KOF space control

Space control is primarily two things: seeing possibilities and making decisions. There's not a lot of precision to it, it ultimately comes down to feeling and prediction.

Seeing possibilities is about 60% of the neutral game. Say you're fighting against Terry: "If he did a LP burn knuckle right now, would you be hit? Do you think he'll do a burn knuckle right now? What about the HP or EX one? Should you jump out of the way? But what if he does a power wave, or a hyperhop D? Are you in the way of those? What if he superjumps? Do you know which of your options can counter his? Should you do it now or in a moment?" - This is an example of what you might think when fighting against a Terry player.

As you can see, you can never really know what your opponent will do in the next moment. So the other 40% is making the decisions to take action. "I think he will hold down-back and wait for my jumps. So I'm going to run straight at him and see if he flinches. If not, I'll go for a running throw" or "I think he's going to try zoning me with power waves. I'm going to stand at a range where crack shoot will whiff and see if I can bait him to moving into my area, while neutral jumping the power waves". There are many ways these strategies can be beaten, but it comes down to what decision the Terry player makes now, since you've already made yours.