Check out the A-RT YouTube channel. They have a bunch of great videos on there including some tutorials.
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Thanks. I just watched part of one at lunch. Will get back to it later hopefully. Amazing and funny. I’ve seen a few of their videos in the year since I started getting back/really into yoyo, but there’s so much out there to watch and catch up on I didn’t really focus, but I think it’s time.
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As someone who remembers when the 888 (an undersized, high wall, organic monometal) was THE go to “competition throw” it’s hard not to find the discussion of what is or isn’t a competition throw a tad bit comical.
As a drummer, I instantly think of music related analogies in this scenario. You can give a beginner guitar player a $5000 custom shop guitar, but they’ll sound horrible. Give a seasoned pro a $99 Squier, and they’ll absolutely shred, and it’ll be awesome. It’s how you use the tools you’re given…
Although… it is nice to have nice tools… 
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Looking at it realistically, any yoyo can be used to compete (and win) however competition yoyo means its geared for that purpose. With the right driver the type of car becomes less important. As an example, I couldn’t do what Brandon Vu does on a $40 Magic YoYo Focus even with the most expensive yoyo out there.
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When shredding was huge in rock, something like 99% of shredders were slinging superstrats. It was exceedingly rare to find anyone playing a Telecaster (John 5 and Jim Root being the only two I can think of off the top of my head). When the overwhelming majority of players are using a particular style of instrument, it is usually because it suits that style of play best. Sure, some of it is “fashion”, but I don’t believe that is the driving force behind these choices.
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I think this pretty much hits the nail on the head. “Performance” in yoyoing is a bit misleading to my mind. I think it’s more about trade-offs. It’s not that you can do harder tricks necessarily on competition yoyos, it’s more the speed and style of tricks that will score big in a competion, will be easier to accomplish on them.
Some tricks are easier on organics like rejections and injections. Injections, in particular, take time to set up and accomplish and so are not as much a staple of competition routines, for instance.
In 2015 in Japan at the world yoyo contest, this was taken to the extreme in the spin top contest. Some of the old Japanese top masters entered, and even though the American and European competitors tried to explain how the scoring worked, they still didn’t get the scoring aspect. They were doing these tricks with elaborate setups that took too much time. I remember one guy was trying to put the top on a sword’s edge. He ended up not getting even one trick in before his time elapsed!
The tricks were every bit as difficult and certainly performance worthy, as in worthy to perform for a crowd, as the other players were doing, but they just didn’t work in the timed scoring format.
In hindsight, maybe they should have been set up to do an exhibition instead of competing.
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Well, to be fair, Jensen’s horizontal is more like ‘obliqueazontal’.
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To be fair most people’s horizontal isn’t close to actually being horizontal
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Thank you for that vid. Wow. Music, routine and quirky skit.
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FACTSSSSS lol
one of my favs
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I wish I could look as cool as charles does when throwing
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Here’s one my favorite yoyoing videos that I find simply mesmerizing.
Tyler is throwing a Door Knob in this video. Talk about killing it with a non-competition throw!
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@EOS44 and @nightshadow pretty much sum it up best here. It simply boils down to the yoyo type that is best for consistency and versatility with regards to the scoring systems currently in place for competitions. There are minor tradeoffs for almost every yoyo metric, but a competition yoyo does its best to attenuate the problem by being versatile. Try doing the same things on stage that you land 9/10 times in practice; I bet the success rate drastically plummets in the moment.
The problem I see is the “fun vs competition” notion. It makes you think you have to sacrifice fun for performance, but both casual and competition throws can be fun in different ways. I typically prefer casual yoyos, but hell, that Peregrine I own is a monster of fun as well.
What it all boils down to is nailing a good routine that scores. Most modern yoyos are capable, but the biggest limiting factor is always going to be you.
I think Gentry does what he does partly because he sticks with one yoyo and ups his game based on what he can do with it, rather than what he could do with a new yoyo. Is there a yoyo out there that might be better suited for Gentry’s tricks? Possibly, but it doesn’t matter.
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This is one of my favorites too, but it’s actually pretty messed up when you think about it… He returns the toaster to the store because it turns out he “won’t need it after all” when earlier in the video it shows him filling up a bathtub with the toaster next to it. The DK is so good it gave him a reason to live. Also, that ending
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Yes, me too. Most reviewers seem to fall into this notional trap, which I think perpetuates it throughout the community at large.
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Dont we all:sweat_smile:
I think all of the a-rt team has incredible flow.
Jensen’s Life video (Did I Ever - Jensen Kimmitt - Life - YouTube) is probably one of the best things Ive seen.
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Yeah Kimmit is a legend
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