What strategy did you use to succeed at the front-end web developers track?

There's definitely not a single correct answer here, but the one thing I definitely agree with you on is that you should take breaks between courses to build things and try out the new concepts you've learned. I don't think it matters too much exactly when these breaks are, and I don't think it necessarily has to be done after every course (although nothing wrong with this), but I think that if somebody were to complete the entire Front End track without any other practice, their understanding of some concepts would be lacking. Not a criticism of the courses at all (I think they're excellent), but coding really is something you have to do in order to learn effectively. So to answer your question, I guess I never really had a set strategy - it was more like something would come up during a particular course that would make me think "I have an idea for putting this into practice", then I'd go ahead and do that, rather than planning specifically when I'd do courses and when I'd practise.