1: I think seeing the videos on a larger screen might help you see some detail.
2: We all learn best at different times. I never have been a morning person. I do my best work in the afternoon/evening. Oh, I can turn on the amazing in the AM if I have to, but it’s just not my time. Whatever time works best for you, I’d recommend that. The key thing is quality time first. If you’re doing strictly quantity but not good quality, you’re wasting your time. If you can combine quality with quantity, you’re in decent shape. Bad practice is counter-productive. Figure out when you can focus the best. For me, I have no time to focus. I find times to work on stuff and my family immediately finds ways to take that time from me.
3: You don’t need a mega expensive yoyo to get the job done. Considering Jensen won Worlds in 2010 with a Northstar says enough right there. However, practice/learning are two different situations. Practice and learning is different because you are going to want or need longer spin times just to keep you in the groove of things, but it’s not necessary. There is nothing wrong with your Protostar or Halo in the least. They are well suited for those learning sessions as well as competition. However, your ONE might not be the best learning yoyo as it’s very light, but I wouldn’t go trashing it. The fact that it’s light is good, because you can use something completely different to test your throw strength and how well you think you know the tricks in the first place.
If you want to spend money on a “quality metal”, that’s entirely up to you. It’s not necessary. Always remember it is the player, not the yoyo.
If you’re forgetting stuff, how well did you learn it in the first place? It’s repetition. It’s getting motor muscle memory. You have to drill it into your head and body and muscles the trick.
Don’t compare yourself to others. This is critical. A defeatist mindset will derail you and possibly even stop you from progressing or wanting to progress. I’m not good. I know this. This doesn’t mean I want to quit. I do push myself, but my issue is this is getting harder and harder and I’m having difficulties getting elements down to do the tricks. Plus, I tend to be slower, so some tricks are just especially difficult since I lack the speed to do things.
You also need to find meets, clubs, teams and other events or ways to meet up with other people who yoyo. They’ll help you work over hurdles and show you other things.
Back to comparison and metal yoyos and costs:
If you look at my collection, I must be some sort of yoyo god. I ain’t. I got money, I spend it on what I want. No yoyo has improved my skill level. Only my hard work has improved my skills. Well, that and coupled by watching videos and having other people help me and show me things. After that, it’s just hard work.
I saw a “proud parent” buy their “yoyo-wonderchild” an MVP. Oh, did I mention the kid had NEVER seen a yoyo before, and the family went walking by a yoyo meet sponsored by a store in a mall? Yeah, the kid say “I want that” and so they went in and bought the little kid(maybe 7 or 8) an MVP, figuring “the best we can get”. The parents refused to let anyone(including the people being PAID as teachers) to help him in any way, much less even cut the string to size. “Oh, he knows what he’s doing” “Oh, he’s so good!” Most of the kid’s play and joy came from just whipping it around and smashing it into the ground. It was so distracting that pretty much nobody was able to really enjoy that meet due to the constant sounds of yoyo banging going on. BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, that kid slammed that yoyo into the ground for 2 hours until it broke until a completely unusable pair of misshapen and chewed yoyo halves with a broken axle sticking out of each half and was disposed of by the parents into one of the nearby trash cans.
Now, I’m not poor, but I sure ain’t rich either. My money comes in on unpredictable spurts as to when I get jobs, do jobs and the people pay. However, $120 to spend on a little kid to have an object to destroy and be promptly disposed of like a facial tissue? Wow. What got me was the proud parents wanting one of my yoyos to be handed over so their kid could continue, and I said “no” and they got angry at me. “You have a lot”. Yeah, well, I paid for them too, so go buy him another to destroy and leave mine alone. But I digress.
Starting off with a decent quality yoyo(Heck, a Classic works great) is more critical than starting with a “great” yoyo. Thank fully, you can get quality and budget-friendly these days. Getting strong fundamentals is far more important than spending loads of money. Honestly, anything I can or can’t do on my upgraded Classic, I have the exact same results with on any of my One Drops, CLYW’s or even my Anglam.
As for me, again, I’m not that good. I don’t have the knowledge. Not to sound all ignorant, but honestly, I don’t have the time to learn all the history, names, models and all that stuff. It’s not necessary for me. I have way more things that are far more important than what comes down to is ingesting large amounts of trivia that for me serves no real purpose. I got into yoyo as something for personal enjoyment, not so I can go make enough effort to apparently get a PhD in yoyo history.
I also haven’t progressed much since early April, learning virtually NOTHING new. I feel I’ve reached a wall and I’m stuck. Still, I try. I just work on what I know and get better at that.
I think for you, it may also be time to try something else. No, I’m not suggesting quitting. You’re obviously working on 1A. Perhaps try 4A or 5A just to add in variety, which is what I do. 2A as well if you want something completely different. Get a pair of Classics to upgrade and then try 3A.