Hello all. I recently got into spin tops cause… well I bought one.
[ramble]
For only having it for 2 days, I say i have been making progress. I can do the spinner(not so well because I do it on carpet) and I can do the boomerang. I can pick it up by the string from a spinner and the skyrocket trick occasionally. Since i can do the boomerang I attempted to learn how to actually keep it spinning in my hand so I can go onto the trapeze and similar stuff. [/ramble]
My question is: How do you keep it balanced in your hand? I know you have to make little counter clockwise circles but it doesn’t cut it. I can make it spin by tilting my hand so it doesn’t hit my palm but, it doesn’t balance it. If it matters I have the YYF acrobat. (yeah I knew it is horrible to start with after it shipped. I would gotten a plastic one with it but, I couldn’t/forgot)
In a nutshell, do the opposite of what you think you should do. If you were balancing a pencil in your hand, you would move your hand in the direction it is leaning to balance it. For a top, do the opposite. Move your hand in the direction the tip is pointing, which is the opposite of the way it is leaning. Since the top precesses (leans in a circular motion), the ideal corrective movement is somewhat circular, but for now, pick one direction to wait for and move it then… like wait for the tip to be pointed the same direction your thumb is and then move your hand in the direction of your thumb.
My advice for balancing a top in your hand, is practicing with a Gyro.
Then make circle with your hand on the oposit side of a watch prick, and start the circle of balancing, on 3/4 (or Half depend) on the oposit side of where the top is tilting.
Hope this can help it’s a hard move to explain, the best is to find it yourself and practice a lot…
Neff’s explication is perfectly simple and work great too…
I’m on day three of my mucking around with spintops, and I’m having a ton of fun! I almost managed to do a corkscrew a couple minutes ago. I got it to completely circle my arm once, but then it hit my bicep and was all over.
Just writing to say “thanks,” cause this particular thread helped me immensely. After a few hours of practice, I’m starting to get the feel for the very odd and counter-intuitive physics, and can keep my top balanced until almost complete extinction (which is far longer than I expected it to be).
