What type of opponent should I be looking for…
A player that’s ranked near what I am (I’m ranked Silver),
or a player ranked much higher (Platinum to Diamond) than I am?
Regardless, I’m just getting wreked all the time, and I need to improve a lot.
If you want to improve, find someone you can fight all the time who is above your skill level and fight them. You getting your ass whooped will lead to you learning, because you’ll be learning what’s hitting you and shit. If you can, find a partner that can tell you what you’re doing wrong, helps a lot.
Don’t constantly fight people that Pummel you though. Find someone who you could beat every once in a while but still constantly gets the upper hand.
This way you’ll be able to understand why you are losing, if you get thrashed by someone much better every round you won’t learn a lot.
Anyone is fine, honestly. I mean, sure, it will take longer if you’re getting trounced by someone who placed top 8 at EVO or beating the everliving shit out of someone who can only hit a DP 30% of the time, but you can still learn shit by looking at what you’re doing. Are you consistently getting punished when you use a certain move? Maybe stop doing that all the time, because it clearly isn’t safe. Do you always get jumped in on? Focus on hitting your anti-airs, maybe even to the detriment of your other stuff. Do you end up in the corner constantly? Learn to take the offense and stop backing up all the time. The only real danger is playing someone so bad they can’t deal with unsafe shit, which might teach you bad habits. But as long as you’re aware of what you’re doing, you should be able to learn something from playing anyone.
play everyone. if you get someone better than you you learn what does not work. If you get someone worse than you it’s combo and reset practice on a moving target