So I need advice from everyone here. As far as learning new tricks, I seem to have a very short fuse. I get frustrated easily, tell myself I suck at yoyoing and should just give up. Five to ten minutes later in right back where I started. Except I give up on the trick I’m trying to learn and just do the tricks I’ve already got down. So my question is. How do you deal with a difficult trick. How do you come up with a solution and what should I do to overcome my idiotic rage. I want to get better at yoyoing. But getting angry over having a hard time learning a new trick is basically ridiculous and stupid. So I’m asking advice from all of you. How do you get over having a truly difficult time learning a new trick. I love yoyoing and blessed to have it introduced to me in my lifetime. But I feel stupid when I can’t learn a new trick.
I got really frustrated with learning stuff at about kwyjibo level. So I just gave up learning tricks, and started making up my own stuff. I find it is a much better use of my time because it helps with creativity and you can make stuff that is more at your level, instead of feeling pushed to do something that will take a really long time to learn.
When I want to learn tricks, I have more than one on the go at all times. I’m learning up to 10 tricks at the moment and I set no deadline to have them down by.
When there is an element in a trick that you have difficulty with, it is a good idea not to hammer it too much in one session. This will kill your passion for the trick and stop your progression. Practice it a little and perhaps move on for a while to something you know and love. Above all else, yoyo is meant to be fun.
Sometimes it is a good idea to get a working variant of an element rather than perfecting it. This sounds like bad practice, but it enables you to move on to the next part of the trick which may prove less frustrating. Afterwards, go back to that element and start working on it again to get it correct.
This is how I approach things, but there are no rules when learning new tricks. You simply do it in a way that works for you and keeps the joy alive.
Well:
- Recognize why I’m yo-yoing at that moment. Is it for growth? Is it for fun?
- Whole-Part-Whole: I envision the whole trick, I might try the entire trick, break it into parts, practice the parts, put the parts together and I’ve arrived at the whole.
- I pay attention to where the error is occurring and try not to make the same error repeatedly. This may sound odd but I don’t want to just hammer the same identical error over and over or else…I learn the error.
- Focus, Focus, Focus, then zone. I can’t remember who said, “Concentration is the ability to think about nothing.” This point seems to work for me after I’ve practiced something for a very long time. My mind often knows what to do but…fingers and hands just come up short. Clearing my mind at this point often allows mind and muscle memory to connect. I don’t know, just how I function I guess.
- Never end on a bad attempt. I always try to end on my best attempt. Keeps my muscle memory on track.
You might remind yourself when you start getting irritated, if yo-yoing was easy there would be no value in it and the value is the reward for persevering.
I yoyo for fun, and for progression. as I said I love yo-yoing,
I just seem to have a bad temper when I get frustrated trying to learn something new.
I will keep everyones advice in mind when I yoyo. I recently just learned white Buddha. the last part was getting to me
but I stopped, thought for a second and realized where I went wrong. and finally got it down.
for me, dealing with learning a new trick depends on my state of mind. Some days, I’m laid back and happy and will work on something for a large block of time (like one day last week when I spend an hour trying to get the feel for the chopsticks thumb mount). Other days, I try something, start getting frustrated and move on. I always try to move before I’m absolutely frustrated, because then the fun is lost. I do remind myself of when I couldn’t reliably hit a trapeze, and I am comforted that with practice I will get better and eventually will learn the trick. Like others have said, I try not to end working on a trick with a bad attempt, however, I would rather end on a bad attempt than push into sloppy play and despair.
Like most things that are worthwhile, yoyo requires work, but it should be fun work. I’m in no danger of ever going professional, I’m in it to have fun. I try to use yo-yoing as a way to decompress and reset when having a bad day or just to relax. I also find it helps to be able to laugh at myself “wow, what the heck was that supposed to be?” when a trick isn’t going according to plan or hope.
I have a friend who reminded me before my first contest - what is the worst that can happen, you don’t do as well as you want. They can’t take away your birthday or anything like that.
I agree with you. Being an individual is better than trying to do what others do. Trying to learn new tricks can be frustrating especially when you get up there in the trick list. It is one thing if you are going to go pro.
When im stuck for a few days on a trick i just move on to something else. When i was learning black hops i failed for like a week straight. I quit even attempting it for a few weeks. When i came back to it i was landing it within a couple hours. I gave up on superman a few days ago. Ill try it again sometime next month. I give myself zero pressure. I have enough stress in my life, i wont let throwing become one of them.
