Hi fella.
Firstly a 400 is quite a big bike to kick so dont feel to down. On the plus side, kicking a 400 can count towards the governments 30 min daily activity.
Ok, like yourself fairly new to this stuff, and i am sure someone will be along with a better explaination, so here goes.
Dont know about your bike, so I will go through what I do to start my xr400.
I dont put my helmet on, especially if the beast is cold, as I know I will be getting very hot trying to kick the bloody thing into life.
Dont touch the throttle......
half choke......(dont know why, it just works better that way...and yes I have learnt the hard way)
rotate the kick starter till there is some proper resistance...something about compression ???????
then get the kick starter to the very top
pray to the spark plug gods and then kick
these are worth a watch....first one just made me giggle..kick..kick..kick..etc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTsHNrbujP8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdM4qkAqywkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDmvBhRqaKMbest of luck