Started a week ago - progress report & questions as they come

General Yo-Yo
1

Hello, I’m going to try something new here, so let me know if it’s “out of boundaries” or not.

So what I’d like to do on this post is to report on progress, I just started a week ago, before that, I had absolutely NO idea about what one could do with a yo yo, just like most people I guess.

So how it all started and who I am is explained in my introduction post (p129, introductions topic), the basic reason why I started yo yoing is because I like the way it looks and I love the way it feels.

From the starts, I’ve been following almost exclusively Andre’s tutorial videos, for several reasons. First, it’s very well explained, very clear and easy to understand. Second, well, André seems like a very nice guy and he makes it look so simple.

Anyways until further notice, I borrowed a FAST 201 (rebranded) that my son had and started throwing it through various furniture and family members, ended up waking up my neighbours throwing that noisy toy in the middle of my parking lot at 11pm-ish, then finally I got to land a few basic tricks.

Up to now, I have most of the beginner section down except for

  • creeper, because I didn’t feel like trying so far, I’ll eventually get to it at some point
  • around the world, I mostly practice at home where it can’t be performed due to the proximity of many things and sometimes, people
  • pop the clutch, I still struggle to get aligned properly
  • UFO, I can do the actual trick but I can rarely get the yoyo back in my hand, it is tuned relatively non responsive (at least for a beginner) tho

as for intermediate section

  • I can land the trapeze on occasion (landed it the very first time I’ve tried)
  • rock the baby goes well, dizzy baby, I’ve never tried so far
  • brain twister: I can do one, two, sometimes three loops but I have a hard time dismounting and finishing
  • stop & go, got it once so far, I struggle to get the yoyo back to sleeper
  • bind returns, working on it, getting there
  • breakaway, getting there

now these are the issues I seem to have

improper throw: too many times the yoyo is tilted
alignment: I can’t really keep my string straight when I move for tricks

so if any of you could give me some advice on these, it would be awesome!

Now the FAST is nice and all, but I can’t stand the noise anymore, so I’m thinking about getting maybe a couple, maybe 3 more yoyos I can grow into, I also ordered a YYF Velocity V3 (waiting for it in the mail) but I’d like some advices

1st yoyo: I would like something “easy” to play for basic 1A/Beginner level, well built, well balanced, easy for beginner/intermediate/some advanced tricks maybe (beginner/intermediate will do)

2nd: I’d like something harder but more rewarding, something that’ll train me for precision and accuracy, something I can grow into and that’ll make me a better player overall, intermediate/advanced level yoyo

3rd: either something very nice to play at any level, well built/High quality, either something to practice loops

I have a job so price is not that much of an issue as long as you don’t make me buy $200 yoyos, but I can spend up to, let’s say $80/yoyo tops, but as I’ve seen, I might find plenty of good yoyos in the $20/$50 range.

Since I’m learning, try to explain and develop as much as possible

Last question: I’ll be playing outside ALOT, and with winter coming, I was wondering if I could wear gloves and/or what kind of gloves will I be looking for ? if any

2

First off, I’d like to welcome you to the wonderful world of yo-yoing and the YoYoExpert forums!

Second, I’ll try to give you some advice on some of the topics you asked about…
Note: My responses are bolded

3

Thank you for detailed replies

about throwing a good sleeper, I guess one never stops working on it

about my string straight, I mean I can land the yoyo on the string from a sleeper, but I have a hard time going for the trapeze (actually beautifully landed my very first try but that was out of pure luck)

but it’s the same when I try for example, a brain twister, but this, I guess gets also better out of practice

still thinking/getting advices to get some new toys ^^

I’ll have a look for the gloves you’re talking about

Other than that, I was practicing today and I cut my string to a “proper” length, making things much easier.

I also think I just found out about something that’s true for many other applications: I have to play with confidence.

it’s abit hard to explain, given the fact that I’m not a native english speaker, but I’ll try it out anyway.

So when I try to practice, giving much thought to whatever I’m doing, I find it harder than when I practice “just doing” the tricks without thinking too much, listening to the feel I get from the yoyo or the string.

