roflcopter.
3S is random. check out this thread and become a Daigo:
KCXJ,
after reading your intial post, it sounds like you are getting drawn into other peoples game instead of having them play yours. You will probably lose to “dumb stuff” if you are not in control of the match in the first place. Instead of thinking so much about what move you can use to beat thier moves or something, try to think about how you can put them in a position where they cannot do those moves (or if they do they are not effective).
If I were you, id try to apply much more pressure to your opponent. It sounds like you are letting them get away with random shit that should be punished or shouldnt be happening in the first place.
Try to think of genreal stratgies that will keep you out of bad siutaitons.
for example…
Dont get close to Hugo on wake up. Punish his jumping moves with a dragon or just dash under him.
Keep Yun out of the air.
Keep more pressure on Urien, learn how to parry a tackle (you can do that, trust me), dont get thrown and keep him from charging too much meter.
If you are using Ken, a blocked EX Elbow from Alex can be punished with SAIII. Try to bait these EX Elbows with crouching jabs. Keep him at a distane so he cant get up on you and do power bombs and drop tims on your head all day long.
I mean, this is all pretty basic, but you really have to look at the situation you are putting yourself in and see what you can do to stop being in that position time and time again.
3s is a momentum game and if you just let the opponent roll on you w/o being agressive yourself you will miss your opprotunites to have them lose to dumb shit. 
GO for broke, lose a lot, and you will learn way around everything as long as you are actually -looking- for ways around it.
edit: I thought there was a dummy record in the triaing mode? Have you checked out the PArry Training option? I know you can do it in there.