To be honest, when I have tried learning tricks lately, such as spirit bomb and others, I have figured out what parts I can do and make up new entrances and exits to those parts. It’s pretty cool.
For me, I’ve been getting frustrated with my Internet, feeling like iI can’tlearn anymore or even get inspired. I’ve been battling Youtube and watching videos at 144p… Which looks like crap. The videos decide not to buffer at a watchable resolution… And I end up closing the tab,and just do my own thing.
I found for me, the more nerve wracking a trick is, the more rewarding it is at the end. If I keep failing, I’ll record it (pov and front) and watch it frame by frame. Learn what I’m doing wrong and go from there.
The 2 tricks so far that are the most memorable in terms of frustration rising would be Kamikaze (magic drop element) and Spirit Bomb.
Do not sweat it try making some of your own tricks and if it ever is not fun, take a short break 
This will get laughs but it took me 2 FULL weeks to get down the forward pass! I know, I know! We are all not super-coordinated. I just kept practicing and practicing. Now (go ahead and laugh) I am practicing around the world. When I get it right I’m like “whoah, what just happened!?!” and I get freaking happy because I see all the practice and tons of horrible throws paid off! Every single minute you practice something WILL pay off. Sometimes you don’t think you’re making progress but you ARE. I’m a total clutz but I see my progress each day and one day I will start helping other people get into yo-yoing. Hang in there!
This guys awesome! Old school thrower.
Know your limits. If progress isnt there, come back later. No worries.
Shouldn’t it be, there is no limits to your potential, just work hard, and keep at, and you can make whatever it is your trying to accomplish possible… by saying know your limits, I feel like your saying. well know where this is the end of the road for you… you’ve reached your limit of ever becoming better. that’s how I saw it lol
I disagree. Its important to know what you can currently do and not do. You find your limits by going too far at some point. Like saying to go from your first sleeper, then break-away- then move to Color 9. You can practice all you want, but without knowing the basics, your wasting your time. Practice makes perfect. we all heard that before, but practicing bad or wrong technique for a month isnt gonna help anything. You have to have a base. just like a house must be built on a solid foundation. To build apod a shoddy foundation will yeial in a weak, inconsistant, flimsy structure.
It can also be far more discouraging to attempt something outside of your realm of possibility. Not to say you cant get there, but if your are on step 3 and your trying something that comes on step 9 than your operating in a place that you are not at. That discordance will work to your disadvantage every time.
Its wise to know where you are, but have your sights down the line so you have something to work on, but having success is what keeps people in any hobby. To go too far and work on something your not ready for will only discourage the aspiring hobbyist.
I work in a hobby store (RC and such) and i see this ALL the time. someone coming in with a pocket full of money wanting to fly a drone 5 miles out with no clue on what a quadcopter even is. I have to stop them and remind them to start at the beginning of the path and proceed accordingly. Or some cat wants to fly a heli upside down, but never even hovered. You cant just start there no matter how hard to try and fail.
I used to compete in professional freestlye footbag. i know the importance of practice and pushing the limits, but i also know its imperative to operate on an appropriate level in both practice and performance. You may risk injury to your self or others by over stepping your boundries, regardless of what an over-inflated ego may tell you.
Progress comes in increments, not big bursts. By taking it a step at a time, and knowing when to take a step back, youll find yourself muuuch farther down the line that guy who keeps drilling an overly complicated trick without knowing what conepts are needed to put it all together.
Just like with a puzzle video game. youll get stumped, cant figure it out, go do something else, step back, look at a different way, come back another day, and the soloution may present itslef clear as day when before it was hidden and obscure. i see the same thing with all skill toys.
Ive been a juggler and object manipulator (personally about 15 years and professionally for about 4 years - currently retired from that life) and the paths are the same for all of them. Not to say breakthroughs wont happen but there is zero shame in coming back to try something later if its not clicking today.
I keep telling myself that I’m suck.
Being suck is important, not because I wanted to give up and quit, but to motivate myself that I should work on it in order to get better. If I feel good about myself, I become lazy, and when I’m lazy I don’t wanna learn any new tricks.
Also make your own tricks, it’s not easy to make good tricks, but self made tricks are usually easier to execute and more comfortable compared to the ones learned from others.