Grilling for the first time

Keith has had a strong determination NOT to use the gas grill his dad gave us a while back. (It was a hand me down after he got a new one.) For about a month Keith was on this kick that he wanted a charcoal grill. I said whatever. I grew up with burgers on the grill. It took about another month for him to actually take it outside. So tonight was the night we tried it out. Keith was SUPPOSE to grill. He set up a pyramid of coals, lit them, let them turn to ash, then spread them out. But there wasn't a lot of heat. So we stacked them back up again. Not enough heat again. We took the burgers off, and put more coals in the grill and heated them up. Now we're cooking, literally. The burgers he made were thick and about the size of your palm. He became upset when they were getting skinnier but not thinner (the circumference was getting smaller but the height of the meat remained the same). Oh well, not a big deal. They soon enough were "Kimmie satisfactory not pink inside" so we brought them in to eat. After taking a bite, they tasted a bit salty. Keith read that salt helps keep the juices in the burger. I'm not a fan of juices to begin with since they make the roll soggy... I do not do soggy. I asked how much salt he used... 1 teaspoon. For a pound of meat. He asked if that was too much. Duh.