Beginner needs help with "Hop the fence"

Yo-Yo Tricks
1

I know that I am a total noob for needing help with something that is so basic, however i just started this lifestyle.

I have a yomega Maverick, and a Yomega Raider ex.

I am using the raider ex for now to start off with because I have found that it seems to be suggested that looping is important for starting out, then moving onward to string tricks.

Anyways, I am having a lot of trouble with “hop the fence”

I can not seem to keep the yo yo straight. The yo yo will sometimes flop on its side, and kind of create a “sleeping beauty”, other times I will have the yoyo at almost a 45 degree angle, and it will either bounce around all over the place, or it will lose all momentum and fail. Other times, I get the yoyo to stay straight, but it seems to have turned around while going over my hand, so instead of cleanely hopping from one side of my hand to the other, it appears as if it got turned around in the process. I don’t know if that is normal. Basically, when I hop the fence, is the string supposed to be on the same side of the yoyo that I started with? (when I threw it) or on the opposite?

I have tried watching several videos, and I have tried mimicing their movements. I have tried turning my hand to the left or the right, and I have tried flicking my wrist a little less or a little more. I have tried moving my whole hand up and down or just forward or backwards. you name it and I have given it a shot. All with unconsisiten results.

I was just wondering if this is a normal beginner’s frustration, and if so, I will keep giving it my best shot. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t missing something because it sounds like this trick is supposed to be ssoo easy, but I can’t get it down. I have at least put 3 hours of practice in and I can’t even throw it down right ONCE.

I seem to have a pretty straight throw, if it isn’t striaght, I try to just return the yoyo and straighten it back out, so I don’t think it has to do with the way that the yoyo start out.

Thank you so much for your time everyone!

Also, will i get better with not accidentally sleeping it? It is fairly rare, but I do happen to sleep it sometimes… I hope this gets better too :-/

Thank you for any tips you all have!

2

First off I would like to say that your post was extremely articulate and thorough. You seem to have put in the proper man hours before resorting to advice from a forum. :wink:

You are probably going to find this funny, but I can barely (and I mean barely) hop the fence. I can do 1 occasionally and 2 if I am extremely lucky. You should by no means feel obligated to learn looping before you venture into string tricks. I went directly into string tricks myself.

If you want to loop, then you should most definitely continue your practice hopping fences and what not. If your end goal is to be doing Unresponsive 1A throwing, Then hop on your Maverick and start learning string tricks. :smiley:

Keep practicing and never become discourage. The only thing that matters is having fun.

(Sorry for not having any advice on hop the fence) :stuck_out_tongue:

3

Sorry, don’t have any advice on how to get that trick down, but I will say that it’s one of the harder “simple” tricks to get right. Your experience is pretty much the same as mine. Things start going awry for me on the 3rd or 4th hop. Go ahead and work on it, but don’t feel too bad if you don’t get it. The only place it’s ever encountered, other than people who do it for fun, is in the contest trick ladder.

4

I will continue to work on it… I but I do feel the lack of progress bringing me down… Lol.

It is also refreshing to hear that I am not the only person who has this problem. I think I move on to something else very shortly. I actually fell in love with this sport because of the string tricks. Anyways so now that i know that I don’t have to stay mired down by this trick, it brings me great joy and hope that I can choose to skip looping if it isn’t for me. I suppose I felt like it was a milestone that was essential for being a good yoyoer.

If I do find that I love looping, and but simply can not nail down hop the fence, I would be fine to move straight on to other things, and such as shoot the moon and punching bags and things of that sort right? I I just don’t want to miss a foundational step and not have the tools necessary to loop if I feel I enjoy the sport of it.

In summation, if I love looping I will be able to still be a good looper without hop the fence right? I perhaps I could come back to it later? If looping isn’t for me, and then there is no shame in moving to string only?

Lastly, if I move to string should I learn binding and mounting before anything else? I had my maverick very unresponsive by running it dry and two o-rings but without binding it was so frustrating learning any mounts because if I missed I would have to manually stop the yoyo and try again. For now I went back to stock response and brain lube like crazy just to learn mounting. Any suggestions?

Sorry for my lengthy questions! Thank you for your patience…

5

If you can’t get, go on to the next trick you wanted to learn.

Yoyoing takes time and perseverance, and I can tell from the very well written post that you have at least one of those attributes (Perseverance)

Keep at yoyoing, and if it’s any consolation, I have been yoyoing for 2.4ish years, and I still cannot do hop the fence; like it was said before me, it is definitely one of the harder “simple” tricks.

