A month or so ago I bought my son (10 years old) a Duncan butterfly yoyo at my local target. My son has ADHD and when he is not playing sports (football and swim team) he is all over the place. I picked up the yoyo just to see what happens. He seems fidget a lot when he doesn’t have something to focus on. Low and behold he loves it and I seem to find him in his room all the time playing with it.
Now that he seems to like it I think I want to get him something better that he can learn with. So I started googling…. I saw the forum and figured this the place to figure this out and ask a few questions.
Next best from where he is?
Do more expensive strings matter?
Best YouTube or website for tricks?
Do I really need to buy yoyo specific thick or thin lube? Or is there something else I can get?
I am sure I will come across most these while I browse these forums but figured I would ask anyway…. Thanks for reading and/or responding.
You’ve got so many options for everything it’s gna seem overwhelming.
And I’m sure this threads about to blow up with all the kind people on here wanting to help you. So welcome to the forum. You did a good thing for ur son getting him a yoyo. Sounds like he’s one of us.
For his next yoyo, I would get him a nice plastic, something that comes with both responsive and unresponsive bearing, there are plenty of options that I’m sure everyone’s about to list for u. The AOE is a good one, the Duncan freehand one is also good. Old faithful. As far as strings go, when ur experienced enough to notice the difference, I would say yes string quality absolutely matters. A whole lot actually in my opinion. I love collecting string almost as much as I collect yo-yos. However in ur son’s case, it’s not that big of a deal. You will definitely need more string 100% but there are plenty of super cheap options for bulk that would be perfect for him. I would recommend just going for the store brand Yoyoexpert poly bulk here on the website, it’s crazy cheap and perfect starter string. And they have some cool color options.
Welcome to the forum! I’m glad yoyos have been a help to your son.
Could you maybe shed some light on a price range and your son’s level of control? If he’s hitting the floor or other objects quite a bit still, that may change what you want to look for. In general, I recommend the iYoYo Shooting Star. It’s $30, comes ready for responsive & unresponsive play, has a good fingerspin dimple, offers lots of color choices, and is just an all-around great yoyo.
It’s mostly preference until you become an advanced player. I just generally recommend using poly (cheap, bulk polyester on YYE is fine) for unresponsive play, and cotton (or a cotton-poly blend) for fixed axles like the Butterfly.
YYE has their own trick ladder page with links to YT tutorials (though a few links are broken). YoYoExpert.com - Yo-Yo Tricks, Videos, and More - Make the Simple Amazing!
The “Level Up!” app is another fantastic resource with videos available in the app, on Rumble, and on YT . Trick ladders are a nice, guided way to learn tricks. For specific tricks, it may help to view multiple tutorials on YT or the forum for different perspectives. Always feel free to ask if you/he needs help!
I’m gonna echo the above. Buy a 100 pack of yoyoexpert polyester string. Since he is loving the Duncan Butterfly, I’d recommend the Duncan Freehand One. It is tug responsive the way it comes like his Butterfly, but it will spin much longer since it has a bearing.
Encourage him and point him towards learning all the responsive tricks.
Then revisit and get him into binding tricks.
That’s just my opinion. I grew up in the days before binding and fell in love with yoyoing through a Butterfly.
Thanks for replying. Give me plenty of things to look at. It seems like there are quite a few starter kits out there around that price for a “responsive” yo-yo. So I will go that route.
My first step up yoyo was a Recess First Base. Recess is the brand and First Base is the model. It comes with 2 types of bearings he can use. One makes the yoyo responsive for the basic foundational tricks, and when he’s interested he can put in the unresponsive bearing.
I am new to this whole thing too, but I definitely can recommend the iYoYo Shooting Star. Well priced, robust, can take two types of bearings. And after a lot of abuse it still runs great and looks new.
A perfect learner, beater, if you ask me.
Edit: I am a new player in the sense, that I learned YoYo everyday, for at least an hour, for the last three weeks. And the Shooting Star is a definitive benefit.
I’m gonna go completely against the grain with #1 so take that into account, but i still feel it’s worth mentioning
whatever yoyo he likes and you’re ok with buying him. yes, even straight to metal unresponsive if that’s what he wants. anyone can learn the tricks they want with absolutely zero yoyo or skill prerequisites. if he wants to pick up a metal unresponsive and go straight to learning superman, let him. only thing that matters is motivation and practice. my daughter doesn’t know how to do one single responsive trick, but she can bind an unresponsive. it isn’t rocket surgery
yes but only in feel preference and longevity
ill echo right here at yoyoexpert!
you need some sort of lube in responsive yoyos with bearings. unrespinsive yoyos do not require any lube whatsoever. lubing will come with tradeoffs, mainly in spin time
Well that is an interesting idea. From what I am looking at a lot of the so called “starter packs” come with 2 bearings so he can go that route if he wants. Thanks!
If you just want a really good basic respinsive yoyo rhat is better than the Duncan, the very best beginner yoyo (in my opinion) is the YoyoExpert Snapback.
If he likes to fidget specifically, I love having hubstacks on my responsive yoyos for fidgeting. You can look into a hubstack from yoyofactory or something like a respinsive Magicyoyo K1.
If you want to step up into unresponsives, I second the Shooting Star.
Welcome to the forum. Yo-yos ( throws ) are awesome. Thank you for sharing your positive experience with yo-yos and your son.
I believe you will recognize a lot of yours and your son’s unique personality characteristics represented in many of us on the forum.
The Yo-yo expert main site for getting throws.
Yo-yo tricks dot com for simple well explained videos with many angles of view in the tutorials videos of the basic building blocks of tricks.
This will be great for him! There’s a ton of us on here with ADHD and yoyo is one of the best ways to get our brains to shut up for a few minutes, or hours at a time. Good thing he’s only ten because the collecting for us gets out of hand, very fast.
