I’ve been thinking about this question for a while, and I don’t think I have a proper answer. In some videos, when the person does a breakaway, they throw it upwards. They also throw it using only their wrist. Can anyone please explain why they do that? Not that there is anything bad with it, but whenever I see someone do that, I usually wince because it looks like their wrist is going to fly off their hand.
I depend a lot more on my wrist than I should. Some of my throws are like turning a doorknob 
Definitely unorthodox I’d say. I had an injury in the gym once, not a big deal, but I have a stretched ligament that results in a noticeable “click” in my elbow on a traditional throw. While that “click” does not hurt, it has a feeling like when you pop or crack your knuckes, a friction that you don’t want to repeat over and over for very long. I hope that makes sense. For that reason, I throw how I feel comfortable, not in a way that I have been taught would produce the best results. It just so happens that injury was in my dominant arm.
I hope that made sense, as it’s easier to explain in person. I can’t speak for why anyone else throws differently. :-\
Wrist flick, stiff elbow, twisting shoulder, throw to the left, not up or down.
Yeah, I don’t know about the throwing up part…but the wrist thing I get. :-\
Did someone say throwing up?
http://gifs.gifbin.com/082012/1344449529_spiderman_throwing_up_in_slowmotion.gif
;D
Yeah, I generally hold the yoyo in my palm with my fingers curled around and then roll out off my wrist, but I see a lot of vids where they throw a break away by holding the yoyo only by what looks like their thumb and index finger with the yoyo facing outwards. I have tried that and it feels pretty unnatural to me, whatever works I guess, right?
I am trying to think through the entire arc of my break a way throw , I even got out my yoyo and threw it a couple of times to watch my “technique” in the reflection of my office windows.
Anyway, I start with my arm/hand almost parallel to the floor, and then start the rotation first at my shoulder and then into my elbow and as my arm finishes the arc out towards my side I then roll my wrist out as I continue the motion and release the yoyo.
I am pretty old , and old school though, I started with yoyo’s that felt like you were basically fighting with them to get them to do the moves in the trick you were learning. Now that I have my Di Base 2 it seems like I don’t need to put as much oomph into the throw to get a decent spin, but its really hard to unlearn muscle memory.
I let the yoyo do the work, like in a regen. It is so much easier when I don’t do super heavy wrist and arm movements.
And then there is Anthony Rojas’s throw. It always seems like the doesn’t exert any force on the yoyo.
I know what you mean about using the wrist more. I personally learned to use my arm as not so much the wrist. I feel like I get more power from it. However, when I feel lazy I kind of just do it with my wrist but just messing around haha 
I personally hold it sideways between my thumb and forefinger and use the old “door opening” wrist flick with a bit of arm action. 
I never throw hard. Thats about the only thing that stays consistent when I throw. How I throw is often determined by how I catch it and what I plan on doing after I throw it out there.
I had a nightmare last night that I was trying different throws on my shutter (after reading this thread righ before I went to bed) and then the string snapped because of the weird ways it wasn’t used to… I woke up in the middle of the night and ran into my mommys and daddys room to cry. Hahaha. But i really did reach over and made sure my shutter was ok.
Haha, I remember back then when dings were called ‘love marks’. If someone sees your beaten up yoyo, it must be loved a lot with that frequency of play. Don’t worry too much about dings, they give your yoyo personality.
=)
No i don’t really care about dings much but in my dream i was out side on a street and my shutter went flying.
Ouch, that would be painful, can’t imagine that happening to any of my throws. :-\
I throw out with a flick, stiff-ish elbow, smooth shoulder, not super hard… Its all in the flick for a smooth spin with minimal effort/low injury
When you do it enough you gravitate towards the most effortless movements
I throw almost completely with my wrist, what a lot of people consider improper, but about 10 years ago i dislocated my shoulder and it’s never been the same. When i started playing about a year ago, I found I just just didn’t have the range-of-motion to correctly throw a breakaway; but when you put in practice time to get good, consistent throws, it doesn’t really matter how you make it work :).