As a new and first time rider, I am struggling to manage the kick start as well! It works fine when the bike is warmed up, its the starting from cold that I need the battery for - unfortunately that is when the recommendation is to use the kick start, in the interest of battery life - as recommended to me at the shop. I am guessing that kicking it to life gets easier as the engine gets broken in.
To the advice posted, I would add that once you get past TDC, you want to let the kick start lever go and let it come back on its own to the top, so when you do kick it down, you get the benefit of the entire length of the stroke. As I said, this works fine for me when the bike is warm,,,,,,,,,
Good luck - and I endorse the comment about things not working too well at traffic lights!