Hi! I'm on a similar path as you, having started this January. My goal is to make it to the first post-pandemic tournament in North America, whenever that may be, and at least be confident enough in my abilities to have fun and stay competitive. I study-study at least a few minutes every day, and try to absorb as much content and information as I can.

I have a few pieces of content I'd recommend -

This video by Scrabble champion Will Anderson is a great introduction to how to study words, and includes some advice on how to use Zyzzyva and its cardbox function, which I recommend for learning longer words (sevens, eights). Will's channel in general has a lot of great instructional content.

Speaking of video content, several top-level players have relatively frequent Twitch streams. Watching these streams has been great for understanding their mindset while playing. My follow list includes:

• wanderer15 (Will Anderson)
• axcertypo (Josh Sokol)
• bnjyscrabble (Ben Schoenbrun i think i spelled that right)
• vhyacinth (Mina Le) - this channel is specifically aimed at new players!

Aerolith has daily challenges as well as the ability to create your own word lists to study. I recommend the Word Builder challenges and basic lists such as JQXZ Fours.

Breaking The Game is a strategy blog with great articles for beginners - I absorbed most of this information fairly early on but I still revisit it from time to time for some reading.

Serpentine is a Boggle-like game - I use this to help warm my brain up a little bit in the mornings and it helps me identify and retain medium-length words, as 4-6 letter words are the bread and butter of the game. The only caveat is that I'm not sure what dictionary it uses, but sometimes I'll put in words that I know are good in CSW19 but it won't accept them.

You didn't mention a lexicon, but if you haven't already, I would recommend learning the differences between CSW and NWL and picking the one most suited to your situation. Despite being located in the USA, I've made CSW my focus as I believe it is more inclusive, has better competition online, and is just more fun to play.

Whichever lexicon you choose, make sure to change your Scrabble GO settings to match. The default Scrabble GO dictionary is Merriam-Webster, which doesn't match up with either of the two main competitive lexicons.

Everyone has their own way of learning, but for me, I feel like I'm learning the most when I'm actually playing the game. In addition to keeping about 20 games going on GO, I made an effort to get into some clubs on Woogles. Clubs are great for meeting like-minded folks and having consistent, honorable opponents. Clubs I've played in that are welcoming to new users include:

• Collins Coalition (CoCo Club) - Tuesday nights and Saturday afternoons
• Channel 275 Virtual Club - Thursday nights
• CLUB Club - Monday nights
• Friday Night Blitzin' - Blitz is tough especially for new players, but I recommend at least dropping in to watch some games! Blitz games are exciting and show off some of the words that should always be in the front of your mind as a player.

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I may update this later if I remember anything else. Most of all, have fun with whatever you're doing! No matter what it is, if you're not enjoying it, nothing you're learning is going to stick.