The more I play SF the more I realize how mindless I am when it comes to a match. I would like to ask the more experienced players what they are thinking and looking at when they are playing a match. Also how do people put a strategy together for their character before they go online?
Start by making a flow chart.
I think the thing that has helped my game the most is to make sure that whatever position im in its one that im comfortable in. Whether im down to 15% life vs an opponents 95% or am in the corner against cammy i first and foremost focus the most on keeping my cool. In practicality an example of keeping my cool like this would be if i was significantly down on life against a ryu (vs my rufus) i wouldnt focus on landing a risky j.hp or divekick and instead focus on walking the opponent to the corner. Playing methodically like this will allow me to find better opportunities for attack (hitting with a well timed close up dive kick rather than guessing with jump ins) and maybe lead to a mix up if i can get them to the corner.
I found that in the past when i would lose the most would be when i would constantly go for things like j.hp or random ex messiahs when i got close enough. Its incredibly tempting to go for the high risk move, a random jump in/dp/etc often will lead to quick damage and a knockdown more quickly than walking someone to the corner, and if someone is turtling it closes the game incredibly quickly. This being said unless they either throw out a bad move or are stupidly off their guard you are going to get anti aired or punished and start out in a position worse than you were originally in.
During a match im thinking less about the technicality of the game, like anti-airing and combos,these are things that should be second nature. So the advice i would give to you to prepare for online matches is to practice (shocker!!!). Practice up on your combos, anti airs, safejumps, etc so that when you do pit yourself against someone else you will immediately be able to punish stupid crap they do without thinking and instead focus on playing footsies, finding a way in, and where you want your character to be in relation to theirs.
So, if you dont feel like reading that entire tidal wave of text ill highlight the main points for you here:
1.) Always remember to keep your cool, Constant Hail Mary = BAD
2.) Practice technical things such as combos and anti airs beforehand so when you get in a match you can focus more on intangibles like space control, footsies, and making reads.
3.) Have a general idea of what you want to do against different characters in the cast (as simple as stay far away from gief, or dont let cammy divekick me too much)
4.) Most importantly, dont become frustrated if you lose a lot. You have to lose to get better, its something everyone goes through and believe me, when you do eventually end up getting those wins it just feels that much better.
Lastly, to highlight how just focusing on being comfortable is important watch the video from 1:57 onward.
Even though justin literally had a pixel left he still makes sure that he’s playing HIS game. He’s not flustered, even though he has the crowd behind him and is within chip range of dying. When in troubled waters Whenever you’re playing just breath and think, where do i go from here?
Cheers for that, I will take it on board and try and puy them into practice
Make the flow chart.
How do I do a flow chart?
The most basic is A --> B. A is the situation. Think about what options you have for that particular situation. Repeat for the most common situations.
Obviously you already know that if you do B after every A it’s very predictable. Any way to make it less predictable?
granted i think most of knowing what to do comes together from playing the game a lot until you have a feel of what every character does well and not so well. Granted I’m new to IV also but rewatching matches and practicing execution, situations, and playstyles you’re not too good with against people helps pretty well. When I rewatch matches I tend to look at what the opponent does and then look at what I am doing and see if it worked or failed. I main Ryu online (Cammy and Dudley if I’m playing with friends offline, they suck more than me 
) and I suck balls at zoning and some inputs right now so I’m mainly working on that in training and matches. An example of a situation I try to work on is trying not to get cornered a lot (fierce tatsumaki helps but it’s predictable) and finding times where my opponent is vulnerable because if I block most of the match I end up missing many opportunities, but if I play a bit more offensively I tend to lose my cool if shit doesn’t work, so i try and find a balance. Also it sounds obvious but people in low levels tend to not have a variety of characters, I find most people lower than 1000PP play Juri ALOT. It might be different depending on console service (XBL and Steam here) but most of my matches on both have been against Juris with a Gouken thrown in every now and then