Im doing some Christmas shopping for my younger cousins (13 and 15) and decided I want to get them Yo-Yos. I own a Kickside, fabulous Yo-Yo, but i have tried to teach people on it before and it seems a little limited. What I really want to know about is the YYF ONE, along with your opinions on which is better for new Yo-Yoers of this age. Or other good starter Yo-Yos.
Thanks.
- Zappy.
Both are decent learning yoyos. I’m not as familiar with the Kickside, but I do intend to put a wad of cash together and buy some of the lesser expensive YYJ plastics, as well as some nicer ones for my kids.
The Kickside is heavier than the ONE, which if it’s weighted right, should give longer spin times and better stability. The hybrid response system theoretically never needs to be replaced. It is an unresponsive yoyo, so they’ll need to be shown how to bind, and for that reason alone, I do not recommend the Kickside to anyone who can’t bind yet. I also recommend people at least get through the picture tricks and the other beginner tricks before learning to bind, just to build confidence and some basic level of skill.
Non, the ONE is a fun little yoyo. I have one of these and I like it a lot. Two of my kids also have ONE’s. They are just learning so theirs are responsive and I double looped the string because once the bearing breaks in, the yoyo becomes a bit too unresponsive. I purposely keep my ONE responsive. If you order the ONE, order it with the second bearing so when the new recipients need to move on, they just swap the bearing out and keep throwing. The DVD really isn’t worth it in my opinion, so get the package with the second bearing, because the second bearing is wider and is for unresponsive play. However, the ONE is light, so that just means that unless you’re the Incredible Hulk, spin times will be decent, but not as amazing as say the Kickside could be.
Other options include such unresponsive options as the WHIP. Other 2-way yoyos( swap bearings) are the YYJ Prelude and Legacy II. There’s plenty more options, but my opinion is to start responsive and then once they can get through those beginner tricks, learn to bind before moving on.
My general recommendation is biased because I really like the Dark Magic II a lot, I recommend it because it includes the two bearings. The downside is that it’s a approaching over-sized and is somewhat on the heavy side. At a price of almost $42, to get a pair for your younger cousins, it might be a bit too high to want to spend that kind of money on a pair of them. The Legacy II brings the DM2 in an all plastic package and at almost half the price, making it a more appealing option.
You can get a pair of ONE’s for $20, plus get some bulk string(100-count slick 6 or 100% poly) and a YYF multi-tool for cutting strings and yanking bearings, and maybe a couple of sets of response pads, WITH shipping for probably around the the cost of a single DM2. You may also want to get either YYF THIN performance oil or YYJ Thin Lube as well. It depends on how much yo want to jump in. Good places to cut costs if you’re unsure is to skip the lube, drop the string count down to $25 and avoid the multi-tool and skip the replacement response pads for the time being, which really drops your costs down a lot, to the Sub-$30 range with shipping.
My kids have been eyeing my DM2 since the day I got it, but one wants to get a Speeder 2 now. Thank goodness they think my CLYW’s are ugly! But, I just got a nickel played Phenom and they are “oooh, pretty” and I’m absolutely NOT spending that much on my kids at this point in the game!
I do feel the ONE is an ideal starter yoyo. Everything else aside, it’s $10, and therefore if they don’t like it, the costs are so minimal that you can just walk away, or perhaps reclaim it. But, if you’re going to be there showing them how to get started, you’ll guarantee them success starting off, which should really drive their interests. While there’s no way of knowing if they’ll stick with it, for th costs, you can’t go wrong.
I think that the Kickside would be a great choice, but you should consider the Whip. It’s a really great learning throw, the shape is perfect for learning almost all grinds, has a really great gap width for learning how to land a trapeze and the split bottom mount, and it’s light so it soars through the air with ease. I also have the ONE, which is really good, but it doesn’t play as well as the Whip does.
Overall, if you throw in the Whip, I think you should get that then. That’s just my opinion though.
Studio is correct. Your cousins will expect the yoyo to shoot back to their hands like old-school axle yoyos. I’ve had many people complain about my yoyo being unresponsive “What’s the point?”. They won’t understand right away. Get them a YYF One and when they’re out of picture tricks and breakaways and such get snap on the SPEC bearing and they’ll be learning a lot more with the unresponsiveness of it.
I started out with a Flying Squirrel (I personally don’t recommend it). I learned all the picture tricks and beginner tricks expect a normal trapeze, never landed it. When I got my YYF One I learned how to land trapeze, his bro, double or nothing and everything up 'till matrix when I slapped on the SPEC.
To support that:
When I started I was very concerned about what I was seeing. I mean, you had to “do a trick” just to get the yoyo back. I mean, come on, what kind of undue pressure is that? I wanted and needed tug response to get started. Asking someone to Walk the Dog then bind it back who is just starting, well, I don’t feel it’s a good way to start especially if they aren’t getting instructions from someone with them. I’m all by myself here for the most part, so I needed that tug response for a while.
Now, of course, I can bind, so it doesn’t matter. But unless someone was instructing me from day 1(as in, standing close to me and picking apart all my flaws here), there’s no way.
Start slow, build confidence and experience and feel comfortable. Then add elements as fast as they’ll accept it.
Actually kicksides are set up responsive out of the box, so they are great for beginners. However, I really dislike the starburst response on one side, so I would recommend the YYJ Journey. Journeys are a lot better than the the ONE’s in my opinion, simply because they spin longer.
I started off with a POPstar and I didn’t know anything about binding but I really had no choice but to learn it so I had to figure it out on my own. In my opinion if you skip the responsive throws you’ll learn a lot faster, but again, that’s just my opinion.
i think i would reccomend the lyn fury… it appears to have the best of all worlds when it comes to yyj plastics regarding shape… C bearing, easier to clean than A… shaped with lower walls for less interference with the string, less weight in the middle, and decent rim weight…
it wont be like a premium metal, but i think after looking at the yyj plastics, thats where i would put my 15.30$
Thank you all for all of the input. I picked them up some ONEs. I figure it will take them as fare as they want and if they enjoy it they can get a better Yo-Yo down the road.
-Zappy