I’m Nic
A month ago i started re-learning yoyo, i randomly picked up my old yoyo, changed it’s string, and just throw it, unlike what you’d expect from people throwing an “old” yoyo of theirs, it wasn’t that old of a yoyo relic, i bought it in 2015/6 and it’s an alumunium yoyo made by auldey, the bearing’s kinda loud but it’s still an unresponsive yoyo that worked fine.
I started to learn tricks, i stated “re-learning” in the first paragraph, but i never actually know this trick, it was the matrix from Yotricks, i can’t believe it took me 30 minutes to understand that trick, but i finally did, then i continues with learning Evan Nagao’s Double Down because it’s so flashy and i think it’s cool, got that the “first try” after a few minutes hesitating slinging the yoyo, my neck hurts by then so i rested. The next day when i browse the Yotricks app (i’m not sponsored by YoTricks) i found the trick called Dorito, I’m a car guy and the first thing i thought of when i hear the word “Dorito” is the beautiful diva like sound of a Rotary engine, so I learned that trick, never got it till this day, I’ll be back for this trick later, I found another trick called Tsunami Bomb, i like the wavy flow of this trick so i learned it, it features a magic drop element so it’s a bit hard for me to pick up because i didn’t know what that is(I also Struggle with the 1.5 Mount), I got the trick BUT haven’t been smooth with it, I’ll probably dedicate an entire day for it later in the blog.
(Time skip to a week before i bought myself a new yoyo, i spent most of the time just throwing and playing with the trick i already learned the day before)
I found YoYoJoe1, the first trick I learned from him is the “ADVANCED Shion Araya and Tyler Brooks” a nice looking trick, I got the basics in the first day, But I’m struggling to chain the whole trick for a whole week because my yoyo didn’t got enough spin time. I searched the web for a “punch above it’s budget” yoyo, a few choice are YOYOFRIENDS AoE for $15, Speedaholic XX for $30, Luftverk 000/Fulvia for $34, weirdly enough I didn’t find any Replay Pro, i decided to hold this purchase to find another deas, and oh boy what a deal did I got, a yoyofactory PRAGMA for $21 after shipping and “lightweight” bargaining, I even made my first post about it around this time.
The πράγμα has arrived and it got a crooked siicone pad, so i waited the next 2 days for the pad to arrive, after swapping the pads i played with the object, it’s my first time feeling a kickback from a yoyo, I thought to myself “did i ■■■■ this up?” but nope, it’s just physics at work baby!!! as newton stated an object will keep moving if it’s moving, and will stay if there’s no force aplied, it’s just the rim having more weight and therefore will be needing more force to make it spin than a yoyo with no rim weight, this jump is hard to make for me because it’s very noticable, it’s also more responsive because my old yoyo never got it’s pad changed, anyway i immidiately learned some more tricks from this YoYoJoe guy such as the Blaise Becker Meta and the Meta Tech Speed, just like the other tricks that I learned earlier I got the tricks right but haven’t been smooth with it.
This is it, this is where I am today, the 13th of May, my 20th birthday, no job, didn’t go to college, and learning Shinya Kido’s speed combo, and writing a blog about it, this is where it all gonna start, because my first 20 years of my life is not canon.
✿Day 0 (130524)
Making a Blog for my yoyo journey, the idea is to learn 1 specific trick for 1/2 day for the next 3 month, roughly 45-90 advanced tricks, each trick would probably have 7-35 elements and lasts around 5-15 seconds, that’s enough trick to make a high scoring routine, what did i learn today? getting the first half of Shinya Kido’s speedcombo just right before the step number 19 (https://youtu.be/wWWAhzFRym4?si=8493H7a_kgDNwvJJ), this element (https://youtu.be/zz4T7MT5-Ns?si=tR0CCcvRPqya4Q6j), I’m kinda struggling with it like I did with the matrix, I need help, send reinforcement.
