Personally I like slow play when it comes down to it. Fast play is cool and flashy and technical. Slow play is more about precision and art, IMO. As an example guy wright and some kimmitt stuff. I just like to take time to appreciate the trick and it’s complexity rather than stuffing as many tricks I can into a single spin.
Just curious about other peoples preference…
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Yup.
Develop your own style, play how you want. If it’s working for you, then it’s all good. Fast, slow, doesn’t matter. I think I’m gonna be a slow player.
How about answer the question and promote a dialogue. There’s a concept that works!
I love each individual style and agree that you need to find what works for you. I am such a big fan of Jensen’s 2011 routine. That was pure art and was shocked when he not only didn’t win but came in like 7th or 8th, only to find out that scoring is based on how many times you hit the string or bonus points for the complexity of getting to the point where you hit the string. Which I just learned of the term Point Wh*** recently based on throwing to get as many points as possible to win. Which throws out the door any type of art and comes down to who can hit the string the most amount of time in the 3 minute time slot without missing. To me that is a huge flaw in the judging from a contest stand point. From a fun stand point who the heck cares, just find what works and have fun!
So the reason why Jensen’s routine was scored the way it was is because he wasn’t going fast firstly and he ended like 30 seconds early loosing out on 30 seconds worth of points that other contestants got. I hope that changes. I heard Clash44 judged 50% on string hits but 50% on style and performance. I love the thought of that so it isn’t so much about trying to go as fast as humanly possible and more on style and art.
Now for me, I’ve tried playing fast and the tricks I know, I can whip them around fairly fast, but I enjoy so much more the soft easy fluid motions where it isn’t slow but there is a steady smooth flow that the yoyo just floats through the air and hits the string. I also like doing it to music of about 115 beats per minute so that i’m hitting the string on the beat, not too fast but not too slow either. Think Bass down low if you listen to top 40 music. Hope this helps some.
Thank you
always glad to help!
Some tricks are not ment to be fast and some are. Some look better slow and flowy but others look simple and unnapealing when done to slow, there is a speed for every trick and fast tricks can have alot of flow to them if executed right. It all comes down to what best suits that trick or combo and of course what style you like and how you like to approach tricks. Sometimes stuff done to fast looks like you are just trying to show off and it does not work or you haven’t fully grasped the trick, and other times when you do something slow it looks like you haven’t mastered it yet.
I like to go fast but I have plent of slow combos as well. I just do what I like and what I want and the speed or the slowness will come with the trick.
I agree 100% with this. Like my zipper trick for instance, slow is just not going to work for it or I will lose string tension so I start with a split the atom (I think it is called that) into the zipper when I roll out of the split the adam I speed it up to make the zipper fast then I slow it down by going into a Mach 5 before jumping into a wormhole. So different tricks have different speeds even within the combo, but it should all flow together whether fast or slow it all should look fluid and not jerky but not lazy either. Each trick should have a comfortable speed to perform.
I like to mix things up. Sure, a nice graceful slow trick is nice, but it’s also fun to throw in some fast sudden moves (especially when doing Matrix, Roller Coaster…). I even like to do variable speed boingy boings where I’ll start slow, then go into it real fast, then slow it back down.
In the end, I’d rather have ‘smooth’ play where all my tricks are smoothly linked together, not where I do a trapeze, pause, do trapeze brother, another pause, then double or nothing. That trick (in my eyes) is meant to look continuous, especially after watching myself do it on video. My response was ‘ew, that’s me doing that??’ when my moves were stiff like a robot and my tricks were very broken apart and pronounced like I were breaking it down for someone.
I love fast play, slow play is… just too slow for me 
I’m not a major Kimmitt fan, but there’s no reason for me to dislike his 2011 Worlds 1A freestyle. All I can say is it wasn’t yoyo like I was expecting it, but it was very captivating and an excellent performance that was more art than competitive. I don’t think he should have won the 1A category as it wasn’t appropriate. This was more like an AP performance in a 1A format. If you haven’t seen it, go to YouTube and watch it, TWICE. Required viewing. Yes, I’m assigning home work! DO IT!!
