When I teach students, take off/launching is the LAST thing I let them do. First I work on actually controlling the plane in the air until I'm confident they are flying the plane where they want it, not just keeping it from crashing. Then we work on lining up approaches, then actual landings. Finally, once I'm convinced they have sufficient reaction speed to handle the plane in low speed flight and can correct, then we work on take offs. Your instructors advice to work on full power launches with subsequent landings is probably not sage advice.

Brad