I think typically playing games is the only part that would be called practice. Everything else tends to fall under studying or training.
However, you could pick master games and try to guess the next move and then when the next move differs analyize why their move was better than what you had guessed.
If you are talking about any kind of activities to improve your skill:
Tactics Training
Endgame Training
Book reading
Video watching
Chess Mentor here on chess.com
etc.
IMO if you're still under ~2000 USCF strength, it's very helpful to be able to chat with a stronger player / get a coach. If you practice and study you're sure to improve a lot, and there's nothing to say you woudln't become a national champion some day :)
Obviously a coach is useful at every level...but there are so many unknowns when you begin, and bad habits that you may fall into. Of course as you improve you can break them, it just takes more time without some guidance.
I was just wondering if any of the better more experienced players would like to elaborate on if there is a right way and a wrong way to practice by actually playing games. What I mean is that I imagine it's not just enough to play a lot of games, but one should at least check them against a data base or chess engine to see what could have been done better right?
Tactics is the most important part in the beginning. Study the basic tactics of pins, skewers, forks, discovered attack, etc. Studying means more than just looking at what they are; it is best to look at puzzles of such situations over and over. Tactics trainer on this site or a book like McDonald's "Mastering Chess Tactics" are good for that. Without tactics, you are unable to create and exploit situations. You will also fall for traps.
Read Kotov's book on how to "think like a grandmaster" to learn the thinking technique.
Get a book on openings, learn the basic opening principles and study 2-5 basic openings at the start.
Give positional thinking a go and learn the basics of that.
One of the most important skills is to calculate correctly and in time. I found a good training book for that, it is Lev Alburt's "Chess Training Pocket Book" I am sure there are plenty of others.
Playing games is very useful, but you should study and discuss them afterwards. I find playing 3-10 minute games not so useful for the early aspiring player, because you are more likely to not understand your mistakes. Maybe online games are not the best trainer. Playing face-to-face games also allows you to talk to your opponent after or even during the game!
What I do is to solve lots of puzzles and calculations to improve tactics, calculation and observing /laying checkmating patterns. I play against the computer to improve openings. I play longer face-to-face games which allow me to analyze my perfomance with my opponent or a chess mentor.
How do you pratice chess besides playing games. I want to try and learn as much as I can.