I have been reading up a lot of old threads on the forum and found a great quote from the great @Markmont.
Which got me thinking, while I am in the school of thought for most hobbies that the game/skill/tricks itself is hard enough why make it harder on yourself use the tools that gives you the easiest way to learn.
But at the same time I do notice that sometimes my tricks are not smooth as I am not maintaining string tension the whole time and ruining what little flow I have.
So while I still plan on learning new tricks on easier yoyos i.e. a modern unresponsive yoyo built for stability and power like the Dove Iâm currently using or the VTWO that is on the way.
But I do see a lot of wisdom in Markmontâs advice and I plan on incorporating it into my practice by practicing tricks I can already do on a responsive yoyo to smooth things out and learn to feel the yoyo and strings better.
Coincidentally while contemplating modifying one of my existing yoyos to play responsive, I found a yoyo I had from a while back that I gave my daughter to play with. Perfect! I can use this to pick up and try unresponsive.
But curious to what this yoyo actually is.
Anyone can tell me what I am looking at from just the photos? (I donât remember buying this one, and I vaguely remember receiving it as secret Santa from one of the forums back then)
Not that itâs unexpected, but apparently I suck at yoyos ^^
Even just doing the trapeze and his brother or barrel rolls, or buddhaâs revenge without the yoyo coming back in the middle is not an easy feat.
Now I realise just how much slack I have been allowing on the strings when doing little things like slowing the yoyo down to make it easy to land on strings.
Not that I ever thought I was good, but that was a more humbling experience than I anticipated.
Back to the practice board and start from rock the baby again
I think learning how to do something and learning how to do it well require different approaches. Iâd say learning responsive saves people frustration down the road at the cost of more initial frustration.
One big thing that learning unresponsive will cost is smoothness/flow.
Thanks dude!
But Iâm pretty sure it is me
As itâs possible and things like split the atom seems to have no problems so I donât think I can blame the yoyo too much
Yeah Iâm kind of glad Iâm doing this now rather than later, I should try and practice all my tricks on this after I learn it first as long as itâs not a slack or whip tricks
So does anyone know if this is a good yoyo to learn on?
The response stickers seem super super grippy and even the slightest hint makes it come back.
Not sure if thatâs normal or this yoyo is more responsive than most.
There is a reason Markmont has the style and flow he has. He learned on old school Yoyos. That said, I âlearnedâ Buddhaâs Revenge on an unresponsive. When I tried it on a responsive yoyo I learned why the trick has that name. That said, while Iâm mediocre at best, fixed axle and modern responsive really helped my game
Bruh man this is a great testimonial. And that is a very good thing that you picked up on when trying to do rolls. The continuous motion that responsive requires literally damn near codes into your hands. Youâll have a better frame of reference for how to move the throw in a unresponsive (open source) arena as a result. Knowing when to be loose vs taught is a very integral part in developing style, timing and technique. Boingy, Eli Hops, Seasick, Vertigo, Spirit Bomb, Kamikaze, White Buddha - these are all great tricks to do on responsive that will have varying tension requirements. Get these comfy on responsive and youâll legit enjoy your throwing âsoâ so much more. Keep it up sir.
Stock friction stickers on a FHZ are âveryâ responsive. You can wrap an offstring style string around the yoyo like your gonna offstring, then pull the string all the way clear to break the pads in some. First Base is def a good additional consideration because its a better yoyo that will last longer between pads. Plays amazing with slim bearing.
Also yes - a lot of prominent players got nice on Freehands for years back in the day - so if you wanna have that kinda same âwalk like they doâ approach to your method of learning, then I would say stick on that for lil bit.
I had zero intention to go responsive, but your words above that I quoted in the first post inspired me to actually as it made a lot of sense as I already felt that my tricks were no smooth but I assumed I will be able to smooth them out the more I play.
Although this responsive thing is super frustrating and I feel a bit hopeless right now to be honest
But at the same time actually this doesnât seem too much like a long way round, it feels like a shortcut to getting smoother. In a âthis is Sparta sort of way forcing me to learn it smooth.
Actually your videos are part of what inspired me to get back into it, discovering my old yoyos triggered it and your video made me want to reach some level I have in my mind.
(We had a brief interaction before on the day I first started)
I do agree itâs rarely the arrow not the archer, but at the same time I feel like this isnât how responsive a responsive yoyo should be? Is there a way to make it a bit more forgiving instead of reacting to every vibration in the string that is less than perfect? Maybe I should try another sticker or pick up another cheap yoyo?
Ah you kind of already answered my previous question. But I do have some spare stickers from back in the day that is now obsolete for my use given I am using a Dove (with a VTWO and a Ti-Vayder on the way)
You are right sir, I do want to get better but I donât need to âwalk the road of legendsâ or play in hardcore mode
Responsive to get better agreed but would like it to not be like a day out with Professor Snape.
This is how I feel as well. And while I respect those who want to take the long, hard road to mastery, training like a kyujutsuka who isnât given an arrow until theyâve spent years just drawing the bowstring, that just isnât for me. I would get way too bored and discouraged with that approach.
Me trying to attempt a cold fusion on the Freehand Zero.
I donât think I can get much more out of one throw as the yoyo was already almost dying and running out of sleep when I hopped back on to that trapeze.
Yeah agreed, I donât want to make it any harder on myself than it needs to be, but I do think this is helping me smooth out tricks faster.
I donât plan on learning new tricks on a responsive yoyo and will use the Dove as I need all the help I can get, but afterwards going over a trick I already learnt again on the responsive, with the immediate feedback on errors it seems to help me smooth the trick out a little faster than if I were to keep practicing on the Dove.
Placebo maybe might look at investing another $20 and pick up another responsive plastic like the first base or the sage both of which you recommended to try.
Couple videos done on stock, responsive Freehands. A lot of people used a new pad and 1wore out pad, so they werenât as grippy. From memory, I believe thatâs what both of these videos have going on. You can scrape off the silicone from the Duncan pads with your finger nail.
