so ive been flying freestyle for maybe 8 months now and i feel like im plateauing hard. the quad flies fine i guess but when i watch clips of guys like Vanover or UAV Futures doing rolls and flips it just looks so... snappy? mine feels kinda floaty and sluggish by comparison. im on a 5inch with 2306 motors, running betaflight 4.4, rates are pretty high already i think. tried messing with the PID tune a bit but honestly im not sure what im doing there. do i just need higher D or is this more of a rates thing

rates and PIDs are completely different problems so worth figuring out which one it actually is first. floaty feeling mid-maneuver is usually a tune issue, specifically low P or not enough D to settle things. but if the sticks just feel slow to respond thats a rates thing. what are your RC rates and expo set to right now? also are you on actual RPM filtering or still running stock filters because that makes a massive difference for how snappy the tune can get

honestly i had the same feeling for ages and what helped me most was just flying smaller stuff. like doing tight juicy rolls around a single pole or a tree instead of big open field swooping. forces you to be more precise and you start to notice where the tune is actually holding you back vs where its just your own inputs being sloppy. not saying your tune is fine but sometimes its both at the same time lol