Even more important than a flat strop for a new guy, I think, is to go SLOW!
You don't need fast strokes to effectively strop your razor. Go slow and watch what you're doing until you have a good feel for it. Gradually speed up as you are more comfortable.

I still have days when for reasons unknown my stropping doesn't feel right. The first thing I do when that happens is to do a few very slow strokes on the strop and kind of "recalibrate" my feel for it, if that makes sense.