When I practice in my parking lot, it’s often very dark and I can barely see the yoyo or the string, it seems in these conditions I can land more tricks more easily

it’s like playing the piano, if I watch what my hands are doing and if I “plan” what to do next, I’m having a harder time than if I don’t watch and just play music

An explanation for that might be that my body is somehow learning the tricks (like in martial arts when you train your body to react on instinct/reflexes rather than sight) but as a beginner, I still lack both technique and confidence. taking the sight away is taking the confidence problem away since I can’t exactly see if the yoyo is straight when sleeping, I can’t hear it either (playing with headphones/music) so I just throw and do the tricks, and everything seems to go smoother and more easily.

I do think I need to stay on the basics for now, there’s no point training for harder tricks if my throw is not straight and consistent enough.

Problem is, the yoyo is annoying me, the noise is driving me crazy and the starbusts thingies feel somewhat ackward, not to mention the fact that they eat through my strings like crazy (Henrys 100% poly, waiting for YYN highlights, I’ll probably try em all at some point)

winding the yoyo, of course, is eating my practice time, but I understand that for now, it seems like the only way to go (I can sometimes do the foot wind but as I play outside alot, I don’t want to ruin my only yoyo), can’t land an UFO properly (I can with the yomega brain but I don’t play with it anymore for now), neither can I land a sidewinder.

I kinda hoped I could keep progressing as fast as I did for the first few days, but that was foolish and I see it now. So it seems the challenge starts today and we’ll see if I’m up for it. But I’m still having insane amounts of fun!

4

How new is the fast201. If it’s an older one you can pop the internals out and cut off the starbursts. The holes still work well as a response system. The only thing is that the new ones are sonicly welded

5

It’s not actually a FAST 201, it’s a bandai hyper yoyo and I got told it was a rebranded FAST.

my wife bought it new in Japan this summer (august)

to my surprise, I threw my yomega power brain xp today and even tho it’s not butterfly shape in any way, I could mount it on the string, and even got a trapeze out of it.

other than that, I’ve been mostly practicing my throw today

6

the dark magic 2 comes with a half bearing to make it responsive until you move to unresponsive play and then u can just switch the two. Strangely, i dont own a dm, but ive tried my friends and really liked it. Its also the same yoyo andre uses in his videos

7

I didn’t know it was that yoyo, thanks for the info.

I was giving some thought into what kind of yoyo I want and came to the conclusion that, like any other thing, I enjoy possessing uncommon objects. I made some pretty common choices for my first buy and I will wait to test the velocity to decide which way I want to go.

I don’t really know what to think of the FAST and I can’t wait to compare it to other stuff. all I know, I can’t deal with the noise anymore, I threw the brain today and it was so quiet and easy to throw and land tricks with it (can do an UFO with the brain pretty easily now, not with the FAST, like not at all)

I already know I’ll get the CLYW I want, but this is more for the actual object and I don’t intend to play with it at all, I don’t want to smash it on the ground or in my face, I’ll play it when I feel confident enough

but I intend to spend a little more money finding something more “advanced” than the FAST or the Velocity, I actually enjoy switching my 2 yoyos now, because I can learn different things from their differences therefore I feel like I have a more “steady” progress, so I want yoyos built for different levels so I can test the tricks in many different conditions.

All in all, I’ll finish the month with whatever I’ll have and see where it takes me

tricks wise I’ve started to figure out how to do the split bottom mount, and it’s not going well for now, I can sometimes land it on the string, sometimes it hits my finger and missing it means a hard wind every time, well it tends to hurt at times (finger) it’s highly repetitive (winding the yoyo each time) I guess I’ll have to get used to it, practice makes better, and with all the tricks left from the tricks book, I’ll be doing this alot.

it’s motivating as well as frustrating, I know I have to go through all of this before I can actually create anything with a yoyo and express myself, A to the Z grind.

the more I train, the more I feel like there’s some kind of “feel” to “catch” in order to be able to “unlock” a better way to “feel” what’s happening and I know from experience that this kind if feel comes with, again, practice.

Anyways, if there are some tips to land the split bottom mount, I’m all ears

but most of the time it comes to the same things: a good throw and a solid sleeper

8

Use the search function in the forum my friend. I know there’s countless split bottom mount questions in there as I’ve personally answered a few of them.

