If you manage to land a super on the offensive side of things and begin initiating the attack, you’ll see that damage is taken off your opponent’s energy bar with each hit they land. However, if you manage to hit the heavy attack button with each strike – perfectly timed, of course – then you can actually land additional damage, making your super that much more effective. It’s just a matter of getting your timing down, but you can actually clean our your opponent’s health meter even quicker that way.
But there’s a flip side to that – your opponent has a way of trying to get less damage as well. They can time their hits with each time that your character gets hit, by pressing down on the heavy attack button. If you do it correctly, the damage will actually be lesser than originally intended, even though there’s still damage taken.