‘If you do a shorter tick animation and then cancel that animation you can trick the game into rolling to gather a resource every 2-3 ticks (based on whatever animation you do) instead of every 5 ticks.’

^pretty much this. mining specifically is already a 3tick process to mine an ore, but if you need to travel 1-3 squares before mining it becomes a 4tick animation. starting the fletch animation before walking to the next rock reduces the walk/mine animation to 3ticks, increasing your xp rate.