To ease some of the frustration of the repetitive winding, it may be beneficial for you to work on learning alternative ways to handstart your yo-yo. Andre has tutorials on this site for both the hand start and snap start. If you’re playing responsive, the hand start method is probably the best one to use. I probably wouldn’t recommend dedicating time to learn them specifically - just try once or twice every spinout and eventually it’ll start getting easier and easier. They both take quite a bit of practice, but they make spinouts much less frustrating and help maintain your string tension as well.

And as for your concept of “feel,” you’ve got the right idea. The most important thing I can say about that feel that I’ve gained through experience is to just keep yourself relaxed as opposed to rigid during your tricks and catches. I know it’s difficult to do at first because you’re just trying to hone your skills and pull off whatever trick you possibly can, but seriously try not to tense up, keep your movements fluid and you’ll find yourself progressing more and more toward the “feel” you’re looking for.

9

thank you, it probably helps that I’m a relaxed kind of guy in general

I’m getting to split bottom mount, I can do it I just need consistency now.

I’ve watched andre’s tutorials on winding (actually watched most of them, learned everything from these videos, by far the bests out there, at least best I’ve came by) but I’m not even close to be able to snap wind, as you say, I try every now and then but I don’t feel like giving it too much time as I sense these would be much easier if I had a better overall feel of the yoyo itself, which I’ll get through practice.

All in all, I’m getting more and more annoyed by my FAST and these starbusts (not to mention the insane noise), I feel that it’ll take alot of time to do consistent and strong sleepers and as is, I don’t feel I have enough skills to cope with starbust response while doing tricks, I probably need a more forgiving yoyo on the side and a better buit/balanced one on the other side to compare. I’ll probably also want whatever the guys @ YYF were taking when then made this yoyo ;D ;D ;D

I can’t really judge, the yoyo is probably a decent yoyo and I just lack the skills to notice it, but I can say that I really do not like it in general.

but it’ll probably be the first yoyo I’ll end up modding, so if I brake it apart, I wouldn’t be that bothered

10

Allright, I’ve got my velocity V3, things are getting serious. I think now that the fast was making things a bit too hard for me, it can be handled well with a good throw and a good alignement, which only come with practice

but all in all, I’m happy to finally have a quiet yoyo (so is my wife, happy)

So I’m slowly getting the split bottom mount, mach 5 goes now fairly easily, I got to work on my throw to make it spin a tad bit longer as well as performing the trick a tad bit faster

split the atom is on the “to do” list, I managed to get it once or twice up to the point when I catch the yoyo, but not consistently now

Trapeze from a breakaway is getting there

right now I play the velocity on full unresponsive setup and I can bind it with consistency, I’m thinking about getting a good and responsive yo yo to practice my smoothness, so I’m open to suggestions here

I had the chance to play on a metal (virus) and it was great, but as it is now, I plan to get a good plastic (maybe the phenomizm since I love the looks of it) and try and upgrade either the velocity either the FAST so I can learn to mod

as always, Andre’s my teacher, thanks André!

So to sum up, mach 5 is almost down, split the atom is on the way, I still lack consistency on the split bottom mount but I’m getting there

thanks you all for all the helpful advice !

11

I start my yoyo like a trapeze with the yoyo in my throw hand and I roll it down the string and pop it up as it reaches my non throw hand it works very well and it’s fast. I’ve been throwing a long time and still can’t start my yoyo like Andre does it.

12

look at yoyojam yoyos here on yye they are great for 40 dollars and have a responsive and unresponsive bearing as for gloves duncan yoyo gloves will work best they can also be found here on yye also a yyf northstar protostar or starlite will work great. welcome to the world of yoyo

13

thanks

but by the time you replied with the advice, I got the mount down as well as split the atom, mach 5 and atomic bomb ^^ working on rip cord now

and as said above (I think), I do enjoy owning objects that other people usually don’t so I’m not going for a yo yo that everyone and his mother has except for the DM2, I’d like to try the SR-71 tho, it’s cheap and good looking. But yes I’d love to get something a little bit “rarer”. I plan to spend about $150 in yo yos next month maybe get a couple or 3 yo yos

anyways, thanks for the replies and advices, my bad if I can’t express myself properly.

2 weeks today.