Hello! This is probably going to be the longest post I have made during my seven plus years on this forum. It will definitely be a look into Robin’s brain. I will attempt to explain why I feel the way I do about yoyoing, and the subject of skill acquisition. I think it’s time to put this out there. Hopefully it helps you out, Mr. Elyoyo!
I always love to see posts like this on the forum, rare as they are. This is because the reason that I joined the forums when I was much younger was because I wanted to be a professional yoyoer, and I knew that I had to talk to other people in the yoyo community, and learn as much as I possibly could from them. I was in your shoes.
I am not a world class thrower. I practiced like one for around four years, and then things like a passion for violin, (and pre med courses) forced me to stop practicing for 5+ hours a day. But, I have won a smaller state competition, and made finals at California state both times I competed. I can give you advice on how to get that far at least.
I’m not sure what level you’re at right now, so some of this might be earlier in your journey than you already are. But I’ll start kind of at the beginning.
I’d say the first thing you have to do is decide whether you want to be competitive yoyoer, and how badly you want it. Most people decide to be casual throwers. Some decide to hardly throw at all and mostly collect. All are fun. But competitive yo-yoing certainly takes the most work.
I think that you have to have a combination of drive to get the skills needed to put on a great freestyle, and an enjoyment of the process. If you don’t like to practice yo-yoing, no amount of competition glory, no sponsorship can make all the practice worth it.
So if you want it really badly, and you love to yoyo for hours on end, I would start learning as many tricks as you can. Know your way around the Yoyoexpert trick list. Through the master set. These are a really good way to expose you to a wide variety of elements, tech slack, etc. And the time spent learning them will also serve to establish a baseline of skill.
After you’ve learned most of these, I would start looking up different meta trick tutorials on Youtube. Most of these won’t be insanely difficult, and they will also start to be tricks that will score decently well. At the same time, I would start to gather some knowledge on what tricks score, and what doesn’t. Gentry Stein’s “How to Become a Yoyo Champion” series is very good. Watch all of these videos many times.
Keep learning meta tricks, and start combing the elements you know. Start making your own combos. I know making your own tricks is easier said than done, but play around with meta elements, ones that you know score well. Try combining them in ways you haven’t seen.
Also, learn a speed (railing) combo. there are plenty tutorials on youtube. Pick one you think is cool, and learn it. You need a good speed combo. Also, learn to yoyo horizontally. Just do it.
Once you have a good amount of combos put together, made of well scoring elements, including a speed combo, a hop combo, and at least one horizontal combo, start really start yo-yoing to music more. I think that yo-yoing to music is a great joy, and should be done as much and possible. Get a sense of how to yoyo to a beat. What works in fast and slow parts, and what doesn’t. Learning how to concentrate on hitting your tricks, while staying with the music.
At this point, you should have around 2 minutes of material you can use when throwing to music. Start making routines to some of your favorite songs. Imagine you’re on stage. Make multiple routines for fun. Even if you don’t have a specific contest in mind yet. I would also take advantage of any competition yoyoer that is willing to meet on zoom and critique your material. I know that Gentry Stein has a service where you can pay him to teach you. It’s expensive, but this is GOLD. Talk about as much as you can with him. Talk about what you’re confused about with the scoring system. Talk about how to practice. Maybe even your motivation.
Once you have a routine you like, find the contest you want, and enter. Do not expect to do well on your first time. If you do well on your first contest, it probably means you waited too long to start (just my opinion). Everyone gets flustered that first time the music starts. I bet 75% of people miss the first trick they do on stage. Its all part of the process. But even still, relax as much as possible.
So, don’t be discouraged when you get 30th at your first event. Look at your score, think about how you can improve, and make a plan. Take a few days off, and then hit it again. This time, you know what’s coming, and you’ll be READY. Keep that vision of what you want to be in your mind. It will seem farther away than ever, but whatever you do, hold onto it. This is when most would be competition yoyoers quit. Right after their initial low placement.
Keep working, and get on stage again. And again. You will improve a little every time.
Some side notes. There are a couple of sort of “lifestyle” things that I would say are good things for the aspiring professional yoyoer to do.
1.) Watch a lot of yoyo performances. Like, a LOT. Think about what the competitor did right. Think about what they did wrong. Watch how they use the music. How they execute their tricks. Find what inspires you. Picture yourself with that level of skill, on the world stage.
2.) Always have your yoyo with you. Even in your hand. Your yoyo is your sword. Make it feel more normal to have the yoyo in your hand than not to. Yoyo in line, at school, coming down the stairs to dinner.
3.) Keep a video log of your progress. This is a good way to document how much better your get over the course of months and years.
4.) Possibly most importantly, yoyo to music all the time. Not only is this very fun, but it gives me drive to be practice to be able to do incredible to tricks to my favorite parts in a given song. Think about what it would be like to hit the best banger trick you’ve seen in front of 1000 people, right at that good part in the music.
This is going to be a journey. If you’re just starting out, it can seem very daunting to have thousands of hours of practice, and hundreds of days between you and a competition victory. My advice would be to focus on the step in immediately in front of you, and enjoy it. So many people always have their eyes on that end goal, that competition victory, that sponsorship, that they eventually quit because it seems so far away. It is ESSENTIAL to strike a balance between having these lofty goals in mind, while not getting discouraged because you are far away from them.
I think that the goal of competition yoyoing is very admirable, because its a process that takes drive, hard work, and results in you becoming able to do amazing things through practice. I remember being 14 years old, and being so glad that I wasn’t 2 months in the past, because I was a worse yoyoer then. I was always jealous of my future self too. Because I knew that was a better yoyoer than the present me. I remember walking the halls of my middle school , and then highschool, my mind always focused on how I was going to become a better yoyoer. I remember thirteen year old me emailing the contact numbers on my yoyoexpert trading cards, hoping the players there would be willing to give me some piece of advice. Anything that would help me at all get closer to my goal. I remember laying awake every night, picturing myself not just as a champion yoyoer, but as someone who had that level of mastery. Who could make the yoyos on my dresser do the most amazing tricks. As silly as it sounds, it was very profound for me. I got emotional one or two times. I wanted it very badly.
I know that most people here are casual throwers, collectors, ones who yoyo as something to take their mind off a long days work. And definitely understand. Yo-yoing is great for that. That is mostly how I yoyo today. But I have a special place in my heart for the people who see the contest freestyles and decide to embark on the journey of trying to get there themselves. I have chosen to live my life around the process of improving myself through work. Of practicing everyday in hopes of one day being able to do something incredible. That is why I try to play the violin the way I do. That is why I want to be a doctor. I have consciously transferred my “champion yoyoer mentality” to these two things.
But as I said, I have a special regard for competitive yo-yoing, because it is what introduced me to this at a young age. This base level feeling of achieving that self improvement through struggle is unique. It is different than the material satisfaction. I think it means something much more.
Good luck my friend. Work hard, enjoy the process. Become one of the few who achieves mastery in their chosen discipline.