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Are We Lying About The Best Beginner Kendama?

Discussion in 'The Sesh' started by CodyGriz, Mar 22, 2017.

  1. Congarranza

    Congarranza DS Legend

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2017
    Location:
    Camarillo, CA
    Have you tried it? Back in my day we would start the record/album at the third roar of the lion. These days, I'm sure it all set up for you.

    As for parallel universes, sure! Why not!? I mean if you can think of an idea, it exists.

    Damn, in a minute, moderators will deviate this thread to a new forum: THE UNKOWN…
     
    Mar 30, 2017
    Cheech_Sander likes this.
  2. Brandon Jensen

    Brandon Jensen Slayer

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2017
    Location:
    San Diego, California
    Yea me and some friends dropped the audio from the movie and turned on the album at the third roar. Such good times. Such great music.

    I mean, just because I thought of it, that doesn't make it exist here in the now. Sometimes you have to will things into existence.
     
    Mar 30, 2017
  3. Congarranza

    Congarranza DS Legend

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2017
    Location:
    Camarillo, CA
    Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." So if the thought has been thought out, it exists in this world (or this universe).

    @moderators: the clock is ticking…
     
    Mar 30, 2017
  4. Cheech_Sander

    Cheech_Sander Administrator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2016
    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    i'm more of a pascal guy
     
    Mar 30, 2017
    lategreat808 and Congarranza like this.
  5. Brandon Jensen

    Brandon Jensen Slayer

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2017
    Location:
    San Diego, California
    I've heard Freud has some nice, light hearted theories.
     
    Mar 31, 2017
    Congarranza likes this.
  6. Ryalkid20

    Ryalkid20 Honed Member

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2016
    Yeah I started out with no body around me to teach me and didn't find much tutorials on YouTube except that one video that I swear every person who pays Dama saw in the begging of their Dama life and it as just me and my cousin. But the newer people have all these videos and people to teach than and I feel when you play with someone better than you you get better and you can get the tutorial in person from someon who is more advanced and can tell you in person what u r doing wrong and what u r doing right to accomplish a trick
     
    Apr 1, 2017
  7. lategreat808

    lategreat808 DS Legend

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2016
    Location:
    Eau Claire, Wisconsin
    Wanna bet?
     
    Apr 1, 2017
  8. Brandon Jensen

    Brandon Jensen Slayer

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2017
    Location:
    San Diego, California
    Yea I feel that compared To a lot of people I'm learning incredibly slowly, because I still have not met anyone who plays kendama, I've only brought people in. But when I find all these videos, it really helps jump start my learning.
     
    Apr 1, 2017
    Cheech_Sander likes this.
  9. Matthew Dam

    Matthew Dam Member

    Joined:
    Dec 26, 2016
    Location:
    Orange County, CA
    Sweets prime solids are the best rn, sticky for beginner balance tricks, new shape with larger cups and under 20
     
    Apr 3, 2017
  10. Brandon Jensen

    Brandon Jensen Slayer

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2017
    Location:
    San Diego, California
    My only problem with that is that personally I would want to get used to this crazy stick and crazy huge cups and crazy good lunar balance and then move onto anything else and you suddenly can't do half of these tricks.
     
    Apr 3, 2017
    Cheech_Sander and goenKendama like this.
  11. lategreat808

    lategreat808 DS Legend

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2016
    Location:
    Eau Claire, Wisconsin
    Yeah that's kinda the general CON of the Prime. I'm glad I have a Prime now but I'm seriously glad I started on a RED Tribute, it was ICY like a TK16. It taught me patience and at first I just thought light house was an impossible trick...little did I know I'd one day lace lunar flips.
     
    Apr 3, 2017
    htimSxelA likes this.
  12. Ben Lowe

    Ben Lowe Slayer

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2016
    Location:
    Port Angeles, WA
    Made a vid on this, just sharing my thoughts:
     
    May 14, 2017
  13. Ryan Brewer

    Ryan Brewer Honed Member

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2017
    Location:
    Long Island, New York
    I have to agree with you on this one. Everyone does say that one should start with a TK-16 or an Oozie, but personally i learned on a half split, and it is much easier to learn spike tricks and hole control on a half rather than a natty.
     
    May 31, 2017
    KeeganS likes this.
  14. itsthejesse

    itsthejesse n00b

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2017
    Location:
    Canton, Ga
    This is such an interesting topic. I came into the game a little late (Dec. 2014) and started with a Sweets Gold F2. It was a new-ish gen shape ken, but still came pretty slick out of the box, being a glossy solid coat. I've since broken it in and it plays nicely now, but I remember being frustrated with how long it took to get things like house, bird and lunar. I know I may be a little biased, but I have to lean towards the side of starting with a new-gen or painted tama. Since we're only talking about people who start from here on out, (not being able to go back and change past decisions for people through time travel obviously.) they're starting in a different dama atmosphere than the early days. Advanced tricks from several years back are now considered much more normal to accomplish in a shorter time-span from when you begin playing.

    In my experience, the early satisfaction of being able to start landing things that are deemed "harder" tricks, especially balance stuff like loons, really helps to increase the chances of a person sticking with it (no pun intended) and continuing to play. Even this very evening, I spoke with a kid who saw me playing my @Jake Wiens pro mod, and said: "...yeah, I've got one of those in my house somewhere, but it's all shiny. I can't even do a lighthouse." I've had similar experiences to quite a few times now. Essentially the would-be beginner is saying "the learning curve is too steep right at entry." Shouldn't it get harder as you go on and not start out frustratingly difficult? I understand the value of having core stuff down and really honing in your basic muscle memory, but a person will never get to that stage if they put it down after a week of frustrating failure.

    And of course most of what I'm saying can be countered with a simple, "well not all people act that way" / "Not everyone learns the same way" / "some people appreciate the challenge early on..." and so on. But may I just submit that from what I've seen, people want challenge, yes, but they also want payoff, and not necessarily 2 years into it. And yes, this is further complicated by the fact that some people come into the game while they're young, some start older, some start in N. America, some are in the east....so ultimately there is no cut and dry, black and white answer obviously.

    But even with all that said, I'm still lead to believe that the best (albeit somewhat blanket-coverage) approach is to say "hey! Let's start you off on beginner difficulty, instead of launching straight into legendary difficulty with all the skulls turned on."

    Anywho, that's my long-winded two cents. Get at me!
     
    May 31, 2017
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  15. Ires

    Ires n00b

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2018
    Disclaimer: I’m old and don’t know how start a new topic.

    I have a son who has some learning delays
    and who was introduced to Kendama’s by a teacher. It has been such a blessing to us in many ways. He gets a lot of satisfaction from learning tricks and as he has good physical dexterity it is an area where he can meet and sometimes even exceed, the abilities of “typical” kids. The Kendama kids have been extremely kind to him.

    Kind people in this forum, too - have been invaluable help in deciding which Kendamas to spend hard earned wages on!

    My question now is this: he has friends who see him practicing and who would like to try it, too. They are not interested in competition. What is the “easiest” Kendama - for an individual with some limitations - who simply wants to join in the fun?
     
    Aug 26, 2018
  16. LineKnob

    LineKnob n00b

    Joined:
    Aug 6, 2017
    Location:
    Germany, Bavaria
    A great way to start, very affordable, is a sweets prime or a krom pop. Big cups, and rubber/sticky paint, makes new tricks really nice to learn. And they offer some great designs too. :)
     
    Aug 26, 2018
  17. ttocsic

    ttocsic Slayer

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2017
    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    another vote for the prime from me.
     
    Aug 26, 2018
  18. James Hoang

    James Hoang Slayer

    Joined:
    Nov 8, 2016
    Location:
    San Jose, CA and Milpitas, CA
    Honestly, the Prime is a solid choice. All of the designs are great for tracking except the solids. The paint is sticky right out of the box and can easily land difficult tricks.

    The reason why I'm not recommending the POP or any other KROM dama with a similar shape is because I feel that the spike is a bit too thin. Because of that, newer players risk breaking the spike on accident if they drop it too hard on the ground or something just happens to it. Other than that, the POPs are decent enough.
     
    Aug 26, 2018
  19. KeeganS

    KeeganS DS Legend

    Joined:
    Dec 6, 2016
    Location:
    Boise, Idaho
    Truthfully, you cannot go wrong with a Sweets Prime from Sweets Kendamas or a Kaizen 2.0 from Kendama USA.
    Like everyone has mentioned, the Sweets Prime has larger cups to make landing a good number of tricks much easier especially when paired with the sticky paint on the ball/tama. And there are a huge number of varieties you can choose from to get your favorite color(s).
    The Kaizen 2.0 will have a more traditional-esque shape with smaller sized cups in comparison to the Prime and rubber paint instead of sticky (which some would say is better in the long run as it gets more and more grippy as you play it). Just as many, if not more varieties of Kaizen 2.0 kendamas to choose from but the designs are not as eclectic as the ones from Sweets Kendamas.
    Just comes down to whatever you, your son, his friends like best. One of the great things about kendama is the variety to choose from, nearly every kendama player out there has kendamas from multiple brands that are all different shapes, sizes and colors from each other.
     
    Last edited: Aug 27, 2018
    Aug 27, 2018
    Relyk likes this.
  20. Ires

    Ires n00b

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2018
    Thank you! I am ordering a couple for birthday presents and your advice is very helpful!
     
    Aug 27, 2018