Wisdom

Shamelessly stolen from discussions on discord, here's the wisdom of our community.

Tracking
Tracking is the hardest skill to develop. There are two schools of philosophy: smooth tracking and flick tracking. As is usually the case, preference should be your guide. Both are useful in different situations. Flick tracking is making a large number of micro-flick corrections to where the target is over time. It is a reactive technique but, if done faster than the target can move, can result in apparently perfect predictive tracking. Smooth tracking is the "normal" or predictive method wherein one tries to smoothly keep the cursor headed to where the target will be at the same speed they are moving toward it. This video shows each off rather well.

Positioning
Positioning is the art of putting yourself in the most advantageous position during an encounter. Done well, this includes forcing the enemy into a disadventageous position at the same time. Positioning is how you beat aimbots. Here's a paper that explores the concept in great depth. The quick and dirty summary is that you should be farther from any peek point than the enemy is, you should be as close to directly underneath an enemy as you can be (when they are above you), and you should only assume high ground when your targets are at long to mid range.

Learning
Everything you think you know is wrong. The video is worth watching because the conclusions are very difficult to accept. That said, here are the takeaways. Improvements in short term performance are not indicative of long term learning or improvement.
 * your opinion about how well you're learning is inaccurate by up to an order of magnitude
 * because it's based on immediate performance improvement which is a very poor indicator of lasting improvement
 * the best way to learn is actually the way you perceive as least effective
 * because it doesn't produce very effective increases in immediate performance
 * the way to really learn is to interleave the lessons, environment, etc etc, very tightly (to the point of definite perceived inefficiency)
 * research seems to show that the more variables which are interleaved, to include time, the more effective the long term learning

Self Evaluation
Check out this video for some more details. The high level takeaway is simple though: you have to review not only your own, but other professional player's, game play. When doing so, keep in mind the lessons from above about general learning but also make special note of, You'll know you're doing it right if it's tedious and feels like homework.
 * 1) Check your Ego
 * 2) Don't blame failures on anything/anyone else - own the failure, completely, and learn from it
 * 3) Note the level of aggression throughout
 * 4) Too much is dangerous, too little is useless.
 * 5) Be aware of mechanical errors
 * 6) Things like aim and the like. Identify weaknesses and create a plan for addressing them.
 * 7) Break down the decision making at strategic points throughout the match
 * 8) Why? What were the events, the rationale, the mistakes that lead to X?
 * 9) Do this not only about your own videos but also for professional player's

Know Your Goal
If your goal is to see improvement and be better at the game you are playing with a few days practice, perfect! Focus on multiple 5 minute sessions of microshot throughout the day for a few days to a week. You will absolutely notice improvements in your aim.

If your goal is to achieve semi to professional levels of skill, good on you. The road is going to suck. And not just because you'll need to put in a lot of time, you will, but mostly because you won't feel like you're improving rapidly. In order to maximize one's improvement over the long term, one needs to focus not just on training but also on how one is training. If spending the hour to watch that video in the learning section was too big an ask, your real goal is not semi/professional levels of skill, and that's ok. Don't suffer if you don't have to!