To give a short background on myself. I tend to “drown” myself in material things I am interested in and have determined to stop this earlier this year. For instance, I was into drones for a little bit of time, and bought 6 in the period of 2 months, which is way excessive. I was into videogames for a time period, and bought 7-8 games in about three months and played one of them for more than an hour.
That said, I am getting decent at yoyo-ing. I am on the “advanced” section of the tutorials on YYE here and I am getting better every day. Ive been doing this for about three months. I currently throw a replay-pro.
My question is if I should buy a new yo-yo soon. I have never owned a metal or a premium plastic, but I feel like the replay pro still has a lot of room for me to grow in. The only thing I feel like the replay pro is terrible at is finger spins (and I dont think it grinds well either, which I have been messing around with)
If I do get a new yoyo, I was looking at the YYR diffusion, OD Cabal, 2sick pawn, or if I get a metal, the YYF Space Cadet.
But will getting a new yoyo help me progress in doing new tricks, or is it just a “taste” thing ? I dont want to end up with 50 throws and I only use one. Id rather have one all-arounder, and if the replay-pro will work for me for the next year, Id rather stick with that.
You don’t really “need” more than one yoyo if it works well for you. However, most of us tend to have a certain shape, weight, and feel we prefer.
I’d recommend that your next yoyo be something different than what you have so you can explore these characteristics.
If you are having fun with what you have stick with it for a while. There’s no rush and everyone’s yoyo journey is different. Enjoy yours. When you start feeling like you’re losing interest or not having as much fun, find a new yoyo to love.
Oh btw, I’ve never discovered a yoyo that wasn’t capable of more than me so if you feel the pro and yourself, have room for growth, grow!
The good old need vs want debate Well this is my advise. As long as your hobby does not effect your life in negative ways, you should do what make you happy!!!
I see nothing wrong with an upgrade in your case. Once you feel limited by your equipment in things you want to do (in your case grinds and fingerspins) then you should upgrade. Just my thought.
Here is what I used to do when I started. Buy a yoyo. Play it till it has been beat so bad that I nearly have to buy a new one. Then buy a new one. Now obviously you don’t need to do that, but if you feel like you always have to buy something new, maybe something like this would slow you down?
Getting a more premium yoyo won’t really make you progress much faster or get much better. You definitely have the added stability, maneuverability, and forgiveness but it’s not so substantial that it’ll immediately make you better.
However, like you said the Replay Pro isn’t particularly great at grinds or fingerspins so if those are the types of tricks you want to start learning getting a new yoyo would be a good investment for making the learning process easier and quicker. For fingerspins I’d suggest the Skyva. For other grinds (finger, arm, thumb, palm, etc) I suggest the Spin Dynamics Spark. If you want something that’s good at both fingerspins and grinds, go for the YoYofficer Kilter 2.
Outside of that, buy a new yoyo because you want more variety, not because you’re hoping it’ll make you better.
Also, if you expect that you’ll be yoyoing for a while, even if just casually, you can start building your own collection. There’s a lot of people in this community that own hundreds of yoyos, tens of thousands of dollars worth of yoyos, despite not being particularly great at yoyoing or yoyo multiple hours a day.
in response to whotheman: I dont know if I am limited by my technique or the yoyo with grinds and finger spins. What I do know is that going from a responsive replay to a replay pro enabled me to instantly do tricks I couldnt do before, that were supposed to be able to be done on a responsive. Im wondering if it will be like that for fingerspins and grinds with something more premium.
follow-up question to Andy: Why would variety help? Again, is it a “taste” thing? Do you, as a good yo-yoer, use one yoyo for a certain type of 1a trick and another for a different 1a trick? If I could get one I really love that works well for everything id rather do that. I know, like any other hobby or sport, nothing is perfect. I already have a 4a yo-yo, and I am not sure if I am interested in looping or 5a yet, but I really love 1a.
For me, when I pick up a different yoyo for some reason an idea for a new trick pops in my head… not sure why. Variety also just keeps yoyoing more interesting: collecting and the such.
Get a cheap metal, such as a Kilter 2, or any plastic you want. I bought cheap yoyos for a while before I got even a 45 dollar throw. Focus on getting yoyos that can do different things, or do things better then your others, such as fingerspin, or get a yoyo that you can use for a different style, such as a yoyofactory flight. Happy throwing!
The Replay Pro can really take you all the way. Gentry Stein used it to win nationals so you know it’s good enough. There really isn’t anything that’s so much better than it that it’ll instantly make you a better player. So like I said, if you buy a new yoyo with the mindset that you’re going to instantly be able to do tricks you weren’t able to before, you’ll be disappointed.
Now, that’s just talking about general tricks. Specialized tricks like grinds and fingerspins require a specific type of design. Buying a $100 yoyo doesn’t mean it’ll be good for grinds and fingerspins, you need to find one that is specifically designed for them. If grinds and fingerspins are tricks you want to look into, I gave you some suggestions of good yoyos for them in my previous post.
Variety doesn’t help you get better if that’s what you’re asking. That’s not really what I was saying. It’s honestly really hard to understand if you’ve never had multiple yoyos before. For a lot of people, and for myself as well, you don’t really get the point of it until you actually start investing in it.
But basically, you’ll rarely find experienced and long-time yoyoers who have less than 10 premium (let’s say $30+) yoyos. It’s just fun to have multiple yoyos because they all have a different feel to them. As a beginner, it doesn’t really make sense for someone to have more than 1 or 2 yoyos if those yoyos can do everything you need it to. It’s really just something you have to invest in to underestand.
As for switching yoyos for different tricks, it’s not really necessary for the vast majority of the tricks out there. Every quality unresponsive yoyo can do the same set of tricks; you won’t find one where you can do a certain trick on that yoyo but not another. There are a few exceptions such as grinds, fingerspins, horizontal, etc., but as far as standard tricks go, the cheapest quality yoyos such as the Replay Pro can do every trick that the very best $200 yoyos can.
I kinda just skimmed through the replies but I can say this. If you believe that there is a “level” style for yoyos, then don’t get something too high. At the beginning, you were mentioning different plastics, then wanted you say that you wanted a Space Cadet. Bimetals are completely different and an analogy is like going from level 1 to level 7. Next, if you want yoyos for fingerspins and grinds, you should try the Skyva for fingerspins and yoyos like the matte Shutter, Shu-Ta, Horizon (good for fingerspins too once when you understand them), and others like the Kilter 2. Now, it’s good to get different and varying yoyos because every Yoyo style has a different feel. Even every Yoyo in a specific style has a feel. For example, the YoyoFactory Horizon feels very different from the IYoyo HiDRA, but they are both forms of H shaped yoyos. When you get varying yoyos you get to try and see when style and shape that you liked the best. When you start finding yoyos that you like you stay with them and would use them more, and playing with them consistently will make you play better. All in all, your skill and playability depends on the time and effort that you put into yoyoing. Different yoyo types are for your own benefit.
When you start feeling like you’re losing interest or not having as much fun, find a new yoyo to love.