How to ACTUALLY get out of gold.

Ive been stuck in gold for the last 13 months. From all the tutorials I've watched and all the advice I've gotten from people, everyone seems to think that just being able to hit the ball hard and not afk during the match is enough to get out of gold.

I have found for me personally this is not the case, in the months I've been stuck in gold EVERY aspect of my gameplay has improved dramatically during this time I have even gotten incredibly consistent with ground mechanics (speed flip, half flip, wave dash, recoveries, etc).

Despite significant improvements to my game not only do I not rank up I end up going down from gold 3 to gold 1/2. To be honest at this point it almost feels like inorder to rank up not only do you need to improve at your game but you need to improve faster than everyone else and it sucks.

I'm curious if anyone else has felt this like this at some point while playing this game. I'd love if anyone had any advice for ranking up to plat or any way for me to catch up to a skill ceiling that feels like it's always running away from me.

Thank you.