To compete in a yoyo contest, you need to create a yoyo freestyle. When you create a freestyle, you find a song that you would like to yoyo to and then choreograph your yoyo tricks to that song. A yoyoing freestyle is usually 2 or 3 minutes long depending on what kind of contest you are competing at. Today I will be going through the steps of creating a yoyoing freestyle with you.
First, you need to pick a song. As I have stated before, you need to find out if your freestyle is supposed to be 2 or 3 minutes long. Now let’s say that I need a 2 minute long freestyle. Now you want to find a song that goes well with your style of yoyoing. “If you are a very fast yoyoer, you should pick an upbeat song, and if you are a slow yoyoer, you should pick a slower song” (Vu). If your song is longer than 2 minutes (which is pretty normal) you will need to shorten your song by cutting it with mp3 cutter. You need your song to be exactly 2 minutes because, “if your song is longer than the amount of time that you are given for your freestyle, the music booth will stop your song exactly at the set amount of time that you have. If your song is too short, you will end up doing less tricks therefore scoring lower at the contest” (Spinworx).
Now that you have picked the song that you want to use, you need to choreograph your tricks to the song. Having your tricks choreographed to your song greatly helps you score higher in the contest and also, “helps you remember where you are in the freestyle” (Montgomery). You should practice through your freestyle so many times that it is muscle memory or you could almost do it with your eyes closed. That is how to know that you are ready for the contest. Also, properly having your routine memorized decreases anxiety on stage when you are preforming which will help you hit your tricks much cleaner.
Now that you have your freestyle ready and you have done enough practicing, you are ready to head over to the contest. You want to make sure that your string is in fairly good condition and that your bearing is too. Many people, including myself, use baby powder or certain sprays to prevent sweaty hands on stage. Having sweaty hands on stage can really mess your freestyle up so make sure that you have something beforehand. Another thing that I have realized during contests is that the players who care “too much” about their performance and execution of their freestyles end up over-stressing themselves therefore messing themselves up in the contest. A good mindset to have during your freestyle is to just go with the flow and accept whatever happens. This will help you do much better at the yoyo contest. Here is a video of my preliminary freestyle at the National Yoyo Contest last year:
Hopefully, my insight can end up helping out some beginners or maybe even some advanced yoyoers with their ventures in the competitive scene of yoyoing. But for now, keep your eyes peeled for my next blog post!
Works Cited
Montgomery, Mike. “Introduction to Freestyle Yo-Yoing.” YouTube. YouTube, 19 Nov. 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xIlBYow8Ik>.
Spinworkx. “Planning a Freestyle.” Spinworkx Blog. N.p., 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 31 Mar. 2017. <http://blog.spinworkx.com/2012/12/planning-freestyle.html>.
Vu, Brandon. “Yoyoing to Bad Music.” YouTube. YouTube, 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 31 Mar. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC4LpcGIoZo>.
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