Your aim sucks. There's no nice way to put it.
You're getting destroyed in duels, missing shots that should've been easy kills, and wondering why everyone else seems to move faster than you can react.
Here's the truth: aim isn't talent. It's a skill you build through deliberate practice and fixing the mistakes that keep you stuck.
Professional players maintain head-level crosshair placement 80-90% of the time during rotations. That's not genetics—it's discipline. And after testing aim training routines with tactical shooters for years, the gap between "okay" and "lethal" comes down to a handful of core mechanics that most players completely ignore.
This guide walks through nine techniques that actually move the needle. No filler, no theory that doesn't translate to real games. Just methods that work, backed by what pros do and what community data shows.
Let's get into it.
This is the golden rule. Everything else falls apart if you're aiming at bellybuttons.
Walk through any map—Valorant, CS2, whatever—and force your crosshair to stay locked at head height. Not chest height. Not the ground. Head level, always.
Why this matters: Pre-placing your crosshair at the right height eliminates 90% of the vertical adjustment you'd otherwise need in a duel. That split-second difference is what separates a kill from getting deleted.
In Valorant specifically, pre-aiming common angles boosts your kill chance by 40-50% because you're ready before the enemy appears. Your job becomes clicking, not flicking desperately upward while someone's already shooting back.
How to drill this:
Record a custom game where you walk the map with crosshair glued to head level. Watch it back. Every time your crosshair drops, note where and why. Most players unconsciously lower their aim when moving between angles—fix that habit and you'll win duels you previously lost.
Pro players rarely let their crosshair dip below head level during rotations. Make this automatic and watch your first-shot accuracy explode.
High sensitivity feels fast. It also ruins your consistency.
Most beginners crank their DPI thinking speed equals skill. Then they wonder why they can't track moving targets or why their flicks overshoot constantly.
The optimal range for arm-based aiming is 400-800 DPI. That's what the majority of professional players use, paired with lower in-game sensitivity settings. This setup gives you control—your whole arm drives the mouse, not tiny wrist twitches that amplify every mistake.
Community threads from pros consistently recommend low sensitivity for precision. As one top player put it: "Low sens is the way for sure. If you play high sens, you want a good control pad to balance out the sharp movements."
Testing your sensitivity:
Load into deathmatch. Try 400 DPI with your game's default sensitivity. Track an enemy moving across your screen. If you're constantly overshooting or can't smoothly follow, you're too high. If you can't turn fast enough, bump it slightly.
Lower sensitivity forces you to aim with intention. It slows everything down just enough that muscle memory can actually develop. High sens might work for pros who've trained for years, but for everyone else? It's shooting yourself in the foot.
Full sprays are for panic. Pros control the first burst, then tap.
In tactical shooters like Valorant and CS2, learning spray patterns is mandatory. But here's what matters: the first 5-7 bullets of any weapon. Control those, and you don't need to memorize 30-bullet patterns that you'll never use at range anyway.
Vandals and AKs kick upward, then drift slightly left or right. Practice pulling down while firing the first few shots, then reset with a burst or tap at longer distances. This improves long-range headshot percentage by roughly 20% compared to committing to full sprays.
Drill this effectively:
Find a blank wall. Fire 7-bullet bursts and compensate for recoil to keep shots clustered tight. Do this for five minutes before every session. Then jump into deathmatch and force yourself to burst—no sprays allowed—for ten minutes.
Once bursting feels natural, start mixing in counter-strafing: press A, let go, fire; press D, let go, fire. This trains you to stop completely before shooting, which gives you full accuracy instead of RNG bullet spread.
Use medium bots with armor in practice ranges for this. They move unpredictably, forcing you to time your shots instead of relying on stationary targets.
Don't react to enemies. Be ready before they peek.
This technique alone separates mediocre players from dangerous ones. Pre-aiming means placing your crosshair on the exact spot where an enemy's head will appear if they're holding a common angle.
Example in Valorant: You're pushing A site on Haven. Before you round the corner into site, your crosshair should already be locked on the default box position, then the cubby, then heaven—sequentially, not randomly scanning.
When you pre-aim correctly, you're not flicking to heads. You're confirming targets and clicking. The mental difference is massive. You stay calm because you're ahead of the fight.
How pros do this:
They walk maps in custom games and memorize every angle. Then they practice clearing those angles with crosshair already placed before peeking. Tools like those offered by Battlelog.co can help players refine these strategies through advanced in-game awareness features, though building the habit organically is critical.
Use Yoru clones in the Valorant range if you play that game. Spawn clones on common spots, peek five times per angle to drill the exact crosshair height and position. Repeat until it's automatic.
