You can download an already made skin or you can click on the minecraft drop down menu and click pmcskin3d that takes you to their actually pretty awesome skin editor
FR. 1.8.9 players have a higher chance of getting carpal tunnel or something wrist related because of the insane clicking that they do. (it's not like i don't either, i also play bedrock and click A LOT.)
I have and that is the main way to get people in combos and at least shields negate ALL damage, unless you disable them, i suppose... but at least we have a variety of different weapons that we can use and a more robust and more advanced pvp methods. also, crystal pvp sucks on 1.8.9 since crystals do less damage.
I think that modern pvp is better because it is more robust and less spammy. i think that it is better because it has more variety then just spamming with a sword and calling it a day. 1.8.9 also does not have shields which is big and does not have mace or any other cool items.