So ive gotten to where i can get a good solid set of loops on my main hand, like 15 in a row sometimes. On my non dominant hand ive also been able to loop just not as consistently. My question is how would you approach practicing the hands together?
I think my main focus needs to be more practice on my non dominant hand before i combine them.
What has worked for me so far is just practicing with my non dominant hand a lot. More than dominant even. I like to loop whenever, sitting at my desk working, watching tv, etc. Just a lot of practice
I havent practiced looping but ive done the forward toss at work! Ill just need to stop getting the dopamine from my dominant hand success and focus on improvement with non dom lol
Yep I think that’s the long and short of it. Practice. It’s tough but you’ll get there for sure
Well, there goes my amateur to a suggestions.
First of all, I agree, with practicing more with a non-dominant hand. But that comes with a constructive suggestion
Set up to throw 2A.
What you need to do is program your mind since we are nothing but computers when you think about it. This is how the programming works.
You got the yo-yos in your hands and the strings on your fingers and you ready to throw some 2A.
Some people might suggest to throw nothing but the hand you’re having trouble with. Just keep your dominant hand out of the way and throw one-handed loops with the sad hand.
I disagree. If you are happy with the timing and the motion of your dominant hand loops, that is, what’s going to help you with your practice sessions. First thing you do when you’re ready to rock… Using the best form, you can muster, throw 10 or 15 basic inside loops with your dominant hand. Focus on the movement as a yoyoe goes out and comes back… Around and around. Don’t just count the number but focus more on the movement. Get the hand position, the movement of your wrist and anything else that converges in your mind as you focus your total awareness on those dominant hand loops.
As soon as you catch the yo-yo, at the end of your set, for several seconds replay the motion of the dominant hand in your brain. Now throw the non-dominant hand out and try to duplicate the movement that seems to be successful when using the dominant hand. Your timing might be wonky as soon as you throw the yo-yo out. It may corkscrew on you and come back funny. That might be irritating and immediately cause you to just fling the yo-yo out again. Don’t do that. Throw the yo-yo down one or two times And catch it. Be conscious of your string tension. Throw two or three loops with your dominant hand again. Just a few, to refresh your mind that feeling that works with your dominant hand. Now get the non-dominant hand out there again, and throw some loops. Don’t try to force out a fast 15. You don’t need to impress anybody but yourself. Just think of the loops one at a time trying to emulate the movements that work with your dominant hand.
When throwing with a non-dominant hand, as soon as you have trouble controlling the movement, don’t struggle to over correct. Just catch the yo-yo. Toss it down a couple times check for string tension and get it out there again. Realize, that you’re using your dominant hand Interspersed here and there to try to register in your brain. What the movement should look and feel like.
When you feel like you have the proper stroke and movement, don’t get ahead of yourself and just start training through alternate loops. Make sure the tension is correct on both yo-yos. And then throw out single loops with both hands simultaneously. Throw loop catch. Throw loop catch. by throwing both yo-yos out at the same time, you are basically trying to mentally adjust the movement of the non-dominant hand to mirror the movement of the dominant hand.
A guy told me one time any time you have the chance to loop. Just use your nondominant hand. Don’t worry about the good hand it’ll take care of itself. Just do all of your practicing with the lame hand. I don’t agree with that.
My belief is it if you got one strong hand that is a Looping machine, you need to use that as a constant reference to how your other hand should be behaving.
If you focus and concentrate, going from dominant to non-dominant in reinforcing in your brain the proper technique for successful loops with your non-dominant hand, then you have a better base for moving onto the next step, which is a Looping the yoyos alternately.
Once you decide you’re ready for alternate loops, don’t just try to bust a move in rip out a set.
What do you want to do is throw the one hand out and then as you catch the yo-yo on the way back, then throw the other hand out. Kind of like a robot. A basic robot you built in your garage.
Toss out the good hand first… As you catch it on the return toss out the non-dominant hand.