Crank up footstep audio volume too. When you hear an enemy, pre-aim the corner before they appear. This shaves 100-200ms off your reaction time—enough to win most duels outright.
Movement and aim are inseparable. Terrible peeking ruins perfect crosshair placement.
The number one mistake: peeking with W. Don't do it. Strafe with A and D only, keeping your crosshair centered so you can stop instantly and fire with full accuracy.
Counter-strafing basics: Press A to strafe left. Let go and tap D briefly to stop your momentum dead. Fire immediately. This gives you accurate shots while moving unpredictably. Hold W and you're a slow, predictable target.
Practice wide peeks versus tight peeks. Wide peeks (swinging far from the corner) work when you're confident an enemy is there—you see them before they fully see you. Tight peeks (barely peeking) work for information gathering without committing.
Drills that work:
A-D-A peeking on range bots. Strafe right, stop, shoot one tap, strafe left, stop, shoot. Ten minutes daily until stopping and shooting feels like one motion.
Jiggle peeking to bait shots, then swinging wide for the kill. This is how you fight better aimers—force them to whiff, then punish.
Pre-fire angles you're confident about. If you know someone holds a spot, peek and fire before they're even visible. This wins gunfights before they start.
Aim Lab and Kovaak's build raw mechanics. Games teach application.
Structured aim training routines show 20-30% improvement in flick accuracy and tracking speed within 4-6 weeks if you're consistent. That's meaningful. But aim trainers don't teach crosshair placement, angle clearing, or weapon recoil—you need in-game practice for that.
Effective routine:
- 5 minutes tracking (scenarios like Apex or COD tracking drills)
- 5 minutes flicks (Valorant or CS2 flick scenarios)
- 5 minutes clicking/timing (reaction drills)
After 15 minutes, jump into your actual game. Run one or two headshot-only deathmatches to translate those mechanics into real fights with real recoil and movement.
Don't grind aim trainers for hours thinking it'll make you a god. They're warm-ups and isolated skill builders. The real improvement comes from applying those mechanics in matches where you're also managing utility, positioning, and comms.
Mindless deathmatch doesn't build skills. Focused reps do.
Before ranked, spend 15 minutes on specific goals:
- 5 minutes in aim trainer (tracking/flicking)
- 5 minutes in practice range (bursts, taps, recoil control)
- 5 minutes in deathmatch (headshots only, focus on crosshair placement)
Enter every warm-up with one goal. "Only headshots today" or "Pre-aim every angle" or "No overpeeking." This focused practice accelerates improvement far more than 30 minutes of mindless fragging.
This structure translates to 15-25% better accuracy in real games because you're priming muscle memory and decision-making, not just clicking heads randomly.
Arm for tracking. Wrist for micro-adjustments.
Most players either full-arm or full-wrist. Pros blend both.
Use your arm for large movements: tracking enemies across your screen, turning 90-180 degrees, sweeping angles. Use your wrist for tiny corrections: adjusting onto a head, flicking to a close target, fine-tuning your crosshair mid-spray.
In tight spaces, wrist aiming enables 15-20% faster flick shots because you're not dragging your whole arm. But for sustained tracking or long-range precision, arm aiming gives you the control to stay smooth.
Test this: Track a bot moving horizontally with your arm. When they stop, flick to their head with your wrist. That's the blend.
Different TTK games reward different approaches. Fast-paced shooters (Apex, COD) need more wrist for snap decisions. Tactical shooters (Valorant, CS2) favor arm for consistency. Learn both, deploy situationally.
You can't fix what you don't see.
After every session—especially bad ones—watch one or two rounds. Not to beat yourself up, but to spot patterns.
Where did your crosshair drop below head level? When did you over-peek and die? What angles did you clear incorrectly? Did you spray when you should've tapped?
Pros prioritize this for plateau-breaking. It's boring. It's humbling. It also exposes the exact mistakes that aim training can't fix.
Take notes. Next session, drill the specific error. If you keep missing flicks to the right, do flick drills biased rightward. If you're consistently late peeking an angle, walk that map and practice timing.
Reflection turns random practice into targeted improvement. Skip it and you're just grinding the same mistakes into muscle memory.
Aim isn't mystical. It's crosshair placement, sensitivity, recoil control, movement, and review—all stacked deliberately.
Most players skip fundamentals and chase flashy flicks. Then they plateau and blame the game, their teammates, or their gear. Meanwhile, someone with worse hardware and a disciplined routine is climbing past them.
Start with head-level crosshair placement and proper sensitivity. Add structured warm-ups and aim training. Drill peeking and recoil control in deathmatch. Review your mistakes. Repeat daily.
The difference between getting destroyed and consistently winning duels is smaller than you think. It's just buried under bad habits you haven't identified yet.
Uwaga!
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