balrog is a good character for beginners because he's easy to understand, like ryu
use his normals to play footsies (namely his sweep, st.fierce, and his jabs) and when you have control of the ground that'll make bad players wanna jump; that's when you use cr.fierce and headbutt as anti-airs for when they jump (cr.fierce for deep jump-ins, and headbutt for ones that cr.fierce can't reach)
also you can combo heavy and ex overhead rush punch into more stuff (at the very least, as a beginner you can combo into sweep; slightly more advanced, you can do HP/EX Overhead Punch, cr.MP xx HP Headbutt)
once you've spent more than a day or two on him it'll be worthwhile to learn headbutt into ultra; just end your headbutt motion in up-back and keep holding it until you land
the up-back counts for the back charge for ultra
(also when i say ultra i mean his first one; dirty bull is only good for reversals or joking around)
also!! things that, as a marvel player, i tend to forget in street fighter:
neutral jumping can be useful
backdashes have 7 or 8 frames of invincibility, don't be afraid to backdash on wake-up because at low ranks people aren't option-selecting that shit and it's a good safe way to get out of there
don't be afraid (especially as balrog!) to lame it out; if you're at 70% hp and they're at 15% and there's 25 seconds left and you're full screen away from him, let him come to you, you're already winning and have no reason to move
use his normals to play footsies (namely his sweep, st.fierce, and his jabs) and when you have control of the ground that'll make bad players wanna jump; that's when you use cr.fierce and headbutt as anti-airs for when they jump (cr.fierce for deep jump-ins, and headbutt for ones that cr.fierce can't reach)
also you can combo heavy and ex overhead rush punch into more stuff (at the very least, as a beginner you can combo into sweep; slightly more advanced, you can do HP/EX Overhead Punch, cr.MP xx HP Headbutt)
once you've spent more than a day or two on him it'll be worthwhile to learn headbutt into ultra; just end your headbutt motion in up-back and keep holding it until you land
the up-back counts for the back charge for ultra
(also when i say ultra i mean his first one; dirty bull is only good for reversals or joking around)
also!! things that, as a marvel player, i tend to forget in street fighter:
neutral jumping can be useful
backdashes have 7 or 8 frames of invincibility, don't be afraid to backdash on wake-up because at low ranks people aren't option-selecting that shit and it's a good safe way to get out of there
don't be afraid (especially as balrog!) to lame it out; if you're at 70% hp and they're at 15% and there's 25 seconds left and you're full screen away from him, let him come to you, you're already winning and have no reason to move