Eh... Without having tried it myself, I'd say it might be OK for a few concepts/aspects but horrible for others. The trick (which I can't do) is tell which is which. I'd guesstimate that it could be OK on close in 3rd/4th line fighting maneuvers but the big strategic ones could have no real relevance to playing humans.

I'll gladly defer though to anyone who has actually tried it out though. A while back I tried playing more 9x9 against computers to get more L&D and fighting experience and I think it helped a bit, but that's a pretty limited sample set.

Bruce "Single Digit Board" Young

I would say practicing techniques against bots is probably the worst practice you can use bots for. Bots are reasonably well known for having all sorts of blind spots, and techniques may consistently work 100% against a bot even if they are technically not correct or well played out. Playing bots I consider fine, practicing techniques requires humans so that you can handle various spurious responses to your sequences.

Just my 2p/2c

One thing I tried once is to agree with a friend to play the first 30 (or whatever) moves of the opening, and then review together, over and over. That kind of let us mess around with different ideas, and see if any obviously failed or worked well. While it can be intimidating to practice with people, working with a friend can take some of the pressure off.

I have to agree with topazg - doing this is more likely to reinforce bad habits than good ones. Have you seen this thread on how to beat GNUGo? It's a stupid strategy that works perfectly against that bot.

I think having a teacher is the easiest way to improve. But if you don't know anyone stronger and don't want to pay for lessons, just frequent studying and trying out what you learn against humans is a good way to learn to. Also, don't give up on some concept you've learned if you can't make it work right away. It's easy to be told something like "Don't attach to weak stones," or "Use thickness to attack," but it takes a while before you can see first-hand the truth of these concepts.

Have you tried visiting the KGS Teaching Ladder?

I'm sure you could get some help in there, if you have a game where you were experimenting with an idea, and would like someone else's perspective.... (Or, you know, just get some good ol' teaching games)

That would be great if I had any friends who played Go. I live in a very Go dry area, unfortunately. The only games I can play are online with people I don't know. And usually they pull a Houdini after the game is over.