This is something that can be fun. What is your style?
I am not talking about 1A, 2A, 3A, etc. I am talking about how you flow with your tricks (are you fast, are you slow, are you smooth, do you do slacks, etc.).
I do two styles (1A and 5A) and have two different “play-styles” for each.
My 1A is either a fast and slacky style (similar to that of Gentry Stein, just no where near as good), or more like Zach Gormley where it is slack, slow, smooth, and technical. In fact, back at the Florida State YoYo Contest, Sarah Louise Clark, told me that I moved my body with my tricks. I find that to be part of my style to. I enjoy moving around to my yoyoing to make it feel smoother instead of just being smoother. I also like yoyoing to music so I can set a pace to my yoyo and my body movements.
My 5A is either technical and, instead of slack, I swing the counterweight in and out of gaps in the strings. It’s actually fun to do, but not really crowd-pleasing at contests. My more contest fitted style of 5A, is mostly based off of the trapeze and doing Bee Stings with different endings. I have not yet learned either Tangler nor have I learned Electric Fan yet, but when I do, I will be working with those more. I also enjoy doing horizontal counterweight as my cover photo shows be doing (but… not very well).
So, those are my “play-styles”, reply below with yours. Let’s have fun with this.
I think style develops after years of practice, it just happens naturally. You can’t force a style, you can only develop it over time. Of course players you take inspiration from will affect what your style will become, but you can’t, after a short amount of time, force yourself to have a “style”.
So my style, as of now, is undeveloped and undecided.
I agree. I made the decision not to learn any tricks or tutorials not long into my yoyo journey in the hope that I can over time develop an individual style of my own. It’s still got a lot of a way to go before it’ll really all come together though, so at the moment my style is also ‘in development’.
I’d say a Vashek x Yuji Kelly x Mikhael Talubut mix would be my dream:
Vashek’s sense of movement and pacing
Yuji’s unorthadox mounts and movements
Mikhael’s chopstick prowess
So whilst I’m not trying to force my style into any mould, I’m at least aiming it in that sort of direction in the hope that I might come close. ;D
yeah, i'm trying to find my own style too; it is still undeveloped. I usually like a variety, so my style may be different from time to time. I've only been yoyoing for about 2 years, so there's a lot of room for improvement. My style can be described as slow, but paceful. I use a lot slacks,whips,suicides, and rejections. My would be similiar, but not a good as: Gentry stien, Janos Karancz, Guy wright, and many more. I tend to learn a lot of tricks, and then turn that trick into something of my own. As a result, my style may improve, differentiate, and become better over time. ;D :D ;D
I don’t know if I can identify my own style because I don’t think there are really THAT many distinct styles around. Don’t get me wrong… you can spot a trick and go, “Yeah, that trick reminds me of this trick Zach Gormley did,” but Zach himself would probably say, “Yeah, that one was inspired by something I saw Yuuki do,” (or whatever).
I think we have a tendency to romanticize style more than we need to. Let’s face it… beyond a handful or so of distinct differences (fast tech, slow flow, “balanced”, quirky–incidentally, the one I like best!, and maybe another 5 or so) there are not literally hundreds of different styles IMO. Not in a meaningful way.
I mean, if I play guitar, the way I phrase things will mostly be “me” because you can’t help it. It’s “me” because it’s me playing the guitar. But really, what I’m doing is pentatonic blues noodling (me and millions of others) with a bit of funk rhythm to it (me and hundreds of thousands of others).
I do believe that the more you know and the longer you play, the more you will spot stylistic differences between individual players. But that only reinforces my point. For it to be a distinct style in a meaningful way, a lay-person should be able to fairly quickly spot the difference. You can watch super-fast tech vs. slacky flowy play and go, “Yeah, those guys play differently”. Not so much when comparing two super-fast tech players.
Let’s have fun with this.