✿Day 1 (140524)
Woke up with a light flu, can’t breath through one nostril. Yoyowise I triple wrapped my string to make it shorter, immediately find improvement on the speed combo(https://youtu.be/wWWAhzFRym4?si=8493H7a_kgDNwvJJ), got it fast just before the ripcord part but not very accurate on the execution, lost a lot of spin power, I blame the string obviously, it’s 12 strands ❨maybe I should go faster?❩. Also tried all the tricks I knew, everything went well, shorter string doesn’t obstruct more techy tricks. I also started to get the first 4 elements of the “Blaise Becker Meta combo”(https://youtu.be/aMkHQnh78Fg?si=ylDSaOqPUgLB7qmt) consistently, still struggling on the GT part. Slept from 11 to 17, then started grinding on the speed combo, realised the string loop are too tight, so I made a bandage ring, pretty helpful little thing, and back to the grind, overall today isn’t that eventful, just a little progress, I will do this way of training for maybe a week, just to clean up the tricks in my library and making sure to land them consistently. Today’s rating 2/10
✿Day 2 (150524)
Found out the competition is in June, that’s next month😭, I’ll train for next year instead, ain’t no way I’m learning tricks while making a routine in a month. The blog will continue to +365 day consecutively, as for today’s training I grinded the same speedcombo in the morning, getting more fluent with it, it’s 16:45 rn I’ll just rest for the day.
✿Day 3 (160524)
My accuracy fell down, I don’t know why but I can’t seem to hit a trick in the morning, and when I did it my movement feels janky. At night it feels better but still feels jank, at least I could land the trick more often than in the morning.
✿Day 4 (170524)
The speedcombo is burning me out because of the slow progress so I learned the Blaise Becker Meta from YoYoJoe(https://youtu.be/aMkHQnh78Fg?si=bUbIYHsDIJ9FpdHd) instead, been pretty successful on the slack hooking part and getting my first GT from there, will be back to grinding it after this and try to hit it on camera to work on making it looks cool, maybe tomorrow.
✿Day 5-6 (18-19.05.24)
Recorded myself playing yoyo, it looked so awkward I deleted it immediately, I can’t smile, gave a side-eye to the camera, barely move, and my posture is bad, body control section gonna be 0 for unacceptable. Then I’m back to the speedcombo and have been making it smoother, spend these 2 days playing with all the tricks I know, no big update because it’s just training to make all the tricks smoother, it’s for the control points. I can do this while learning new tricks so I’m ready for new trick tomorrow.
✿Day 7-8 (20-21.05.24)
Learned John Ando’s trick from 2008 where he spins 270° around the yoyo and make a green triangle, can’t believe this took 2 days, it’s a very simple trick but without any tutorial this is kinda hard to comprehend, anyway you just have to make a split bottom mount, roll the yoyo to the front string, do a chopstick underpass, but stop halfway, now you got the yoyo between your pointer finger and your thumb, make tension using your throw hand, spin 270°, take the string coming from your throw hand, and just drop the yoyo. I still can’t finish the speedcombo in one throw
✿Day 9-10 (22-23.05.24)
Landed the dorito pretty consistently, with some occasional gt knot, also learned heart slack from the same yotricks playlist (bite sized)
✿Day 11 (24.05.24)
Learning the basic of off axis style, I just happen tilt the yoyo in the speed combo and realized I was swinging it along with the axis of the yoyo, so I decided to start throwing my yoyo in a 45° angle and learned the basic from there, landed trapeze and his brother multiple time BUT the yoyo sometimes just turns itself to my side and fixed it’s axis, I don’t know what’s wrong with my technique tho, so I just kept doing it, hopefully I’ll be ready to learn horizontal tricks soon.
✿Day 12-14 (25-27.05.24)
I learned brent stole, evan nagao’s slingshot gt, and tried to memorize gentry’s “the drift” (https://youtu.be/xy4UkJP8XPM?si=6xg0peD1nLv_TXEk) into my muscle memory, my right arm hurts from learning brent stole, I’m too unfit for this.
