The best sticks are those that put forth the effort getting slaughtered by sticks better than them. Conditioning yourself to not do something anymore because you are sick of the result of doing such maneuver, ie., getting killed and having to take off again. I started dueling and focusing on ACM a little over a year ago. When I started I had a general idea what I was doing but ultimately sucked. I'd get smacked around like a red headed step child by the likes of Dedalos, batfinkv, kazaa, Shane, SkyRock, Agent360, Scotch, Texture, Tonyjoey, VIOLATOR, Pawz. There are others, point being, I wasn't as good as these guys and that irked me. I'd call it a combination of having a little bit of ego and competitive nature to want to be as good as these names but also being able to humble oneself and accept these guys were flat out better and to learn from them. If they can do it, why can't I?
I never understand why pilots are so afraid to go duel 1v1s in the DA and possibly learn something. It's as if they feel like they are being set up when they get challenged or invited to duel. "If I go to the DA, he's going to find out I'm not as good as I pedestal myself to be so I'll just stay here and talk smack in the safety of my numbers". I remember when I was challenged by Skyrock and Agent360 to the DA after they got annoyed by my MA picking escapades. I have to thank them for bringing the competitive and sporting spirit out of me in the game by smacking me around in there. That was the beginning for me.
Mostly every night there's 1v1s going on between bases A23 and A24. Find out what plane is being flown, pick a side to even it out, and have at it. You'll get ten times the quality of fights in a tenth of the time in the MA. If you're looking to get better this is how it's done.