Combos used in this tutorial:
cr.lk, cr.lp, cr.mp xx fireball
cr.lk, cr.lp, cr.hp xx hk hurricane kick
Now it's time for you to learn to "hit confirm". There is a reason why I made you practice those two specific combos, it is because they set up a nice decision tree for hit confirming with Ryu. Hit confirming is when you figure out if the opponent is blocking within the first few hits you throw out of an attempted combo, then depending on if the hits land or if they're blocked, you go into a safe blockstring or a powerful combo.
Blockstring = a combo that is blocked by the opponent the entire time, but you finish the combo anyway in order to build up super meter and to keep pressure on the opponent.
Hit Confirm Practice Setup: Go into training mode, set the dummy to to "random block". Usually you'd use "autoblock" if you're just practicing combos, but for hitconfirming we need random block. Choose the black colored ryu outfit (if you're using his original, and not a DLC outfit) because after you get this down you're going to be a fucking badass and you want to look the part. This is the most important step, actually.
Hit Confirming: Both of the combos I showed you start out with lk, lp. Why would I include such meager attacks into supposedly "good" combos when you could be using much more powerful attacks? It is because the only real function these hits have is to test the opponent to see if they are blocking before going into more powerful hits.
With the dummy on random, do the first two hits (lk then lp). If the dummy blocks the first lk attack, then after lp go into mp xx fireball. You want to do this combo if the opponent blocks because it's mostly safe. There are a few characters in a few situations that can punish you in-between the mp and fireball, but 95% of the time you will not get punished using this blockstring.
If the dummy gets hit by the first lk, then after the following lp go into cr.hp xx whirly whirl sky kick. This combo does significantly more damage than the other combo, but "on block" (if the opponent blocks) it is very easily punishable. You could end up eating a damaging combo, a super, or an ultra. Because the risk is so great, for this type of combo you NEED to make sure it's going to land. That's what the first lk is for. The following lp is there to give you a little bit of time to react to whether or not the first lk hit, and then make a decision as to whether or not to end in a fireball (safe on block) or hurricane kick (damaging but unsafe on block).
Eureka! Now you know how to hit confirm effectively, now you just need to practice the shit out of it. You should do a solid couple of hours of practice hit confirming in training mode whenever you have the time, then after that practice it for a little bit as part of your routine whenever you hit up training mode (which is hopefully a decent amount of time since you're new and you're soon going to be a fucking Ryu monster).
Note #1: ALWAYS start out the hit confirm with lk. You might be wondering, "why can't I just do lp, lp--hitting one button twice is easier than hitting two buttons?". The reason is because lk can only be blocked low while lp can be blocked ANY way. Sometimes you'll catch the opponent blocking high and hit them with the lk, whereas if you were using lp, they would have blocked the entire combo.
Note #2: You may have noticed that sometimes, depending on your positioning, your cr.hp whiffs completely in the hurricane kick combo. Hits nothing but air. Over time you will learn the positioning, and when the cr.hp will whiff. When you know it's going to whiff, you can substitute cr.mp, which is slightly less powerful, but has longer horizontal reach. Don't worry too much about this yet, right now you need to get the concept of hit confirming put into practice without worrying about substituting moves (which will become somewhat important later). I'll have a section on advanced block strings later.
Go, my young world warrior. Face the challenges that await.
