I have been talking to Eric on Discord trying to learn his trick circle from back in Dec/Jan in #new-releases. I’m currently stuck on this part. He mentioned it’s a Takeshi Matsuura element. I can’t find any videos or tutorials of it.
I’m at the point where I think I’m practicing it correctly, and I can get the sting to go around properly (I think) but it’s just not going all the way around like I need it to.
What I currently think I understand is that
The string goes around top of my NTH pointer finger.
Back around my TH
Back to a double-on with my NTH
Pull diagonally down and away from the yoyo with my TH
From there its hard to tell where I’m messing up… I just can’t get that slack to go around for the hook.
If anyone can help out with a tutorial or with any other tricks I could practice first to get this one, that would be awesome. I can provide more info if needed.
Here it is broken down. It is the last element of the combo. I’ll see what else I can dig up, but it is just type of tension hook. I would love to have this one down better. Essentially you have to do the tension hook and dismount the double on at the same time. Hope this helps good luck.
Yo I was just talking to some friends about this element on discord lol hah! It’s a sweet trick! Here’s the Takeshi version that is set up a little bit different but also kinda the same.
This element is different than other tension slacks bc the tension is between the Yoyo and the hand vs between both hand so it needs a bit more finesse. It seems like you’re getting the slack to move around pretty well though hmmm…
[edit ooops I didn’t realize the front view was Eric at first idk what your attempts look like but send a vid and maybe we can help more]
The catching it part is a bit tricky…it’s like a key chain slack catch and you can kind of help the slack land right by swooping the hand under the Yoyo after the slack does it’s rotation. Helps me to know that the U of slack I want to catch the Yoyo is between the thumb and the gap of the Yoyo so I focus on keeping the back half of the Yoyo in that area.
You can try to do the trick without the double on and that might help isolate the catch part of the trick. Let me know if that doesn’t make sense and I can send a video later.
Also let’s ping @YoYoExpertEric and maybe he has some tips idk this is a hard element and I would like to get it more consistent as well.
So after practicing a ton, I’ve caught it twice, accidentally? …
Things that helped me so far
I used this part of the video @Vektor posted to start practicing the pull, it is a slightly different trick but it did help me with a starting point.
I started practicing with the string over my NTH knuckles, partially because of the string burn from practicing, but it did help me getting the feel of the pull to get the string to whip around all the way.
After getting the feel of how the tension of the string should feel being pulled between my two hands I went back to the string being on my NTH index finger as it felt MUCH easier to get the hook.
There seems to be a place where if I put the right amount of tension on the string, popping the yoyo up with the right tension for the string to whip around; then flicking out my middle finger at the right time, everything just works.
The times I caught it were 2-4 attempts apart, so I know I’m on to something.
I also might be thinking about it to much and I got lucky, especially while writing this the takeshi video @GTDropKnot posted has been playing and it looks more like a slight upward movement with the NTH while getting the feel of how much tension should be on the string before releasing with your TH…
I’m still figuring it out, I’ll keep posting updates to help anyone else out.
I finally figured it out, I’m probably 60% consistent with it.
Some, hopefully, helpful tips
The main thing hurting me was the string running into my NTH knuckles from probably pulling on the TH string.
To help prevent this you can turn your NTH slightly more outward, where your index finger is pointing more at 11 o’clock rather then straight away at 12 o’clock.
Keep your TH at least even with or preferably higher then your NTH when releasing the string.
Keep the yoyo somewhat centered in between your hands, if it’s too close to your NTH it’s a lot harder to get the hook.
Another way that helped me get the feeling of it was to purposely stack both strings on my middle joint, this requires you to curl your finger slightly to get everything to stay put. This is just to get the hang of it since it’ll be hard to get the strings to line up like that coming from another trick.
A slight gentle pop straight up on the yoyo can give you more time to see the strings and catch it.
Depending on the whippy-ness of your string you either need to do a slight gentle pull straight down or just release the string straight down with your TH
Looking at the yoyo when you release the string, focus on the inch of string attached to the axel.
That is the part of the string your middle finger will intercept. If you miss it or it doesn’t come around enough, you won’t get the hook.
If you pulled too hard downward with your TH you probably won’t even see the strings whip around properly. Once I slowed everything down I started to see the trick much better and where I was failing.
My biggest mistake was pulling too hard on the string, this is more of a gentle trick
I’m still practicing and figuring it out, I’ve started to be able to land it without even looking so I’m getting somewhere. Beef hook was easy compared to this but that also has a lot more tutorials out there.
Yo nice work! I feel like this is a super important step and helps get the momentum to send the slack around with greater control than trying to add downward force to the slack when you release it. I picture it pin wheeling back around nth and try to just gently release fwiw. Also one thing that has helped me with this slack and a couple others is I have started bending my knees and tracking the yoyo down more like just in case the slack is a bit slow or late and maybe you don’t have the length to speed it up by pulling th away.
Just some other stuff to think about and nice work fr yo this is a hard element!
@GTDropKnot i literally just hit the rejection element that I couldn’t hit for the longest. Like 6 months ago you sent me a video on discord with the rejection element and then you have to
Land the yoyo in the slack… so happy I just hit it had to come here to say thank youuu
Okay so I was wrong and I do this a bit. I thought I didn’t, but looking at footage I definitely do a tiny bit at least.
One other tiny thing to add is you can use a soft pinch when you stick out middle and that can also give a bit of extra time for the slack to go around. I didn’t notice I was doing that but it was clear in footage. Here’s a vid w slowmo so you can see what I mean. Maybe these ideas will work for you and get that consistency up even higher.
I also cut it into 5 parts for myself to learn each section. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 I just put parts 1-3 together today, currently trying to figure out part 4. Part 5
