Just practice and try using references.
Don't trace.
I feel like your advice skills are pretty lacking. "Just practice" practice... what? Drawing? There's a stuff load more to drawing than just hacking away lines with your pencil.
Also why do you have this personal vendetta against tracing lol? Tracing can be a good way to learn. It helps you understand contours of your subject if just using a reference isn't helping and if used right can also help you understand form. Obviously you shouldn't trace everything you do, but to discredit tracing entirely is just foolish.
As for advice, all of these are fantastic sources whether you're young/old, new/experienced:
http://www.sycra.net/ - resources sections contains a lot of useful stuff. Also watch his videos on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/FZDSCHOOL - Not necessarily drawing tutorials, but composition and visual design tutorials, which are just as important.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV - very good tutorials on basic figure drawing and rendering
http://ctrlpaint.com/ - great place if you're just beginning. covers a lot of the basics and more advanced stuff for purchase as well.
