I feel like I’m losing progress

Yo-Yo Tricks
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Not sure if I should even make this, but it’s been a feeling I’ve had for a few weeks now.

I feel like I may either be taking too big a swing on the tricks I’ve decided to learn next, or if I’ve just plateaued at my skill level for now, but I feel like I am losing a bit of the touch.

I think what has got me is the struggle I’ve had with spirit bomb and beef hook, two notoriously hard tricks, and I’ve gotten close but just can’t do it, the tutorials don’t click, etc. I’ll think I got it, but then turns out I missed an element or I’m doing something differently. I really appreciate when I am corrected, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to look like a goober saying I’m doing something when I’m not.
So then I’ll try to jump on Average Throwers Club tricks and get discouraged because some (many) of those are just brutal to learn, and if those are average tricks and skill levels, where the hell am I? What am I doing? Collecting art?

Idk, I guess I am just getting too in my head and trying to meet goals and expectations that I set for myself and are implied by the community, and I feel like I’m coming up short? I know it’s just a toy, but it’s something I care about and feel deeply connected to. Maybe just need to go back to practicing basics, or find easier things to work on, but idk what. It’s a little bit discouraging too when I go to look a tutorial up on something and they start it by saying “okay this is really easy actually” and then I struggle for days.

I know it’s okay to abandon tricks and move on to others but I still sometimes feel like there is some stuff that will always be untouchable no matter how I try. I know I’ve felt like that, pushed through it, and learned the trick (Chopsticks GT, from ATC for example, or Boingy Boing), but idk. I guess I’m falling into the “Social Media Trap” of comparing myself to others. Sometimes I feel embarrassed by my skill level, but when I show a “normie” some of the stuff I do know, they are very impressed and tell me to stop being humble. My friends refer to me as “the YoYo master” and I think that gives me some imposter syndrome lol.

I guess I needed to vent a bit, idk.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

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“easy” and “hard” and “fun” are all relative! have fun with what you’re learning but if you feel discouraged then take a break!

i definitely run into similar feelings often, and for some tricks i just need more time than the average kid who started at 3 to grind out and get consistent. it’s like this with any hobby, and when i find myself comparing my skills to others, i just fall into a pit. easier said than done, but it’s important to just do you

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I see you friend. You are not alone, and we are here for you.

I play 2A and it is such a grind and any time off from playing 2A I regress.

I also feel this way about tops. Even though I feel I have the basics down I sometimes completely forget how to throw.

When I’m feeling frustrated I do try to put things in perspective. Yes, this is a toy. Yes this is a thing I ostensibly do for enjoyment.

I also strategize to make things better. Sure, I can work the basics again for a little while to make sure I’ve got them down. Or maybe I would benefit from changing my current focus for a little while, work on a different style or different set of tricks.

Hang in there. Life is like this some times. If yoyo has overall become frustrating it’s ok to take a break.

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I still consider myself a beginner “IF” I compare myself to others in this community. I just have 2.5 years of experiments (experience).

One of my lessons on this “Journey” (I dont have a destination defined) was to pivot.

I would get frustrated and discouraged when in a similar situation you described. I found switching styles to help.

Dont get me wrong, there is potential for frustration in the other styles, but changing focus and things up helped.

Ultimately I was still playing.

Work your 1A practice and tricks. If it starts going down hill mentally, put it away. Grab a fixie and just play catch with yourself.

It wasnt untill recently, meeting up with another thrower that I actually learned the mechanics and techniques for a trick. I have done more of the trick in the last two weeks than I ever did, grinding it out over a year and a half.

The only person you are currently competing with is yourself.

You have a group of people behind you to support and celebrate your successes “When” you have them!

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I am a mediocre player, and I have stagnated a bit, learning a new trick MAYBE every few months unless there’s an event. I usually go to my comfort zone tricks when I pick up a throw, and only rarely try new things or to even smooth out what I currently know.

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In it for the love of the game, that’s how feel most of the time.

Thank you all for the encouragement and perspective shifts, this is a helpful discussion for sure.
:heart::yoyo:

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of course you should yomie! we’re all here to help each other through the tough parts, and lord knows we all have them! i think you’ve gotten some great general advice already about how to keep balanced within the hobby, so im not gonna rehash. i just wanted to show my support for one of the raddest dudes ive met so far! hang in there homie, you got this!

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Love you Kyle

I feel your post deeply. Same boat here

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I’ve felt stuck yoyoing for different seasons. Either I’m not hitting the trick I want to, I get bored of doing the same tricks, or something in between. What has helped me is the skilladdicts app. Many people post tricks on there that consist of one or two elements that I am familiar with but are arranged in a different way, so I can learn them pretty fast. Whenever I’m thinking “man, I haven’t hit anything new in a while” or I feel like I plateaued, I hop onto the app and look for easy tutorials I can do as a confidence boost. It feels really good when I watch someone do a trick and I have an idea of how they do the trick without watching the full tutorial.
But, if I recognize the problem was that I wasn’t having fun, I’d take a break. I took 2024 may-2024 october off because of being burnt out a little from being the only adult in my club. This year I took a 1-2 week break around the beginning of April.
I’ve also heard that comparison is a thief to joy, and for me, thats pretty true.

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I forget as many tricks as I’ve learned often I’ll start then question how did I do that again

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I feel the exact same way pretty frequently. I think that the best way to cope with it is just realize what you’re limited by, try and surpass those if possible, and if not, realize that that’s part of life and that being a part of yoyo means enjoying the journey that it provides regardless of skill level.

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I’m going to echo Cody here. Adding other styles makes it so much more fun. I regularly get frustrated with a trick (I’m in ATC too) and the best thing I’ve learned to walk away and do something else.

