I give up. I truly, truly, truly give up.
I'm punished for trying to vary my attacks and I'm rewarded for constant repetition of the same moves. I am not learning and neither are the players I play against. None of them try to slow escape or block, they just hold, at random points and swing through the air constantly. Or the simply spam strings on a blocking opponent for minutes on end.
I punish, I pull off 50% combos, I repeatedly use the same exact move every time, and they eat it, every time, and they hold every time.
If I try to vary my attacks. If I try to do something new in the match, if I change strategies or doing something unexpected, it is defeated every time. The players simply don't care, and I have no idea how to make them care.
I can see entire strategies for some players at the B rank level in my sleep. I know when exactly they'll do it, they've practically got it down to habit. And yet every time I punish it and every time I win the match and every time we match up again, they continue to use the same strategies and they simply will not work. And I have to deal with them in a very specific fashion, that's not helping me learn or improve. And I'm not sure if I can get it through their skulls that what they're doing isn't going to work on me.
I guess, that in and of itself, would be what I should try to do; find ways to make them look at what I'm doing and take notice. But I'm not sure that's the right kind of learning. I don't think know enough of the character(s) that I do play that I might be able to do something to completely and utter dominate against them. All I know is if I continue to fight them as I do now, I will not improve and I will end up developing bad habits that will be difficult to get rid of.
Maybe I should play a character I'm completely unfamiliar with to get some more perspective. Although there are few I truly like. Or handicap myself with the characters I do play by forbidding myself from using the moves I use often to punish. I can't say for certain. All I can say is, these players I fight against I will always lose to unless I fight them a certain way. And I want to improve and I want them to realize that the tactics they use won't work against me ( or least shouldn't, yet I continue to be caught off guard by their lack of understanding).