Some yoyos just don’t spin very long so 3-4 seconds might be as long as those yoyos can go for before they die out, especially if you’re wearing a glove. You might not be doing anything wrong yourself.
This is what you need:
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Adhuck, Glad to hear the thread is somewhat helpful.
I’ve finally (just) got this trick down myself. So whatever questions you have,… please don’t hesitate to ask. I’m not an expert… but I have just gone through the learning process your in the middle of right now.
I expected to have this trick down in a week or two… It ended up taking me about a month and a half. But it’s WORTH it.
As previously mentioned the Yoyo you use is a large factor.
I don’t know if the Skyva is on your to-buy list but as Garrett pointed out it’s a finger-spin dream. (for just $20)
My favorite throw characteristics are wide-side opening with steep walls that converge on a small center (like the nightmare, firrox, skyva) I still have some problems with Wide-shallow sides like the the horizon… but I’m slowly getting better on that. The Shutter is good… but you have to nail that center cup.
Throw hard, and keep the TH and string away from your NTH to prevent string-grab chaos.
Attaining the fingerspin seemed impossible at first, but with (a lot of) practice, you’ll get the rhythm and motion and it starts to feel second nature.
For me, it’s a lot like the trapeze and double or nothing. These seemed impossible when I started out, but now I throw them without thinking or even looking. Popping the fingerspin up feels a lot like that…
Good luck.
Let us know how your progress is coming!
And again… if you have any questions, we’re here 
I’m getting better spins with the barracuda. Now it’s a matter of getting my hands in the right position so that the string does wrap around my finger.How does one deal with the tension. It seems like all it takes is one bad finger spin and the tension of the string becomes tight.
The short answer is that when you throw down (hard) to set up for a finger-spin, aim to have the yoyo at an extreme tilt, but not spin horizontally.
This is explained in some detail in a tutorial on YouTube (from another Yoyo company). Out of respect to YYE I won’t link it here. But search YouTube for “How to do Finger Spins” and it will be the first return. (13m.39s.).
This way the string tension is not being messed-up the entire time the YoYo is spinning during this trick, but rather it will be barely affected at all. ( I also had the same issue when I started…this fixed the problem.)
Separate note: Prior to learning finger spins, to wind up my YoYo, I used to roll it off of my hand and bind. I forced myself to correctly snap-start the YoYo while I was learning this trick… now I’m a snap-start expert 
Whenever possible I recommend learning complimentary new binds or winds in conjunction with difficult tricks like this. It amplifies the perceived-progress and helps prevent frustration or boredom. Just my .02
I hope this answers your question… if it does not, please let us know.
That seems to be working. When it’s doing a UFO, the yoyo is grabbing the string so it seems a lot harder, if impossible to regain control of it while trying to land it on the finger.
I am getting more spin time now. Even with my nails cut short I am getting better spins than when I first started back in the beginning of the month. I can also get the yoyo to return by positioning my throw hand over the yoyo while its spinning on my non-throw hand. I’m not consistent at getting it to return, but the trick seems to work.
I still haven’t figured out how to end the trick by throwing a whip/laceration bind during the finger spin. I wonder if I need to switch to a more stable yoyo to perform that trick because all the yoyos I have feature a flat recessed cup design on the sides. None of my yoyos have a concave cup design.
When you do the whip bind, moving your throw hand very close to the yoyo as you whip helps guide the string into the gap. Not sure if you also know this but after the string is guided into the gap you probably need to pull your throw hand back in order to engage the response system.
Adhuck Sounds like you’re dialing in to it. Congratz!
My progression was much the same, where my main challenge (initially) was to hit the finger-spin reliably. Then after I had (mostly) gotten that down, the whip bind was my next challenge. Then that finally locked into place second.
(Now I’m trying to do the vertical-tornado-bind on demand. I can do it occasionally, but sometimes the Yoyo streaks back to my throw-hand too quickly… I think I’ll need to get a better feel for the Yoyo’s spin speed…)
I do agree with Andy569’s, comment.
Also, I agree with your assessment of the shallow-cup Yoyo being more difficult than others. (The Skyva is a low-cost finger spin dream… just an option)
Also also, If you are using a shallow-cup Yoyo I’ve found personally their spin will be more stable when they are tilted during the horizontal finger-spin. (Rather than spinning on a perfectly horizontal plane). Then they will not spin so wildly. Hopefully that may help.
With the sidewinder tornado bind it’s all about timing, you can really always do the bind no matter how fast the yoyo is spinning you just need to know when to raise your throw hand up.
If you do it too early it’ll reject and won’t bind, if you do it too late it’ll snag and bind back to your hand. The perfect timing for me is to raise your hand up just before the string loop makes a complete rotation into the gap if that makes sense
It makes perfect sense andy569 , thanks! I’ll look for that.
So I am able to land the spin on my finger but the string wraps around my spin finger and just jacks it all up. I’m thinking I need to kee my TH further away so there isn’t slack. Any suggestions??
Yes keep your throw hand further away, and for me it helped to keep my spin finger bent and kind of let it absorb the vibe from the yoyo.
I’ll try it out today. Just got a horizon on trade so seemed like a good time to work on it!
I try to keep my TH far enough away from my NTH and high enough that the string does not touch the lower half of the Yoyo.
I got a Skyva while on holidays specifically to keep practicing finger spins (but it’s actually a great yoyo in general) and while the finger spins with the Skyva have been great, the binds are not so much. And it’s the bind from finger spin that I need the most practice with. With the center trac bearing in the Skyva the binds from finger spin have been slippy.
When I got home I swapped out the center trac in the Skyva with a concave bearing (in this case, a Crucial grooved concave, but I’m sure any concave bearing will do) and it’s so much better! From a finger spin the binds are much more controlled and the concave bearing makes keeping the string out of the response much easier.
So now I’m practicing the finger spin bind on the Skyva doing horizontal pull starts and it’s been pretty fun.
I highly recommend changing the Skyva’s center trac to a concave bearing.
I have the same yoyo. Does the bearing swap help with the ufo bind specifically, or just in general?
I think the Skyva already plays great without changing the bearing, but changing to a concave makes the string bind way more consistently when doing the bind from finger spin where you whip the string into the gap.