been flying freestyle for like 8 months and i can do split s, dives, powerloops no problem but for some reason nose in circle just refuses to work. i keep drifting and losing orientation halfway through. im on a 5inch running betaflight 4.4 and the tune feels decent for everything else. is this just a practice thing or am i missing something fundamental about how to think about the maneuver

honestly its almost entirely a practice thing but the way it clicked for me was to stop thinking about the sticks and just stare at the nose the whole time. like really commit to watching where the quad is pointing and let your hands follow. took me maybe another two weeks of just drilling it slow before it started feeling natural. also helps to do it higher up so you have time to bail if it goes sideways

same struggle lol. what rates are you on? i found when i dropped my yaw rate a bit it gave me more time to think during the rotation and i stopped overcorrecting so much