Hello,
I am beginning to learn how to yoyo. I just got 2 yoyos a Hubstack and a FAST 201 (both from yoyo factory).
I bought them from yoyotricks and they both came with pretty short string (shorter on the Hubstack), I think it was on purpose as they are sold as beginner’s yoyo to avoid people having trouble with strings too long.
Now my problem is the following, I can use both yoyos to consistently throw sleepers and catch them back. And I started to do some basic tricks (walk the dogs, rock the baby). When I use the 201 I mostly do better than with the hubstack with one exception, very often the starburst will catch the string and jam it. It is specially true when I try to do a fast wind or when I do rock the baby.
If I take rock the baby as an example, I will rock the yoyo then release the bottom hand the yoyo will come back up nicely but in fact the string will be so jammed in the startburst that I’ll have to manually unjam it before I can rethrow.
Sometime the teeth will catch when the yoyo is on its way down when I am throwing making the sleeper all wobbly.
Surprisingly it seems to snag less when the yoyo is tightened all the way with the teeth facing each other.
Anybody has a suggestion about what I may be doing wrong?
I don’t know that you’re actually doing anything wrong. The Fast 201 is very responsive which is why it’s such a good beginner yoyo. A couple things come to mind though:
Make sure you have nice straight throws. Look at your sleeper. Is it tilted to one side or the other? Remember that whatever angle the yoyo is at when it leaves your hand is the angle it will try to maintain. If it’s tilted that could cause it to bind a bit sooner.
Also, with a responsive yoyo it’s not actually the tug that makes it come back, it’s giving the yoyo slack that makes it come back. The tug just causes the string to slacken. Try this: Throw a strong sleeper. With your non-throw hand grab the string about half way and lift the yoyo about 2 inches. Now drop the string. The yoyo will respond immediately. Notice that you didn’t tug it at all, you just gave the string some slack when you dropped the yoyo. In rock the baby you may be giving the yoyo a slight bounce or you may be giving the yoyo some slack which is making it respond before you’re ready.
If you got yourself a Replay (the responsive one. The Replay Pro is unresponsive) I bet you’d discover that you’re actually a much better yoyoer than you realize. The Fast 201 is a great yoyo for beginners who have trouble making the yoyo come back. You may have just already moved beyond that skill level.
Finally, about a year ago Yoyo Expert and Eric Koloski made this video of tricks specifically for the Fast 201. You might enjoy learning these tricks since they are all done on the 201 in the video.
Thanks for the answer. I can definitely make a responsive yoyo come back since I can do it fine with the hubstack.
I fill like sometimes with the fast 201 the string gets stuck between 2 of the teeths causing the problems.
I will definitely try the tricks in the video.
The starburst system in the Fast 201 is different than the usual starburst in most other yoyos, they are huge and somewhat prone to snagging if you’re not very smooth when tugging it back/binding.
The Hubstack response should be smoother because it uses pads instead.
It’s probably time to move on to a more advanced yoyo. I’d suggest getting a Replay Pro which can handle pretty much anything. Just lube the bearing if you like it tug responsive, or play unresponsive as it is and learn how to ‘bind’.
I just noticed when watching the video that when Eric Koloski is releasing the yoyo in rock the baby he does releases it slowly (gently undo your triangle and tug the yoyo to return). I learned the trick by watching the video from yoyotricks and in that video the yoyo is released much more quickly by removing the lower hand and dropping the yoyo. I think that when doing that the starburst start interfering more.
played with the yoyos yesterday and I could make rock the baby walk the dog and around the world reliably both with the 201 and hubstack.
I found that it is easier to get the 201 to sleep a long time it still feels like it is knotting and grabbing the string a bit too aggressively but I am getting used to it.
My strings are almost shot though so I ordered a bunch of new ones
Not sure what you’re doing wrong but I think if you keep working at it you’ll get it. We all have unique styles and the style is formed by performing your own unique routines. Start stringing some of those tricks together and form some basic routines (ex: walk the dog into around the world, straight into burp the baby/starburst or a waladoo into hubstack). I’m not an expert by any means but the joy for me comes in learning to string together tricks (no pun intended lol). Keep at it! You’ll get there!
The FAST 201 has an adjustable string gap. If you find that it is binding too hard or getting snagged, give it a 1/4 turn to open the gap up. That should cause the starbursts to open up and not snag so much.
Thanks for all the advices. I have progressed some. Partially by opening the gap and practicing. It also helped that I got new strings (which arrived the day after I broke the initial one. I was inspired to buy them). I can now do the whole fast challenge both with the fast 201 and the hubstack