I’m doing a school talent show at the end of this week and just want to see ehat others do before getting up there. It was a practice today and I almost forgot my routine. Before getting up I got the sweaty hands and felt a bit of tightness in my body and felt my heart beating. Could be adrenaline but I kept telling myself I’m fine and trying to pump myself up but didn’t stop me from messing up a ton on stage. Whether it be contest or just casual performance what do you do to keep calm or help yourself to output the best results?
I am not a professional, but I think you should act like you’re performing for someone you are comfortable around. Smile at the audience and hide your fear behind it, and once you start, completely ignore them and look at your yoyo. I think it would be easier to do this and slowly ease into actually smiling and feeling comfortable. Don’t take my word on this, take other advice especially if i’m wrong which I might be
i know a few players who get buzzed before they compete… yeah was rather shocked at my first contest.
Just use your nerves as energy. I tend to jump up and down a little and shake my head. It helps a little. Also just remember it’s a talent show it doesn’t have to be hard trick that impress people just the flashy ones.
Great role model here ;). I actually didn’t realize people drank before their performance… At nationals, there was quite a bit of indulging going on afterwards though lol.
I have never performed with a yoyo, but I play out with my band 10-12 times per year and it gets easier each time. I am also not shy, so that helps…
Practice until you are comfortable with the routine, smile and have fun.
The rest will fall into place.
My tips:
Practice a lot some days before until your routine feels natural and gets locked into muscle memory.
Don’t practice too much on the day of the routine, just run over it a few times to make sure you know what you are doing. I usually just do 2-3 runs early in the morning and then 2-3 runs an hour or two before performing, If you practice all out the same day you will exhaust your mental stamina and your brain will not function 100% when you perform on stage.
Find some breathing exercises online that work for you to relax your body.
Past contests and in Iceland’s got Talent I’ve done this one and it’s done wonders for stress and overall relaxation.
Remember that you are yoyoing for a non-yoyo audience, even if you mess up they probably won’t notice so keep your head calm and don’t worry if you mess up and make it seem intentional.
Be confident in yourself, if you think you are Awesome and behave that way other people will also think you are Awesome.
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I have been performing with instruments since 6th grade (I’m 23) and I’ve competed on a national scale in paintball. However, I have social anxiety so bad that I can barely make phone calls, so even though I’m fairly used to the routine, the nerves still kick my butt.
The way I get through it is
- once you’ve acknowledged the audience, ignore them completely until you are comfortable, which you don’t even have to be, you could ignore everyone in the room until you are absolutely done. They don’t really notice.
- breathe!!! BREATHE SLOW AND KEEP BREATHING
- don’t lock your knees
- The audience either doesn’t play or isn’t being as critical as you are, they’ll probably think the small stuff was part of it.
- stuff happens. Just have fun
Regarding the sweaty hands issue, at Nationals they had a can of dry-shampoo by the stage that a bunch of people were spraying their hands with beforehand.
I didn’t try it myself, but I guess it seems like it could work.
The best thing you can/should do is have confidence in yourself. You don’t need to tell yourself that you’re going to get it perfect on stage but try to tell yourself that you’re capable of getting it perfect or doing well. Also try telling yourself that it’s in your control. That it’s not that you’re not ready or anything, it’s just that you need to do what you’re capable of. Which is nail that routine on stage.
At my first contest I had wanted to put on a show but because I was so scared to be the center of attention, I just stood there, did my thing and left.
Now, when I compete, I go up on stage, maybe wave, take deep breaths, and there is no way around the adrenaline, it’s just there. What helps is if you remember that you are doing this for fun and that yoyoing is a toy. Even if you mess up a little, everyone does. What also may help is if you never look directly out at the people and just concentrate on what you’re doing.
Good luck.
The world champ told me to do 2 things at cal states before I went up. He said to breathe and go slow. Breathing helped a lot with nerves on stage, and I tried to go slow. After I watched my routine after, I realized that I went a bit fast even though I tried to go slow. So breathe, and go sloooow. Like, really slow
When I compete, I wash my hands 2-3 times before my performance. Then when I have the jitters, I just do my routine in front of the judges on stage. I know that they only judge my tricks and not myself. Btw, I was in a talent show a little bit ago. I is put up a show, they enjoyed it. Little did they know the two switchouts I had were… unintentional! They had no idea, don’t worry about it.
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To clarify here;
They judge your entire performance, which includes how you move on stage, and how you move the audience, not just how you move the yo-yo. Most contest websites will list the judging system, which will give percentages of the criteria that will be judged such as, but not limited to: Stage Presence, choreography, technicality, originality.
As for sweaty hands, use hand sanitizer. The gel stuff. The alcohol dries out your hands. 
On stage, YOU are better than the audience whoever they are, it’s your performance, don’t lose to the audience.
Thanks for the help everyone! Really means a lot to me. I’ll be up today at around 6:30 and I’ll use all the advice.
Just finished my performance 10 minutes ago! Man I feel great was better than I expected and thank you again everyone for the advice. I’ll put a video of up on YouTube pretty soon. Check out my channel “Anthony Villalobos” You’ll find one that has a video of instagram trick circles. Well if you’re curious then search that.
Ohhh that’s you?! Haha great job. I’m @yoyosonly by the way.
Ohh I follow both of you!
Link?