all my practice just hasn't been helping me

i just can't seem to be able to play at the lvl i want to play at. Every time i think ive figured out how to better use my characters i find my self fighting someone who seems like they already know what i'm gonna do. It just really pisses me off so much when this happens and makes me wanna quit this game :/.

It sux because i know a lot, i just can't put it in to practice during my fights. ugh

Well that's only normal if you play somebody better than you that they will be more developed, making better reads and trying to prevent you from doing what is optimal for your character in that particular match.

Also if it's online play you are talking about....then that's another level of stupid. Nothing works there, so don't beat yourself up over it.

I barely play online....if I have nobody to play offline I keep hammering it out vs expert arcade to sharpen up my reactions and what not, so I can deal with AA better, counter poking etc.

i need to learn matchups better, my kitana actually lost to a sub zero 1st match :/ i came back 2nd match, but it still pissed me off so bad. i shouldn't be losing that matchup x.x

The only way to get better is by fighting a better opponent.

Just keep playing.

at first i tried zoning him, but he was just ducking the whole time so it was going no where, tried to come at him, but that didn't go to well so i had to come up with some kinda stupid dance where i'd go close but not too close and then back again to try and make him take a step towards me and walk into a fan. it was just so annoying. It actually worked for me second match but still, it was a long dragged out fight.

Long, dragged out fights are great. It sounds like you just need to be more patient.

is that even how im supposed to fight him? :/

dude that's how you need to play nowadays. the walking in and out stuff is not just for show, you are in that area where you want to bait an attack and then whiff punish, and Kitana can whiff punish into huge damage by using 21 or F21.

Against Sub Zero, you have an easier time getting the life lead, get into D1 range and your poke will win so get some chip and throw instant air fans. When you are near the corner find the right time to use square boost or jump over (I stress you must find the RIGHT time) and then get to the other side and lame him out. That's how you will win this particular MU.....fighting Sub is always "boring" no matter who you are (I enjoy it though lol). If you see Sub Zero is D4 happy, blow it up with a well spaced F21 or jump kick into fan. When cornered, time a square boost or just get out like most characters. If you are struggling, make the most of the armour on EX square boost. Kitana has every advantage possible so exploit them, no matter how boring the MU might be or how long it'll take. If you wanna jump in and do some big style combos and play with reckless abandon, you will get blown up.

Losing = learning.

It's important to analyze your losses so you can understand what exactly it is you need to improve. Were you too aggressive? Throw out too many unsafe moves? Not mixing it up enough? etc.

The more you play, and the more you lose, the more you'll learn what works and what doesn't.

And your second post basically just described baiting, that's what you need to do in some cases. Not every opponent will blindly walk into fans.

Playing people better than yourself helps tremendously.

Dude, I'll say something that I saw in another forum, and helped me in the beginning.
In fighting games there are 3 parts to train, and if you only train your moves execution, you're missing 2/3 of your game.
- Execution: You learn in practice mode, trainning your BnBs, corner and midscreen, also your character's shenanigans and other stuff, you have to know how to deal with every situation, air to air punch, after AAing, after neutral punch, etc... If you play online, I highly recommend you find more practical combos in that mode, since the delay is very high, or start playing offline, by trying to get people close to you in to de game mechanics.
- Strategy: That thing you just can't practice in trainning mode, you just have to know it in theory, and how to apply it in a fight, you have to know that you can do, with Kitana (for example), Iafs and then when your opponent is duck without block in footsie distance, you can blow them up with f1 2. Or that after 3 3, you can either cancel in to fan, to catch him trying to jump, poke with d3, b2 to cause your opponent's poke to whiff, etc....Strategy is about knowledge of the match, what are your options, and your opponent options, and trying to apply them. You just can't practice that in trainning mode, so here, you'll need to know the theory and have a real match experience, if you're losing against Raiden, for example, try to find someone that plays him, and figure out what to do in all kind of situations, here you'll have to lose, lose and lose, but it doesn't matter at all, you're practicing. What I do, when I have no clue of the matchup, is just watch him, in the first round, just do your things in "auto-pilot" and pay attention of what they're doing, so you can formulate a strategy. And is based on this that we go to the next 1/3 of what needs to be your game.
- Adaptation: I'll give and example, outside of mortal kombat here, to explain this, when Daigo came to the East, to play SSFII, there was some characters, in the arcades version that didn't existed in japanese's arcades, so in the first place he just lost every single match against these characters, but after 3 or 4 times losing, that was it, he started to win, win and win. And you have to agree with me that this is not Execution or Strategy, he adapted his game, just by watching his opponents in the middle of the match, so you adapt to figure out an strategy against it, if your opponent is easy to read, your adaptation becomes more fast and easy.

So basically, what I'm saying is, 2/3 parts of your game, you learn by losing, so lose, lose and lose, a winner is a winner, but when your opponent wins he didn't learn a thing, and better than that, he's teaching you, and telling what you're doing wrong.

PS: Sry about the book I just wrote

The most important thing I find to getting better is adapting to the opponent after a few matches. Most people that are good and practiced usually have a pattern.

i try to stay away from patterns and go for randomness, yet somehow they're still able to make the correct reads. The only reason i took the second match was because i noticed that he was doing 21 21 pressure a lot with sub, so i let him do it a few times to make him think he could get away with it, and then the next time he tried i jumped out after the 21 and blew him up with f21 and was able to have the momentum swing to me.

What's ur online tag

Care if I help?

I can record and post the videos and point out at every second a recommendation or advice

What characters do u use

well right now my triple threat is Kitana, Reptile, and CSZ, im planning on putting CSZ as a side character in favor of kung lao to make my team more well rounded. i was trying to make a team of 3 characters with the 3 different character play styles Baiting/Footsies, Zoner, and Rush down, altho in that case would reptile be in the same catagory as kitana? does that sound like a well rounded team to u?

The matchup imo is 6-4 Kitana, others say 7-3 Kitana, regardless, it is not 10-0. If you lose, so what?

Also, online really shouldn't make you feel worthy, or like shit.

Just keep playing.