You know you’ve arrived when the college you’re attending is shooting videos of you to help recruit new students. But any excuse to watch Takeshi Matsuura throw a yoyo is a good one, right?
Takeshi Matsuura – Mavetrick Tutorial #2
We will cheerfully take all the Takeshi Matsuura tutorial videos you got, please. Keep ’em coming!
Yoyo used is the Turning Point Mustang.
MAVETRICK Tutorial Video Vol.1
Takeshi Matsuura dropped a new tutorial for one of his coolest combos from Worlds, and it’s glorious. Such an elegant little bit of yoyo play here, and breaking the whole thing down actually makes it seem more amazing. Dig in and enjoy!
Yoyo used is the Mustang by Turning Point.
Takeshi Matsuura – Mustang
Takeshi Matsuura. One throw.
Yoyo used is the Turning Point Mustang.
Takeshi Matsuura at Asakusa
Seven-time World YoYo Champion and nine-time Japan National Champion Takeshi Matsuura is one of the greatest yoyo players who has ever lived, and every minute you spend watching a video from him is a really good life decision.
Yoyo used is the Turning Point Colony.
MAVETRICK ZERO – Takeshi Matsuura
Takeshi Matsuura crushes our hopes and dreams with one minute of pure and unbeatable 5A badassery in this new video. Here’s the thing…you may have won, but if you didn’t beat Takeshi, you aren’t the champ. He’s the high water mark.
Yoyo used is the Turning Point Palpitation.
’97 Generation Players
An entire video dedicated to yoyo players born in 1997. And every one of them is a fantastic player. This is the kind of crazy, left-field brilliance that keeps me in yoyoing. I love everything about this.
Featuring Aoi Ogura, Akira Nanba, Atomu Nakajima, Azim Jameel, John Wolfe, Kohei Seto, Paolo Bueno, Ryoya Ochiai, Seiya Ototsuji, Shuji Kinoshita, Shun Watanabe, Takeshi Matsuura, Takumi Shirasaki, Yuki Takami, and Yoku Kato.
Turning Point Anubis ft. Kentaro Kimura & Takeshi Matsuura
Two of the best yoyo players in the world throwing down on a bi-metal yoyo that’s become a Turning Point team favorite?
All. Day. Long.
Yoyo used is the Turning Point Anubis.
China YoYo Corporation Championship Winners
Thanks to our friends at YoYoNews.jp for pointing us to these videos of the winners of the 2015 China YoYo Corporation Championship!
1A / 1st Place – Sunny Dong Ruida
2A / 1st Place – Yi Chenghao
3A / 1st Place – Wong Yip Yip
4A / 1st Place – Zhao Chen
5A / 1st Place – Zhang Kai
Bonus Demos!
1A – Hiroyuki Suzuki
1A – Takeshi Matsuura
1A – Marcus Koh
4A – Jeon Ji Hwan
Interview – 2014 WYYC 5A Champion Takeshi Matsuura
(The following interview appears courtesy of the 2015 World YoYo Contest)
Q1. When did you start playing yo-yo?
When I was in 1st Grade in Elementary School!
Q2. Why did you start playing yo-yo?
Because of the 2003 Hyper Yo-Yo [promotion]!
Q3. Who are some of the yo-yo players you respect/admire/look up to?
There are players I admire but I’ll leave it without saying who.
Q4. What made you choose 5A as your main style?
I was shocked to realize “There’s such a division in yo-yoing!” and it seemed interesting!
Q5. Last year you were also the runner-up in the WYYC 1A Division. Other than 5A and 1A, do you plan to enter any other divisions in the future?
I haven’t really decided, but if I start to feel like I want to enter [a division] I will!
Q6. How do you usually practice (where, who with, etc.)?
Usually I don’t play yo-yo in a “practicing” sense. I just kind of do what I want to do at that moment.
Q7. How does that change when you are preparing for different types of contests?
Before contests I rent a room in the community center and practice in a wide-open space.
Q8. Do you have any good stories from before you became a world champion that you want to share with us?
Do you have any good stories from before you became a world champion that you want to share with us?
None in particular.
Q9. How did you feel when you became a world champion?
I was happy!
Q10. Is there anything that changed for you after becoming a world champion?
I received the Global Award from my home prefecture, Saitama, and became a Saitama Goodwill Ambassador!
Q11. How do you feel going into this year’s World Yo-Yo Contest?
This year I plan to make a great effort in not only 5A, but also 1A. I want to do freestyles I can personally feel satisfied with and I aim to win, so please cheer for me!
Q12. What is yo-yo to you?
[Yo-Yo is] Something that continues to broaden my world!
Many thanks to Takeshi Matsuura! We wish him the best of luck at the 2015 World YoYo Contest.
Perfect Elements Presents: Friends + Worlds
Perfect Elements, the film production name of Russian super awesome guy Igor Galiev just dropped an epic video featuring nearly 8 minutes of brilliant yoyo tricks from the best players in the world. All you are doing for the next hour is watching this over and over. I’m not even kidding here. Shot at 60fps, so make sure you watch it full screen at full size!
