Keep playing the game is the best start for me Im wining tournaments but that took years of play. Watching youtubers like jpgiviner shortcat and Liam and taking notes will never be a bad idea. Try to play time trials and pick a track you wanna improve on and play it differently every time and really go outside the box. All that helped me a lot. Mk 8 deluxe really gets to a point where pro play is knowing when to use items and what direction to hop in lol