Air Throw

An Air Throw is type of throw in in the Street Fighter Series.

Description
Air throws are Grabs that can only be used in the air during a jump. They are the opposite of regular throws and Command Grabs in that they only hit opponents in airborne frames while the controlled character is in the air.

In modern games, the recovery of whiffed air throws are the remaining jump frames from when the controlled character attempts the air throw plus four "recovery" frames when the character touches the floor. Connected air throws do an animation where the connecting character attack their opponent or throw them to the floor.

While very similar, throws like Rose's Soul Throw or Hugo's Backbreaker are not air throws, Air Throws are classified as "Unique Attacks " that require the aforementioned input, while those are special attacks that make the user go to the air to grab an airborne opponent. Other similar attacks such as Zangief's Borscht Dynamite function similarly, however these are also special attacks and tend to have unique properties such as invincibility frames, and changed aerial trajectory. Air throws do not provide these changes.

Street Fighter II
Similarly to regular throws, Air Throws are fixed to a button. Characters that have already strong aerial attacks linked to an air throw have very powerful air to air games.

Street Fighter III
In the Third Strike Air throws have become inputs. This makes the player have to be more careful in their timing.

Street Fighter IV
In IV air throws have three frame startup. They also tend to have good hitboxes under the character model and don't extend the hurtbox much, making them useful against characters with lower jumping arcs. Air Throws tend to be great anti air options that score hard hard knockdowns with proper predictions. Air throws tend to be used to cut off opponent options such as Izuna Drop.

Street Fighter X Tekken
In SFXT air throws had 7 frames of startup and was brought down to 5 frames in the final patch of the game. In the final patch most air throws were buffed to 190 damage on a successful connection. Unlike regular throws Air Throws do not remove recoverable Provisional Damage. Air Throws are great for finishing off low HP opponents who try unsafe airborne tactics such as Switch Canceling a Shoryuken, where the controlled character can Air Throw the character switching out and the partner can not "save" the grabbed character.

Street Fighter V
In V Air Throws are functionally equivalent to IV without the hard knockdowns.