How to be a good?

Actually, both are pretty good. I think that to begin with coaching through bots or looking over replays is easier, because the hardest thing you have to learn on Dota is how to simultaneasly pay attention to a lot of things at the same time: your lane, the mini map, your enemies, their items/mana/HP, etc. This is what takes the most time and one of the things that will make your game improve by 200% percent. Because all of that about decision making and so on relies on you being able to do this. And to be coached in a live game is to have to pay attention to one thing more, so it can be tricky in the beggining. But a game with bots solves that easily.

As for things you gotta learn to begin with, in my opinion:

• Chose a pool of, let's say, 5 to 10 heroes. You start with practising one, a lot (let's say 20 games), and then if your tired you go to the next one. This is the easiest way to ensure a steady improvement. If you just jump from hero to hero, you won't be able to get accustumed to that hero's features, nor understand how that hero connects to other heroes in your team and in the opposite team.
• In this pool of selected heroes be sure to have at least 1 from each "big category" as I like to call them, that is, Strenght, Inteligence and Agility, and also make sure that you have at least 1 of each "big role", i.e., support, carry, tank. If you want help knowing this categories I can help, I did a post with this info a while ago.
• Pick the first hero in question and go to its dota wiki page. Consider what his abilities do, what are his stats, etc. Ask people about it. Then take a look at some guides, and try to do your own summary in a sheet of paper or in your computer: what's the usual skill build? What are the usual items?
• Do a bots game with it to put that into practise. Now you have to worry about the stats more than ever, understanding what is your hero power at the beggining, middle and end of the game. Train your last hits and denies with him, if we're talking about a carry/core, or a other skills such as pulling and warding if you're a support, and blocking your creep wave (technical details which you can ask us about, and also see plenty of videos on youtube). After the first bots game with the typical items build, do another, try other items. This is the time to decide on whether you prefer this or that item, no strings attached - just because you feel better with it.
• After bots, I recommend another "reading" section. Go look at the guide again - you will understand them better now, and be able to either contradict them on some points or pose new questions. Do it, then try to see a game on youtube with the said hero, being a pro player or just a very high mmr one. Just to see what he can do with the hero.
• Play against humans with the hero. Now you're really training the hero, learning more about it each game, seeing what builds and what items work and why. From here on, people get rekted by your superior knowledge :)
• Rinse and repeat. When you had something like 20 games with 5 different heroes, you will be ready to skip some of this phases with new heroes, play those 5 interchangebly as you which, or start worrying about the next step, counterpicking and comboying.

I hope this helps for now. As I told you, we will talk more soon :)

My steam is http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198135593301/, feel free to add.

See you soon!

Great tips, ChiChi!

Thanks! I should actually rewrite this after, with more time and better organized, but I'm still at work (last day before the holidays iei!) and Ryan seemed pretty eager to start on his improvement journay :D