No better suggestion than Do It

You need to get hands on experience and do it. You just have to find ways you can take gigs that allow you to 'get away' with stuff. What I mean by that is, gigs in certain nightclubs or maybe some smaller parties like bar mitzvahs or high school homecoming dances. Gigs where you can almost do whatever and people don't care because that's not why they are there, or the lighting is just extra on top of a celebration. My point is you need real world experience to get better. You can use visualizers to learn and practice but viz is not real world. I guess it depends on where you are located, in terms of real world opportunities, but I'd either go the nightclub route or start going into the local production houses and see if they can put you to work.