Crosshair placement improves aiming

The player who learns to focus on headshots will almost certainly be the better in the long run.
Placing your crosshair at the most likely spot where the head of an opponent will appear is one of the best way to improve your aiming. This is usually at the corner of a wall or obstacle. Practice to “glue” your crosshair to the corner of the wall you want to pass at head level.
This minimizes the distance you need to move your mouse to hit your target and makes you appear a lot faster. This is crucial when you are peeking around corners, defending a specific angle or even while rushing. Just make it a standard practice to always aim at head level and adjusting for different distances.
Learn the most common spots where enemies like to attack to defend from for the currently popular maps. Use this knowledge to practice Pre-Aiming at this spots when walking around the map. As soon, as you bend around a corner, track through those most likely place. This will give you the ability to do Pre-Shooting, when your are fairly sure, that an opponent is their. Pre-Aiming and Pre-Shooting might even make your opponents wonder whether or not you are cheating.


Learn to move smart while in combat e.g. with Sidestep / Strafe Shooting. The challenge is to synchronise your movement and shooting so that your aim is still precise. While strafing (usually A + D) you aim is imprecise and when you stop strafing you slide for a very short time. To gain instant precision, just tap once in the opposite direct. You can practice that easily with a dynamic crosshair. Once you get the hang of this, practice to step left and right continuously while shooting at the same spot each time you switch directions. NiP Friberg does that even when practicing on a pure aiming map.

Don’t go too fast in the beginning or you will train bad aiming habits. Start as slow as you need to in order to hit the same spot over and over again, then try to do it faster. Remember that the stress of a competitive engagement might get you out of sync. This will improve with practice and more combat routine.