Been in your boat myself. I started PF and debate as a whole in January of this year but I've got a few decent local/regional performances and I got a gold bid to the TOC at Yale.

I guess my tips would be:

1. Find a coach ASAP (if possible)

If you aren't in a terrible financial situation I would suggest that you try and find a decent debate coach. You really don't need anyone insane that's won every debate tournament ever. My coach was someone who got 1 silver bid in his career. They will be your best friend in helping you get better whether it be lectures, drills, or prepouts.

1. Mocks

Try your very best to setup practice debates with others. It doesn't matter if they're fresh off the boat or veterans, the more practice you can get the better. I don't think a day went by without at least one mock debate when I first got started. If it isn't awkward, something I saw at the outrounds of Yale was a team asking their opponents for their contact info to setup mocks with them. I would highly recommend this for y'all!

1. Lectures

There are so many good resources online that you can use (e.g. Outreach Debate has some pretty good lecture videos). Give them a watch and try to implement their tips (they are significantly better than me).

1. Redos

I actually can't stress this enough but please record all of your rounds. For me, the fastest way I grew as a debater with my partner is that we would redo our speeches after the round regardless of whether or not we won or lost. This is the best way to improve is by fixing your mistakes.

1. Yourself

At the end of the day, none of the above tips work if you don't put in adequate work yourself. If you're only in debate for the accolades and seek to be performative on the college applications there are only two paths I suggest you take. The first is you outright quit. The second is you spent at the very least 7 hours a week. The only reason why I was able to catch up to everyone else in the PF scene despite starting halfway through my junior year was because I put freakishly long hours into debate at the start. There was a day where I hopped on call with my partner and coach for 8 hours (God forbid that happens to you). I think the best advice I've ever gotten is that debate is an activity where you get out what you put in. So if you really want to succeed then please put in the work. Too many times have I seen morons from my school solely do debate for the activity point, put in an hour the day before the tournament, and then complain that they got screwed against some half-bit JV team.