Prof. Ng's ML course was a real eye opener. It wasn't hard but was very practical. Then when you need more theoretical background you can watch recordings of his stanford ML class.
I don't think there's any need to worry. I was very much interested in Machine Learning and took Stanford course last year and prof. Andre Ng made it look so easy with focusing on practical aspect. Now I have a grasp on how things work practically it's easy to get going with the theoretical aspect (with mostly maths) and following CS229 full video set covering the original course.