Fighting Game Guide

The two ways of escaping throws are by jumping and throw teching. Pre-jump frames in most fighting games are throw-invulnerable and airborne characters can't get thrown by ground throws. Neutral jumping can punish failed throw attempts if performed early enough.

Throw Teching

When a throw connects, the defender has a short window to input the throw tech input to escape the throw and return the fight to neutral. Throw teching has a window and teching at the very start of the window or at the very end of the window gives the same result. Throw teching leaves the character vulnerable. The best players take advantage of every quirk in a game's engine to throw tech as little or as late as possible to minimize time spent vulnerable.

Every game does throw teching differently and every game leaves the character vulnerable in a different way.

The two things you need to know are:

1. What can you input and still throw tech?
2. What happens when throw tech fails?

What directions can you input during the throw tech window?
In Fantasy Strike the player can't hold any directions while throw teching. That means the player can't block while throw teching.
In Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition the player can hold forward or back while throw teching but not any other direction. That means the player can stand block but not crouch block while throw teching.
In Persona 4: Arena Ultimax the player can hold any direction while throw teching. That means the player can stand block, crouch block, or start jumping while throw teching.

What buttons can you input during the throw tech window?
In some games, only the throw tech input is accepted. In some games, the throw tech input with additional inputs is also accepted. In some games, the throw tech input does not have to be the first input during the throw tech window as long as it immediately follows the first input.

In Tatsunoko vs. Capcom the throw tech input is H but the game also accepts L+H, M+H, and L+M+H as valid inputs.
In Them's Fightin' Herds you can input multiple buttons before the throw tech input and the game accepts the throw tech as valid.
In Granblue Fantasy: Versus you can input a single action before the throw tech input and the game accepts the throw tech as valid.

What happens when the throw tech fails? Can you get the throw tech to fail differently?
In Garou: Mark of the Wolves a failed throw tech is a strike. You can press another button with the throw tech input to make a different strike whiff.
In Street Fighter V a failed throw tech is a vulnerable whiff animation with a lot of recovery. There's no way to change how it whiffs.
In Street Fighter IV a failed throw tech while standing is a whiff animation and a failed throw tech while crouching is a crouching strike. This is called crouch tech.
In Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] you can input an attack immediately before the throw tech input and the attack will whiff instead. This is called plink throw tech.

There are many throw tech option selects. An option select is an input that produces multiple outcomes. An example would be pressing heavy punch and heavy kick at the same time. If I'm in neutral I perform a heavy punch but if I'm getting thrown I perform a throw tech. That singe input produced multiple outcomes.

Delayed Throw Tech Exercise

Throws are very fast and impossible to react to in most games. Even though throw teching is a prediction more than a reaction, there are ways to minimize the risks. Delayed throw tech is the preferred method of throw teching. You are vulnerable when you throw tech, which means you want to block as much as possible then throw tech as late as possible. In Street Fighter V, throws connect on the 5th frame and the throw tech window is 7 frames. It makes sense for the defender to block for 11 frames then throw tech on the 12th frame.

Training mode time. Pick any character for Player 1 and Ken for Player 2.
Go to Action Recording Settings and record this:
Recording Slot 1: Dash, dash, throw (light punch+light kick).
Recording Slot 2: Dash, dash, crouching light punch, throw (light punch+light kick).
Recording Slot 3: Dash, dash, crouching light punch, crouching medium punch.

The goal is to not get hit or thrown. Crouch block then throw tech as late as possible. If you press the throw tech input while locked in blockstun, you continue blocking without whiffing a throw tech. This technique lets you tech throws while still blocking.

Delayed throw tech has its weaknesses. If you block for 11 frames then throw tech on the 12th frame, your opponent can delay an attack to hit you on the 12 frame. Or your opponent can shimmy to make your throw tech whiff and punish you.

You shouldn't always try to tech the throw. If the throw is low damaging and the punishment for getting shimmied is high damaging, you might want to just take the throw. If I'm playing a character with much better neutral than my opponent's and the throw resets the fight to neutral, I might just take the throw. Sometimes getting hit trying to avoid the throw hurts more than the actual throw.

Fuzzy Jump

Take advantage of every frame you don't have to throw tech. There are situations when characters cannot be thrown. It's common in many games for characters to be throw-invulnerable after recovering from hitstun/blockstun or waking up from a knockdown.

Players take advantage of this by blocking while throw-invulnerable then avoiding throws when the invulnerability runs out.

In Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, characters are throw-invulnerable for 9 frames after wakeup. Players block for 9 frames, jump on the 10th frame to avoid throws, input a shield in the air to avoid anti-air attacks, then go back to blocking.

In Street Fighter III: Third Strike, characters are throw-invulnerable for 6 frames after wakeup. Players block for 6 frames, jump on the 7th frame to avoid throws, input parry in the air to avoid anti-air attacks, then go back to blocking.

Both of these techniques are variants of a technique called fuzzy jump. The input for fuzzy jump is holding back/down-back, tapping up/up-back, then holding back/down-back again. Fuzzy jump defends against both attacks and throws.

The idea is to avoid jumping unless there is a throw. If the character blocks during the throw-invulnerable frames, they will be locked in blockstun and never jump.

While you can fuzzy jump in any game, doing so in a game with no defensive options in the air is risky because you are vulnerable in the air. Also fuzzy jump loses to delayed attacks. The attacker can avoid putting the defender in blockstun and delay an attack to hit the defender's pre-jump frames for a full combo.