How should I study openings?

I am around 1150 rapid.  Is there a way better than just watching YouTube videos to improve at the opening stage.

My opinion only: At 1000 you will only need to know by heart the first 5 or 6 moves and you will learn those pretty much without effort by playing then analyzing. After that, you need to know:

Where do the pieces go?

What are typical traps?

What are typical middle game plans for the pawn structures that result?

What are thematic tactics to watch for [for both sides]?

This stuff is about understanding the opening not memorizing it. Watching a video is like sitting in class listening to a teacher talk: you leave thinking you understand but 15 minutes later it's all gone from short term memory. I think that: sitting at a physical board, moving pieces, reading annotations of good players in the opening, analyzing ''But what if this instead?'' until you see the point of the move is how to learn to play an opening.

Bill

-ps-After all that, the next step is learning how to play endgames that are thematic from the opening.

To improve, just pick an opening for white and black. I chose Vienna with white and Caro-Kann with black. To crush your opponents, learn some theory, like for example, what is your middlegame plan? Know your lines, know your theory, know your plans. Yes, you WILL lose a lot of games. But slowly, you will improve as you learn

You should start with some tactical open openings like scotch and sicilian if you are lower rated. As you get higher, you should go to more positional such as queen pawn openings, ruy lopez, french, sicilian (classical, dragon, taimonov). You should learn middlegame ideas and theory (just in case) and learn tactics, strategy, and endgame

I can't speak for an objective way to study openings, because my way to study openings was to play all of them. Hell, I have 1300 games with 1.Nc3 on this site. But if you enjoy it, you can learn a lot. I had Sam Collins's "Understanding the chess openings", and I enjoyed reading his reasonings for different openings, and after doing so I would try to test out the openings in games. It was great fun, and I learned a lot, and since I was a beginner I'd say that's all that I needed.

If you do find an opening you'd like to study, I would recommend you play some games with it. You'll probably lose, but it's important to get experience with the opening. Play games with the intent to implement something you've learned, whether it be from books or youtube videos, or from a higher rated friend.

I am a 1200 level player on a good day. I have a few openings that I prefer. For White I like to play the Scotch Game, KIA, or Ruy Lopez. As Black I favor the Sicilian Najdorf, the KID, and the French. I feel comfortable with those openings, and I have been successful against some 1400+ level players. I have a collection of flash cards that I use to study the first 10-15 moves of each opening and some variations. You can also use Chess.com or chessable to study a few openings. You don't have to learn them all right away.