I know the basic mechanics and steps behind the trick. Bounce it up, draw hands together briefly then widen them again. I struggle to find myself, even with like 4 hours of practice, doing anything more than a couple inch hop consistently. I know that yoyo is a thing where practice is all-important and I’m used to that, I was expecting to have this down already but instead find myself missing a pretty ubiquitous trick in the yoyo world (I even know semi-advanced tricks like the Kwijibo and, to a lesser degree, the Spirit Bomb) so I’m looking for pointers to up my game. I’ve been seriously getting into yoyoing for about a month now and I know it isn’t my yoyo’s fault.
I think the issue is you shouldn’t be bouncing off the string but rather bringing your hands together sideways. The angle of the hop depends on the speed at which you do this.
This may seem weird, but I find it easier the higher I hop. I actually have trouble with smaller hops.
I find the higher hops, as in as far as the string will let it go, I have more time for those micro adjustments to get the string in the right spot.
Also, start with the widest catch zone you have. Or just different yoyos. I have some pretty wide yoyos that I just don’t mesh with when doing eli hops, and others it feels like I can’t miss with.
Like Shwa said, keep the string on plane as much as you can.
And then at the end, I tend to “pull” the yoyo back to the string with my non-throw hand. It helps adjust a little bit of off -plane movement.
Honestly I haven’t tried going super high with it before because I thought it would be harder to land the higher I go. I’ll try a few high hops just for the heck of it.
Trapeze I can now pretty much hit 100% of of the time as long as I focus on it. It also helps my Hydrogen Crash is pretty dang wide so I almost have to try to miss a trapze if I want to throw one.
As with learning to land a trapeze, it is easier to hit the string the closer you land to your non-throw-hand, since you intuitively know where that hand is positioned.
This can be translated to the Eli hop by landing a trapeze close to the non-throw-hand and then generating both the hop and the slack needed to allow the yoyo to travel upward by moving your throw hand across your body. As the yoyo falls back down, your throw hand collects the slack by moving back across your body to the original position.
Meanwhile, your non-throw-hand is basically stationary, making it easier to keep track of during the trick, and whatever off-plane action is created by the moving throw hand is minimized at the other end of the formation.
If you can do Kwijibo, it seems like Eli Hops are almost a part of that trick. The first hop is pretty similar. Just move your arms up and to the side of your body opposite your TH and do the same move and repeat.
IMO, if you cant Eli Hop, its because your not ready to yet. your not comfortable enough with the yoyo. just because you can do Kwijibo don’t mean .■■■■. Eli Hops are all about control. this is some thing i figured out early in throwing, if there’s a trick you cant do, dont beat your self up over it. Gaine more control over the tricks you can do, and come back to it later. i literally never practiced Eli hops for more then 30 sec at a time, but one day i could just do them. because in time i gained so much control over the string and yoyo itself.
I totally get what you’re saying. I just felt that since I have rounded out most of the “basic” advanced tricks and can land them reasonably consistently (Like the Kwijibo or Revolutions, like most of the stuff that somebody that kinda knows what they’re doing can do- I know none of the crazy tricks like Pulse Rifle) I felt that Eli Hops is a big one to be missing. Thanks for reminding me to not be too serious about it. Sometimes I overthink it and that’s when the fun goes away
The main thing you need to take note of is the plane you’re in. The trick is very sensitive to any kind of deviation from a perfectly straight and in-line plane where both the yoyo and the string lie within, so you’ll find yourself missing very often if you’re not watching your plane. Also, you might find your yoyo starting to tilt as you do the trick, which is another plane control issue, so watch your plane very closely and pay special attention to it while you do the trick. All the best! It took me absolutely forever to get it down, so don’t rush it and be patient. It might take months and that’s okay.
I’m actually working on Eli hops too right now. I think what someone else said above about not bouncing the yoyo is your issue. When I first started I was bouncing it up and trying to catch it. I thought it was going to be really hard. I just didn’t understand how bringing my hands in toward the yoyo would make it hop up. You have to slide your hand back instead of bouncing it up. It causes the yoyo to come up and down much faster and it becomes much easier than it seems once you get that motion.
Im still working on figuring out how to direct it the direction and being more consistent with catching. I actually just nailed the hell out of my ceiling by accident before I opened the forum and seen this topic at the very top. Little worried I may of damaged my “shooting star” of all yoyo names.
Little worried I may of damaged my “shooting star” of all yoyo names.