Some questions on how to improve

[kysg]

Some of these questions may already be answered and I am gonna sit down and read those, I just want some different perspectives as well.
I got a few questions.

Remembering these battles, lets see
I fought a guy using Kensou, Joe, Robert.  I'm still getting used to kensou and joe, The guy had Daimon, elizabeth, and Iori.  I beat him the 1st time, just barely.
2nd time he came in with Clark, Daimon, and Iori, kept it pretty close but lost after taking a dm because a of short hop.
3rd time it was a clear runaway with Iori, beat clark and daimon, just couldn't get past the short hop of Iori, oh yea I only had 1 stock and he had 3 so I'm questioning my meter management and aggression factor.
I don't remember the specifics, but 1 thing did bother me was diamons neomax, he pulled a max cancel, and man if felt pretty lame.
Then I played a guy who used Athena, Leona, and Kula
I had a gut feeling I would not get pass Kula, this guy's leona was way better than what I expected.
When going against athena i took a dp on wakeup 3 different times, that was the key things that bugged me.  I do remember respecting it the 1st time, actually I know what I did wrong I didn't use short hop, but hmm for some reason I don't think this is effective though,  maybe timing is off...
With leona it was baltic launcher a lot, then a jump cd, I can't remember the exact sequence but it was tricky, I was at a distance, and had to rely on projectiles because leona is troublesome up close.
Anyone familiar with it's recovery time?
Yea got jacked pretty badly vs. Kula and I had robert as my anchor with only 1 stock, I know exactly what went wrong pidgeonholed myself in the corner, made 1 bad move and then it started it.  I tend to favor defense over offense sometimes but maybe too much, any suggestions? Be totally reckless next time and use no defense at all?

So I guess in turn
I have a bad aggression factor
Need to work on short hop more
oh yea any suggestions vs. Jump CD I keep getting busted up.  I want to say the answer is standing A but I dunno.
oh yea any notes on how to deal with kula, I find her tricky and moves hit either high or low, which makes her tough to defend against.
also pondering my normals...I do cr.B cr.b but usually can't follow it up with anything good at least for kensou.

[solidshark]

From what I've read, I'm gonna say yes, you need more offense. Stay out of the corner as much as possible. Devote a bit of time specifically to get shorthops; they'll be very important for your offensive strategies. I don't recommend using st.A to counter j.CD; don't know who you often play, but if your characters have a cr.C like Ryo and Robert, I'd use that.

Kula to me is part keepaway, part combo flowchart. You'll usually run into the same starts of her combos, like cl.C, cr.B(x2/3). I'd always be ready to block or take advantage of her whiffed Crow Bites (dp)

For Kensou and normals, the best thing to do with cr.B(x2) is to follow up with his rekka. st.D is a good anti-air by itself, st.B~st.C is good to combo off of, and st.CD catches a lot of players off guard with how good it is (almost as good as Hwa's st.CD to me).

Don't forget Joe's normals are short but hit pretty well. If you're not zoning with Hurricane Upper a lot, use that tactic every once in a while (but not too often against a Kula or Athena).

I might have more to add later, but hope some of this is helping you out.