Ask an aficionado of any skill toy how many tricks there are that one could learn with that skill toy and they'll tell you the number is infinite. It doesn't matter if they're into yo-yo, juggling, fingerboards, footbag, poi spinning, frisbee, kendema or skateboarding; they'll all offer the same answer: "There's no limit to what you can learn."
Technically this is true, of course. There are an infinite number of tricks that can be done with any of these skill toys. There's no end to the possibilities with any of them and yet despite that, pretty much everybody eventually stops learning new stuff.
The same is true, in a sense, with Myachi. We jokingly say that the trick possibilities with Myachi are even more infinite than they are with other skill toys. Obviously that's a ridiculous statement; one thing can't be more infinite than another. Despite that, the statement still has meaning. To explain, I'll need about 8 more paragraphs and some bullet points.
I'll use juggling as my example here because other than Myachi, it's the skill toy I'm most familiar with. When you first learn to juggle there are a ton of tricks in front of you. Some are easy and you learn those one's pretty quick. Others are harder so it takes you longer to master those. Others are so hard that you never learn them. So no matter how good you get, you will always be somewhere along this line of possible tricks. There will be the tricks that you've learned behind you and the ones that you haven't learned in front of you. When you first get into juggling (or any skill toy), you move pretty fast down the line of tricks, but as the tricks get harder you move slower and slower.
Regardless of the skill toy, almost everybody eventually stops at some point on this line. They get to a point where the tricks that are still in front of them are too hard. And when I say too hard, I don't mean that they're too hard for them to do. Nothing is too hard for anyone to do if you practice enough. What I mean here is that they're so hard that they are never going to put enough practice in to learn them.
Some people, of course, never reach this point. There are professional and competitive skill toy enthusiasts who dedicate their lives to juggling ever more balls or doing ever more consecutive 720s with a footbag. There are plenty of examples of this in the world of extreme sports if you, like me, look at a skateboard as a skill toy.
But the vast majority of people who skate are never going to the X-Games. The vast majority of people who play hackey sack are never going to compete in a pro footbag tournament. Most of them will eventually find the point along the line where they are comfortable and settle in there. They'll probably still learn a new trick here and there but by and large they'll spend their time polishing up the stuff they already know and working it in combos.
Now like I said, Myachi is no different than all these other skill toys, but the possibilities in our world are just a little bit more infinite. The reason is that there are ultimately more tricks at every skill level with Myachi. There are an infinite number of tricks with every skill toy, but their aren't an infinite number of "beginner" tricks. With yo-yo or footbag there may be some 12 to 20 tricks a beginner can learn within a few days of dedicated practice. With Myachi that number is over 100.
What's more is that Myachi branches out into so many different skill sets. When you get to the really advanced levels of Myachi and start finding your wall you can always turn to a different type of trick. A lot of people get great at hand tricks before they even start mastering the foot tricks. Once they reach their wall with foot tricks they'll move on to juggling tricks.
In footbag, all the tricks are foot tricks. In juggling all the moves are juggling tricks. In yo-yo all the moves are yo-yo tricks. Myachi combines elements of so many skill toys that there's always another type of trick to move to when one starts to frustrate you.
So after the long convoluted answer, let me give you a few simple answers to the basic question here. "What do you do when all the tricks in front of you seem too hard and you feel like you've hit your wall with Myachi?"
- Get with a friend and learn some tandem tricks. Sure, you can do an Under the Leg toss and an Under the Leg Catch, but can you catch UtL from somebody else's UtL throw?
- Get balanced and start learning the stuff you know on your strong hand and foot with your weak hand and foot. If you can do a Toe Stall equally well on both feet, that opens up a world of tricks on its own.
- Bring another Myachi in and see what you can do. Doesn't matter how many you're using. If you're already doing 2 Myachi tricks start looking for 3 Myachi tricks (hint: they don't all include juggling).
- Subscribe to the Myachi You-Tube channel and learn the Trick of the Day everyday. Then look for ways to use it in combos with the moves you already know.
- Get creative and try to come up with something new. With all the possibilities out there, hundred or even thousands of tricks still wait to be discovered.
- Bring another prop in with your Myachi. Monk does some awesome stuff with a Myachi and a Cup. I like doing Myachi with a ring or a basketball. Any additional prop will add a ton of new tricks.
- Do Myachi on something. Animal and Mav do a lot of tricks while longboarding. Monk does tricks while he's on his bike and I often shred while on stilts or a unicycle. Learning to Myachi on something like that can add tons of new challenges to the game.
- Hit up the Wednesday Night Brawls online and challenge somebody to a game of MYACH. Either you'll win and feel awesome or you'll lose and find some weaknesses you need to work on.
- Try something you've never tried before. Focus in on a really tough trick that you thought was too hard for you and surprise yourself when you master it.
- Play some Myachi Fu or some Myachi Golf and focus on something other than tricks for a while.
- Focus on teaching other people instead of learning new stuff. It's a much more interesting challenge and sometimes it's also a much more rewarding one.
If you feel like you have anything to add to the list, please leave it in the comment section below.
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