Throw OS/Empty Jump Tutorial Draft

defensive throw OS/empty jumps

Try as you might, you can't anti-air every jump, and from time to time your opponent will get close to you. But this video will show you a simple trick which can help your defense. This was covered in Dandy J's excellent KOF tutorial (Link in the description!), but I want to expand on it slightly.

-intro image-
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When your opponent jumps at you, using the defensive throw OS (option select) can stop them from attempting an empty jump throw or low.

-show the OS working against throw-
-show the OS working against empty jump-

If you're not familiar with the term, an option select is when one series of inputs can have multiple outcomes, usually with any of them being good for you.

With an opponent jumping at you, at the moment your opponent lands next to you, input a throw. Since you are probably already holding back to block a possible jumpin, you can just press HP or HK, which is pretty easy!

If you time the button press right and your opponent attempted an empty jump into a normal or throw, you will throw them or break their throw. If they did a jumping normal, you'll just block it since you didn't press the button yet. Pretty cool, huh?

-show same examples in slo mo-

Keep in mind that this isn't bulletproof. There is a solid counter to this strategy.

Put yourself in the shoes of the attacker. To counter this option select, you need to input something that is invincible to both throws AND attacks at the moment you land. Remember that that when you input a throw, if the opponent is unthrowable for whatever reason, you will get your close HP or HK, so as the attacker you must beat both of these at once.

The two simplest ways to do this are with an invincible command grab (if you have one) or your best wake-up move.

-using different characters, show the same situation with the attacker winning-

As you can see, even if you're able to finish an empty jump, the defender doesn't have to take as much risk as you to prevail in that situation. You don't want to be throwing out uppercuts and command grabs too much! It may seem like empty jumps aren't terribly useful.

-show low risk way of avoiding jumpins which negate going for empty jump mixups-

But that's not true! If your opponent is knocked down, empty jumps can be one of the most potent mixup tools in the game, and I'll show you how.

If you can get a hard knockdown (one that cannot be quickrolled), you can use well-timed jumps to try to make your opponent guess between a high or low attack. Try to get your jumping attacks to hit as low as possible! Once they're scared of it, you can try going low!

-show normal throw into well timed jump attacks-
-show normal throw into low into combo-

To the use the empty jump low properly, you have to time a jump JUST A HAIR earlier than the jump you would use for a regular jumping attack in this situation. Can you guess why?

-show attempted low getting throw OS'ed-

See? The OS I previously explained will counter this approach IF your jump is not perfect. So hop into training mode and get it right! Just imagine what a good low into HD can do...

-show big damage combo from empty jump low-