At this point in your "manual" journey, you won't be putting any more significant stress on it than flying N/S. You've got to get pretty reflexive just in controlling it before you'll be going all 3D and stuff.
Remember, rate mode control is a very different animal than angle mode (N/S). You have to unlearn your current muscle memory to some extent and learn a completely different way that the drone responds to stick movements.
For example, the way you fly now to pitch and fly forward you deflect the stick forward and hold it there. The further you deflect the stick the faster it goes.
In rate mode, you "blip" the stick forward to pitch, then let it recenter and the drone holds that pitch-forward attitude. To go faster and hold height, you have to operate both the pitch control and the throttle on the left stick in a coordinated way (as you pitch the drone to a steeper angle, have to increase thrust to compensate for less going to vertical lift).
So, as many have recommended, do this first in a simulator while you crash again and again. When you can fly around in circles and eights fairly well, adjusting height at will under control, may be even fly through a course with gates in the sim, get one of your neos out and crash that over an over for awhile
The other thing that throws a lot of people coming from angle to rate mode is the different control axes are far less independent. Can't turn simply by giving yaw. Problem is, you're pitched forward usually, so the yaw axis is not plumb with gravity, and rotating on the yaw axis will change the roll of the aircraft relative to plumb. You need to also adjust roll with yaw while turning, and are always adjusting throttle as the attitude of the aircraft changes.
All of this becomes somewhat reflexive and intuitive, like walking, and you stop thinking about how you need to move the sticks, but just "feel" it. It's very different than angle mode control.