I’ve downloaded this video to my “yoyo video library”(along with 34 gigs of other stuff). It’s must-see.
I can agree with logic like most hits, but there’s got to be more to this than banging out tricks like a speed freak with mad yoyo skills. I like Hiroyuki Suzuki, but the guy needs speed limit. He plays so fast he needs a seat belt. Video can’t capture what he does adequately, at least not at 60fps(maybe 240fps!)
As far as that’s concerned, I’m going to most likely be a player who plays slow and hopefully smooth. If that means I’m copying someone else’s style, then I’ll take that as a compliment. I’d like to go fast, but that’s not important to me. Then again I’m not ever going to compete so what difference does it make, right? I just want to have fun. I’ll settle for SMOOTH. Right now, I’m like TMCertified, except worse: trick, big pause(OMG! I did it), then into something else, typically a bind. Right now I’m working on the Matrix, which requires smoothness to look good. I can do 3-5 trapeze to double or nothing, so I’m on the right track. I need to refine ferris wheel so I can incorporate that in. I cant wait until this trick comes together in a couple of weeks. Yes, it takes me a long time to learn new tricks.
Style is an over-used word I think. If you play fast, you’re this guy. If you play slow, you’re that guy. Whatever. We’re all individual. We all develop our own style.
Yes this video is a good example…just elegant. You can tell he’s more laid back and just enjoying what he loves.
to me it’s all about flow and style, but what do I know I’m just a skater ;D
Yeah sorry, I don’t think you know what technical means in yoyoing terms. Technical play disregards the speed at which it is done.
Oddly enough, I don’t even really care about flow; I’m attracted to the creation. I’ll try to explain: My tricks go through a process of “create” and “destroy”. Every single element put into a trick needs to have a purpose, a reason to exist. They either create an opportunity or deconstruct an existing one to push forward. None of my elements equal zero. It’s purely positive or negative. Purely functional. No loose ends, no circles. No pointless strings. It fits into the equation.
Anyhow, with that out of the way: People need to see the trick to enjoy it. I’m not flashy… heck, not even visible when you think of it. The way I throw… it’s incredibly inaccessible. I do my best to make it enjoyable, though. I achieve this by playing slow; it’s the only way. Subtleties need to be appreciated. Or, I think they deserve to be appreciated at least.
There’s a time, place, and person for a specific type of play. Myself? Slow.
I think fast works for some and slow works for others. I personally prefer slow yoyo-ing like Jensen’s just because it looks much more satisfying, mesmerizing, and chill. When he does land a trick, it feels more smooth. I dunno…especially with his 2011 worlds performance, whenever he landed a trick I was just like, “aaaahhh,” in my brain. Jensen’s style reminds me of butter, whereas someone like reminds me of a jigsaw. I think if everyone played at the same speed, it would just get boring though.
I think the same goes for flashy, body-incorporated tricks like eli hops or leg wrap trap…or people jumping through mounts or throwing their yoyo’s around their necks vs. more intricate tricks like chopsticks or black hops or something. I prefer the smaller, more intricate tricks rather than the flashy stuff. Seriously, when I first started yoyoing I heard everyone talking about how cool Eli Hops were. When I looked up tutorials for them, I was kind of disappointed. It’s just a trapeze going up and down, imo. 
I know I went through a phase of where I was going for speed speed speed. Then I kinda mellowed out and found a happy medium.
However over the past 2 months or so I think I’ve really found MY unique style emerging now that I’ve achieved a certain “level” and I’m loving it. Its like starting all over again. I found my style of tricks, my flow, my speed, I feel like its all as it should be.
Im not necassarily slow, but flowing at a steady pace.
I like slower things. Like Guy Wright. He has a good way of doing things.
Fast is tooo choppy even mickey will start missing because he is going fast. And I don’t think that is fun to watch.
I also skate a lot. It’s the same for skating, too.
Yeah, when he misses, it’s kinda obvious. I think the sharp V shape in his signature models is designed to in part help him keep the string IN the yoyo and all the catch zone to help be a bit more forgiving.
Amazing to watch, yes, but it kinda gets old after a while.