First, your ability to hover directly relates to your ability to recognize motion relative to your desired position over the ground, altitude and heading. Rhythmically scan out, around and in. Use your peripheral vision and work on recognizing when you have any movement away from your desired hover position. An immediate small countering input is worth way more than a late massive control movement.
The single control learning method is key, but once you've got that working, you need to work on understanding control coupling. Depending on the aircraft configuration, you'll get coupling in all axes whenever you move any single control. The sooner you learn the appropriate correction (pedal in or out to counteract torque change with power, collective in to counteract sink when you add anti-torque pedal, cyclic to counteract tail rotor driven drift and collective driven pitch) the more natural it will be. Anticipate having to add pedal when you add power for example. You know you need to add it, so put some in when you move the collective. Don't wait until the nose starts moving. Have your instructor freeze two control and make changes in the third if you need to see what happens to say, pitch, when you change the power setting.
For cyclic, the key is to make small corrections. Watch the cyclic when your instructor hovers, and you'll see it is making small movements around a central position. Keep your grip light (not loose) and try to make nearly constant small inputs. It will be choppy at first, but until you can tell how much cyclic movement to make, just make a small one, and if it isn't enough, make another small one in the same direction. If the input stops the movement, take about half out immediately, or you'll start moving in the opposite direction. If you notice black plastic oozing out from between your fingers, force yourself to lighten your grip. Just keep that cyclic moving in very small increments, and eventually it will smooth out and you’ll just be pressuring the cyclic instead of consciously moving it.
To keep the PIO down in the vertical axis on takeoff, ease it up in SMALL increments. Don't bounce the collective up and down; just keep adding it in notches. Get it light on the skids and then add in a measured amount to clear the deck, adding anti-torque pedal in unison. Don't fool around light on the skids, lots of folks have rolled over doing that. Once you do it a few times in training, the amount you have to pull will become natural. Don't get married to it though, in "real" flying the collective position changes with DA and aircraft weight.
To land vertically, once again, ease the collective down in small increments. As the helicopter gets closer to the ground, it will find equilibrium and you'll have to reduce it further. When you are just above skid touchdown, don't feel for the deck, just reduce the collective a measured amount and allow it to settle. As you touch down, slowly lower the collective in a smooth movement. Don't bounce the collective up and down, it isn't necessary and it will mess up your other control movements. Remember to work the pedals in unison with the collective, and control your drift with cyclic. If you build up drift, freeze the collective and control the drift before you reduce the collective again. Touching down with lateral drift is an invitation for dynamic rollover.
Pedals were easy for me, but once again the key is to make a quick small input to counter heading drift, and to not let the motion build up to a point where you have to make a big stab at the pedal. The control coupling will screw you up every time, so anticipate adding pedal with power, and vice-versa. Big pedal inputs during liftoff or touchdown can cause a rollover as well.
Finally, remember that as long as the rotor is turning, you’re still flying. Keep your hands on the controls, your feet on the pedals, and if you want to stay on the ground, keep the collective pushed down.
Good luck. Once you figure it out, it really is like riding a bicycle.
