I can't use any special moves yet I'm using a sidewinder gamepad and I know the moves but they either come slow or not at all and this happens in practice too. What should I do?

try the keyboard...

but, did it work fine for u b4? is it just THIS version, or all of them?

I was on the keyboard first and I was still struggling to get them to come out. I thought that it would be easier to use the gamepad so that I could slide my thumb across the directional pad but it isn't working in any case.