And yes, you can still be an excellent looper without knowing hop the fence :slight_smile:

6

I would definitely keep your maverick responsive for a while. Learn how to do a front mount, brain twister, split bottom mount, split the atom, mach 5, breakaway, trapeze, double or nothing, the matrix, 1.5 mount, and buddha’s revenge… once you have those fundamentals down you will want to move on to unresponsive play (well at least thats the stage I got to before playing unresponsive). The maverick is a great responsive yoyo. I have a Maverick but I made it unresponsive (dry 10 ball bearing and flowable silicone response). It is a decent unresponsive throw, but I would suggest getting something with a wider gap and a proper C sized bearing once you are ready.

The most affordable (but still insanely awesome) unresponsive yoyo setup I would recommend would be a YoYoJam Classic. Equipped with a full sized C bearing of your choice and YYJ Silicone response pads, it is definitely the best bang for your buck. That whole kit will run you about $20. Only downside is its not the best looking yoyo. For $35 you could get a YoYoFactory Protostar or Northstar. Both of those yoyos will play amazing right out of the box, and look wonderful doing it.

7

Hop the Fence is more of a 2A/looping trick. I find it’s better to do this with a modified shape yoyo. I’ve been working on 2A a lot and been buying more looping yoyos as of late, but I still do plenty of 1A stuff.

I find using a responsive 1A-type yoyo(wing shape), hop the fence doesn’t work quite as well. The shape isn’t as conducive to it. It’s not that you can’t, but it’s just not the right tool for the trick.

Ideally, we should have at least 2 yoyos to start with: a wing and a modified shape. Later on, we add a 2nd looper and wing shape so we can do 2A and 3A. Then we add an off-string, and a counterweight to keep handy for 5A.

8

Would it be better to go ahead and get a protostar for unresponsive play and use my maverick to learn the ropes? I heard dv888 was great for unresponsiveness… (I have done my research :slight_smile: )

I am using my raider ex for my beginner zero A, and my maverick for basic 1A…

When I can bind and actually do basic string mounting on my maverick, would the protostar or dv888 be the better next step?

I won’t worry about another looping yoyo until I can at least do the basics on my raider, then I MAY move to a relic (I can’t find sunset trajectory anywhere, or I would get that)… All of this future talk aside, thank you all for your input and if anyone has any more tips or suggestions, feel free to let me know.

I can’t mount or anything at all yet, so I hope to get better with practice. My maverick feels extremely heavy to me sometimes and I feel like I am trying to sling a rock onto dental floss. Perhaps I should learn from another yoyo? Or should I hang with this one?

My local store has yomegas only, a dash, hyper warp heavy wing, and a select few others. So would any of these be easier or better to learn on or is the consensus to stay with the maverick? (Protostar is an option as well, mentioned by the kind gentleman)

V2) Did some research, and many have suggested plastic yyj for beginners, anyone agree? If so I may get a kickside?

9

I do believe that learning the basics with the maverick will make you a better player.
That said, I’ve read that it is better to let the person playing choose which style (responsive/unresponsive) he/she likes better to start with. If you enjoy responsive more, then go do that, same goes as well for playing unresponsive.

I’d suggest you learn how to flick start or thumb start first though. That way you save time in winding up the yoyo. I think it is harder to learn flick start/thumb start on unresponsive yoyos as a beginner.

Also, I have tried the Protostar, and it’s a good yoyo. I own its brother, the Northstar and I would say I would have gone with any of them, just so happened that I really liked the Yellow Northstar.

In addition to this, if you like how the Protostar looks, I’d say go buy it. I think that starting as a player, how the yoyo looks is more important than how it plays, except when it is totally crappy. Since every time you look at a yoyo you will be under its spell and you will feel that certain privilege to be playing with such a beautiful wonder.

Well… That went a bit too dramatic, me thinketh.

10

Hop the fence requires a quick and forceful flick of your wrist rather than an up and down wrist motion. Try to keep your wrist centered, just moving it in a circle.

1 Like
11

Okay, I’m actually just getting started with hop the fence, and I find it useful to curve your hand slightly inward. I’m no expert, though…

12

I got a ProtoStar as my step-up yoyo and wasn’t disappointed. It is cheaper than a DV888, but I think it can play just as good, and it’s more versatile. Plastic is good to when starting out, because then you don’t have to worry about dinging your yoyo as much or getting hit by it on accident. It is also easier to start landing string tricks since it has a wide gap. I would recommend you look at one.