Oh yeah (duh) of course you haven't. Man, that was stupid of me
Umm, do you have any mates that you can recruit? You could go to Hyrule and practice, have someone stand on the pillar and you stand way off to the left, (for powershielding). Just have them shoot stuff at you randomly.
For teching, I just go into versus and have a low level character hit me at a high damage, try screwing around with the handicaps to start off quickly.
You'll also really want to practice DI (directional influence), if you haven't already. That's vital to many situations. Go here for eveything you need to know:
Doraki's guide to DI, etc. etc., blah blah blah
I would keep my thumb on top of the Control stick, only use the sides when doing quick C-stick flicks.