You throw out the strong hand first, as a motion reference to tossing out the non-dominant hand second. You’re basically copycatting. Throw out the good one first, then try to copy it with the second one. Repeat… Repeat… Repeat.
Once you’re really warmed up, but before you burn out, try to do several good loops with your non-dominant hand. Don’t force the loops. Just try to finish your session with a couple non-dominant good looking loops. STOP right there. The final thing that you’re doing is programming your mind with something positive to remember. Even when you don’t know you’re consciously thinking about it you will be subconsciously replaying those good loops with your non-dominant hand in your mind. You will literally be practicing in your mind.
Trust me on this, it works better than you may think. Sometimes Olympic skiing coaches, actually get members of the team to watch videos of other skiers that have excellent form in various skiing techniques right before they retire for the evening. The theory is that if you see something very well done come you will actually replay the movements in your dreams. it actually works with many things. Yo-yo should be no different.
Most 2A players are not gifted from birth, with perfect symmetrical 2A looping techniques. No matter how good both hands are, one hand will stand out as being just more coordinated than the other one. But never forget it’s not your hands that are in charge of the program. Your brain is in charge of your hands. Your hands don’t tell your brain what to do. Your brain tells your hands what to do. it just seems that sometimes one hand listens better than the other. So it needs a little extra schooling. Anytime you need a a little extra schooling, a good example to follow is always handy.
You just have to convince your nondominant hand to behave like your dominant hand. It can be tougher or easier than you think. Often, it’s just the way you approach it that identifies how steep uphill you are willing to climb.
Thank you so much i appreciate you taking the time to explain in detail! I noticed the other day that i was choosing to do that subconsciously, throwing my dominant hand a few times and then trying my non dom hand and youre totally right! Just a bit ago i was trying to focus only on non dom hand without holding my dom hand yoyo and my brain was a little lost because of lack for reference. I had to imagine my right hand correct motion to reference.
Ill approach it this way and see how much it helps my progress.
You don’t know how good your loops are by the consecutive number loops you can do, but by its trajectory.
5 clean and consistent loops is much better than 20 tilty-all-over-the-place loops. If you do 5 loops cleanly and then the next one is messy, stop and retry again. Do not practice bad loops.
Trust me on this. When I first started, I hear 2a players keep saying this, but I didn’t listen at first thinking it can’t be that bad… until I got good at bad loops.
And then I have to unlearn all that bad habits and it took me years to do so.
My point is, make sure your consecutive 15 or so loops are actually good loops, if not, I’d suggest practice a bit more until you get that “locked in” feel of the loop, before worrying about timing.
Now about the timing…
I used to have the same problem like most people where my right hand (dominant) loops is faster than the left, and it doesn’t look good. The way I learned was to slow the right hand loop down to match the slower left one, instead of forcing the left loop to keep up. If you still have problems with it, try looping with one hand, and learn how to slow down / speed up your loops.
In the end, your two handed loops is only as good as your weakest hand.
No i know im not just throwing it haphazardly im looking for the 30 percent lean and 1 oclock trajectory and minimal wrist movement with as little to no arm movement as possible! And sometimes ive been tossing an attempted habit of pushing my thumb into the string to make the tension so ive been telling myself not to do that because i know its not necessary haha
Everyone’s practice tips here are great. The only thing I’ll add is that when I’m throwing two handed, I spend 80% of my focus on my non-dominant hand and mostly just let my dominant hand coast on feeling. It’s been working well for me.
Yeah i think i need to spend some personal time with my non dominant hand for a bit, and then take the other approach when i try to combine both hands. I was able to do some loops on my non dom hand today so thats some progress!
Another small thing that I don’t think anyone here has mentioned - when you mess up, look at how it messes up and try to figure out what you did differently that caused it to mess up in that way. For example, if it goes into a corkscrew, that means the string wasn’t kept tight throughout the entire motion as it came back and out. This helps build your technique a lot because you’ll be able to hone in on the exact motion you should be making for each loop.
