Honestly, the best way to learn to use them, would be to create some primitives, and just apply each one, and see what different actions and changes do to the mesh you're using it on.

Also, the deformer has components to select just like geometry does, and has editable attributes in the channel box as well, remember that, but just experiment with them, and you'll get the hang of it in a few hours i'd say.

G-man