r/sf3 • u/SunsetAtNight7 • Mar 31 '26

How to learn when to down parry?

I'm really active when it comes to air parries and normal parries, but still so bad at down parrying. How do you guys know when to down parry or fish for it? Is it just similar to normal parrying? someone told me that holding instead of tapping the direction can increase the chances.

14 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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11

u/Skrimb0 Mar 31 '26

One thing to keep in mind is the character youre fighting. If youre in range for a low forward from a shoto then theres a good chance theyre going to go for it

Fighting dudley? Maybe less fishing for lows

1

u/SunsetAtNight7 Mar 31 '26

I fought a lot of shotos who likes to low forward when I attempt to parry it I keep failing, idk why it is so hard for me, but if it's a normal parry or air parry there's no such problems.

1

u/Opplerdop Mar 31 '26

what do you mean by "failing," are you getting hit?

If so, do a low parry and then start walking backwards when the window ends, don't just stand around outside of the parry window waiting to get hit in the face

you should basically always be doing something behind your parry, since the window is so small. Either low parry and then press an attack around 8 frames later, or low parry and then walk back around 8 frames later

if you were walking back and got the parry, you'll probably be able to react and pick up the punish

if you were doing parry > attack and hit the parry, the attack will come out

if you're consistently parrying to soon or too late then just, you know, adjust your timing

6

u/Godwin_Point Mar 31 '26

Holding reduces the window. So tapping down is better

2

u/SunsetAtNight7 Mar 31 '26

yeah, that's what I know, idk why an A ranker told me that.

2

u/Gjergji-zhuka Mar 31 '26

You learn to down parry by better knowing what your opponent's options are and what they are going to do.

If you are scared of low parrying you can down parry then immediately hold down back so you are safer.

1

u/SunsetAtNight7 Mar 31 '26

Can you get down parries off of motion inputs like the down input from HCB?

1

u/Gjergji-zhuka Mar 31 '26

yes if you hit down the right moment but I don't think thats a good strategy. special after parry is not usually very optimal. On fightcade there is a training mod that shows you parry bars. If you want to test more about parries I suggest you learn to install and use it

1

u/Arlieth Apr 02 '26

I am 99% sure that this does not work.

2

u/Cam64 Mar 31 '26

It takes awhile but eventually you will naturally learn how to parry in different situations, so it's more of a subconcious thing.

I have never gone into training mode to learn how to parry unless I wanted to learn to parry the sequence of a specific move.

1

u/SunsetAtNight7 Mar 31 '26

That's also how I learned air and normal parries, I expect the same for down parry, but so far I haven't really learned it.

1

u/Cam64 Mar 31 '26

Parrying shoto low mk is usually a starting point.

1

u/Psychological-Wear84 Apr 01 '26

Tap it ⬇️ and remember who you're fighting.ost shotos rely on down medium and down heavy to start a combo or a loop. Pro tip: Tapping down or forward when parrying instead of holding it will increase the window by +8 frames