Option strategies can be used in conjunction with stock purchases. Just buying a stock and holding it is a 50/50 shot....maybe you win maybe you lose. However with option strategies you are able to define your risk and probabilities, lower you cost basis, etc. Options also allow you to trade smaller thus spreading your risk around and trade more often. This is especially important for smaller accounts. If you create an account with TDA through the dough.com link you will get a substantial fee reduction and then will be able to use the Thinkorswim platform which has realistic paper trading where you can test your strategies with fake money in real time.
Tastytrade has archived videos for beginners in the "Where Do I Start" and "Back To Cool" series. Also Thinkorswim has archived and daily seminars that are all free.
Even if all you do is buy stock you should still understand things like options volatility, probabilities and covered calls etc.