✿Day 15-17 (28-30.05.24)
I’m really struggling with the drift, it’s mostly because of my accuracy, i can’t even get to step 2 consistently, i hit my fingers and knuckles a lot so there’s more resting than training this actual trick, i did a recap on all the tricks I’ve learned, it’s kinda hard to remember them all one by one, so i wrote them all on a piece of paper.
✿Day 18-19 (31.05.24-01.06.24)
Can’t hit the drift, this is something I just noticed that speedcombos are harder to learn because they have simple mechanic, but you need time to have it on muscle memory, for example the shinya kido’s speedcombo i learned at the start of this blog is now very doable(just right before the right rail part), so I decided to learn a tech combo, which is harder to hit right the first time, but once you did, it’s just easy, so i decided my freestyle will have tech combos for the most of it as a filler to make sure I got points, and speed combos for “TheBestPartOfTheMusic”, and maybe a little bit of behind the back for the build up before “TheBestPartOfTheMusic”, anyway the tech trick i learned is the ADVANCED Hayden Brickman dense tech combo by yoyojoe1(https://youtu.be/TZhAvhFMpiQ?si=0WguoXZi5tZy2Ihe), the most challenging part is the last part where you slingshoted the string and catch it with your finger, it’s just challenging in a way that it’s a hard to comprehend move, after i did that right it’s just unmounting time, due to my string being too thick this trick really take my spin time, so i ordered a thinner string (currently using 12 strands, going to 11 strands), so this was kinda nice being able to learn new tricks instead of grinding the same trick again and again, even though i have to do that because speed combos need time to learn while tech needs brain to learn, so I’ll probably jump to grinding the drift again tomorrow.
✿Day 20-23 (02-05.06.24)
The thinner string worked nice, i have to relearn all my tricks, but it’s worth it, no more spin loss, for slacks i just have to make a more exaggerated movement, of course I’m hyped and immediately learned (tried) hiroyuki suzuki’s frontstyle speed combo (https://youtu.be/a_ElYbseNiE?si=bOknWGSgyWISUemh), I’ve never touched any frontstyle ever since I got an unresponsive yoyo years ago, it felt awkward, to do a bottom split mount my yoyo got to dangle a bit at the bottom on my side or I got to do a backwards around the world, eventually i just throw it to my left and spin my body. The combo itself is not too complicated, but I need to get my speed up. I also learned how to do trapeze slackicide, I can’t catch the string using my finger, so I just grabs the strings, it’s a lot harder than doing a GT slackicide. That’s it, 4 full days, I didn’t grind the “the drift” because I can’t fulfill my own commitment, all I did is just trying the trick expecting it to magically land smoothly in the chopstick configuration.
✿Day 24-25 (06-07.06.24)
I’m back to grinding the grind, I did the whole combo but not smoothly, didn’t learn anything new
✿Day 26-27 (08-09.06.24)
Finally able to do Shinya Kido’s speedcombo, idk why this took me so long to finally be able to do it from start to finish, but i only landed it, i need to go faster and write it to my muscle memory. oh and this 2 day is my national yoyo competition, Jonathan Sitanggang won, last year’s winner Ahmad Kharisma did a mistake, and this empowers me, my arrogance is beyond that of a god and i feel like i can do better than them🤣, anyway i learned the basic of behind the back, this is a very humbling experience as i can’t even land a trapeze.
✿Day 28-33 (10-14.06.24)
I spent this week trying to perfect the flow of the speedcombo, i also started to chain combos this (https://youtu.be/TZhAvhFMpiQ?si=VbiuI-w2ln88iITW) with this (Need a transition trick to chain combos) to this (https://youtu.be/aMkHQnh78Fg?si=sdpo0fdQr9gSV8j9) and to this (https://youtu.be/7iZZf5KgUAA?si=vKMJ0TtPN0McIE0k) of course i’m not sure wether i’ll use this for my routine, but that’s a nice problem solving experience, i believe this will help with making a routine for a freestyle.
✿Day 34-36 (15-17.06.24)
Tried to learn Shion araya’s wrist mount combo (https://youtu.be/moTHqLv-x_0?si=EI-jkJOvFdKPk4vv) struggled at the spirit bomb part, then i left for a family vacation, i bring my yoyo with me but didn’t learn something new.
