Stupid mind tricks that may help you get better

If you have problems with nerves, and lots of players do - as Squishy calls it, "panicking" - I have discovered after some time that it is helpful to think of some other activity you've mastered that requires smooth and fine motor control.

For me, that is drawing a perfect figure 8. If I notice I'm getting tense - and quite possibly made a panicky screw-up - I visualize drawing perfect figure 8s and what that feels like to my hands/fingers, and they calm right down. The inputs we want aren't jerky; they're smooooth, just like your play and rotation should be. If you never practiced any art/penmanship, maybe there's something else that will work for you.

If you are a newer player, focus on the ball. Stare at it like you're trying to burn the image of it into your eye sockets. This is kind of a no-brainer, but yeah, seriously. You want to pick up every detail. Who is going to hit the ball next, where is it going to go, when it bounces off the wall, what is the bounce going to look like, etc.

You don't want to miss any useful info about what is going to happen in the immediate future by not paying enough attention. It will probably actually be fatiguing at first to do it for very long, until you get better at predicting the way the ball bounces, because doing the ball trajectory calculations is mentally stressful, and seems a bit unpredictable until you've seen enough bounces to learn the ball physics in the various spots along the edges of the floor/walls/ceiling.

Before you ever even leave the ground for a touch, start visualizing in your mind where you want the ball to go - even if you can't actually see that location with your current camera angle. There are some subconscious predatory lizard aiming systems in your brain that will help you out if you think about your target, and it needs to be done early, as getting the right launch trajectory is at least 2/3s of a good aerial touch.

Typically there are only a few locations you actually want the ball to go - 1) to an open part of the goal if it's a shot, 2) in front of a teammate if you want to pass, 3) to an open area of the arena if you cannot pass or shoot, and just want a momentarily safe place to put it. Note that none of these locations are directly where a player is, and if you think about an opposing player, you'll probably pass it right to them/shoot it right at them instead, so you want to disabuse yourself of that habit if that's something you do.