ive been at it for 3 weeks and im at the end of intermediate. ive been using a YYF One, started on a yomega hot shot. i recently swapped bearings on the One to work on binding. ive havent moved on to advanced yet b/c im working on landing tricks every time and smoothly. ive mostly got everything down and i cant do basic binds easily, now just waiting for my DM2 to come in the mail 
once it comes i think im going to move on to advanced. i would say work on things until you feel comfortable and can get them consecutively (i hope i spelled that right) atleast a few times in a row. then when you feel ready, move on to the next.
I skipped most of the tricks on YYE, I make most of my tricks. Skipping tricks doesn’t really matter because they are mostly old school stuff. When you get into making tricks and etc, the basics will come naturally. Now that i said it, do whatever you are comfortable with, yoyoing is about self expression, having a unique style is more important than mastering every trick there is. On top of that, enjoy!
I think this is the question that everyone has when they start yoyoing. The beauty of yoyoing is each of us progresses at exactly the perfect pace. My pace will not be the same as someone elses but both of us will progress at the perfect pace. To me that’s just perfect! Progression is influenced by so many factors, amount of time practice, availability to a club or mentor, internet access, as well as desire and natural ability.
I’ve seen people get frustrated when that learning curve flattens for a while. Sometimes they even quit! Remember, as much fun as it is to learn so quickly, when things become slower don’t sweat it and just enjoy honing those skills and start asking “what if?” “What if I did this instead of that?” Now instead of learning new tricks you create them!
i know im probably not there yet… but when you make tricks, ive always wondered like what do you think? like how does it come to your mind?
It doesn’t you just mess around. Eventually something cool will happen and from there, something else and etc. But sometimes for me the ending or beginning of a trick can take weeks or months to figure out what to do.
Very inspirational. You should write a book
I have only been throwing for a couple of months and started out with an unresponsive YoYo…I have not followed any kinda “order” in learning tricks, but I would like to point out I did uset to throw 20 years ago and won a few competitions so kinda know all the basics like walk the dog, around the world, looping, etc…
if I run into problems I will try something new…for example I have been learning many front mount/split-bottom mount tricks and have the actions down but not the smoothness…
I have now moved onto double or nothing/trapeze/reverse trapeze/brother/eli hop/ferris wheel and oliver twist combos but still go back to other tricks to work on accuracy etc…
That’s kind of what I’m doing, except without the “used to throw 20 years ago” part and without the competing part and without the knowing of the basics stuff.
I move forward, but I still work on “older stuff I’ve already learned” to smooth it out. 8 months in, still having fun!