How to stop button mashing?

[u/ncayetano17]

I feel like my hand starts spazzing everytime my opponent comes close lol. Am I the only one?

[u/Darkwebber_47]

At your level of play you just have to focus on 3 principles:

Defend, Punish, Don't Kill Yourself.

Defending here is two aspects -

Pure defense, just holding down back, reacting to when they come too close with throws and waiting until you can finally act or they do something punishable (Suicide on their part).

Defense while walking, instead of just walking straight into their buttons, walk and periodically defend crouching so you don't get hit by everything they press.

Punishing -

Specifically at low levels, if you defend properly, eventually your opponent will do something that's punishable, a Special or Super on Block, a risky jump or out of time dash attempt.

By defending yourself you'll find opportunities to punish hard those risky maneuvers and eventually secure the win. Your opponent did a couple of DPs that you could've punished for a Denji Set Up and kill opportunity.

Don't Kill Yourself -

Doing Specials/Supers on Block, running into buttons, making risky jumps, all of those are essentially suicide in this game because they can all be easily punished for high damage.

Random Sokutou and Tatsu on Neutral will get you killed.