Featuring Ben Conde, Riccardo Fraolini, Yoshi Mikamoto, Justin Weber, James Reed, Charles Haycock, Jensen Kimmitt, Harold Owens III, Petr Kavka, Vashek Kroutil, Kentaro Kimura, Paul Kerbel, Takeshi Matsuura, and more.
Perfect Elements Presents: Takeshi Matsuura
World Counterweight YoYo Champion Takeshi Matsuura has entered the second stage of his competition career as an incredible 1A player, and this new video from Perfect Elements really showcases his fantastic 1A tricks and construction.
Yoyo used is the Palpitation by Turning Point.
Takeshi Matsuura x Turning Point – Shake
Takeshi Matsuura has successfully made the transition from multi-time 5A World Champion to being one of the leading contenders in the 1A division…a jump that very few players have ever successfully pulled off. His skill and style in 1A are fantastic though…check out this new promo video for his signature Turning Point yoyo, the Shake.
Yoyo used is the Shake by Turning Point.
2014 Japan National Yo-yo Contest Results – Takeshi Matsuura wins… in 1A!
If you missed the live stream from Japan Nationals yesterday, you missed the most professionally produced yo-yo contest broadcast in history!
Live comments from some of the best players in Japan, and clips from each players’ preliminary round and previous contests freestyles made this a very enjoyable contest to watch, even if NicoNico’s video quality was not quite on par with Ustream.
On to the results, where we had heated battles between the World’s greatest players!
In 1A, in a somewhat unexpected — but not at all surprising — outcome, 5A World Champion Takeshi Matsuura beat last year’s champion Akitoshi Tokubuchi to claim the title! This makes him the unbelievable winner of three different divisions in the history of Japan Nationals, including five 5A titles and the 2010 3A title! Third place in 1A went to Yusuke Otsuka, who had a great freestyle at the EYYC Open division earlier this year.
World Champion Takuma Yamamoto won the incredibly strong 2A division this year, with a smooth freestyle, finishing over 10 points ahead of Shu Takada. Third place went to Ryo Yamashita, and just to give you a glimpse of how strong the division was, it also had Hiraku Fujii, Yasushi Furukawa, and history’s biggest World Title winner Shinji Saito in the final round. Shinji had a strong preliminary round, but was unable to go as cleanly in his final routine.
In 3A, Hajime Miura showed solid improvement over last year’s 8th place, and took the title with unquestionable confidence and skill. In the words of Drew Tetz: someone should tell this kid that 3A is supposed to be hard!
Rei Iwakura won 4A with a jaw-dropping routine, finishing 15 points ahead of Kazuaki Sugimura. Rei once again showed us what makes a great stage performance without sacrificing technique! Like at Worlds last year, some of the favorites had some yo-yo changes and ended up with low scores, like Futoshi Maruyama (3 drops, -9) and Naoto Okada (4 drops, -12).
The fiercest and most expected battle was in 5A, where Takuma Inoue and Takeshi Matsuura once again made us wonder if there’s any limit to their skills, with both players finishing over twenty points ahead of the third place. This time, an unfortunate yo-yo change by Takeshi meant Takuma Inoue finished ahead to claim his third National Title!
On to the results and winner videos, courtesy of C3yoyodesign!
1A
- Takeshi Matsuura
- Akitoshi Tokubuchi
- Yusuke Otsuka
- Shinya Kido
- Tatsuya Fujisaka
- Shion Araya
- Reiki Sekiya
- Ryota Ogi
- Yamato Murata
- Izuru Hasumi
- Masahiro Terada
- Iori Yamaki
- Tsukasa Ryu
- Toya Kobayashi
- Atsunori Tanimoto
2A
- Takuma Yamamoto
- Shu Takada
- Ryo Yamashita
- Hiraku Fujii
- Shuhei Kanai
- Shinji Saito
- Tomoyuki Kaneko
- Shunsuke Kawakami
- Yuzo Okada
- Yasushi Furukawa
- Toshiaki Onuma
3A
- Hajime Miura
- Takumi Yasumoto
- Mizuki Takimoto
- Minato Furuta
- Tomoya Kurita
- Kyohei Hosono
- Ken Takabayashi
- Ryosuke Ito
- Taiichiro Higashi
4A
- Rei Iwakura
- Kazuaki Sugimura
- Yohei Kagawa
- Futoshi Maruyama
- Takumi Yasumoto
- Tomohiko Zanka
- Naoto Okada
- Shinya Muraki
- Yuzo Okada
- Yuki Uchida
5A
- Takuma Inoue
- Takeshi Matsuura
- Hideo Ishida
- Sora Ishikawa
- Naoya Takeuchi
- Takayuki Kuriyama
- Yoshihiro Abe
- Ryota Torigoe
- Yasuhiro Uchida