I’ve been messing with finger spins lately and seems to be a hit and a miss of getting a solid finger spin going. Most of the time I’ll get a spin going and as my finger tries to find the center of the bowl, the yoyo spins wildly out of control until it throws itself off balance. How can I keep it in control and keep it from wobbling off?
Doing this with my new C3 Move and have experienced this with my Elysian, the so-called “Cheaters” of fingerspinning 
Just gotta keep your finger slightly bent and relaxed. You won’t get any serious wobble if you do that.
The slightly bent and relaxed thing doesn’t make a difference for me. I know the horizontal master himself, Paul Kerbel gives that advice… but then in several videos surrounding that advice, he is fingerspinning on a pen and a drinking straw, which are rigid things.
I think the “bent” part simply allows more of the yoyo to contact fingernail instead of flesh. So the real tip is: make sure only your fingernail is contacting the yoyo. 
This absolutely works for me. Being able to do it “stiff” things works, but I can easily make a spin last twice as long by finding this center and relaxing my finger. This only really works on a dish shaped hub for me.
There’s still something that’s not being identified or discovered with this “bent finger” stuff.
The point of contact is the finger/fingernail and the yoyo. The yoyo doesn’t “know” that your finger is relaxed. There isn’t up-and-down movement that needs your finger to absorb any impact like a suspension system.
As mentioned, there are also the fingerspins on pens… which are not bending… but the yoyo doesn’t care because it just knows about the contact point.
Like many things yoyo, I feel that if it’s not strictly physics (bending the finger makes the contact point more spin-friendly) then it has to be some sort of placebo effect. You feel more confident that it will work, so it works. Or by bending the finger and having a “softened” attitude, you are also more gentle and subtle about following the yoyo’s center, whereas with the “stiff finger” the whole approach might be stiffened and you’re less responsive to the yoyo’s subtle movements throughout that plane.
It’s either physics (the modified contact point is the important part… and longer fingernails might achieve the same result without a bent finger) or “it’s all in your head”. Occam’s razor tells me it’s probably a bit of both.
…
None of this is to say “it doesn’t work”. It works for Paul, it works for Someone, and it works for lukas412. That’s enough anecdotal evidence for me. But it doesn’t work for me and it makes me wonder why. I’m skeptical by nature, and my skepticism probably negates the placebo effect. Which means that it’s more about physics and when I successfully fingerspin I see it as the result of the optimal meeting of fingertip and yoyo.
I think what is happening is that your finger starts to vibrate and lets the yoyo spin more freely rather than letting the yoyo vibrate on something stiff. If you are doing it correctly you will notice your finger is vibrating very fast and the yoyo is spinning very smooth. You’ll know it when you have it.
On yo-yos like the Horizon with a slightly concave cup I find the “relaxed finger” works well and actually helps. But on many yo-yos that have an exaggerated dimple fingerspin design (elysian, L5, white hole, Move, Steel, Theory, and whatever others I’m not thinking of…) I find it much easier to center a fingerspin and don’t worry if my finger is relaxed.
I agree with Greg 100% on the fingernail thing, bend your finger slightly so that the yo-yo is touching the nail and you’ll notice a difference.
Most importantly though - Practice. With the Elysian or Move just make sure you get a nice strong throw, land your finger relatively centered and the keep the string away form the response. You’ll get more consistent with time.
Interesting. My premise might have a flaw, then-- my assumption was that there was no shock to absorb, or at least not in the way that a bent finger could absorb shock. And this seemed to be supported by Kerbel (and probably others) spinning yoyos on rigid items with absolutely no shock absorption at all.
But maybe I was wrong.
I find that I can only do this with my Horizon. My finger wont find the center on other yoyo’s i have that have a flat hub. No other yoyo has demonstrated this vibrating finger effect for me. I’m sure anything with a similar hub like the Move would do it too.
I totally agree with you on the finger nail thing. Bending your finger slightly so that it rides on your finger nail is important even with the horizon for me.
Something else that helps me on non concave hubs is catching the yoyo slightly off level so that you are on the edge kinda like a grind. Seems more stable for me in a lot of situations than trying to center my finger in a flat hub. This especially helps on yoyos with a nub in the middle of the hub.
Absolutely. You can’t expect 1-minute spins with this technique, but it works well.
I’m beginning to wonder if the Move is just harder to control. One thing different about it is that a lot of its weight is placed toward the center. It moves fast for sure but seems like it’s not very stable compared to the Elysian which I’ve had much better luck with a stiff finger, riding the very tip of my finger.
Maybe needs breaking in but man those pads are grabby, almost had my eye taken out numerous times now from the Move.
You need to balance it like a spin top. Soft finger helps, but that’s not the real trick behind it. That’s not how to control it.
^^ Wait, now… now this is a tip I’ve missed that shows some promise. . Move your finger in a circle, too? I gotta start trying to get the hang of this. I can’t even picture getting the knack yet.
Just to muddy the conversation up a little more, I don’t make contact with my nail to the yoyo during a fingerspin. Fingernail fingerspins seem more popular, but I’ve even read some people say they prefer fingertip fingerspins with little or no nail. I have to do them this way since I don’t have long enough nails. You can do them using only your fingertip and get really pretty good results with some practice, even if the skin contact makes the yoyo die quicker than nail contact would.
One thing I consider key with fingerspins is keeping your finger loose. A stiffened finger makes the yoyo shoot right off my finger after only a spin or two. I let my finger move with and be controlled by the yoyo in small movements and that seems to help.
Most recent face bashing was finger spinning with an Irony Jpx with a dirty bearing. That yoyo is number 2 to the Horizon for finger spins out of the yoyos I have.
An update, something I’m finding that works with the move is kind of pulling the string when it starts to spiral out of control. I also kind of moved my finger around to “feel around” for the center.
The Elysian is a piece of cake now to spin after trying to spin the Move. I was even starting to spin my Shutter.
With all of this said I’m going to keep practicing it. I see a strong throw helps a lot.
Maybe I forgot how to internet, but I can’t get this video to work…
Here it is, cleaned up:
It’s the Paul Kerbel video.
You don’t actively have to do it once the yo-yo is balanced and upright. A soft finger will keep it there. But when controlling it to get it into that position, doing slow circles in sync with the procession of the yo-you will get it upright. Remember, move away from where the yo-yo is leaning.