✿Day 37-46 (18-27.06.24)
it’s been 10 days since the last update, the first 3 days were nothing new except the fact that i bought a used northstar for $8, and in a week i tried to learn this combo from tokushima aran (https://youtu.be/1RfZgz8p7LI?si=iy4rXOSHrNyaZFqj) it took me a week to learn up until the 1st slack element, i didn’t update much because i thought i could learn the whole trick before it’s “too long of a time gap” for each update
✿Day 47-51 (28.06-02.07.24)
Can’t comprehend that combo, then i decided to learn something new instead, i choose Kasuga Ayumu’s speedcombo (https://youtu.be/0MT0VZnolZs?si=SUzYMVvtKD1x0KuI) i got into the second wrist" mount" like mount and rest a little bit, and guess what, i found a tutorial for the slacks in Tokushima Aran’s combo (https://youtu.be/fG11S3enuh4?si=QWRfNe1vvNe4oIXK) i’m very blessed bruh.
✿Day 52-53 (03-04.07.24)
Kasuga Ayumu’s speedcombo all elements cleared, did it start to finish not cleanly, but it feels nice to learn something new, next is the Tokushima Aran combo.
✿Day 54-61 (05-12.07.24)
Just training to make the speedcombos cleaner and faster, on day 65 I’m feeling creative and decided to make an original trick, there goes my title accuracy…
✿Day 62-71 (13-22.07.24)
Didn’t learn anything new until day 75, i found an arm trick from SFTUTS (https://youtu.be/hOgbLPIiGLQ?si=yEIUkeTHBzwZyglS) i’m really struggling for “non conventional” trick like this, behind the back, and horizontals.
✿Day 72-83 (23.07-03.08.24)
I still can’t do that arm combo, but i’ve been really good at Ayumu Kasuga’s speedcombo, and i’ve been combining it with Shion Araya’s wrist mount speedcombo to make it a bit longer, i also learnt Mir Kim’s meta slack combo from trick-a-week #30, been hitting the first 3 elements regularly, and i found Izuru Hasumi’s wrist combo tutorial on youtube (https://youtu.be/CnwFp3DwwA0?si=DkO7LCvzfvS5autq) so i put it in the backlog of tricks to learn.
✿Day 84-90 (04-10.08.24)
I’m mastering Hiroyuki Suzuki’s frontsyle speedcombo, it’s a nice and short speedcombo, i’ll definitely gonna bust this out for the pre-liminary.
✿Day 91-101 (11-21.08.24)
I got the power of the dark side, i learnt ryuichi nakamura’s 2023 world final opening, i got to the first dart vader’s huff element, i plan to learn this opening until before the over the head regen.
✿Day 102-112 (22.08-02.09.24)
I got to the second darth vader’s huff, apparently the trick have a name, it’s called around slack whip, and there’s a tutorial on YYR’s channel (https://youtu.be/xg__ZS7AksM?si=JGbD4aWEBPe8xOI6) i’m struggling a bit and i’ll blame it on my string, i’m using a thinner string than fat kitty, but i can land it using my fat kitty, i’m low on the fat string rn so i’m saving my stock, they’re quite expensive for someone in my tax bracket. I also learnt that one reverse arm hop? the one that brandon vu make a video about him struggling, i hit my arm a lot learning this, but i did get better at launching the yoyo, i just haven’t landed it so it’s not a complete hop.
✿Day 113-117 (03-07.09.24)
I grinded the arm hop these 5 days, and finally landed it for the first time on the 117th day, i’ll learn a new trick while still grinding this.
✿Day 118-132 (08-22.09.24)
I can’t seem to land the arm hop, so i decided to learn a new trick Shion Araya’s speed combo i choose you!(https://youtu.be/yRlb4Hhmggc?si=KO-fCCxSUX5I_8ZI) EASY.
✿Day 133-141 (23.09-01.10.24)
Learned Meta slack (https://youtu.be/HePbsZnCWeE?si=tNoEkxoFK9rhK8yX) only landed the second step sloppy, also finally getting the knack of horizontal for trapeze and brother, also 1.5 mount, and the bind.
