i noticed the cause of my bad habits:
because of their built-in strengths, every character has a sort of optimal playstyle... and playstyles can sometimes be based on pace
i've noticed before that some characters can 'slow down the game' because of the way they move. i've experienced this with luigi, samus, and marths who fsmash a lot. their focus on pokes, priority, movement, and avoiding attacks, it takes a lot of concentration on spacing for faster but lower ranged characters like fox, sheik, or falcon to approach.
my 2 main characters are ic's and falco, and with all the thought i've put into getting rid of my bad habits with ic's, i noticed that my offensive habits are really not good for my ic's play.
when playing as falco, attacks are almost always better than his defensive options such as rolls or shield. his spotdodge, wd, roll, and shield actually make him MORE vulnerable than if he was to do something like a nair strafing backwards. heck, his best defensive option is his full hop. this is why, i feel, more laser-intensive falcos like mathos and lambchops don't do as well. his close range options are too good, and they can control the pace of the match. this is why when mango is shielding, instead of rolling he'll just short hop out and find a way to apply more pressure to his opponent. even when he is near someone, he just nairs or bairs toward them and spaces it perfectly, or even fsmashes people out of their dash dance. falco's offense becomes his defense
i think as ic's, i try too much to force my way into a hyper offensive playstyle. it's not that they shouldn't be aggressive, but it's just that i tend sometimes to just think on my feet and always play as if i'm playing a character like fox or falco. or sometimes when i'm playing against a puff or marth for a long time, i get TOO patient when i happen to face a spacie or a falcon.
i like ic's momentum because even though they have strong defensive options like nana blizzard or uair, their wd and dash attack are fast enough to apply pressure and mixup. they are a pretty balanced character, but i need to think more about the matchup at hand and ways to overcome my opponent using my strengths against their character's weaknesses. i also need to think about the strengths of the other character and ways to hinder them
tl;dr i think more, so i'm getting better. i'm not gonna lose the essence of wildnater, but i will try to stop playing ic's with a pace or thought process like i'm using falco.