I can shed some light on the whole hold vs. relaxed thing, and why higher tiers have more hold. I noticed it while trying to beat xhiba's time in masochist wushu. Basically, long low low comebacks are exceedingly difficult to pull off while relaxed. Gravity pulls relaxed limbs down, for example if you're pushing off with one leg and leave most joints relaxed, some of the upward energy keeping you above the ground is absorbed by relaxed joints. Which causes, most often, some kind of dragging to occur. That is strategically a useful thing, because many rapidly set up cbs is better for precisely aiming an attack, as you have the ground to alter yourself. With a long low hold cb, the ground is less easily used that way, because you aren't already dragging on it. But the single cb is faster, because the dragging doesn't slow you down. Another interesting thing is that the launch itself is faster in relaxed. So for cbs that don't need to be far, it makes less of a difference using hold or relax; It may be quicker with relax, though it's only a few frames most of the time. I'm gonna stick with relaxed for the most part, but I might throw in some hold cbs when I feel like it, with this new evidence.
Last edited by rcarey; Nov 10, 2012 at 01:35 AM.