I'm a little over half way to my 30 progression points in the Sportsman classcompeted off and on since the late 70's (mostly off). In addition to all the good advice above I would suggest you also fly Fun Scale at a contest with whatever model you have that will get the 5 points. That will double your flight learning experience at only a marginal extra cost. Seems like here in the midwest Fun Scale has way more entries than the Sport Scale classes.

Chuck