Unpopular opinion:
Yoyo coaching is weird. Like, paid yoyo coaching online. Am i the only one who thinks is a weird thing to ask money for?
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I certainly wouldn’t be giving my valuable time up for free unless it was for someone super local.
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I don’t think there’s anything inherently weird about it. I think what would make it weird, as if there was no distinct goal in view of the coaching.
If the coach is actually a knowledgeable player, and thoroughly understands the competition scene, and client wants to be more knowledgeable in that field, I could see somebody paying money for that.
Or if the coach is thoroughly knowledgeable in a more flowy (Tyler Vienneau) style, I could see someone paying money to learn some basic theories of how that works.
Really, it’s all about the credentials of the person playing the coach. People will pay for pretty much anything these days if there is a demand for it.
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Not weird per se, maybe unconventional. If both parties seem happy with it though it’s a win win.
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Huh. Yeah, those arguments make sense. When you guys lay it out like that it doesn’t sound that weird.
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Is it any weirder than people making a living “reacting” to stuff on YouTube? If anything, I’d say that yoyo coaching is a far nobler endeavor. 
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Not really weird to me at all. People ask for coaching for pretty much anything. Honestly some of that higher level yoyo stuff looks like it would be helpful to have someone explain it to you step by step. Personally im still working on stuff like Spirit Bomb, and there are enough tutorials online to satisfy me (even if I cant thread the needle just yet on the drop), but ive always been better just figuring things out for myself.
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Ugh. Don’t make me started on that. Hate that crap. When they are like music producer reacting to a nicely produced track and decomposing whats happening, or vocal coaches, or musicians analyzing a song, those i can understand. But people who just watch stuff and comment how good/bad it was, that’s absolute crap.
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I agree it’s a little different though, like coaching for videogames. Just uncharted territory.
I also feel its shares the same plane as life coaching that is now all the rage
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One issue is that the more successful you are, the smaller the number of people capable of giving you legitimately informed suggestion/criticism. In a sport like hockey, boxing, etc, an “old-timer” past his prime can still offer solid technical & tactical advice. But the “sport” of yo-yo is in constant flux and demands a better understanding of current META than what’s won in the past. So it’s a hard thing to do, and the more successful you are as a coach, the harder it is to be useful.
I think this is one of many hats worn by sponsors and team members. Most/all of the top players have relied on feedback from friends, sponsors, and anyone qualified to give advice WHILE being trusted to keep the content in confidence. Most really good players come up from backgrounds where they had the support of a club or a core of friends who push each other. If you feel you need a coach and find one worthwhile, that’s awesome, but it’s hard to imagine it ever becoming the status quo.
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I actually enjoy a reaction channel called Lost in Vegas. It is basically these two die hard hip-hop guys who react to extreme metal, and as a big metalhead I have to admit I really enjoy their interpretation. Im not exactly ready to fund their patreon or anything like that, but you can really see their passion for music and the way they break things down (mostly lyrics that ive never even given much thought to before they interpreted them) is interesting to me. Most of these channels suck though and a complete waste of time, so I agree with you there.
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I get the weird vibe for coaching right now.
There are no college scholarships for yo-yo like on news for some video game scholarships.
Yo-yoing is not an Olympic sport, current contests don’t have a cash reward or “Wheaties” box reward.
I think it’s human nature that you are paying a little for a coach or tutor because you feel the cash payout at the end is worth it.
That’s my 2 cents
This is the reception that I feared 
But you know why I considered it? It’s because I always wished there was someone that had a coaching system like this for myself. When I was starting out and even now. When I was starting out I asked a lot of questions for help on tricks on this forum but I wished I could just have one experienced person to go to for guidance and help on tricks or what to work on.
@smileypants707 I understand I’m not a pro, that’s why I’m not coaching advanced players or competition players. I’m helping out anyone up to the high intermediate or early advanced player. I think I’m knowledgeable enough about that stuff to help people up to that level. And since I’m not a pro and am not doing super advanced coaching, I’m not charging $350 for a month. I’m not charging $100. That’s $20. And it’s still not really doing it for the money. There’s one person I’m coaching that asks for help on something every other day and I would explain to them and even spend 15-30 minutes recording videos to help them out. This isn’t exactly that profitable to me tbh. I’m offering to do a little more then “hey, go check out this tutorial and learn this”
I remember when I was starting out there was a guy on the forum that would always give me tips when I made a thread on trick help and I thought wow he must be really good player even though he was just giving tips on stuff like cold fusion or and whut. I’m not a pro but if I had someone that was at the skill level I’m at now help me out when I was less than a year into yoyoing I have no doubt in my mind I’d be profoundly grateful for that.
Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be that much interest anyway so this probably won’t go on for too long. I just wanted to test the water. I wanted to see if there was people like me that wanted something like this, like I did when I was starting out.
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I took drum lessons as a kid because I was interested in learning how to play. For my own enjoyment. No band or anything. Id say yoyo coaching would kind of be like that. Some people want to get good faster, or even compete. In the end it is a hobby, and if you want to be the best you can be, then hell, who am I to say getting coaching advice is ridiculous? Id never do it, but if you want to, all power to you.
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Not true! The Scales Open vol 2 has cash prizes!
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByYbfeZhzY_/
This is one of the reasons I love Scales 
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Dang. I’d wanna compete just for the pizza!
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I did a poor job of advertising it but we did give cash prizes at Northeast Regionals for what its worth - but agreed they aren’t cash prizes you can make a living from!
NER 2019
1st: $300
2nd: $100
3rd: $50
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What you’re doing is great man. Any time someone has something they want to get better at, it’s always helpful when someone more knowledgeable is there for advice.
When I was 16 I was approached in the gym I worked out at by the owner. He told me I looked like I knew what I was doing and asked if I had ever given personal training a thought.
I felt like I didn’t know enough to help people, but I quickly realized that you don’t have to know everything about a topic to be able to help others on it; you just need to know more than them.
I think you’re a better yoyoer than you give yourself credit for. You’re better than probably at least 90% of the people on this forum, so most members can definitely learn something from you. There’s nothing odd or strange to me about yoyo coaching. When I saw your post/Gentry’s post about offering coaching my initial reaction was something along the lines of, “great idea, I can’t believe this is the first I’m seeing someone do this”.
Especially with how the contest scoring system is built, it lends itself more to coaching than it ever has before.
I say keep it up, refine your craft and have fun with this.
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Not sure how to make it possible, but it’d be great to have a large cash prize at Worlds every year. BUT, maybe my unpopular opinion, I’ve never liked that 1A is viewed as the “World Champion”, it seems to really lessen the other divisions. So would need to make the cash prizes equal across all divisions.
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