Yeah, so I watched this Game Jam Tips video before I started and it said "make sure you use playtesters because you'll be playing your game so much you won't notice you're getting good at it" and I said "pfft, surely not." Now I have learned this is a good tip because almost everyone is mentioning the ball/paddle speed and I will listen next time!
There really isn't anything to know to play better though, the powerups are the color of the brick they came out of, nothing more to it than that.