EPTThe main thing is a simple concept that is hard to do:
SET GOALS. EASY GOALS.
This week I'm going to practice 3 gateway expand until I never mess it up!... And get hammered. Hey, he didn't wall in, I can just go kill him? No, that's not this weeks goal. Let him get his attack, defend it, get your expo, and win. Learn to defend the cheeses off this build. Now you know this build solid, you can defend every rush, every cheese, etc.
This week I'm going to practice constantly building probes! Put some kind of reminder around and JUST BUILD PROBES. Ok, you will forget units, but whatever. After 10 losses you will have the units and the probes.
This week I'm going to practice building placement! Everything will be delayed because you're putting your buildings perfectly and thoughtfully. "By putting my barracks here, it makes a little wall for my workers, but doesn't block if he goes mutas. However, it's still close enough to my ramp so it re-enforces quickly".
This week I'm going to practice my midgame timing push! What time works? 60 food? Fails! 70 food? Ok. 72 and basically a half because I'm just about to build something else. Wow, that works every time!
After doing that a while, you think you're going to run out of stuff, but you just get to more and more details. By week 10 you'll need a practice partner since you'll want things like "this week, I'll practice not dying to banshees!" Once you start getting to there, you're basically diamond by default. You'll just have solid macro, an expansion, and a timing push that will kill 80% of the people on the ladder. Then with practice partners, you will have worked on defending cheeses 80% of the time and scouting cheeses 80% of the time. This means you'll just plain kill on the ladder.
What next? Keep going. The more you do this, the more you'll learn. You'll learn things you didn't even know you didn't know. Like I spent a week just trying to learn map control with mutas. What did I do? Good solid macro to mutas, didn't even take the win if he gave it to me, then I had a light defense (that could easily be killed) and would see if I could just play with his mind until I had ultras. By the end of the week I just a message after the game like "you suck, I could've just killed you lol noob." BUT IT WORKED! I learned how to "mind control" with my mutas in the game, doing things like denying the scout with just a few lings. Now it's another skill in my back pocket.
So soon it becomes really small things that you just incorporate into your laddering (like that could've been a small thing). Things like "I'm going to work on my engagements to be only in places where all my stalkers can hit" and "I'm going to remember late game chronoboosting". Man, once simple things like that become incorporated into your solid play you're basically getting free wins.
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So, if you want a good list of "weekly goals", here's what I can think of off the top of my head (and in a good order):
Only use hotkeys! This is the first one. Took me 2 weeks. I lost badly because I was slower than clicking the probes because I couldn't remember them! But in 2 weeks I was laughing at my old self. It's silly easy, but makes you 20 times better. I say do this first because it's a lasting skill that's required for all further steps.
Get 3 good build orders. One aggressive, one macro-style, and one fun/tacky/wtf build (things like DT rushes, early infestors, ghost plays, stuff to keep your opponents on their toes).
Constantly build workers (for anything but Zerg) *Zerg variant, find out when to build drones! But this is more complicated and so put this down the list further. If you don't think it's complicated, you're not doing it right because you can probably get more!*
Block standard rushes (4gates, 3rax, etc)
Keep the scouting worker alive FOREVER! (Ok, just until the marine, stalker, or lings are out)
Don't blindly counter (what I mean by this is that unless you see marines, don't put down the baneling nest. You will give free loses, but you'll learn how to really scout. Watch some of Bisu's scouting probes for this *BW example*. You learn little tricks like throwing a zealot out to have lings chase, but then have a probe go the other way and wow! It gets into the base even though speedlings are out! Yes, in a real game you may need to blindly counter, but you need to practice how to scout it so you don't have to blindly counter all the time.)
Work on a 2-base timing push. The goal here is to find what food/time/etc to move out on against each race. This should build off of your defensive build.
*This is the end of Saga 1. With just these you should be in diamond. These are what get you into the late game and get you to not lose stupid games. Now you have to learn to fight. But get these down first!*
"Gateway explosion". What I mean by this is "when I take another base, how many more gateways do I need to keep my money down?" If you learn this, your money loses itself. It's silly how much better you are by just going "Oh, I took a third, three bases going means I need 7 gateways and 2 robos" or whatever fits your play style.
Proper detection timing. Know when, even if you're 4gating, to get detection out to not die to something stupid like a banshee. This includes scouting it. You'll want a practice partner for this.
Proper micro for early engagements. That's moving back things about to die and all those fancy forcefields.
How to get and keep map control. This is pretty crucial. And then after that you can finally learn...
How to take a 3rd base. This is probably the toughest, but since you now know 2-base timing pushes and map control techniques, you'll have the basics down for making someone not kill your base.
Minimap awareness. Have a practice partner just banshee rush you or get someone to just drop everywhere. You'll get things like pylons all over the map and other little things to stop drops just part of your standard play style after a week of this horror!
Something I still work on: how to transition to tier 3. I always died with a flock of mutas and ling/bling to thors. So I picked a week to go "ok, I get here, and now I need to find out how to get ultras out".
And then the list keeps going to even smaller things. Whatever you find made you lose a game (by now you will have actually learned how to analyze your games. At first you think you know, then as you grow you learn how much you missed, and in 2 years I will realize how stupid I am now ), put that in a list and make it a weekly goal.
One last goal to not forget is to LEARN HOW TO CHEESE PROPERLY! Yes, I see good players cheese worse than a silver player. Why? They never do it. Take a week to learn how to 6 pool. No, don't engage the workers in the mineral line, engage at the side where there is a choke between the minerals and the nexus so that you don't get surrounded and kill more. Things like that. You need a cheese in your back pocket.
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So with this general idea, you will be busy forever. GL HF!
Just for a frame of reference, I was horrible last year. D- BW player. Started with little gaming experience, just some WC3 ROC while everyone played TFT. Ask my CSL captain Sunyvale, I was horrible. One week at a time I started getting fundamentals. By the end of BW I was almost D+ and was beating everyone on my team but my captain (or at least taking games off). I got to Starcraft II, instant platinum (before diamond existed), then into diamond when it was made. Now at the top of the 2v2 ladder even though I fool around with this stuff every week. Why? Because my standard game is just solid now. I've played to learn, not played to win. I hope this will help you so I can learn from you
Last comment to add:
I mention practice partners a lot. Yes they help. A lot more than laddering usually. I can ladder for a month and die to banshees every time but after a day with a practice partner I don't lose to it again! I'm lucky to have a CSL team there to play against. Especially one that has people who will do the same thing a few times after I get crushed by it (factory float ins, banshee rushes, 4gates, etc). But you don't need a practice partner. How about that guy who just crushed you online? Best thing I ever did was back in BW I got crushed by a FE push, after the game he was like "you're doing it wrong, let me play with you". I sparred with him for 6 games. At the end I beat that D+ player even though I was D (D+ 2v2
). So now when I just simply get crushed by a beautiful warpgate push or something, I'll at least talk to the guy after the match. If you can get a game with him and practice it off it's even better. Who knows, you might have just found a friend/future clan mate! (sucks that they deleted all of the friends lists from the Beta 
)
