When we say a player "has control", we mean that he is ready to walk or jump or attack. A player who does not have control will not respond to your input (from keyboard or joystick). For example, when P1 is in his stand state, he has control, and will walk forward if you press the forward button. A player will typically not have control when he is in an attack state, otherwise you could just walk away halfway through a punch.

There is an exception to the rule, however. Sometimes you can let the player respond to certain moves even if he has no control. That is called a "move interrupt", or a "move cancel". See the CMD documentation for details.

We will frequently refer to a player's "control flag". A "flag" is a value that is either true, or false. If we say the player's control flag is true, then it means he has control.