I’m pretty new to the yo-yoing world, but I’ve messed around with them a bit in the past.
Mostly I’ve worked with a Duncan Proyo which made for some really smooth gravity pulls, forward passes, and loops.
I recently wanted to try a less responsive yoyo since my Proyo doesn’t sleep at all, so I bought a Dark Magic II and have been going through the beginner videos. I left the more responsive bearing in.
Watching the videos, I can see the expert’s sleeper throws and forward passes are really smooth. By this I mean when the yoyo hits the end of the string it doesn’t jerk. The forward passes make a nice swinging arc and gently go back to the operator’s hand.
When I do a sleeper throw, my yoyo hits the end of the string hard and bounces a tiny bit. When I do forward passes with it, it’s really difficult to return to my hand because it snaps out to the end and seems to sleep. Regardless if I throw a forward pass gently or hard, it feels like I’m just yanking the thing around, not in the smooth arc of the videos or what I can do with my Proyo.
I’m used to the smooth down and up of the sleeper or out and back of the forward pass with my Proyo, but I just feel like I’m jerking around my Dark Magic II. The videos use the same yoyo, so I figure there must be a way for me to achieve this as well.
Do you guys have any tips on how I can improve to get smooth sleeper throws when my yoyo hits the end of the string and how I can get a smooth arc and return out of the forward pass with my Dark Magic II?
I wouldn’t worry about the forward pass, it’s more for looping tricks and off string. As for your sleeper just practice. Try to start with your hand a bit higher in the air. The more you practice the better your throw will be. Also, as soon as you get consistent decent throws I’d recommend putting the unresponsive bearing in. It will probably double your sleep time and binding is pretty much an easy trick. Get that throw down first though.
what string are you using? when i started with my dark magic i had a very elastic like string and it jerked every time. have you considered an all metal yoyo like a di base 2.
With a little bit less “response” (for example, my older-style Yomega Maverick) it takes the tiniest bit of slack on the string for the response to kick in and the yoyo to return to your hand. So it hits the end of the string, do a little bouncey-type-thing, the response grabs the string, and THEN it returns.
With a highly responsive yoyo (a proper looper or even something like a Butterfly or ProYo) the forward pass will have the smoother out-and-back motion you were describing.
It’s fun to play with a yo-yo that is responsive enough to be smooth, as you put it, but not so touchy that it won’t have long spins, or returns unexpectedly. You may have to play around with it a lot to get it the way you like it, but basically you need to get the bearing lubed right.
You can use different yo-yo specific thick lubes, you can try a tiny bit of vaseline, you can use 3in1 oil, and for some of my yo-yos that i am trying to learn tricks like shoot-the-moon, i have put a tiny bit of grease in the bearing.
You can’t do anything wrong really, as long as you don’t use too much lube and get it on the sides of the yo-yo or screw up the string. String is also a big factor, but more because of how it reacts with your response than how bouncy it is. You may like slick 6 or slick 8.
If you want to really experiment, you can get a YYJ thin bearing, i have them in a few yo-yos and they might work for you. If you have some different yo-yos, you can play around with how a thin bearing does to make it more responsive.
The good news is that you can actually get it adjusted over a pretty wide range of responsiveness, and if you get it too responsive, just go back to a clean bearing and start over. The not so good news is that it is time consuming and you will rap your knuckles… repeatedly.
Thanks for the advice guys. I’ll forego the forward pass then until I start looking at loopers.
I would like to get an all metal yoyo someday, but I decided to start with the Dark Magic II as my first foray into unresponsive play since it can play somewhat responsive (though my mileage appears to be varying in that department).
My cotton string snapped today, so I tied a new loop in it to make it a little shorter and am finding my throws are doing better from that change alone. I think I might’ve had it a little too long. I still need to practice, half my throws have a tilt to them, but they feel noticeably better now. I’m gonna buy some Slick 6 as recommended and see how far I can get with those.
I think I’m just a tad frustrated because following the videos, I have the same yoyo but am not seeing the same yoyo behavior. I’m sure part of it is just that I don’t have the same experience, but I do feel another part of it is my yoyo isn’t adjusted the same way as his. An example of this is the Flying Saucer/UFO. I started trying that one out today, and even though I have the responsive bearing in, and my yoyo is as tight as it can be, the string doesn’t seem to catch when I yank the yoyo toward my hand after tossing it up. But then other tricks like Brain Twister it catches too much because I have it so tight.
I think I need to put in more hours before I can appreciate/be able to tell the difference lubricant makes to a bearing, but I’ll definitely keep that in mind for the future. I’m also not sure that’ll help in my case though. I think the issue is more that even at its tightest setting, my Dark Magic II isn’t as responsive as I would expect. I can jerk the string from a sleeper and it won’t respond every time. Could my O-rings be too flush against the yoyo sides?
Thank you for having taken the time to reply, guys. I appreciate it.
You should always have your yoyo tightened up all the way. Also on the subject of your tricks, you really just need to practice more. Andre makes tricks look very easy but in fact they take good effort to learn, just keep up with the practice.
agreed. and like gregp said, for those type of tricks you named, a type of looping yoyo might be better. also, if you feel like if your dark magic 2 yoyo isn’t responsive enough, even with the small bearing, try double looping the string around the bearing when you put a new string on the yoyo. that might go ahead and help you out. try that and let us know how things go.
Actually, just alter your technique a bit and you should be good. For your sleeper, instead of throwing it straight downward, let go of the yoyo slightly earlier and let the yoyo arc downwards.
when I use my DMII I notice that if I throw it out a little lower, it will arc nice to where I would like it to be at return. Then give a little tug and it comes back nice, my speed beattle or projam I can shoot it out there higher with out a problem. I think the weight also may effect the bounce, Dm is much heavier then then other to. Just keep practicing. Think of the forward pass like a break away but in front of you with less swing time.
when the yoyo hits the end of the string, you have to sort of “give” a little bit. Sort of like catching an egg - you have to “cushion” it so it doesn’t break. It’s a similar thing with yoyo. At one point you’ll get so used to your preferred string length that you’ll know EXACTLY when it’ll reach the end. At this point just give it a little extra room to bounce. Eventually you won’t even have to think about your throw or anything like that, it’ll just be the tricks. Everything just takes practice.
