I had issues with this as well, but you have to remember that this is an NRS game so a lot of the moves are dial a combos. Try inputting the button sequences as fast as possible or "piano" the buttons, committing to them. The moves should come out accordingly. Also, if you're very precise with your button inputs, turn off negative edge. Hope this helps.
Thanks, and yeah I have been getting the hang of it. The notion of having to input moves before your character actually does them on screen is really strange but it's something I can get used to.
I gotta say that the tutorials in this game are incredible. They're literally everything I want from a fighting game tutorial because they actually realise that people who are new to/inexperienced in fighting games need more than just "press x buttons to do y thing."