Unfortunately, these slumps are going to come and go and at least for me, are pretty hard to dodge. Here’s a few things you can do though that might help.
Look up a trick that tickles your fancy…even if it’s something simple or even if you just learn a portion of the trick…it gives you something new to play with and incorporate into your current repertoire of tricks. I’ve been learning just small “bite-sized” tricks and skimming through some of the CLYW cabin tutorials.
Pick up another style of play - I was in a rut for a long time and still threw but didn’t really have the drive to learn anything new. I had been eyeballing a nice modern responsive throw though for a while and finally bit the bullet and bought a new throw while in a slump. Needless to say, learning modern responsive rekindled my interest and ended up doing nothing but modern responsive for the next several months until…
(next section to bring up that helped me)…
…Look at some of your old trick videos. I was bored one day waiting in the car and was looking back at some of my old instagram posts…I saw where I was posting tricks and progress almost daily. I rediscovered some old content I forgot I knew how to do and I managed to inspire myself to pick back up throwing again.
Side note - my longest slump lasted several years…I had rapid progression and then felt like I had hit the plateau…and I realized this when I had done a trip down to Disney and visited the Duncan kiosk they had. I treated myself to a new throw (Strix) and when I was testing it out, I realized I was limited to just skin the gerbils, matrix, double or nothing… When I returned home from the trip, I challenged myself to try a trick I hadn’t done before with some new motions I was not comfortable with…and Spirit Bomb became a thing that was accomplished after a while!
Deep State is good, YYF Confusion hit me right in the nostalgia gut (was what got me to learn modern responsive), and the Alleycat 650b is marvelous. The Deep State does take some effort to dial it in how you want it though.
Ok so I sat my yoyo down for about an hour and I have changed the way I’m throwing what I’m doing throwing a good sleeper and then turning my body to face the yo yo on a parallel plane.
I’d say just carve out some time and power through it. I read the above as you are getting back into throwing after 10 years, and that you have a strong bind. I would keep the unresponsive yoyo, put on a tv show, work on that breakaway until it’s second nature, and then go through the tutorial videos starting from the easiest. 10 years is a long time, but depending on where you were before, you should be able to get back there faster than if you never threw to begin with.
It’s like Gandalf said to Theoden, " Your fingers would remember their old strength better — if they grasped your sword."
Eventually you’re going to want to work on a side throw. This was my first biggest hurdle to get over. I had thought the same of just doing a basic sleeper and stepping to the side until I realized the yoyo would be spinning the wrong way. Just take your time. The Breakaway is probably going to be one of the most important fundamental tricks as 90% of what you will be learning will be using this.
Ok I’m an idiot, I fixed my issue , because of the way I was holding wrong just the position on the yo-yo in my hand was off, it’s gonna take some time but I just landed a good breakaway, yeah just landed 4 in a row
I disagree. It does not get you out of a rut, it just makes you excited about a shiny new toy. You will find not long after you will be back in the same rut.
However, if the new yoyo is for a style of play you have never tried before like 2A, 4A or fixed axle then that is an exception and a really good idea.
I don’t understand how you can disagree, there have been plenty of times that I’ve gotten myself out of a rut by buying a new yoyo. A new yoyo got me out of a half-year pause, and is why I’m here on this forum today. There’s no problem if buying a new yoyo doesn’t work for you, but don’t try and generalize that for everyone.
Maybe give the level up system a try on yotricks. Kinda fun to check off new tricks you’ve learned and “level up”! Usually helps me break out of the trick rut. Oh, that and buying new Yoyos! But, I buy new YoYos whether I’m in a rut or not!
I’m also coming back from a bit of a hiatus, although mine isn’t as long. Finding a tutorial series that you vibe with is normally the way i go with. Relearning stuff i forgot, and going through and making sure my technique was on the up and up. Every time I come back my goal is to learn something new.
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Grendel
(The Voice of All Grendel’s world wide.)
36
I recently went through this, so I decided to train a bit until I felt the juices flowing again.
I just did reps of trapeze, 1.5 and double or nothing until I had landed each one 25 times.
It really helped!
