I’m writing this little noobie journey hoping to share my experience with everyone and hopefully encourage other noobs like myself not to be discouraged and disheartened that they can’t do the amazing tricks yet. I’ve only learned up through the intermediate section here at yoyoexpert.com, but I am extremely proud at what I can do so far!
I’m 28 years old and decided to get back to yo-yo play! I used to play with your basic Yomega / Duncan imperial style yo-yos as a kid, but never got experienced. Finally I was in a toy store and there were some sponsored yoyo-ers in there doing tricks that blew my mind! I was instantly enthralled and wanted to pop right back into it!
I bought my first modern yoyo, the YYJ Kickside and have been playing with it since! I remembered all of the basics right off the bat: strong sleeper, cradle, around the world, forward pass, etc… It was tough though as I couldn’t practice much as being an old man (sarcastic) my shoulder muscles started to ache. I kept at it though each day after stretching and worked on it a lot! I then noticed that I was dealing with a dead yo-yo pretty often and I thought to myself, “There has to be a faster way to wind my yo-yo.” So, I went and found the snap start, and watching it for the first time was magical. I started to practice the snap start and had a hard time getting it right, but I practiced nothing but the snap start for the entire next week and I’m finally at a place where I can do it a lot on my yo-yos that have thick lube. I can’t quite get it yet on an unresponsive yo-yo but I’m hoping that will come in time.
I practice like 2 hours a day right now while watching tv and I’m addicted! I constantly practice my trapezes and binds to get polished off so I can do other tricks without thinking about it.
I have since purchased 2 other yo-yos, speedmaker and dark magic. The idea for me having these multiple yo-yos is to have one for every occasion. I was going to use my Kickside as the primary learning yo-yo that I take everywhere. The speedmaker is really fast and much less responsive than my kickside, I will use that as my 2nd travel yo-yo. I prefer the plastic for travel in case of drops because they are cheaper. I will use the Dark magic at home where it will less likely be damaged! I like my toys pristine if I can keep em that way!
My theory is, get used to playing with a low-end yo-yo and be able to do the tricks you want to do, then move up to a higher end yo-yo with some better materials and be even better! If you can do it on cheap, you can do it on expensive!
Once again, I’m a noob but I’m learning, but I’m very proud so far of what I can do right now. So all you other noobies, keep at it! You will learn a lot, and don’t worry about what you can’t do, keep working on things you can do and build from there!