✿Day 142-149 (02-09.10.24)
Somehow i got worse at throwing horizontal maybe last week was just a fluke for a WHOLE day???!!! anyway i’m stuck with the meta slack so i went and learned this arm combo (https://youtu.be/hOgbLPIiGLQ?si=yEIUkeTHBzwZyglS) and this one combo (https://youtu.be/1RfZgz8p7LI?si=iy4rXOSHrNyaZFqj) i almost finiahed the arm combo and still struggling with the first step of the reflect slack part of the combo, the rest of the combo is fine.
✿Day 150-160 (10-20.10.24)
I’ve learned a few trick these 10 days, I just forgot to write any update, 1st I browsed through Toru Miyazaki’s tutorial in yyr channel, I learned cross catch suicide gt (https://youtu.be/LJVm4BZGXvM?si=oYK42KLiyW--XEiq) I’ve landed almost all the elements except the hop to the cross catch, i could hop the yoyo out fine, let it dangle, swing it and catch it, then I learned 1.5 eli hop, I can’t believe I only learned 1.5 mount this April, time flies huh… I also found out about wrapping the string on your wrist to do horizontal😲 game changer, now i can do horizontals nicely, I learned Ryuichi Nakamura’s horizontal although only the first element, that one swing from the matrix to eli hop, I also able to do the newly learned 1.5 hop.
I’ll be making my own yoyo brand this year (hopefully), I just feel the need to put this cluetamin here for no particular reason.
✿Day 161-171 (21-31.10.24)
I got a few hops checked out, like under throw arm hop, reverse trapeze hop, usual hop, and now struggling with that “reversed wrist hop”?? where you somewhat dislocate your wrist back and hop the yoyo between your arm and palm, i got a few blue spot on my arm now, i didn’t learn much these 10 days, hops are surprisingly a big waste of time(a good one), i’ll try to learn behind the head recapture, but i’ll try usual recapture first of course. I also bought a millimeter tracing paper to make the blueprint for my 1st yoyo.
✿Day 172-187 (01-15.11.24)
I learned Kasuga Ayumu’s JN24 opening, i’m struggling to even move my body at first but at the end of the week i’m able to do almost all of it, i just don’t understand the element before the under the knee trapeze, surprisingly didn’t hit my head with a yoyo at all, I also somehow able to land the around slack whip from Ryuichi Nakamura (https://youtu.be/xg__ZS7AksM?si=JGbD4aWEBPe8xOI6) without even changing the string to a thicker one, but when I did it became much easier, I’m not sure why I struggled with it at all, also got the new yyf onestar from a Japanese vendor.
✿Day 188-203 (16-30.11.24)
Got the neck combo done nicely, until the under the knee trapeze, I then learned the arm entry from 1:57 Ayumu Kasuga jn24 (https://youtu.be/H7TqMx_GnbI?si=ctbsM_mPANElfhPF) landed it a few time, never hit my head surprisingly, I also learned speedcombo from the same video. Next is probably learning arm hop, I’m scared to attempt it because the yoyo always ends up hitting my funny bone, talking about funny bone I also hit the funny bone on my palm pretty frequently when I catch the yoyo and it makes that white noise ahh sensation everytime I poke that part of my palm🤣.
✿Day 204-219 (01-16.12.24)
I continued learning the same speed combo, haven’t finished it because all the elements are new for me, i then moved to learning the horizontal combo right before the speed combo from the same video, this is hard but i got to the double trapeze then i called checkpoint, i also somehow able to do a 1.5 hook, i just did without any practice, and able to hit it every time, can’t believe i used to thought i would never go beyond 1.0 hook. The universe didn’t want me doing only good though, it has to be balanced, i hit a spot right below my eyebrow with my yoyo just as i did the neck combo, the string just stuck on my neck and swung the yoyo right on to my face🤣. Update on the carbon fiber yoyo, i just got the mould for it, it’s very exciting.
