All throws on the ground, be they regular punch or kick throws, command grabs, or super throws, can be escaped by jumping into the air. Jumping is not an instant action, however. C-Groove, A-Groove and S-Groove have a jump startup of 2 frames from when an up command is inputted. P-Groove, N-Groove and K-Groove take off from the ground in 6 frames, to make Small Jumping useable. Characters with 360 commands take 5 frames to get airborne (if in a CAS-Groove) to make their commands useable on the ground.

For the laggy jumping grooves and characters, there is no disadvantage to leaving the ground 3-4 frames later than in the quick jumping grooves, when it comes to escaping throws. You would think that staying on the ground longer would make them more vulnerable to being grabbed, but that's not the case. From the very first jumping frame, all characters are unthrowable. If the character is a laggy jumper or using a laggy jumping groove, they are still unthrowable on the first jumping frame despite the fact that they won't be in the air for another 4 or 5 frames after the first. If hit during the jump startup frames, they will stay grounded, but otherwise are considered "airborne" when a throw attempt comes their way.

This is easily demonstrated by Maki's and Yamazaki's Level 1 super throws. Both have 4 frames of delay after the super flash and before the grab frame. Level 1 supers have 3 frames of time after the super flash in which any inputs by the potential victim are invalid, leaving one frame of input before the grab comes out. Provided the victim doesn't have an attack sticking out, they can simply hold up on the joystick as the flash occurs, and they'll hop out of there as the grab whiffs, regardless of the groove the character is in, and therefore how many jump startup frames they have.

The 360 characters (Zangief, Honda, Raiden and Rock) take 5 frames to complete their jump startup animation, so that a 360 motion for a command grab can be pulled off without them accidentally jumping. Once an up command is seen by the game, it first recognizes it as a jump attempt, and the character will go into their jump startup frames. However, the jump's startup can be cancelled into the 360 grab special move if game recognizes a completed 360 motion and a button input within the 5 frames that character stays on the ground.

Cancelling the very first frames of a jump with a special move isn't a property exclusively used for 360 motions. As it turns out, a jump can be cancelled with any special move. Because the engine allows for the ocassional flub in how a command can be inputted, an extra direction or two within a command will be overlooked, provided the original command was inputted completely and in the allotted time frame. For example, if you tried to do a simple Hadouken, but kept going and quickly did instead, you'll still find that the fireball comes out, even though you inputted a command to jump, and the Hadouken doesn't have an up command in it.

Adding it all together, if any special move command contains an up direction, that up direction will be first recognized as a jump attempt, thereby deeming the character unthrowable. If the grabbing frame of a throw attempt comes out while a character is beginning to jump, the grab attempt will miss. If the beginning frames of the jump are cancelled into a special move, the move will come out, even if the special move's command doesn't normally have an up direction in it. The result: Point-blank throws grab nothing, as the other character stays on the ground and attacks through the throw attempt.

C-Groove, A-Groove and S-Groove do not have Small Jumping as a subsystem, so they leave the ground in 2 frames. Since you need 3 total frames to take advantage of this exploit (1 frame for the jump to be first recognized, 1 frame to evade the grab frame of a throw attempt, and 1 more frame to cancel into special move), it can't be used by these grooves, as by the time the third frame comes, the character would already be in the air, unable to perform a ground-based special move. The exception for the quick-jumping grooves is to use one of the four 360 characters, Zangief, Raiden, Honda or Rock, which all take 5 frames to leave the ground, leaving a 2 frame wiggle room window to take advantage of the exploit.

Otherwise, P-Groove, N-Groove, K-Groove, with their 6 frames of jump startup time, give you the most room to work with, 3 frames. 3 frames is a lot considering that all grabs in the game only last for 1 frame. (The two exceptions are Athena's command throw of 2 grab frames, and Zangief's 360 walk-up kick throw with 25 to 33 grab frames. Athena's command grab can still be countered with good timing, but Zangief's cannot.) This little extra window means that all regular throws and command throws be avoided on the ground, as long as the first up input happens 1-4 frames before the grab frame of throw attempt. Even Zangief's instant-grabbing Spinning Pile Driver can be countered with a little quick thinking on the part of the avoider.

Super throws can also be countered in the same way, though the difference with supers is the super flash, which invalidates any inputs for a few frames after the flash is over. This means the up input to avoid the impending super throw must be inputted in the frame or two before the super flash occurs. Any inputted directions occuring before the super flash remain in the buffer during it, so after the flash ends and the grabbing frame of the super misses, the special move can be finished, cancelling the jump.

This can be done against every super throw at any power level in the game, with the exception of Maki's and Yamazaki's higher level supers, and the Raging Demon. The Level 2 and Level 3 input invalidation frames overlap Maki's and Yama's grabbing frame, so if you weren't already in the air when the flash started, you won't be able to input anything until after you've already been grabbed. The only way to punish their Level 1 supers is to use a special move that leaves the ground instantly. Otherwise, you'll be thrown out of the move. For Akuma, if you cancel a jump with a special move, he'll just grab you out of the move as well.

As for the practicality of use in competitive play, the only way you're going to be able to buffer a quarter-circle or half-circle command and end it with an up (which is basically the 270 required for a 360 motion) is to see a throw coming ahead of time, spin the stick in the desired way and with timing, then hope the throw misses in your window of opportunity and cancel the jump with the move you want. It's hard to do if not impossible on reaction, but if you see enough obvious tick setups or roll-in attempts that scream command grab or super throw, you may have enough time to react to it.

While this exploit won't make throws completely unusable, it's interesting to see another one of Capcom's measures for making their games easier and more accessible to the inexperienced, bring something out that makes the game a little more broken in the eyes of the advanced players.