Best way to study a repertoire?

I will the story i post here repeatedly.  There was this young man that all the local masters said would be a Master by the time he turns 13.  He was 10 at the time.  So what happened?  He fell in love with openings.  He suddenly became "aggressive" and "tactical".  And when he lost it was the same excuse: "I forgot my theory" "I mixed up my opening theory"  When what happened was that he dropped a piece.  He finally quit playing as an 1800 player.  A lot of potential down the drain.

Now this is a helpful perspective. Thank you .

Thank you to those who were constructive and helpful. Special thanks to those who pointed out, constructively, that it might be too soon to worry about such things, and presumably care about a beginner's overall path. As for those who were less constructive, after researching several posts by others, that seems to happen a lot on here. Seems sad to me. I have many thoughts and feelings, most of them equally unproductive, so I'll toss them in the toilet where they belong.

By the way, you have diamond membership. Make sure to take advantage of the video library, because that is the main advantage of diamond membership over other membership types. 

Forget what anyone says. It's important to have at least a basic understanding of openings, not in terms of memorizing moves, but knowing what the general ideas are in a variation, what are some ways to get an advantage in the midgame and avoid your opponent's threats, or launch a counterattack, or get a sense for piece play dynamics (e.g. trading off your "bad bishop" for his "good knight"), or aim for a specific pawn structure that might be beneficial for you in the endgame. Think of it this way - if you and an opponent have a similar rating, but one of you has a better idea of how to play the opening that's on the board, chances are he or she will get a better game. And against stronger players having the confidence that you are sort of familiar with some openings will give you somewhat of an even playing field. Far too many players walk into opening traps or just get a permanent weakness after the first few moves (and then suffer against most good players who will make you fight to just get a draw!).

Openings aren't the silver bullet to improving your overall chess skills, but they can definitely help guide your progress.

He will do that by studying games in the openings he chooses (after getting the hang of basic stuff), as I've mentioned in my post.

IMO that comes later, after you have some experience and have studied strategy. A new player can't make use of these things yet.

Since there seem to be so many jerks answering your question I will give you something different.

Play the Catalan. It is a great opening. I think of it as a Grunfeld as white.

Guess what's next? Play the Grunfeld. Everyone says it is too difficult but it is difficult for both sides. At amateur level it is almost a surprise weapon and you will have some ideas about how to play it when your opponent will not.

Those are answers that show some respect and are very unusual. Do it for the fun of it. I recommend a book Zoom 001 by Bent Larsen and Stephan Zeuthen. Cult learning.

Finally, vs 1.e4 the absolute best opening for this repertoire is the Sicilan Accelerated Dragon. (I gave up on the Sicilian because I could almost never get an open game. I now call it the Alapin Opening and the Sicilian is subline of the Alapin. I suggest either the French or Caro Kann).

To summarize: Fianchetto your king bishop, OO, throw your c and d pawns into the center. I am not kidding. You just have to work out the move order you prefer. Good luck.