Watch comp players stream the role you want to play (pocket, roamer, demo, med, beam scout, flank scout) or whatever HL class you want to play. If no one streams it look up their twitch profile and see if they have saved vods or if anyone has their POVs on youtube. MGE, DM, and look for inhouse pug groups. Doing things like jump maps will benefit your movement on any class, not just soldier. Play the game as much as possible.

I watched streams of any player who was better than me.
Mostly for entertainment, but I used it to learn positioning, calls, game sense, etc.
However, watching demo (reviews) of better players is better for actual learning

Movement is important. I advise any player to learn at least basic rocket jumping. Air strafing and surfing damage are a base skill for all classes.
When I was new I grinded easy maps that I also found enjoyable like jump_elephant_a2 and jump_quba course 1
(there's way more experienced jumpers on this forum and jump.tf who can help you more with this)

And honestly don't be ashamed to idle to 500 hours just for tf2center if you don't enjoy pubbing enough. In the end they're just pubs w way more tryharding and comp meta. You won't be the worst player on that site even if you start right now

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I would advise against TF2Center. The format of lobbies allows you to pick which teammates you want to play with, which means all the pros join the same team and it creates a very unfun, very frustrating experience.
Inhouse pugs or joining a league if you have the time and commitment are definitely the way to go.
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/na6v6newbiemix Newbie mixes does some every Friday I think.

save yourself

dont do this

if your goal is to burn time before the 500 hours, you could play some mge, jump maps or deathmatch, to get used to fighting comp players / hone the important 6s mechanics.

you are a fool

you should really be willing to experiment with all the different classes in different competitive formats to figure out what you're going to have fun with.

for example, even though i personally enjoy 6s much more, theres some people who really enjoy HL, and in a smaller comp scene like this u should really just play what you have the most fun with :)

You should probably expect everyone to be much better than you at the start since anyone who plays this game in 2019 has no life. It's fine, we were all there at one point. People above mentioned tf2center, jump maps, DM, MGE, inhouse PUGs and while not every training method is equal, I'd say that when starting out just playing what you find fun is enough. You don't need to force yourself to, say, grind DM for 4 hours a day "because the pro do it" if you don't find some enjoyment out of it yourself. I did that and I learned very little. So yeah, try every class and every gamemode to see what sticks, and basically remember to have fun.

Also I'd recommend watching casted games on tftv or elsewhere. They are (in my opinion) quite fun to watch and you get to see important concepts like holds, sacks, uber advantages... so you get to learn a bit too.

you've already got a perfect alias, i say go LFT

to add onto this, if you're trying to get into the comp scene there's no better way than trying to tune into the next LAN; LANs are almost always the biggest tournaments of the year, and have some of the best invite competition. Personally speaking really got hooked onto following TF2's top circuit as a fan after how hype i58 was, had my eyes fuckin glued to the screen

Popular LANs that are good to watch out for in the future are:

Beyond The Summit TF2 - Best teams in NA, probably gonna be some international teams, not too many details on attendance since it just got announced. Also the added bonus of being hosted by a tier 1 esports organizer. Happening in January

Copenhagen Games - typically best teams in Europe, havent seen much international play though some players from NA go over and play on mix teams/ring for Europe teams, usually around April.

RGBLAN - not regularly scheduled, but the only recurring NA TF2 LAN at the moment. Typically hosts a mix of players ringing from the top 1-2 teams in NA along with the rest of the best teams in NA.

Insomnia Gaming Festival - also typically best teams in Europe and one or 2 top teams from America/Australia, considered most prestigious international TF2 tournament, usually in August

don't you feel like a fool now

I dont really have much to tell you other than practice, it's the only way to get better at the game. If 24/7 harvest, mge, or dm servers aren't doin it for you, the best way to get that practice outside of TF2 center is to find a PUG group. Usually they have specific groups that make announcements. You'll need to ask around to find them.

Be warned however, the only people who still play this game competitively are complete neets and/or autists and it genuinely makes the lower divisions suck to play

TF2 is kind of in a Quake situation where no one new is coming into the game and anyone who does isn't willing to put in the hours to be as good as the 70% of the people still in the comp scene. If you really want to do this, just know it's gonna be rough starting out.

Oh and if you cant get someone to do map reviews, look around online. there's good info on how to play maps, callouts, and so on.

Tf2 rots the brain