Yeah, it's one of those muscle memory things (like most timing related shit in FGs). It's like learning an FRC: you look for visual cues at first, if possible, and then it eventually just becomes muscle memory.
On the subject of Ky from earlier posts: it's just fair to say Ky is a jack of all trades, but a master of none. He can do everything decently, be it rushdown, zoning, pressure, mix up, abare, damage, etc., but he doesn't excel in any of those things. Overall he's a pretty good beginner character, but if you want a character that does all those things, Testament is a great choice too since he's pretty much a S tier version of Ky.
Still, it's probably just best to learn the character you want to learn and stick with them from the beginning. The learning curve may be steeper than usual, but it'll be more rewarding toward the end.