Responsive/0A/Modern Responsive is pure relaxing fun, whether I’m mindlessly Makin Da Zine’s, tossing forward passes, working on picture tricks, or trying to get better at kick flips for the 200th time. I always feel great after switching to this style.

I also recommend 5A, the mistakes are often better than the tricks. I have, on several occasions, found myself just laughing at whatever mess I’ve gotten myself into with it

The added benefit with playing multiple styles, is how much better they can make your technique. I took a month off from unresponsive and pretty much only played with a butterfly. Picking up an unresponsive after I felt like a dramatically better player.

There are also volumes to be said for taking a break and getting a good night’s sleep.

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I know how you feel, Kyle; sometimes you get in a real deep, steep rut that takes seemingly forever to crawl out of.

But you’ll surely make it out sooner than later, as long as you just don’t lose hope, and keep scratching away at it.

Eventually, you’ll realize you’ve made it out, and you’re better than you ever were. But for now, you just keep pushing—and when the wind keeps blowing at you, you push harder.

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.”

As long as you think you can—and I know you can—you’ll get through it.

And don’t be afraid to ask for a little encouragement; we’re here for you—through every step, every push, and even every tear—we’re here.

Hang in there, ol’ buddy—as long as you have a little try, and a little hope, you’ll be alright.

Godspeed.

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I agree with many of the sentiments previously stated, so I won’t beat the point home more. But I will say this:

The ATC (to me at least) is rather tongue in cheek - not meant to seriously label this as the level of “average”. Sort of like how the Boomer’s club isn’t ONLY for boomers, ya know? It’s meant to focus on enjoying the moment of throwing, not nailing the 75.5 hook to show off on social media or contest stage. It’s a place for those of us very much NOT at the elite level to have a safe space to throw and engage without that pressure, if that makes sense.

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I wanna say 2 things man,

  1. Bro I still struggle with beef hook and it’s my favorite trick :skull:. It’s just a really inconsistent trick man, but takes a hot minute to get a feel for.
  2. The guys on ATC are smoking something man istg. So I used to help make tuts for them and at first it was like they’d decline my request of a double gt trick which imo is fairly simple and can be broken down easily, and they said because it was just too hard. For then the week after than to do monkey madness AND EVEN I STRUGGLE LIKE CRAZY ON THAT. Then a few weeks later did a super hard meta trick, like it’s not the “average” trick by any means, literally the guy making their tuts big Mike just wanted to do stuff so out of left field and I told them several times it’s an awful idea to do this because of exactly your experience.

Tldr: beef hook is just a nightmare, and ATC doesn’t mean it only has average tricks, they literally flip flop from super easy to dumb hard. Don’t beat yourself too much on it man, I know you’ll keep progressing :flexed_biceps:t3:
(Also funny enough I still haven’t learned spirit bomb cuz I couldn’t understand the tuts from when I tried learning it a while back, maybe I should get to finally learning it haha)

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I live in the place you’re talking about. I want to learn so many tricks that I haven’t been capable of at present. A lot for me is just me having difficulty keeping the instructions straight in my head from the brain damage. It is every bit as difficult for me to “follow along” with the instructions as it is to “put them into practice”. A lot of times this just causes me to go back to what I know already. This has significantly slowed my progress with new tricks… but I kick ### at what I already know. :rofl::rofl:
I still have tricks on the beginners list I haven’t gotten to yet. It’s also good once in a while to go back to those old trick lists and work your way through them again. Hopefully no one around here is making you feel shamed. I feel quite certain that you have a huge jump on me and I’m ok with that. You can always try to work on style, flair and speed of what you already know, sometimes improved speed and accuracy can give the chops you need to get further. If you honestly continue to feel like you are going stale… add some salt or soak in vinegar. :rofl:

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I think this really got me, too. Learning that I had to get the trick down filmed within a week to earn a point and having heard it being described as a “mid level” club, struggling super hard on Monty twist, being informed of the deadline thing, and then coming into back to back to back difficult tricks I just felt discouraged and kinda gave up. Nice group with cool people, but I feel out-classed.

Idk, ima just stick with skin the gerbil and zipper for a while, maybe some other small things, but these trick clubs make me feel too much pressure to “keep up”; same with trick a week here, I feel like I fall very far behind very quickly. I know it’s not the case, that we are all supposed to nail it and move on week to week, but I find it so hard in today’s time to not compare yourselves to others lol. Same with the monthly challenge event giveaway things, it’s all in good fun but I see some people absolutely CRUSH it, and I can’t help but feel a kinda way. Just the human condition, I think lol.

Skills Addict really did work well for me but then I got wrapped trying to keep up with ATC and swinging way above my skill level, I kinda led my self to a spin out.

I was the same with skateboarding growing up. I got the Ollie down and pop shove it also pretty quick, and could never get a heel flip or kick flip down. Ever. Never landed one, and skateboarding was my LIFE for like 10-15 years, my entire teens and twenties. I was actually pretty bad, and I think it affects my hobbies and work ethic to this day.

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Have you tried the “Do it Right or Die” website?

I’m really not trying to make light of you… I honestly think I just have something wrong with me.

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I have given up on trying to keep up with the trick a week here too

But the key is given up on keeping up with it. I’m still learning the tricks. It just takes me a long time. And the community is great. And the tricks are not too hard, they’re very well curated.

It takes me longer than a week. That’s fine. There’s no pressure. The thread will always be there. I still go back to last year’s thread in fact

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great point Mikey! heck i just posted a trick in post a trick thread that was a taw trick from last year cuz it kicked my butt!

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