Just smacked myself in the center of my forehead with a snagged breakaway and started to bleed everywhere. This is the second time this has happened since I started throwing again this month, and I’d really like to keep my teeth/eyes so what do you guys do to keep yourselves safe from Yoyo related injuries?
3 Likes
#1 Safety throw.
If you are ever in doubt, do a safety throw.
What is a safety throw? It’s a front style throw so you have more control over things if there is a snag or knot or anything goes wrong.
#2 Keep your head/face out of the plane of the breakaway you are throwing. Ideally, if it does snag and pop up at you, it will go in front of your face, not into your face.
#3 (this is getting more general) Change your string before it’s totally worn out (more important for fixes and responsives)
12 Likes
Simple:
Use a yoyo made out of foam
2 Likes
Git gud.
But seriously, it will likely get better with practice. As you get the hang of binding cleaner, you should have less snags, and you’ll get a feel for when a bind might create one. Even if you don’t know a bind snagged before you throw it, you’ll learn to sense snagged throws earlier into the throw and can pull off Matrix moves to dodge it 9/10 times. As @Malachi said, safety throws are also valuable.
What yoyo are you using?
I second the safety throw tip. I’ve hit myself in the face a few times doing horizontals with a snagged throw. Luckily, the worst I got was a shiner. I always do a safety throw now.
3 Likes
Add to the above the remove frequently the turns from the string, without accumulating tension in it…and control the degree of response of the bearing in case of lubrication.
2 Likes
You get a feel for it. Until you do always do a safety throw. Even then a few bad binds get through, but I tend to have my non-throw hand ready to catch a trapeze or shield from the occasional snag throw.
4 Likes
Some boxing background helps. And I’m only half joking here.
5 Likes
Do a safety throw if there is any tail or if you are in doubt. You can also try putting less swinging motion into your breakaway, instead throwing your breakaway more straight down with more wrist and less arm movement, in other words throwing it more like just a sideways frontstyle throw than a breakaway.
2 Likes
but what if it hits your nose though? This is where the riot mask comes in.
1 Like
Lots of good tips here but one idea I could add is practicing good posture while playing will help to keep your face out of the plane the tricks are in with side style tricks. Good posture will also make your tricks look a lot cleaner and better. It’s freaking hard though lol I constantly struggle to stand up straight while playing.
Front style stuff is a bit more tricky bc it does look best if you do it directly in front of you. otherwise it’s just like opposite spin side style with th inverted and that’s kinda like eh why. I don’t really have any way around that just like keep those strings lined up well or be like most players and totally avoid front style.
Zontal is also tricky bc you cant avoid keeping your head in the plane the tricks are in. Just keep your elbows up though and it’s usually pretty easy to block the yoyo or just like slip out of the way or just like stop yoyoing and let gravity pull the yoyo away from your head.
Also just like be careful-ish in general. All the times I’ve kerbonked myself was from trying to do a trick really fast without doing enough slow and controlled reps to build up the muscle memory. I think the worst injuries I’ve heard of are like chipped teeth and ppl needing stitches, so all and all pretty safe. I don’t think anyone is breaking orbital bones playing yoyo or anything more serious.
7 Likes
perpetuum or whatever that trick is called snagged and tried to take my eye out just now… still trying to stop the bleeding lol
7 Likes
That’s gonna be a badass battle scar though fr
3 Likes
prob will scar lol pic looks better than in person. its one of those that rode the line of needing to be stitched but emergency room visits are expensive and at least it finally stopped bleeding 
5 Likes
- Hire somebody to throw for you.
- Set up a 4 foot by 8 foot shield of bullet proof grade polycarbonate, 10 feet away from the hired ‘hand’.
- Put a bar stool behind the shield and sit on it.
- Avoid throwing yo-yos personally… Avoid standing in close proximity to anyone throwing yo-yos….
- If….if… you decide to walk around the neighborhood for exercise, and you see somebody outside tossing around a yo-yo, either cross the street or walk by them wearing a football helmet on backwards…
- If you insist on throwing yo-yos, don’t call them yo-yos. Change their names to your favorite fruit or vegetable. If you have 3 yo-yos, rename them: Apple, pickle and banana.
…That way, you will never have to say you were injured by your yo-yo. You can say, you got smacked in the dome with your banana or whatever? - Develop a second personality. That way if you do get injured while going, you can always say it was the dumber you doing the thinking at the time.
….
2 Likes
Iol this is funny. I’ve made myself bleed from smacking myself in the forehead. Also got a throw stuck in my hair🤣 here’s a pic👇🏼 but I think it’s just a cost of throwing man it happens to everyone🫡
10 Likes
- Seems like a solid choice