scrims

Scrims, Pugging, and Surfing is always a decent thing on the side

Play scrims, then watch your demos, then compare them against higher level medics' demos, then rinse and repeat.

yea i know scrims and stuff, but i can only scrim 2-3-4 times a week. i never get picked in pugs. anything else?

Still add up to pugs you never know and play on pug groups, find some one to review your demo and or watch your own with team mates or alone etc

Depending on how much experience you have with 6s, I'd recommend playings lobbies on TF2Center and watching Prem/Invite matches as well.

And I know how people around here feel about TF2C, but consider this:
-They fill up quickly, unlike PugChamp or TF2S.
-You can play there pretty much any time of the day.
-Even playing as med in EU lobbies with american ping is viable, imo.
-It's arguably easier to play poorly there than say, PugChamp. Have a bad game in PugChamp, and you'll never get picked by the same captain again, probs.
-You can play solo or with a few teammates.
-You don't even have to communicate with your teammates if you don't feel like it. (Non-mumble required lobbies may get frustrating though.)

Playing combo-centric classes (pocket, demo, combo scout) in pugs/lobbies helps as well. Hell, even playing HL lobbies as med can help you learn how to avoid damage, surf, or just positioning.

Oh, and watching matches helps a lot with positioning during holds and pushes.

I never really liked surfing, I got into jumping instead.

A lot of people say this but learn the other classes so you get a better understanding of their abilities

If you wanna be good at medic, play all the other fragging classes. Don't pug. Pugs are worthless for being useful at medic. Scrim.

i feel like if you weren't obviously an alt/ massive retard who decided you wanted to be known as 'loltf2' you might get picked more

right so ur obviously a dumpster alt but in case other beginner medics were baited into looking at this thread for medic tips, make a conscious effort to accurately count ubers in every pug/scrim

and also

Most pugs are toxic environments for bad or good medics. Definitely don't do those. Scrims are nice.

Ultiduo with some friends are a great way to practice your pocketing and surfing/survival skills.

Also if you're ever without anything to do just practice on improving your crossbow aim. Medieval servers are great for things like this since you won't have to worry about soldiers and scouts as much. Plus your team will think you're a god when you can hit them (or an enemy) at any place as long as you can see them.

scrims are the best way to learn and improve on your positioning, heal beam spread and calling, also watching povs of other really good medics (i.e shade, nursey, ninjanick, etc) can be really helpful because you can pick up small things like for example, when to back out, when to milk, etc. but playing with your own team you build your own playstyle and keep adding to it. so definitely know how your team likes to play and build up that gamesense.

Jump maps as soldier definitely helped me get the hang of airstrafing backwards, which is vital for surfing explosions to safety. Go on an all-class MGE server and have a friend bomb you repeatedly as soldier and practice surfing the rockets and airshotting him or her with the xbow.

Besides those two techy mechanics (surfing/airstrafing and good xbow aim), the only way you can really practice medicing for a team is to play medic for a team in scrims and matches.

For movement and crossbow aim I highly recommend ultiduo and obviously knowing the role of every class well will help you as medic a lot aswell as you can think what (for example) the enemy roamer will do now

But scrimming with a team is always the best way to improve and learn from your mistakes

If you aren't good enough to get picked for pugs, play lobbies. They're shitty in so many ways, but they are useful to suffer through and learn from if you're fairly new. Play a bunch of different classes once you get a decent feel for one of them, and if you run into someone nice who seems to know what they're doing, you can ask them questions. That's how I met my first mentor.

Also, I haven't really tried them, but it could be worth trying this map pack (tr_medic) just for the mechanical stuff:
http://gamebanana.com/maps/186499

The things that helped me main medic was watching mirelin play, and then scrimming tonnes.

I think others have said it already, but if you learn to aim with a class, you can also start learning how to dodge.

Also, soldier v. soldier mge is a great way to start learning to surf rockets. Scout v. scout learns you to dodge scouts. anything vs demo learns you how to dodge pipes etc.

Be keen - if you _really_ want to improve you will find a way to improve.

Stop blaming others for your misplays, there's ALWAYS a better way to play the situation. Whether its positioning or reading the situation quicker/better, try to form a second opinion on everything that is potentially a mistake.
What helped me a lot was to go over my own demos, write a short list over everything that I noticed could've been done somewhat better. Then for the next couple of serious matches, pick one or two things from the list and focus on improving that aspect/skill.
Try to spectate on high level matches, ask if you can listen to comms and learn as much as you can about how other medics successfully communicate with their team.
Go over your own demos before/after watching high level medic demos on the same map and compare what they do to what you do.

Knowing how to airstrafe, dodge or aim like a god is useless if you can't position yourself or read situations. So most important of all, play the goddamn game.

Also, sooner or later if you're serious about getting better you'll find your own way of improving, reading lists from others can only get you so far.

thank you all.