Yeah me too, I was a lurker for a while before plucking up the courage to make my first post hehe..!!
You'll love the L&P training, its wonderful and the quality of the product is amazing.
I remember my first set took hours..!! But I felt a sense of "mission accomplished" and was rather excited and proud of myself

(bet I'll cringe looking at it in the future though) lol..!!
Don't worry Shona, the EA watches over you as you practice, and when you do it on your model too. She will advised there and then about your techniques, or answer any questions you may have which i found really reassuring.
Another thing I found really helped me was "NailClass" by Gigi Rouse, she has really good advice on techniques and the text is so easy to understand. She worded it as if she was telling it to you whilst watching over you (if you know what I mean)
If you haven't got the book, have a look at the tutorials she posted on the site.
HTH xx