How I did it  ........  .......I did that sort of practicing when I was starting out in Control Line at 15 years of age. (it was 1955). but I was swinging a small C/L plane on 10 or 12 foot lines. Instead of an engine on the frront, I attached a small stone appropriate weight. I could practice level flight, inside loops, outside loops, wingovers inverted flight and or course landings. I spent hours flying this little plane and as a result, in the 60 years + that I have built and flown C/L, I have never, I repeat, NEVER crashed a plane due to control input mistake or confusion as to what control to use in any given situation. Planes flown .....Veco Smoothie, Nobler, Ares, Veco Thunderbird I, Barnstormer, All American, Sr., Trixter B-C, Ringmaster, Flying Clown, Goldberg Buster, Sassy Saucer, Sterling Yak-9, PDQ Super Clown, Flite Streak, Half Fast, Reactor, Combat Cat, VooDoo, Wooten Vampire, Nemesis II, Winder, Wooten Sneeker, Super Swoop, T-Square, Magician 35, Scat Rat and more, including some original designs were flown over the years. What may seem like silly training techniques can pay off big time............it did for me.  ......            

Try flying left handed (or right handed if you're a lefty).  I post-holed two airplanes before I gave up, and I'm fairly ambidextrous.

Quote from: Terrence Durrill on January 01, 2020, 04:10:11 PM
I spent hours flying this little plane and as a result, in the 60 years + that I have built and flown C/L, I have never, I repeat, NEVER crashed a plane due to control input mistake or confusion as to what control to use in any given situation.

I'm off to the shop to cut me some short lines. Hope it's not too late.

Seems like anything you learn before you are old enough to know any better sticks with you for life.  We used to fly 1/2a in our yards where the line length was half the distance between the trees at whatever house we were at.  When the BabyBee quit we would just keep flying.  Nobody knew what "the Pattern" was or cared.  We just had a ball getting a dizzy as a drunken clown seeing who could keep the plane up the longest without falling down or hitting a tree, both of which happened frequently.   I was the first to venture upside down but the engine kept quitting.  No one knew why.  We did figure out that if you mounted them with the fuel tubes pointed in that they would run upside down for a little bit when the tank was full.  Since nobody had wheels we just started them sideways.  I think I was 11 when I flew the first time with a big kid.  He had a GoldenBee and lorded over us for a long time.
Then I built this Huge Flight Streak Jr. and within a year I had the Nobler that graces my Avatar.
I sure miss those years - Ken

Quote from: Howard Rush on January 02, 2020, 02:42:36 PM
I'm off to the shop to cut me some short lines. Hope it's not too late.

                              If your knees are gone like mine, it probably is too late.             

Quote from: Terrence Durrill on January 04, 2020, 04:07:23 PM

                              If your knees are gone like mine, it probably is too late.             

They were, so I got me some new ones and I'm ready for Teddy.