I want to get better but I'm bad. Help?

[Normally Ky]

As the title says, I'm mostly fishing for advice for how to improve myself so I can play more consistently. My go-to characters are Katarina, Gran and Ferry and I play the first two well enough to reliably beat my B rank friends who play half the roster with no preferences.

If you want to know how good I am at this to give you an idea of where I am, read this part.
I am inconsistent at defence and evasion but can corner pressure and corner combo pretty well, my reactions are unusually bad that I will probably facetank a soriz R1 thrown out in neutral from its max distance. I cannot plan on the fly and my self-esteem doesn't exist.

Here's a list of my known issues. Any serious help for them is greatly appreciated. I don't care about climbing higher than C, I just want to not be so obvious and have less to the wire games.

-I don't know what to do when stuck in the corner aside from just block and burn bravery points on counters.
-My friends can reliably hit me the frame I get up from knockdown but I can't do the same to them unless I DP. I don't like to use supers because I'll need them for DPs.
-If I play aggressive I regret it because I'm 85% the one who gets hit first. While I mostly play reactive or keep them away, people are easily able to react to the second I try to be proactive to the point where I just don't bother beyond jumping in (which they will quickly count on me to do and will punish with supers) until they're cornered.
-How do you even fight Siegfried? I don't get how you punish anything he does because his buttons are gigantic and he always fights you at the range he chooses, you don't have any say or at least not for long. I don't understand how to fight the character because playing them in the lab doesn't really reveal much. I wouldn't care so much about individual character matchups but because Siegfried is so insanely popular I have to either rip the band-aid off or wait for balance changes, whenever those feel like turning up.

[Shadowanbu]

Based on what you've identified i would say your ability to recognise gaps in your opponents offence is your biggest weakness. When i first started out, my offence game was weak because I wasn't used to the offensive structure but I still climbed higher without it because I knew when to mash out or punish the opponent's mistake (though with poor damage combos). So i would say work on recognising when it's your turn.

For whatever character you're having trouble fighting, use training mode to figure out the character's plus frames so you know when it's safe to mash out (In the option menu, you can turn on the option to display frame adcantage).
Blocking until your opponent opens themselves up will take you far in the early stages.

Here's a tip to help ease the process.
Auto combos are always negative and can only be canceled into specials.

GLHF!

[Fish]

Heya, for your specific questions:
- When you're in corner, the first thing you'll wanna do is not to panic and actually pay attention to what your opponent is doing. DO NOT mash on wake up. When in doubt, always block first and look out for what your opponent is doing. If you are a character who has DP, and you anticipate your opponent to oki, then DP is a good answer. Otherwise, not a bad idea to simply block first and observe for gaps. When you ever go into a situation where you're seemingly unable to find any gaps (likely against a rushdown type of character), then go to the replay section and watch the game in slow motion. You'll need match up specific knowledge to know what are the gaps you're looking for.
- Your friend is likely setting up meaty. This you can practice in training mode. The idea of meaty is to start an attack slighly earlier just as you're getting up so that the active frame of the attack lines up exactly the moment you're up. If you know your friend will meaty, DP is a great answer, otherwise simply block, or even spotdodge (if the attack is a c.h).
- If you're overly aggressive, you can become predictable. Sometimes, your opponent isn't always reacting. They might just be anticipating you to always be on the offensive hence they can easily answer with a counter play of their own if they know what their options are. You'll want to always change up your game plan. Becoming predictable is the worst situation you can ever be in. An example to catch your opponent is by faking your advance. Dash towards them only to suddenly move backwards. If your opponent tried to DP or throw, then you've successfully baited them and now it's your change to punish them.
- Siegfried is strong and he has long reaches. However, he is rather slow on start up and movement. Try to exploit that by hitting him out of his start ups, dodge his unblockable and punish. Don't take unnecessary risks if you're some distance away from him as he can easily outpoke you with his big buttons, but likewise, if he whiff, you can go for whiff punish.