All answers are accepted, including funny ones! Everyone has a different basic process for learning tricks, so I’m curious to see how others learn! For me, the process typically looks something like this:
Download the video with the trick or tutorial video. Often, all I have to work with is an old yoyo contest video, but if I’m lucky, someone will have made a tutorial, which gives me a first-person perspective to work from which is much easier to use.
Slow down to as slow as possible while keeping the motion clear. If slowed down too much, the motion starts to often get choppy, which makes seeing what’s going on even harder. Because of this, I always try to find the sweet spot in order to keep it smooth enough to see what is happening while also being slow enough to analyze all the movements happening.
Break into chunks if the trick is longer. Pretty self-explanatory, typically I use chunks if it’s ten seconds or longer.
Grind through the many fails, pain and suffering, that stage we all now and love/hate.
Yo I absolutely love this question. PHASE 0
The first and maybe most important step for me personally is to choose the right trick to learn. How much of a challenge do I want? Longer tricks with more elements are generally harder bc they’re longer. Do I want to spend the time going through a video or freestyle and clicking through frame by frame to figure something out or do I want a nice and easy POV to watch. I usually prefer to learn shorter tricks or single elements through pov footage bc I just don’t like talking in my tutorials typically. When I look at a POV I look at fingers, hands, string, and yoyo, and that’s typically all the info I need to start working on something. PHASE 1
Then I will watch the trick and start going through step by step like literally okay what is the first element, okay I have that now onto the second element then do the first two together etc. I have the most success if I do and learn the trick slowly instead of trying to remember 3 elements at once so I do that. When I first learn something I totally butcher the execution so that I just know what I am supposed to do and can remember the whole thing start to finish. PHASE 2
Once I have figured out all the correct finger, hand, yoyo, and string movements, I’ll start smoothing it out and trying to build up consistency. I like to notice any parts where I’m starting to form bad habits and think about how to optimize the trick and flow. Also I try to spot the difficult parts that might need more attention. Then I start getting in reps. PHASE 3
Once I have a trick decently smooth and consistent I move it to the back burner and do it like a little bit here and there for a week or two and this helps me remember the trick. I don’t do this for all the tricks I learn though and do learn and then forget a ton of tricks.
In terms of process I usually just watch a video on youtube and use the .25 slowmo or the , and . to skip frame by frame.
When I started, I watched tutorials and play-pause-try-repeat. That got very tiresome. Now I just throw and make up tricks. It’s also fun to learn from friends!
Cool! I wish I was that creative. I have trouble inventing new tricks, I always know what I want, but not how to blend the mounts I know to achieve it. It’s a real art.
Lately I’ve found the Junyi Lin tutorials are a pretty perfect match for me. I can watch the breakdown to get all my finger positions and motions, then watch his full speed to figure out what movements are combined/adjusted to get smoother.
I also try to pick a few types of tricks so I can cycle if I want to. Right now, I’m working on a tech trick, smoothing a dkim trick, and getting consistent at some lacerations. When I pick up a yo-yo I ask myself which I feel like focusing on and go.
Otherwise, If something makes me actively go pick up my yo-yo, I just follow that impulse, which gives some room for picking up random elements. Like something Henry posted got me working on beefhook rejections recently (when maybe I should have been working).
I started yo-yoing about 7 years ago in high school and at the time I learned like maybe 20 tricks + 1a fundamentals and then never learned another trick for like 5 years. So my fundamentals are amazing but my trick vocabulary is non-existent. Then last may I decided to pick up 5a and actually follow the basic tutorials and I’m progressing quite well. I’ve learned at least one new trick a day for over a month now. My strategy is learn at least one new trick a day, and for each trick I learn I unlock 5$ of Yoyo spending money. I don’t really have a strategy for learning as all the tricks I’ve attempted so far have been possible within just a couple hours of practice, but I’m sure as I run out of tricks to learn they will take longer and I will need a better strategy!
