I think I’m just looking for any advice on how to practice 2a such as trick order or how many repetitions etc. I really wanted to do 2a style when I got back into yoyo this year as that looked like the cool tricks I remembered as a child. I’ve thrown at least a few loop the loops everyday since May. At least twice a week I practice until my finger is numb and I just can’t do it anymore. That is usually an hour.
I don’t feel like I’m getting any better. Since the first or second session I can do a handful of loops before messing up, and that is still as good as I can do. I even end up in a sidewinder on the first or second loop on many throws. I’ve not looked at many other 2a tricks because they all seem like variations or different directions of loop the loop which I still can’t do very well.
I know 2a is supposed to be harder, but is it this hard? Will it eventually click and suddenly I can loop forever, or is 2a always going to feel like a brick wall lol? Are there some tricks I should be practicing along side the loop the loop even if I don’t feel like I can loop yet? Just practice longer/more often?
Glad you posted! I’ve been thinking of posting a similar message. I’ve got the YYF Loop 720 as well and I also end up getting sidewinders and other slop regularly. I recently put some thin lube into the bearing (following advice from the a video by the sellers of the YYF/YYT Match yoyo). In that same video, they talk about practicing 10s of thousands of loops to perfect it, so I got some finger tape (haven’t tried it yet) and have just been hammering on my loops. The 720 with thin lube does seem better, but from my experience, progress - in all yoyo styles I’ve tried - has been really slow, but particularly with looping and 0A. I’m currently able to get about 15 loops at a time (mixing in outside loops here and there to try to balance the string tension), only about half of them clean. If I get garbage/sidewinders I just keep looping and sometimes it will right itself. Looping was one of my favorite tricks to do with the Duncan Imperial when I was younger and I still really enjoy it. I’d love to get good at it with both hands and be able to do “real” 2A someday. I’d also love to hear what advice any throwers who went through this sort of frustration and are now competent 2A-ers (please!).
Yeah that feeling of being able to do “real” 2a probably will never come with how perfect I feel like something has to be. When I started I was all like “I want to shoot the moon with both hands and do punching bags”. Then once I got a yoyo I was thinking “I’ll be happy if I can loop inside/outside and around the world with both hands”. Now I’m just trying to master inside loops on one hand lol
I remember looping being a tricky and touchy skill for me back in the 80s when I didn’t even know what 2A or any of these terms were, so even after seeing the Duncan documentary with all these guys doing 2A with modded wood yoys I knew it wouldn’t be easy even with a modern marvel like the Loop 720. But yes, it’s a little daunting to see experts and even little kids looping like it’s the easiest thing in the world and then when I try it’s just not easy at all. As long as I’m enjoying doing it, and there’s at least some progress - or at least hope of progress haha - the process of learning is tolerable if not enjoyable. Look at juggling. Even the best jugglers are obviously concentrating hard no matter how easy they make it look. I’m trying to think of yo-yo-ing like that and then the fact that I can do any yo-yo tricks at all makes me feel pretty good (I can’t juggle at all in other words). I’m going to watch some more 2A tutorials and once I can do maybe 25 clean loops with both hands I’ll order a 2nd Loop 720 or maybe that new similar looking loop style yoyo they just posted here in the New Releases section.
I’m still learning as well. Asking a lot of questions through Instagram to the ones who main in 2A. So damn hard but I feel that I almost kind or sort of in a way starting to feel what they are talking about just a tiny bit but seriously feels like I see the tip of the iceberg a few hundred miles away
ken46gram on IG is a good follow if you need some 2A motivation and direction, he has some good exercises
But the real reality is that 2A is hard and you have to embrace the process and it doesn’t happen overnight. Don’t get hung up on inside loops either, play with all the directions and flips and enjoy the simplicity of Around the Worlds. With that being said it is 2A Tuesday , so I’m going to grab my loopers and throw some reps.
I can throw inside loops with both my hands and with my dominant hand I can do alternating inside outside loops but I cannot do two handed looping and since I broke on of my 720s I have lost all motivation to practice it.
This is my looping experience:
Yes.
I learned to throw two loops, then three and then it was five, ten, 15, 20. So it was kind of like exponential progress.
I think if you want to get better at looping then just keep practising. Try to practise as often as you can, like 30 minutes to an hour everyday and try to not get too frustrated with it. Looping has by far the steepest learning curve and it takes a lot of time to learn the basics.
You can try to connect some simple tricks to your inside loops. That way you can diversify your inside loop practice sessions.
Here I made some videos https://imgur.com/a/Juo3psp:
This is the easiest trick that you can connect to your inside loops. Throw a sleeper and swing the yoyo back and forth while it sleeps on the bottom of your string. When the yoyo is on its apex of its forward swing make the yoyo return and try to throw a loop.
This is the hardest trick. Throw an inside loop but throw it more downwards and not horizontal and then try to get into a sleeper.
This trick is called warp drive. Just throw a forward pass and then do an inside loop but make it an around the world. You can also do the opposite and start with an around the world first and then instead of catching it try to do one inside loop.
The good thing about these tricks is that you don’t need to have the inside loop mastered. Just throw a sleeper to one (1) inside loop or one around the world to one (1) inside loop etc.
This is all very constructive and I appreciate the specific ways to practice the loop with a bit of variety. The one with the direction change into sleeper is certainly the hardest.