Climbing

So as I'm sure most of you are familiar with, Ranked grows to be a real struggle toward the end of the season, especially in the lower elo region in which I, and many of our other fellow players find ourselves situated in. I have no proof at all, but what it FEELS like is that in my matches are mixed between those who are trying desperately to get to gold (I am one of those people), and those who are already there and no longer care. Like I said, I have no evidence, so this is merely an opinion, but whether I like it or not I will be matched with these people. Of course I'm not the best of players either. I struggle a lot with things like not going too ham and communicating with my team of what I wish to do. I am trying to improve upon it, but I'm currently stuck. I believe this is due to me being where I'm supposed to be, and that's cool, that means Riot's ranking system is working the way it should be. My question to you, boards, is what I, and any other elo players, should do to improve our gameplay to the "next level" so we actually might be able to climb. Thank you so much for reading the post and any comments are much appreciated.