Fighting Game Terminology: Frame Data, Okizeme, Punish
Ten terms that decide more matches than any combo, each with a plain definition, a real example from Street Fighter 6, TEKKEN 7 or Mortal Kombat 11, and the mistake people make once they learn the word. Written for players who keep nodding along to commentary without quite knowing what the words actually refer to, and who would rather fix that in twenty minutes than twenty hours.
The vocabulary of fighting games is not gatekeeping, though it often sounds like it. Each term exists because a specific situation keeps happening and players needed a short name for it. Learn ten of them and commentary stops sounding like code.
The three numbers behind every attack
A move is not one event. It is a startup, a window where the hit exists, and a recovery you cannot cancel. Every other term below is a consequence of those three numbers interacting with the other player's three numbers.
| Phase | What the game is doing | Why it decides fights |
|---|---|---|
| Startup | Frames before the hitbox exists | Shorter startup wins a clash of identical attacks |
| Active | Frames the hit can connect | Trades happen when two actives overlap |
| Recovery | Frames before you can act again | A long recovery is an invitation |
Frame data
The full set of those numbers, plus how much advantage you get when the move is blocked or lands. A light punch in Street Fighter 6 typically starts in four frames. A jab in TEKKEN 7 is ten. That difference is why the two games feel nothing alike.
Plus and minus
After a move connects, both players recover. Whoever recovers first is "plus": they can act while the other is still stuck. Minus means the opposite, and it is a debt you pay in blocked hits. The common mistake is assuming damage is the goal. Being plus is the goal; damage is what you do with it.
Hitstun and blockstun
Hitstun is the freeze after being hit, long enough to combo. Blockstun is the shorter freeze after blocking, just long enough that a well-spaced follow-up keeps you defensive. Players who mash during blockstun are the reason "frame trap" exists as a concept, since the trap only works on someone trying to escape.
A blockstring is several moves in a row that all leave you plus enough to keep pressing. It ends when the attacker runs out of safe options and has to guess, which is the moment the defender gets their turn back. Mortal Kombat 11 prints the frame numbers in its move list, which makes this easier to see than to feel.
Punishment comes in two flavours
Punish
Hitting someone during their recovery, because you blocked the move that left them there. This is the reward for knowing a moveset. A blocked heavy attack with twenty frames of recovery is not a mistake on your part; it is an appointment.
Whiff punish
Hitting someone who attacked the air. Harder, because it requires reacting to a move that was never going to touch you, then stepping into range before the recovery ends. The mistake beginners make is punishing the whiff from too far away and arriving late with a slow normal.
Pressure after a knockdown
Okizeme
Everything you do while the opponent is getting up. You have a free turn and they have no options until the wake-up animation ends, so the question is what you place in front of them. Good okizeme is not a combo; it is a decision you force them to answer before they can play.
Meaty
An attack timed so its active frames land on the opponent's first wake-up frame. Done properly it beats almost everything except an invincible reversal. The confusion: meaty is about timing, not about hitting hard. A light attack can be meaty and a heavy can be badly timed.
Mix-up
Two options that lose to different answers, so the opponent has to guess. A low and an overhead is the classic pair. The mistake is calling any two attacks a mix-up: if one answer beats both, it is not a guess, it is a read, and the game is teaching them your habit.
Two terms that get misused
Footsies
The neutral game: both players walking in and out of range, threatening without committing. People use it to mean "poking", which undersells it. Footsies is the part of a match where nothing is guaranteed and every step is a bet on what the other player will do next.
Tech
Short for technical, and used two ways: escaping a throw by pressing throw at the right moment, or recovering from a knockdown with a quick rise rather than lying there. Context tells you which. If someone says "he teched it", they usually mean the throw.
Using this without a frame viewer
- Block a move on purpose, then try your fastest attack. If it loses, the move is plus.
- Block the same move, then try a slower attack. If that works, the move is very minus.
- Record nothing, write nothing. Two attempts per move is enough to sort a moveset into "never punish" and "always punish".
That is the whole practical use of frame data for a player who is not competing, and it takes an afternoon rather than a season. You are not memorising a spreadsheet, you are building a short list of attacks that grant you a free turn, and a shorter list of your own attacks that hand one back. The rest of this reference section covers the concepts underneath this one.
Frequently asked questions
What does plus on block mean in fighting games?
It means the attacker recovers before the defender, so the attacker can act again while the defender is still stuck in blockstun. Being plus does not deal damage by itself; it gives you a guaranteed follow-up if the opponent has no invincible option.
What is the difference between a punish and a whiff punish?
A punish hits someone during the recovery of a move you blocked. A whiff punish hits someone during the recovery of a move that missed you entirely. The second is harder, because you have to react to something that was never a threat and cover the distance in time.
Is okizeme the same as a mix-up?
No. Okizeme is the situation after a knockdown, where you control the pace and the opponent has limited options. A mix-up is a pair of attacks that require different answers. Okizeme often contains a mix-up, but the two words describe different things.
