The Creator of Skill Addicts – Best Place to Learn Yoyo Tricks
Skill Addicts has rapidly become a go-to platform for yoyo and skill toy lovers alike. With its mission to create a community for learning, sharing, and mastering tricks, the app has generated hundreds of tutorials and users worldwide. And at the forefront of this app is none other than its creator, Vashek Kroutil.
As a multi-winning Czech National and European Yoyo Champion, Vashek has played a pivotal role in setting a standard for following ones’ passion to constantly improve skills on stage. Yet this latest venture has created a new community for helping each other improve their skills while having fun doing it.
So let’s dive deep into Vashek’s journey in the world of skill toys, the mechanics of Skill Addicts, and his vision for the future of the yoyos and skill toys.
Vashek, tell us a bit about your journey into the world of skill toys. How did you first get involved with yoyos?
When I was 13 years old, my older brother Kuba brought a yoyo home from his classmate. We both immediately fell in love with it while searching the internet for tricks and instructions. Later, we found out there is a group of Czech yoyoers meeting every Thursday in the center of Prague. So went meet them and soon become part of the Czech yoyo community.
You’ve had a lot of success in yoyo competitions. How have these experiences shaped your approach to skill toys and teaching others?
The successes in competitions and titles are great, but yoyo gave me much more than that. I was just a random kid, averaging in school, playing video games at home, and not really good in anything. Yoyos made me work on myself even without any external motivation or someone forcing me to do it. This brought a lot of benefits: patience, hand-eye coordination, focus, ability to not give up things even if they seem hard in the beginning, creativity, and skills in music and video editing, and my english improved since I was hanging out with players from all over the world. But what I am most thankful for in yoyoing are the friends. I have met with so many cool people from all around the world and some of them are my closest friends still today.
Since I gained all of these benefits from yoyoing, I wanted to give this experience to as many other kids as possible. Once my competitive yoyo career ended in 2015, I focused on spreading yoyoing. We run a yoyo shop, free classes, yoyo camps, and now began our newest project, Skill Addicts. It teaches skills and gathers players together through online learning app.
How did you come up with the idea for Skill Addicts?
When I was on a yoyo school tour in Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary, I noticed that kids still love yoyos. But once we leave the town, the kids give up because they have no one to guide them through all the tricks and struggles. This was during the start of the smartphone craze and we noticed that most of the kids use their phone a lot. So I asked myself, “How can we make a yoyo guide for kids even if we are not in their town?” And the idea for a mobile app was born.
Skill Addicts has been an amazing platform for many players and newcomers. Why do you think so many people have been drawn to this app?
It is very unique, there is no app with such a learning approach. We knew that learning something new can be difficult in the beginning, so we used our 20+ years of experience with teaching yoyoing to people all around the world to make the learning journey of a new player as easy as possible. We also focused on the gamified approach – you collect points, levels, and achievements while you learn new tricks to recieve real life rewards. A big part of the whole platform is community. Even if there are no players in your area, you can relieve tips and help from yoyo players from Brazil, Australia, or Japan in the app. It is amazing!
What role do you play in the Skill Addicts community, and how do you engage with users who want to improve their skills?
Developing a mobile app was as not easy as we thought before we began. With over 30k registered players and over 1500 daily active users, I spend most of my time making sure the app is running smoothly and while working on new features. We currently have Kendama and 7 other skill toys are available now.
App development was not only difficult, but also very expensive. We are small company with a limited budget, so I also need to make sure we get to the breakeven point in the near future.
Skill Addicts focuses heavily on sharing and approving tricks. What was your main goal for this app?
Our mission is to teach people skills. We understand that smartphones are a great tool to motivate and guide people to learn real skills. But instead of mindless scrolling, we are building an online app to teach people offline skills. ☺
What are some of your favorite features on Skill Addicts that you think really help players improve their skills?
Trick ladder is one of my favorite features. There are thousands of yoyo tutorials online, but the trick structure and levels we have in the app gives you a much better experience because you know where to start, what to learn next, and what you need to learn first before moving onto the next trick. This is really important.
The other important feature is the community. Having access 24/7 for help you with any trick while receiving feedback from someone is priceless. And I am so thankful that the Skill Addicts community is super friendly and helpful.
Are there any trends or innovations in skill toys that excite you?
Skill Toys is a very specific industry. Some of these toys are thousands of years old. They have developed, of course, but nothing has significantly changed in the past 20 years while the world is changing extremely fast. That is why we see so much potential in Skill Addicts. People love to play, learn, and improve themselves. We just need to give them up-to-date tools and that is what Skill Addicts definitely is.
Do you have a favorite trick tutorial that a player has uploaded?
We have tutorials made by pro players like Evan Nagao and Tony Sec, but one of the most popular tutorials in the app is done by little Spanish girl who played yoyo for a few days. She just did great job on making the trick and tutorial video with it.
Is there a particular player or story that stands out to you as an example of how Skill Addicts has made an impact?
There are many. Some of the players have been in the app for 2 years now and went from zero to the top level of tricks that me, as a European Yoyo Champion, could not do. The pace of progress that Skill Addicts offers is craaaazy.
But I have to mention Gapča. She could barely play when she joined the app. Now she is #1 in the leaderboard and is not only a great yoyo player now, but also as juggler, kendama player, and spintop player. She learned so much, it is incredible. Not only that, she is famous in the app and people mostly go to her to ask for help or tips.
If you can share, what are your plans for the future of Skill Addicts?
We want to keep teaching people skills and making sure they have fun while learning. Future plans include adding more sports, skill toys, and activities. We are constantly working on improving the entire user experience, removing bugs, and adding new features. But we know this is just a beginning, there is so much more to come! Stay tuned. ☺
