YouTube videos are definitely helpful, just take note of the game version in the lower left hand corner and realize that things changed slightly as the game evolved.
For setting up your controls, and learning the basics of how to move your ship around, spend some time in the toxic-waste barrel tutorial. Nothing else flying around, nobody shooting at you. My very first experience with the game was taking off from inside a Coriolis station, and just about every control binding (including the throttle) was reversed. As soon as I hit "launch", my ship started slamming around on things, and attempts to control it only made things worse. Had I started floating in space, it would have been a lot easier to figure out. Set a few keybinds at a time and jot them down on a notepad, and get used to using them.
Combat can be trickier than it seems, so don't be afraid to just do some peaceful flying around before even trying combat tutorials. Kind of like learning to drive before getting into a race or a demolition derby. After you're comfortable flying around some asteroids and even pinging away at the toxic waste barrels, take the next tutorial where it's just you against one guy with no shields. Select him as a target, but as long as you don't fire he won't turn hostile and return fire. Shadow him around for a bit through the asteroid field, feeling out what it takes to keep your crosshairs on him, learning how to use translational thrusters (strafing, both side to side and up and down). Getting comfortable doing this is a relatively peaceful way to hone your ship control skills, which is the most important part of combat.
