2a looping

Hello, I need some help with 2a. I can loop decently with both hands but i cant loop at the same time. any tips on how to start two at once for 2a.

Practice more. You’ll get it. Try doing the same thing with both hands at the same time. That seems to make sense.

I can’t do much of anything with my left hand right now. Then again, my right handed looping isn’t that great right now either.

Like Studio said, starting with both at the same time helps quite a bit when learning.
Your non dominant hand can essentially mimic your dominant looping hand this way.

Keep in mind though that you should still practice your single hand loops throughout the learning process, because you dont want one hand to become dependent on the other.

Over time, you will soon be able to alternate the loops.

Don’t be discouraged if you find that this takes a while. Unlike 1A, 2A is a long and difficult process of quite a bit of trial and error before any progress is seen. It is why many choose not to take it up as a style, but for those that stick with it, its reward are greater than any other style.

Good on you for having interest in it. I hope to see more from you in the future!

J.
:slight_smile:

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Jayyo, do you think that 2A is a good step in moving towards 3A?

Here’s why I ask:
I mostly do 1A. I mess with some 5A now and there. 4A is fun too. However, these all seem to be direct variants on 1A.

2A seems completely different. Well, it is.

Even though 3A is “two string trick yoyos”, I feel I’ll probably do better on 3A once I can do some 2A stuff.

My end goals is to have some degree of ability to do all 5 styles. Not competition grade levels, but sufficient for demonstrations and personal enjoyment.

2A helps in a sense that it builds up strength in your non dominant hand and coordination. Although doing 1A tricks on your non dominant hand is quite a bit different than doing loops and such.

I found that the biggest help when learning 3A was to practice doing my standard 1A tricks on my non dominant hand. It might feel a bit awkward at first, but it helps you build up a good and stable throw, and once you get a decent throw, trick, and bind down, you can start to mess around with 3A. Of course one could just try jumping into it, but this might cause some issues in the future.

While both styles use 2 yoyos, they are very much different in terms of play and execution.

J.
:slight_smile:

The reward in the long run is the reason why I’m taking up 2A. I’ve been getting better on looping with my nondominant hand and it’s a matter of a few months I think until I get it right :]

For me it’s like almost the opposite.

I’ve been doing a little bit of 3A for a while and I can do a couple of tricks. I’m getting closer to being able to loop with both hands, but I think that starting 3A has made my non dominant hand a little bit better and now I can do more loops with my left hand then I used to be able to do.

Maybe it was just from practice… or maybe the 3A helped. I don’t know but I kinda think it did.

When you can loop with either hand singly fairly well, and find yourself having a hard time making the transition to simultaneous loops, watch your body posture. Practicing one hand by itself, you tend to slightly lean/twist that side forward. Now when you try them at the same time, either hand will find itself out of whack in a position your muscle memory isnt used to. This instantly sends the whole thing to hell in a handbasket.

plant your feet, one foot slightly in front, and consciously anchor your body square to the direction you are looping… Practice this while doing one hand, too, and really pay attention to where your shoulders are. Then when you get to the point where you want to try them simultaneously, your body will at once be in a familiar position, and memory will take over from there. Like everyone said above, it takes TONS of practice.

A method that I use to learn new dual hand 2a tricks, is to practice it by the numbers. For example:

LEARNING TO LOOP-

 1L(eft), 1 R(ight). 2L, 2R. 3L, 3R.. and so on..  Its important to practice only good loops.  dont mess around with correcting off balance yoyos just yet.   STOP.  start over. Keep at this until you can loop either hand to limits of tension...

SIMULTANEOUS (Synchronous, or Alternating)-

 1LR, 2LR ( LRLR ), 3LR, 4LR... and so on.   Again, only good loops.  If you mess up, start over...

Catch the yoyos after each pass, and Ive been able to learn just about anything Ive tried so far using this method.

In time, you will come to be able to naturally correct off balance loops, and once you have the skills and muscle memory down, you can deviate from the patterns to focus on correcting one, while still nonchalantly continuing the other, and realigning them; it will happen naturally, and I can almost guarantee itll surprise you.

Tips-
Play with your slip knot positions, youll get proficient in looping no matter where it is, it will also help you find your Groove. Pun intended. Youll teach yourself where you have the best ability to loop from, and it will also broaden your skill set.

Play with your string lengths, too. you may find you have better luck with short strings, or a little longer, or even really long; I learned mostly on slightly too-long strings… when I finally started shortening my strings, it became a breeze to loop. its much harder to loop with longer strings, and when I shortened them, the skills were already there…

Understand the mechanics of looping… Know whats going on, and the forces involved…know your tension directions, know the effects of a slimmer vs. wider gap, also know what effects long and short strings have. Knowing what the yoyo and strings are doing is quite simply, half the battle. There are so many miniscule things at work here, and if even one is off, it can cause a chain reaction that just sends everything higgledy piggledy.

Hope this helps!!!

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