characters do their damage...better yet, not so much how they do their damage, but where do these characters want to be in a match?  What is their prime position?  With Blanka, he wants to be full/mid screen.  With Chun she wants to be up close however can do very well from full/mid screen.  Viper wants to fight up close.  Abel wants to be up close.  Bison can fight from afar, however does best when he pressures, thus saying he wants to be up close can be a pretty good deduction.  Now take into where these characters want to be, and fight to their opposite.  If Blanka wants to fight from full/mid screen, it would be smart of me to put him out of his comfort zone and fight him up close.  If Abel wants in, I have to do my best to keep him out.  Chun does well from outside?  Fight Chun up close.  Bison wants in and does most of his damage from inside?  Keep him out.  

By playing to your opponent's tendencies AND to the matchup, one can build a strategy for any type of play style.  

Throwing in SF4

I can't stop writing ideas down or thinking up new stuff, thoughts just keep popping up!  This blog gets pretty analytical, but hopefully it'll be a good read for others.  This piece has to do with throwing and it's importance in the game.  Personally, I look at the "throwing game" as a a game of roshambo.  Blocking is beat by throws, throws are beat by attacks, and throws can be stalemated by tech'ing.  This blog goes over tech'ing, how you can use throws to your advantage to possibly get an opening, and my personal ideas about SF4 and throws.  All in all, this blog is about learning how throws can be used to gain advantage.  

Why throws are used:  Throws are used to break an opponent's guard and gain opportunity for ourselves.  When an opponent is sitting there blocking all of your strings, other ways of breaking defenses need to be used.  Simply put, you gotta go back to the drawing board, something isn't working.  This is why we have throws.  Throws beat blocking, thus a person who is blocking all of my strings can be beat by a cleverly set up throw.  A throw can be set up in a variety of ways, the most common being "tick throws."  This is a very effective way to throw because you are essentially using 2 ways to break a defense, attacking and throwing right after.  The opponent expects to block a possible string, yet you are "one step ahead" by throwing instead.  

The mentality of throwing:  Certain thoughts come with throws.  For most players (myself included), teching throws can be very difficult.  I find that I don't start tech'ing throws until I've been thrown once or twice.  However, good players will be able to read telegraphed throws, and be able to tech on command.  Note how I said that I feel as if I start tech'ing throws after I have been thrown once or twice.  All in all, I wasn't threatened until my opponent forced me to be scared of it.  This is essential to "learning" how to tech throws well.  Basically to tech throws you must be looking for the throw at all times, it's not enough to merely react.  By tech'ing throws, it limits the opponent's options.  By proving that you can tech efficiently, you make it apparent that they must think of different ways to gain advantage.  Thus, it becomes a battle of who thinks ahead first.  

The risks of tech'ing:  When an opponent is constantly tech'ing throw attempts, and is blocking all my strings, options seem exhausted.  The alternative becomes attacking during their tech.  Say that an attempt to tech is whiffed.  This would make my opponent stand (the animation happens), and also give me time to punish during the recovery of the throw.  Nonetheless, it hammers the idea that my opponent needs to second guess himself (to tech, or possibly eat a combo).  This is a bit of an "advanced" way of thinking, however it is needed at top level play.  

Throws come out real quick, in 3 frames meaning jabbing out of a throw attempt is nearly impossible...at times I'll even hear my jab come out and still get thrown.  It's even more stupid when I attempt to c.mk out of it and SEE my c.mk animation come out however STILL get thrown.  Basically if you don't want to get thrown, you must tech.  The main challenge with tech'ing in SF4 has to do with when to tech.  Think about it like this, on tick setups it becomes very difficult to realize when to tech after a set amount of blocked hits.  Do I tech after the first tick?  The second?  Or do I tech after the crossover?  This becomes important to know because if I choose to tech during the wrong time, I could potentially set myself up for 1 of 2 things: getting thrown after my mistimed tech, or potentially setting myself up to be combo'ed.  Basically a mistimed tech can give my opponent options and opportunity.  

I think this'll wrap up my thoughts on throws for now.  There are still things that I need to test out and learn about however I think this is a pretty good start.