How would someone get into competitive yo-yo..ing?

Question

I just saw some of the world champion yoyo(ers..?) on the Best d**n World YoYo Championship and I thought it looked like something I'd like to get into.. How would I go about doing that?

Answer 1

I've been yoyoing for a little over a year, and its great.  In order to get into yoyoing, basically just get a beginner yoyo from an online store (yoyonation.com is where a lot of people go).  This thread has some useful links for getting started including what kind of yoyo to get and more.

http://www.yoyonation.com/talk/index.php...

You can also check out http://www.mastermagic.net/ for learning tricks.  Thats where I learned all my tricks before I started making my own.  

Don't be afraid to use the forum at yoyonation either.  You can learn a lot there.

Answer 2

It's actually suprisingly easy to get into the competition scene. The hard part is practice. ;)

There are a lot of online resources for learning how to yo-yo. Tons of message boards as well, but be warned...they are online message boards. You'll get help, but it will be largely tinged with personal opinions and at least 80% of what is offered you will be completely wrong. ;)

That said, here are some resources for you to start learning:

http://www.nationalyoyo.org - The website for the National Yo-Yo Contest, League, and Museum. Their Sport Ladder list is a good place to start learning tricks...they're arranged to help you increase your skills while learning all the basic building blocks of what you'll need for the good stuff later.

http://www.howtoyoyo.com - A great resource for tons of trick videos. Not any real instruction, but you can watch them in slow-motion (hold the spacebar while viewing in Quicktime) and figure a lot of stuff out.

http://www.yoyoing.com - A huge resource, the biggest being the message board. But again...it's a message board. Lurk for a while before you jump in and start asking questions, and you'll learn a lot. Also a great way to find local players & clubs so that you can start learning stuff from other people in person.

Hope some of this helps. Feel free to drop me a line with any more detailed questions. :)

Cheers,

Steve Brown

http://www.stevebrownismyhero.com

Answer 3

all of these answers are great. I also know all of these people and they are respected yoyoers.. one point that I want to make is that you dont want to go and get the expensive yo right off the bat. you need to stat with a responsive yoyo and then move to the unresponsive play. if you buy a 80 dollar yoyo you will get frustrated. the velocity is a great yo because it is adjustable. you can start it out as responsive and gradualy set it to get less response. then you will know when you are ready to drop some ching.

come to the yoyonation forum. I am Dizzo

Answer 4

Well, really its just going at it and start learning.

You should have fun as you do it.

And listen to Steve. He's got one of the greatest amounts of Experience in Yoyoing.

Have Fun !!!

Answer 5

To start off you'll need a yo-yo. The one I'd suggest is the YoYoFactory Velocity, it's pretty cheap at yoyonation.com. I love mine, I even prefer it to some of the $80 yoyos I've played. There are a bunch of really nice forums on yoyoing here on the web, my two favourites are the yoyonation.com one and the extremespin.com one, I'm Nuggles on both of them.

Along with your yoyo you'll need strings, I'm a fan of Highlights, get 100 of them (trust me, 100 is not too many!) them with the Velocity at YYN :)

All the resources you need to get as good as any of the people you saw on Best d**n World YoYo Championship are here on the web. Go join one of the forums (the people on there for the most part are great, they'll help you no end), post in the "welcome to x" thread, mention me and I'll say hi! :)

Answer 6

If you're in the NYC area on August 9th, you can check out one of the largest yo-yo contests ever - http://www.yoyoopen.com

You'll be able to see top talent as well as compete in the beginner's sport ladder event.

Or you can just hang out and enjoy the show. :)

weber @ yoyonation dot com