5 Yr old

So im new here. Ive always been interested in yoyos but never really learned much. My five year old recently found an old beat up duncan butterfly in my old toybox at my moms. He has since driven me crazy trying to do stuff. Well, i just ordered a couple of duncan bumblebees for us. He is still learning to just go up and down with it. Will he even be able to this with a bumblebee. Can it be set up to not sleep at all. If not, whats a good starter?

For a five year old, the bumble bee will be more than sufficient. It’s an imperial shaped yoyo, making it easy to do really basic tricks like loops, around the world, rock the baby, etc. The yoyo uses break pads for a response system, which don’t last too long, but it should be sufficient (and much better than a butterfly) for extremely casual play. Another cheap, no-matainence-required yoyo would be the butterfly XT http://shop.yoyoexpert.com/product/708/Duncan-Butterfly-XT

Now, for larger adult hands who might want to progress faster into string tricks and unresponsive play, I would highly recommend picking up a Yoyojam Classic. You will not find a yoyo that’s better suited for beginners. It’s cheap, durable, comes with a “slim” bearing that allows for responsive play, and is very easily up gradable to a wider bearing (sold separately). Plus, when upgraded, it’s a really excellent yoyo, even for very advanced play.

Classic -

Optional upgrades (You’ll need both for unresponsive play)


And finally, you’ll need spare string. As a beginner you won’t need to change strings too often, but they’re cheap, and it’s good to have some on hand. I’d recommend some kitty string. It’s a couple dollars more expensive, but it performs a littler better and is softer, which is very nice.

Good luck on starting yoyo!

For your 5 yr old I suggest a yomega power brain xp it has an auto return to it which means it will come up at any time. Or get him a Duncan pulse which has the same specs.

Well I thought about this but cannot really throw hard enough to open the clutch. At this point his focus is simply dropping and catching.

Well just a note; I have a bumblebee and it excels at nothing. It’s a reasonable starter, but once you hit a point in all styles it falls behind. What I mean is if you practice 2a you find it’s brake pads wear out quickly and if you doing 1a it doesn’t sleep long and it’s not an ideal shape. For a beginner however it’s ‘ok’. Sorta expensive for a throw that won’t take you far in my opinion.

Now to answer your question. For a five year old starter I’d suggest the proyo. It has a fixed wooden axle and $4.50. And once he learns to get a stable throw you could move up to something with a bearing, like the yyj classic or yyf one. The bumblebee has a bearing so unless you do something like glue the bearing I don’t think there’s a real way to get it %100 responsive… very VERY responsive= yes, 100%= no. But since you ordered 2 you could practice 2a. :smiley:

If you want to learn more you could start with the YYJ classic or YYF one. I believe they both come with a responsive bearing.

in summary:
Bumblebee won’t be 100% responsive unless an extreme measure is made
The proyo may be good as a starter for your 5 yr. old (especially if he looses interest, due to it being 4.50)
since you ordered 2 bumblebee you could practice 2a
For you YYJ classic or YYF one (or the like)

Hope it helped

you could order a wooden proyo axle to put in the bumble bee

It might help to loop the end loop of the string around the bearing a few times and/or put Vaseline in the bearing under the shield (see videos on how to clean a bearing to see how to get in there).

(edit: maybe a drop of super glue in the bearing?)

For the little youngster I’d recommend the yomega power brain if he just really wants to do gravity pull… Show him how to properly do it if he doesnt know already(start with yoyo in palm facing up and throw) instead of just holding the yoyo with palm down and just dropping it… Another good choice is the duncan proyo, it’s a bit cheaper…

Now, for you, if your planning on going anywhere farther than the advanced section on the trick list for this site I will recommend you a yoyo as well… Highly recommend the Dark Magic 2. It has a slim bearing for responsive play for when your starting out, and when you are more advanced and ready for unresponsive play it comes with a speed bearing that plays unresponsive. It is a very beginner friendly yoyo for learning tricks. Not to mention It can easily do everything on the tricklist if used right and it can take you very far, it’s been used to win nationals and runner up in worlds before, so it proves it can do pretty much anything. It’s a little over $40. If you need something a little cheaper I’d go with the yoyofactory ONE. Like the DMII it has a responsive and unresponsive bearing. It plays great for the price and it can also handle everything on this list… But if you are planning to go very far in yoyoing, meaning long combos, competitions, and all the other crazy stuff I highly suggest the DMII, but of course some people are more tight on money than others so the ONE can do it for you too.

I can only relay my experience.

When I started, I was at Toys R Us and my kid decided to start too, but knew less than I did. I was getting something, he wanted in on it.

I walkted out with a Reflex and an Imperial as those were the items I researched and chose and Toys R Us said had in stock. My son went with the Yomega Brain.

Since he’s 6.5 how, and I started nearly 2 years ago, that puts him at 4.5 years old at the time. I forget how long he was on that before he migraded to a YYF ONE. I’m trying to think where he went from there. I know I got him a couple of ProZ’s(one to stay modified, one in wing configuration), got him a Raider… I think then he ended up with a Dm2 , but I could be wrong. I’m trying to remember when he got his Protostar but it was before the DM2. He’s got a nice little collection of highly playable stuff. He’s 6.5 now and he’s doing 1A, 2A(well, he’s working on it), 4A(He’s beat his Fiesta XX into needing a replacement but he CAN do 4A) and 5A. It really depends on how much you’re going to support this how far he’ll progress.

Once he’s starting to do basics, then the odds are string he’ll be under his own “momentum” at this point. He’s recently gotten a pair of Loop 808s, a pair of Loop 360’s, an XCon Pro(he chose this, he likes mine), a G-Funk and a PGM. He doesn’t like the PGM because his hands can’t use the stacks but otherwise likes it. He likes my Epic and Photon Spirit because of the big stacks, so I got him a Magic YoYo T10 for his stacked play. He’s also got a Metal Drifter and a Freakhand, set up unresponsive and for 5A.

My boy has been going through my cases on a regular basis, routinely throwing CLYW’s, One Drops, SPYY and way more high end stuff.

In stead of a bumble bee a Duncan speed beetle is cheaper and is great for starting as well as getting a few of those looping tricks down.

Woah, your son seems pretty good for a 6 year old, and he has all of those throws under his belt, it would be awesome if my dad threw… He is similar to you but with tennis… My mom bugs him and complains about how he could get injufrd( he already ha son several occasion) but he still plays… and he buys a lot of stuff like you too… i wish he were like that with tennis and yoyos ;D

This stuck out a bit for me. Anybody of any age learning to play yoyo will often “drop” the yoyo, let it come up and then when it doesn’t reach their hand they grab at it.

Beyond the choice of yoyo he will need to learn to actually throw the yoyo down. It takes a pretty special touch to get most yoyos to sleep; most people who first learn to throw a yoyo with enough momentum will see it come back up without any special effort. It will bounce at the end of the string a little and get slack, thereby coming back up. It’s a skill to throw it down and then “give” a little bit at the end so that the bounce doesn’t happen.

In short, if it’s a “sleeping” problem you’re trying to fix, I suspect that it’s actually that he hasn’t developed a strong enough throw yet. Help him with a relatively strong straight throw, and it will just come back to his hand where he can try to catch it.

The “clutch” example ties into this… if he can’t throw hard enough to release a clutch, then “Brain” style yoyos will actually start returning to his hand once they reach the end of the string… but there still has to be enough momentum for the yoyo to fight gravity and come back up to the hand.

Make sure you use fat kitty so he Dosnt get string burn :slight_smile: