Hey fellow dama players. I'm home from school for the holiday break and my days are completely wide open so I've just been playing music and jammin' my dama. My progression has slowed almost to a complete stop. I'm finding it really hard to learn any new tricks. Reaching out to you guys from some practice tips/motivation/new tricks to learn. ALSO, I only have two kendama with me. Is it possible for a kendama to pass its prime? I feel like I'm much better with the Kens I use at school that belong to my friend. Any way that I can revive my Kendama? I just restrung my kaizen half split 1 and that seemed to help a little bit, but both on that and my kaizen padauk lighthouses and lunars have gotten ridiculously slippery. I've had the Padauk for about a year, and the halfsplit for maybe 5 months and they've both seen A LOT of use. This being said I have two new Dama coming for christmas TJ pro mod and Sweets F3 cushion Tama, but I'm getting super frustrated and can't possibly take a 6 day break from trying to get better. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
So this is what I have been doing to get out of slumps. I will take all the tricks I know and make a list. I will then break them off into groups of six and number each trick one to six. For the first group I will roll a six sided dice and then that is the first trick I have to combo with. For the next set of six I roll another dice and so on. This helps you out of slumps because then you have to build bridges where there were no bridges before. After you have done this for a while try to learn a new trick and then add this to the list and so on. I find this helps connect tricks in ways that force me out of my comfort zone. As for having a ken that's too jammed out...it is possible but honestly I have seen some people play with some ultra worn out damas and there was no issue with learning new tricks. A kendama can be past its prime but it's more likely you are in a slump.
The other day I got cold pizza to turntable to downspike. That one was pretty weird but once I got it down I was like...oh my God, so cool
Just play to play. Don't worry about progressing or not. I haven't been learning many new tricks, but I've been doing a lot of the same tricks to hone in on the consistency. I admit I get a little bored sometimes, but that's because I'm not grinding for new tricks/combos. Having something else to take up your time helps too. I've been working on new editing techniques as well as trying to learn more about photography when I'm not jamming dama. I find I get way too frustrated if I haven't landed the trick I'm going for within the hour. Just gotta take some time off and tackle it again later. I'm starting to believe in the whole "its a mindset" thing more because of it. Plus the whole "not landing the trick but still grinding" helps improve your muscle memory. Spent about 4 hours on a 3 part trick one day, didn't lace, tackled it again a couple days later and got it within 15 minutes. Freakin kendama, man. A fun way to practice is to do kendama ladders. You can find em on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram. Speed ladders, open division lists, whatever. I usually try to do all of the tricks on a ladder when I see it just to test my consistency. I also have the KWC trick lists printed out for whenever I'm bored and want to try to hit some tricks I haven't hit yet. I've pretty much done all of the ones I'm able to do right now, so I'm just waiting until I level up more to attempt the harder ones (ex. trip tap juggle downspike [still getting dubs consistent]). I think its definitely possible for a kendama to pass its prime. For me, when the spike dulls and the basecup gets all wonky and misshapen, I gotta retire it. Just a personal preference, but I need that sharp/near sharp spike and good shaped cups. Kens that have messed up cups are good for stalls though, so I still play some that are like that. You can use fine grit sandpaper to sand off all of the hand oils and dirt to make your ken look newer as well as reshaping the cups. Reshaping the cups will probably make you notice a difference in play though. The TJ pro mod is Super Stick paint, so it will be pretty grippy for lunars and lighthouses. The Cushion tama is also really grippy, it plays well with any hardwoods like birch or maple if you have any. There's nothing like breaking in a freshie
Thanks for the responses. I chilled out and its helped a lot. No surprise can't Ken angry. About to go check out some trick ladders. Also been grinding non balance tricks, have a pretty nasty ken flip focused line I'm hoping to lace.
Kinda like what Nick said, if I feel like i've stopped progressing at a certain trick or combo, I just put it down and try something COMPLETELY different or something that I rarely do. I feel like landing tricks I don't practice often feels really good and gets me back in the mindset to hit those tricks I couldn't stomp before. About your kens, I do think that some kens can hit a point of no return. Too slick or just destroyed in general. But, I think that if you continue to work hard trying to stomp lighthouses and lunars on a slick dama for 6 days, you might start to get a feel for it. No, you might not lace any new combos, but when those new damas arrive on Xmas you'll be able to lace like never before!
I would suggest that you don't not take a break, sometimes taking a day or two off from playing dama can really make a difference, think of it like this, you go to school 5 days a week , but you have two days off to study and do other things with your life, the same is true with Kendama
I love trick ladders for sure! There's a thread full of the one's I've loved "attempting" to work through here: http://www.downspike.com/threads/battle-ladders.420/