I get it, just "play more" but I am now transitioning from a level where you could just play generic mania gameplay to, having these things called jacks, streams, trills or something. And on my skill level, ofc i realized that "oh, i have been playing these things since the beginning". sure on the simple level i have, but now its all on another level, I cant read all these notes spamming and I feel like just "play more" isnt as helpful when your just randomly spamming keys because im unable to read what im seeing.

I am not specifically asking for advice (because genuinely at the end of the day, just play more lol), I want your story on how you overcame this challenge instead

So this is still a challenge I'm trying to overcome to a degree, there's just a few patterns which I've found on mid to high 5*+ maps which I cannot do yet. But as for things that came before that I used to struggle with, I genuinely used to mind block myself on certain maps because I needed to practice them, only difference to most people being that I didn't care how good I did each run. And to this day, it's still a habit I still have (or had) as there tended to be a song that I would play every session like 3 times to get used to it. At the current time, I have no map of the sort, except maybe quadraphalnix (not checking how it's spelt rn) on 0.9x since I need to get my JS/HS skill back. In my osu!mania prime, it was AO-Infinity mapped by oceanus. Though most memorable to me was when I was at like diff 16 level in RoBeats constantly playing Space Battle (Normal, diff 18) like 2-8 times a day. The stream/staircase was something I really wanted more experience in playing since I though at that time if I can hit it accurately, I can hit similar patterns accurately and even non-similar patterns faster. Combined with a few more maps above my skill level with a singular unfamiliar pattern I wanted to practice and you get me like 2 years ago.
Edit: I forgot it's 2025 so it's actually like 5 years ago. 2 years is like my default response when I think "lockdown times" lol.

You asked for a story, I gave a story.
Edit: that said I really don't think "play more" is helpful advice when you don't have an aim, like playing basketball without knowing if you want to focus your practice session on perfecting a certain type of shot or becoming more movement-flexible to break legs. For that issue regarding notes being hard to read, it will be repeatedly said to learn what patterns and chords look like to give them a pre-defined motion to follow when you see them. Like for example with streams, my mind will genuinely go "right-from-leftmidde right-from-(left)edge but-it-turns-left-at-rightmiddle left-from-(right)edge trill-of-3-4-3-4" I'm basically just reading the direction which notes seem to move horizontally in terms of tapping or noticing other patterns during them, not really keeping in mind the lane they start at but I added it in the quotes for demonstration sake. There's other ones like "outer" which usually means 2-1-3-4 and its mirror, or "inner" which usually means 1-2-4-3 and it's mirror, and then a few others or perhaps fusions. Applies to jumps and hands (doubles and triples) in streams also, with more various in-head simplifications!

i dont really have advice but ill leave copy paste link incase you might wanna try smthh there copy paste link to my advicr thread lol

edit: forgot to mention, some of this advice is more for players with more experienxe like above 5 star but idk you might find smth

Well, find maybe low to mid 3 stars some maps that focus on each pattern, and then aim for 97~ accuracy.(very important). Adjust scroll speed and change your posture if needed.

Adding SV, LN, and maybe even other keymodes into your session can also help a lot. Anything with more complex patterns that might not necessarily be too *fast* or *dense* but are still challenging you to think a little more.

Also try playing maps with rates so you can find the exact difficulty you can (and cannot) play. If you're on stable and can't find any good maps, try lazer or Quaver, which both have built in rate features.

Also have fun. Lowk no other advice matters if it gets in the way of that. And vice versa. You could do literally whatever the hell you want, and as long as you're still having fun, you WILL improve. I think that's what most players mean when they say "play more."

For the time i have been playing mania i learned that most of the times you can in fact read the things in the screen but usually can't hit them by doing what you are doing. If you really want to increase your scroll tbh the best thing you can do is do have a high refresh rate monitor otherwise even if you can read play with it you will get unstable and unconfortable results. Try changing the way your hitting the notes mainly by moving less your fingers or hitting lighter but faster.