No prob. I'm always open to answering questions about the game. My first advice is to use the forums. There's massive information there for new players. Secondly, try to focus your camp on one or two styles at first. This'll allow you to spar better and understand the style, what it needs to work, and how it performs against other styles.

Yeah. With better equipment, your fighter will have better sparring sessions, leading to their stats raising faster.