with this video im really trying to do it myself without straight copying. When a project comes up in the video (like make a rock, paper, scissors game) i try and do it purely myself before watching the video to see how he does it
Yes, I think that's a good idea. I'm quite adverse to copying because I've seen that lead to tutorial hell, but if you're smart about it and develop your problem-solving skills even with a bit of copying, it can be fine.