Take a look at the sheer speed in these videos. I have a follow up question.
You’ve probably already seen these… Anyways. I’m the kind of yoyoer who throws at a pretty average speed who lands pretty much everything all the time. I’ve been told that I have incredible and amazing flow. But one thing I cannot comprehend in my 3 or so years of yoyoing is speed. What is the secret to speed? I don’t want to hear answers like “practice” because I’ve been practicing for a very long time. I just can’t comprehend it. How can Jensen do tricks like that with that kind of speed. When I slow it down, it just looks like pretty simple stuff. I just need to know what the secret to speed is. Can some people just not go that fast? I’m not looking to go mickey speed but the thing is about those videos is that the tricks are relatively simple but the speed is so incredible, and that’s what makes it good.
Well aside from practice it faster, they type of trick you are doing (or combo) can determine if you can go fast or not.
I have a combo ment for speed and that is what it is built around. You can do some tricks fast and other you just can’t. You can allways speed up skin the gerbil but you can only speed up a regular suicide so much.
Id say, watch these carefully, Suzuki “bounces” the yoyo vigorously against the strings to gett his speed
Ryota ogi pulls the strings quite a bit to gain his speed, ditto Jensen, look at the hand that isnt near the yoyo. its a slight pull.
and keeping the string taunt REALLY benefits with speed.
id say learn Skin the hamster (not gerbil)
It will get you going for the speedy feel of “pulling” and “bouncing”
First of all, like others said, some tricks are just plain better and meant to be fast (usually simple stuff from double or nothing or brain twister combos). A bigger part of it I think is just a person’s style though. Some people’s style is just plain fast. That’s how they play, and that’s what all their tricks are like. Others, like Guy Wright, just play slow, because that’s what’s best suited for them.
It really depends. Like Strippedaxle said, some tricks are meant to be fast, while others are generally slower but can, if you try, be pushed to be faster.
I made a combo I use all the time inspired by this:
That trick is really just MEANT to be fast. Doing that trick slowly just looks choppy and such.
Also, can you make a short trick/freestyle video or link me to one of your recent ones? I’d like to see how your throwing is.
First try doing skin the gerbil nice and fast, that trick is relatively easy to do fast.
If that is to hard, try starting with pinwheels fast, spin the Yoyo rally fast in the circle.
One thing to note is also this: some tricks are alot easier to do fast than others. And since you said your style is smooth, then odds are that your style has developed to the point where your tricks are mostly tricks done better smoothly.
Shorter strings, type of yoyo, and muscle memory. I don’t learn new tricks very often but the ones I’ve known for a long time and I do on a daily basis I can do really fast, but with other tricks I rarely ever do like drop in the bucket it takes me forever. So just get tricks memorized and fluent.
Oh and it’s easier to play faster for me when I’m listening to music. 8)
If you want to learn speed don’t watch jensen vids watch hiroyuki sozuki, christopher chia, ryota ogi, or other fast players.
Jensen is amazing but not as fast as these guys
What’s amazing about Mickey is not just his sheer speed, but his ability to change it at will. He has such control over the pacing that he is able to match the beats of his music, which are especially characteristic of sudden tempo changes, with ease. Such flexibility requires control with tremendous precision in both position AND momentum, roaming at the limit allowable by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
I’ve been noticing that most players hen they get going fast are in tight formations, leaving the yoyo will little choice except to go where the player wants it to. There’s not much room to bang around or pop out. Couple this with muscle/motor memory and you’ve got the recipe right there for most of the ability for speed.
I’m also learning that you have to know when and where to pull the string to make things work better. Case and point is Eli Hops. While you can do this fast, for someone like me who doesn’t have enough control yet, it’s really critical to pull the strings back apart to land better. I’m still developing the muscle memory. Another one I am working on is Asian pops, which, when I pull back on the string with my throw hand, it really pulls the yoyo back onto the string when I intercept the segment with the yoyo.
However, regardless of how you do it, it takes incredible amounts of practice.
Something I’ve noticed is that my tricks look WAAAY faster on video than they feel to me while I’m doing them. In fact, they just look better in every way than I feel they are.