# How did horizontal play come about?

**URL:** <https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/how-did-horizontal-play-come-about/77238>\
**Category:** General Yo-Yo\
**Created:** [October 4, 2015, 10:02am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/how-did-horizontal-play-come-about/77238 "2015-10-04T10:02:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RSGR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6a8cbe/32.png) [@RSGR](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/RSGR)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 10:02am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/how-did-horizontal-play-come-about/77238/1 "2015-10-04T10:02:33Z")

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As the thread’s title says, I’m curious about the origins of horizontal play. Were there any pioneers or did it just suddenly happen?

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**Author:** ![edhaponik](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.yoyoexpert.com/edhaponik/32/150896_2.png) [@edhaponik](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/edhaponik)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 12:10pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/how-did-horizontal-play-come-about/77238/2 "2015-10-04T12:10:16Z")

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you were seeing some horizontal basics work there way into freestyles beginning in the mid-2000’s.

first i remember them as a contest banger was mickey’s 45-degree eli hop combos. that was a trick that everyone just had to learn.  
1:38 in this vid.

[![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/d/0/0/d0059ee60db9bfe3477901789e1a0db02b6894c9.jpeg "Worlds yo-yo Contest 2006 1A 1st - Hiroyuki Suzuki (mickey)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cURgotNiP2U)

then yuuki brought some more complicated combos in his legendary 2007 freestyle which felt more like what horizontal play has become lately.

[![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/a/e/2/ae2b898e05b05f89fba32f5b8684148e63659926.jpeg "World yo-yo contest 2007 Yuuki Specer 1A 1st") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_IHsukQLSc)

and by 2009, shinya kido was doing roughly half of his combos in kind of a 45 to 75-degree diagonal. some people kind of derided it as not being true horizontal, but after he won with it, you really saw it become a ubiquitous part of competitive routines. almost to the point that it’s the “braintwister combo” of today - just a tool that every top-tier competitor has in their bag.

[![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/9/9/c/99c95b309257cfd7e6910165592c7362cf46085f.jpeg "2009 World Yo-Yo Contest 1A Champion Shinya Kido") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9YgvvukvjY)

obviously, this trend wasn’t just happening at worlds - that’s just an easy way to watch it happen.

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**Author:** ![kadabrium](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.yoyoexpert.com/kadabrium/32/1522_2.png) [@kadabrium](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/kadabrium)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 1:14pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/how-did-horizontal-play-come-about/77238/3 "2015-10-04T13:14:30Z")

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gyroflop variations are at least as old as the freehand series. I remember in 2005 everyone around me was constantly showing off their gyroflop-to-revolutions, and i was the only one who couldnt.

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**Author:** ![unklesteve](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.yoyoexpert.com/unklesteve/32/106934_2.png) [@unklesteve](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/unklesteve)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/how-did-horizontal-play-come-about/77238/4 "2015-10-04T16:41:03Z")

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The Arizona ProYo guys were the first I saw doing horizontal stuff. Ben McPhee did a horizontal Braintwister in his 5th Place Worlds freestyle in 1998.