Whenever I compete at a contest (I’ve only done this once plan plan to do it pretty much every time) I always use a yoyo I’ve just bought for my freestyle. For example, at Ohio States this year I used a Chik that I had bought from the YYE table only about an hour ago, and my backups were all yoyos I had traded for that day. Does anyone else do this? And is this a bad thing?
I used to do that but now I have a couple code 2’s so I go with them.
Doing that however never caused me any problems . 
I don’t make a habit of it. However, my comp set of summits don’t get sold or traded so I don’t have a problem. I can probably get away with it, but it’s not the best thing to do.
I’ve seen people pull it off. But I don’t think it’s a good decision.
I made the mistake once of doing a performance with a yoyo I hadn’t been using much. It turned out bad.
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In my opinion you want to be comfortable with your throw and know how it plays inside out in every trick of your freestyle…
Makes you feel more safe and you’ll be more consistent.
That being said, I played with the puffin prototype at worlds 2012 having only owned it for a day.
Nope I always use a Yoyo I have used for my freestyle before I go on so it will just seem like practice.
I would probably not recommend doing it, but if you feel confident enough, why not? YOLO
I’ve competed with yoyos I’ve bought as of five minutes before.
Some people go with anything (Petr Kavka). but most competitors I known and myself use something they used for practicing that freestyle. I found you must adjust your movement and speed acording to your yo-yos, otherwise you end up with many mistakes.
I watched a guy open a fh2 on stage and compete with it.
One one level, that’s actually pretty cool.
My recommendation is more practical. I don’t compete so what I say doesn’t matter, but I’m gonna say it anyways:
If I were to compete, I’d have a set of 4-6 identical yoyos, set up identical and I’d rotate through them as I was practicing so they are all pretty much the same as far as bearing condition and response pad wear, assuming no other issues. I’d probably have them all be different colorways just so I could tell them apart at a glance. I like everything to be “different” even if “the same”.
At contests, I’ve seen competitors of all ages competing with a mixed/tray of yoyos. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with using what you’ve got, and if you don’t absolutely need to spend money on a “competition set”, then why bother? I enjoy the fact that there’s no rules or regulations on this topic. I’ve seen sets that are different brands, sizes and materials and range from low to high prices.
I think it all comes down to persona comfort. If someone feels comfortable with what they are using, then it’s all good. Some of the better players have a better skill set and can adjust to a yoyo a lot quicker than others. For me, I’m not a great player but I can play most yoyos just fine. I just know that my comfort level would be more solid with my competition set, so I’d be sticking with that until after I competed.
I wanted to do this a long time ago. A whole division of stock FHZs.
Each competitor must buy a brand new FHZ at the beginning of the day. They have until they get on stage to break it in to their liking. No pad changes or mods permitted.
But for actually competing in 1A, you’re better off to use a yo-yo you’ve been practicing with and feel comfortable using.
I like the concept of yoyo contests adding fixed axle divisions, but I think a “user-supplied” yoyo is the way to go.
Your concept of a FHZ division is really neat. I think the only constraint would be “Duncan should be a sponsor of the contest” as well. I would like to ask if it would be allowed to clean the bearing and/or add a Terrapin X A+ Beefcake set and maybe spacer changes? I also think that the yoyo should be marked by a contest official as the yoyo is opened after purchase to ensure it’s the correct yoyo. Gotta mark the caps AND the body!
I this FHZ Challenge would be viable for smaller contests. With larger events like BAC and CalStates, we’ve got too many contestants. We could re-utilize the prelims stage though.
I could actually get away with borrowing 3 different yoyos as I go up to the stage. I just don’t for my own comfort. However, when I was younger, I won an Hspin cut in a raffle before MWR. The thing was like gold to me back then. I used it that night and then competed with it the next day. So yeah I’ve done it, yeah I can get away with it fine. But I simply prefer not to.
What a great idea! It would be really interesting to see what people pull off using the exact same setup.
For comp, I prefer to use yoyos I am used to. I have to resist that urge of using a yoyo I just bought, mostly because I’m still in the “honeymoon” phase. This can cloud my judgement and may lead to bad decisions. There are, of course, exceptions like when I bought a Model10, and threw it for an hour straight for the purpose of getting used to it.