VF4 Fuzzy Guard

In the August issue of Arcadia there's an article on Fuzzy Guarding which I thought I'd share.

Fuzzy Guarding occurs during the While Standing state where you can both guard a mid-level attack and avoid throws at the same time. As you can see, to normally guard against a mid-level attack you need to be standing, but then you'll be vulnerable to high throws. With Fuzzy Guard you can protect yourself against both. The article then details three scenarios where Fuzzy Guarding is practical.

1. Recovering Back Turned

> During times when you've recovered with your back turned, you can apply fuzzy guarding. It is performed by holding

for 4 frames and then releasing to neutral while still holding

on the 5th frame. They illustrate this with an example using Lau's

which recovers Back Turned.

2. 50/50 or ~1 Frame Disadvantage

The second case occurs during 50/50 situations or at approximately 1 frame disadvantage. No frame numbers are given, but the method is essentially the same - hold

and then release to neutral with

still held. Given that throws need 8 frames to execute, and the fastest mid attacks are around the 13~14 frame mark, you could probably hold

for 8 frames to foil the throw and release to neutral to block the mid. You must take into consideration that throws have a hit-detection time of around 3 frames (from hiro's post) so try not to stand up into their throw. Again, the article doesn't go into hard numbers, so I'm just speculating. Feel free to add or correct. Oh yeah, one final note, if you're at a 2 or more frame disadvantage, you won't have enough time to crouch to avoid a throw. So that's why this only works on 0 or 1 frame disadvantage.

3. Recovering Crouching

The first two cases showed how you can fuzzy guard when you're in a standing state, by simply holding

for a certain time and then releasing to neutral with

still held. In this case, it can work when you're already in a crouching state. To perform it, you simply delay your standing up. You want to be able to stand up slow enough to avoid a throw, but fast enough to block a mid. The actual time you delay for is dependant on how many frames disadvantage you're at.

Vulnerabilities

Like other defensive techniques, especially the Escape-x series, you can counter this technique by simply delaying your attack or throw. Against fuzzy guarders, you know eventually they'll be standing and guarding, so if you delay your throw just a little, you should be able to nab them. But of course, this only adds to the mind games and setups, and deepens the strategy in VF.

Posted by Myke on 15/08/2004

Edited by Myke on 16/04/2005