I’m 22 an wanting to get into Yo Yo’ing, but I gotta say I stink an cant really do anything. It’s weird to see even young kids on YouTube an such be really good at it.
I mean I know it takes time to get good at anything, but I get frustrated because I’m pretty coordinated an have always been good at many sports. I think another thing that makes it hard is I have to watch videos an its just not the same as if you got to learn in person.
And to be honest I havnt seen a yo yo at any store or even a person using one in about a decade. I just happen to see them at a ToysRus while shopping for some gifts and thats where I bought the Yomega Raider. Ordered a Dash that will be here in a day or two…
So you guys got any tips or a pep talk? Lol I’d appreciate it…
I’ve been yo-yoing for about 7 months and the definition of “good” varies from one person to another; one’s definition of good could be to be able to do all the tricks on this site. However, my perception of good is that I have full mastered all of the kinda advanced tricks and improved those until they are as smooth as they can be.
I see you started with a Yomega, which is a good company to start with. (My first 2 yoyos were a Raider and a Hyper Warp Heavy Wing) Based on my experience with those, your dash should be able to cover most of the tricks up to Double or Nothing and the 1.5 mount.
As for your coordination- yo-yoing requires such a different kind of muscle memory and coordination that you have to hone these skill separately from other sports
And of course, the best thing you can do is…
Maintain your bearing
J.K., the most important thing is to…
I’d say it took 2 months before I was doing tricks that I know the casual observer who’s unaware of modern yoyoing would drop their jaw at (boing-e-boing and Matrix, for example).
At about month 4 I learned Kwyjibo. Even though it’s theoretically an easier trick, got around to Skin the Gerbil about a month or two after that? I guess?
But now, 6+ months later and I’m still learning basics. Learned the wrist mount just last night (not that it took practice; if you can double-or-nothing, you can wrist mount) and then stared at it going, “Uhh… now what do I do with it?”
Learned various tricks of varying difficulties along the way as well… Eli Hops were early on, Jade Whip is pretty new, Ninja Vanish and a few other Green Triangle tricks are on the newer side…
I dunno. Again, to the casual observer, I’m probably awesome. But I’ve seen you guys and I’ve seen competitive players, and I know I ain’t got nuthin’. But it’s still fun.
Practice practice practice. Get inspired by a video and come up with something of your own. All in all have fun and I hope you start to enjoy throwing.
This is a subjective question. It depends on how seriously you take it and how much and how intensely you practice. Add in the environment that may or may not include other talented throwers and the improvement rate will vary considerably.
I throw about 30 minutes a day total. That makes my progress much slower than someone who practices for four hours at a time and is best friends with a sponsored player.
I would measure progress in the amount of time spent throwing, not calendar units.
I’m amazing to non yoyoers. But, I know I’m not good.
I’m probably a bit old to ever get great at unresponsive. Practice can get you pretty far, but there’s nothing like the effect of starting something as a child.
So basically you only have been yoyoing with a raider and haven’t even played the dash?
All I can say, raider is basically a beginner yoyo if we’re talking about 1a (one yoyo string trick) but it also used by many 2a (two yoyos looping tricks) experts. Once you got the dash, practice all the beginner to advanced tricks in yoyoexpert, just skip the looping tricks section. You don’t have to be able to do every single tricks, just most of them are okay.
I believe the dash comes with a responsive bearing. I recommend to keep playing responsive until you’re at least in the intermediate level of the yoyoexpert tutorial. From there take out the bearing and open the shield, then soak it in a mineral spirit/thinner/gasoline to make it unresponsive (search youtube “yoyo bearing cleaning” or something along these lines). Unresponsive bearing makes your yoyo sleep much longer but you need to do “bind” because it won’t return when you tug it back up.
After you get the basics done, you can start searching tricks tutorials and make new tricks on your own.
Yeah… I think when I first started… I learned a new trick like every 2 weeks or so. But now I can’t remember the last time I watched a tutorial and go through it step by step.
I usually just do my regular combos, sometimes I try to make up tricks here and there. As long as you are content with where you are then that’s all that matters.
For example I have friends who wanna compete and some that do compete… They are still pushing hard every day. So it’s really upto, and I think you already know that.
Wrist mount is a lot of fun and you can go into so many combos with it. But for starters … go for Spirit Bomb if you have your wrist mount down pretty well.
Thanks for all the help an advise guys I really do appreciate it.
Would you guys recommend a book, DVD, or something else to help me learn more about tricks an such? Or is YouTube an this site about the best place to look?
I have been an avid thrower for years and still don’t consider myself “good”. The important thing is to enjoy yourself: learn some tricks, try out some different yoyos, attempt to create some tricks, and find some yoyoers in your region to throw with. Just have fun and skills will follow.
