Don’t hold back. I’ve found that’s the only way people learn. When you cut the trash and go in as agressive as possible, hit them with everything you got.
Considering online I’m typically playing ranked, I don’t hold back. IMHO if someone is really wanting to learn, showing them the higher extent of what some of these characters can do helps them see what tactics they need to look out for or would be good to adapt themselves.
I remember back when I was playing SF2 I would notice Ryu’s AI at higher levels would typically come at you with a jumping heavy kick and immediately follow up with a heavy sweep kick, which would almost always trip me up, but over time I started using the same tactic myself with a decent amount of success.
I’ve taught my kids how to play literally from scratch (push this button to make Mario move, you gotta jump to get past the goomba, etc) and when my oldest son took to playing KI I started him in the dojo doing special moves 10x in a row until he got them down flawlessly. And when we would play against each other I really wouldn’t go easy on him, partially because I was still learning this game myself, but now I still don’t go easy on him. He’s 12 now and halfway up the gold tier. Once someone understands the basic mechanics I really don’t see going easy on someone is doing them any favors. But that’s just me. But like I said, my POV is somewhat skewed because my meat & 'taters is ranked.
I’ve got a few different strategies I’ve concocted.
In ranked:
If I see a low level/rank player, I tend to gravitate towards characters I don’t necessarily specialize in. If I pick a character I’m not as good with, the win is more satisfying if I succeed, and the loss doesn’t bother me much. I tend to go for things that would be unsafe or easy to break because if they’re learning, they’ll fight back. If they go nowhere with it and mash/guess breaks or refuse to block, I get loads of damage.
I try to make it both entertaining for me and my opponent. If I pick a non-main character to fight them, I still get to try my hardest to fight and go for achievements I don’t have (because holding back can be boring) and the opponent has a much better chance of coming out on top.
With Friends and Family:
I tend to hold back a lot more with the people I play with in my personal circle. They often don’t own KI themselves or even a platform to get it on, so I know they probably won’t be taking the time to meditate on their lessons and git gud (or they’re really young). Since I want to keep these people coming back and playing with me, I go much easier on them. Ending lockouts prematurely, letting them get big life-leads, making choices in neutral that are easy to punish/stuff, and going for combos with less immediate damage pay off like some of the easier to read manuals. Trying to keep the fight even and maintain an air of tensity is key, even if it’s acting. I’ll still drop profanity and we’ll exchange taunts and teabags once in a while to make it seem like we’re still for realsies.
At the same time, if I have an opportunity to do something to show off for style or hilarious damage, like a wicked set-up or a counter-break, I’ll definitely go for it to remind them who’s boss. But I do try and help them improve as much as I can, and will often give them pointers on what certain things do. I want them to get better so we can play harder, of course! And hey, sometimes the ones mashing buttons accidentally get something really cool. Sometimes they break manuals or do cool set-ups completely by serendipity. It’s awesome to see people who aren’t spending hundreds of hours in the game having fun and doing cool stuff.
In ranked yeah, balls to the wall win at all costs but in general I don’t think being completely bodied really teaches a casual player anything. If I’m playing and some killer comes along and gets a perfect on me it doesn’t teach me anything other than that I might have anger management issues and discourages me from playing for the rest of the day. 
Interesting question.
I don’t play online, but a few days ago I invited some friends over to play KI. They were new to the game, so I gave them a quick basic tutorial at the start. They caught up rather quickly (especially when it came to combo breakers and counters) so that in a matter of hours, I went from completely wrecking them to losing against them in a couple of matches.
I held back in the first few matches, to let them get familiar with the buttons and characters, but that was it. Also, I’m not a “pro” myself, I just play for fun.
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Why is this community so hyper sensitive? Did my post get flagged just because i used the word rape? I dont see any other reason for it
I didn’t do it personally, but I would say yeah that’s probably why. If for no other reason, rape is a serious matter that really shouldn’t be trivialized, ever. There are kids on these forums as well, the youngest one I know of, though he’s not on here often, is my son, who’s 12. And although no one’s saying you can’t express yourself as you see fit, it is appreciated when we show at least some restraint and keep others on the forums in mind.
Kids shouldn’t be on the forums in the first place. Not a place for children.
Correct me if I’m wrong but you’re 14, aren’t you? I might be thinking of someone else.
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Maybe…depends on whose asking.
Why?
Why? I see no reason this has place has to be. If the kids want in, sure…just get older first. Problem solved.
Look. You said he raped you and teabagged you. See why? Lol Kappa. I don’t use the term but I don’t care if someone else uses it though. Depends on the person though.
Well, that’s great & all, but I suppose it depends on what you define a kid as. To me, teenagers still fall under kid status, so until you’re 18 & a legal adult you’re still a kid. And if we were going by that standard, you’d still have about 4 years, give or take, until you could start posting, assuming that this forum is for adults only, which it isn’t.
And that’s what kinda bugs me a little.
@WrathOfFulgore and @FengShuiEnergy Take this to Pm please. Thanks. Prefer this not to be derailed lol 
I was pretty much done anyway. 
When I first got online, nobody ever, ever went easy on me, I’d see Riptor players trap me in the corner with fire breath spam, counter break attempts from day one, triple ultras, teabag and taunt spam, nobody ever let up on me, so aside from attempting to be respectful, I don’t tend to let up on anyone now.
Since I mainly hang in exhibition, this causes a considerable amount of quitting from new players, but sometimes giving them an inch to secure a win results in some unsavoury behaviour in any case and you discover that what they lacked in match knowledge, they apparently made up by learning how to triple Ultra, teabag, taunt, leave and send you abusive messages though the xbox app.
I fought a level 30 something Arbiter last night, same rank as me, silver, managed to get 2 wins as Maya and he pulled one back on the third, first round of fourth match starts and I’m not doing so good, so I decide to get in with Mantis, he doesn’t block nor avoid it, I think "ok cool,so that works. "
So he empty jumps and I Mantis again, the same thing happens around 5 times and just as I get some health back, he quits and I’m sitting there thinking he could have saved himself from all that by just not repeating empty jumps.
Maybe he was annoyed at himself for getting caught by it, but as it was working I didn’t see a reason to stop, plus there are several ways to stop it and I’ve been swatted out of the air for trying it against Jagos.
The reason I mentioned this was that we were both the same player level, same rank and around the same character level, yet this player still seemingly quit on me, so I’d say it’s best not to switch up tactics for anybody, but don’t rub salt into the wound, you aren’t impressing anybody with that triple Ultra against that rank 1 qualifier.