Forced Standing

Ibuki's crouching hard punch forcing Ling Xiaoyu to stand in hitstun.

A Forced Standing is a mechanic in modern Street Fighter games where the hit opponent is put on an upright position upon contact.

Description

Forced Standing should not be confused with Overheads, where the attacking character performs an attack that needs to be blocked standing. Rather a forced standing attack can usually be blocked low or high and even be an overhead itself. Crouching opponents are forced to standing during the hitstun in the following hits of a combo sequence.

Tactics

Due to the previous hit by Ibuki forcing Xiaoyu to stand, Xiaoyu is up rather than crouching for the jump canceled Tsumuji.

While for most characters this is simply aesthetic, some characters can depend on their opponent to be standing to do their most damaging (or basic) combos. Attacks that force standing help players not have to manually worry about the stand of their opponent before the initial hit connection.

Gallery

Attacks that force standing do the general hitstun animation of Xiaoyu in this image. The speed of the hit animation can vary on an attack by attack basis.

In this example, despite Xiaoyu cruching she can be seen getting hit standing afterwards. Then Xiaoyu can be seen going back to crouch. Forced Standing attacks change their stance if they are down.