How did you learn combat?

Hello commanders,

with the release of ED Odyssey in sight, I decided to revisit the game and do a new start.

While already having 100+ hours, I only did exploration and trading most of the time.
I tried some combat missions and the combat training, but for me it's very intimidating.

I can deal with harmless and mostly harmless enemies in a 1 vs. 1 situation, but especially in the combat training (challenge scenarios), fighting against the competent AI is completely impossible for me.
If this kind of skill is expected by Frontier in the training, I don't even want to try higher AI or PVP until I get better.

My problem is that I don't really know where to start. Most of the video tutorials are about loadout or tactics, but that doesn't help me in combat. I also don't know how to properly move around an enemy. I'm using a HOTAS btw.
I am willing to learn but most of the time combat is really frustrating for me.

So my question is how did you learn combat without dying constantly? Are there some good tutorials or guides that you can recommend? Is there a way to train combat besides the in-game combat training missions?

Edit: spelling