okay so this might sound like a weird question but bear with me. ive been flying maybe 2 years, mix of freestyle on a 5 inch and some cinematic stuff with a cinewhoop, and i feel like ive kind of plateaued. i can do the basics, split s, power loops, i can hold lines okay but nothing i do feels clean or intentional, its more like im reacting than actually flying the maneuver if that makes sense.

i was watching some footage from pilots i really respect and theres this quality to it where it seems like every movement was decided before they did it, not like they were figuring it out mid-air. im trying to figure out how to get there. did anyone ever do like deliberate practice where you set specific goals for a session instead of just going out and ripping around. like actually thinking about one thing at a time and drilling it.

i tried doing just power loops for a whole pack the other day and honestly it helped more than a year of general flying. wondering if thats the move or if im overcomplicating it

yeah the one-thing-per-pack approach is basically how i got past that same wall. pick one maneuver, do it 20 times in a pack, land, think about what felt wrong, go again. sounds tedious but its the only thing that actually worked for me.

the thing nobody really talks about is the simulator time between sessions is where a lot of the muscle memory actually gets built. i know people say sim flying doesnt transfer perfectly and thats true, but if youre trying to nail the timing on a split s entry or figure out where youre losing altitude on a dive pull, the sim lets you just drill it without the consequence of a crash and without burning real packs. i use velocidrone mostly, liftoff feels a bit different to me.

the 'deciding before you do it' thing you described is real and its basically just pre-visualization. a lot of it is slowing down. like if you fly slower and more deliberately your brain has time to actually plan instead of react. then as the inputs get automatic you can speed back up and it still feels planned

im kind of in the same boat tbh. been flying about a year and a half and i feel like my crashes have gotten more boring which maybe means im improving but my best footage still looks kind of accidental lol. gonna try the single maneuver pack thing you mentioned. also curious what rates you run cause i wonder sometimes if my rates are too aggressive for where im at skill wise and im fighting myself