Need a tip on binding

It’s not really the amount of times you can wrap the string into the gap that’s an issue.

The main issue with thicker strings is snagging when the yoyo is sliding along the string, but you shouldn’t really have an issue with that until you’re at a more advanced level.

Plus the Replay Pros gap is pretty wide so you shouldn’t have those issues anyway

Actually I feel like I had more problems with snagging when I was new to yoyos than I do now… I don’t think you have to get very advanced before that starts being a thing. It might just be me though.

I definitely had more problems with snagging in terms of binds, but as for when I’m actually doing tricks, definitely became more of a problem as I got better.

Huh that’s weird I used to get sooooo frustrated because everything ever would snag always but I don’t really have as much trouble with it now. Maybe the yoyos I started on were just really snaggy.

I mean granted it’s never been a major issue for me ever but I just have more issues with snagging doing speed combos and some tech stuff now than I did back when I was doing barrel rolls and rewind :joy:

Oh yeah I can see that. If you were like me though and your fundamentals were garbage then you might have run into some snag problems.

So I put a Plutonium string on the Replay Pro and it made a huge difference in the ease of binding. Previously I just had a generic type 6 string from a pack that I got from Amazon. So now I can bind pretty consistently, provided there’s sufficient spin speed in the yoyo.

Which segues to a related issue: I have come to believe that part of my problem has been lack of spin speed on my breakaway. By the time I get the yoyo off the trapeze and on the…reverse trapeze? (does that have a name?)…it has slowed down to the point where binding becomes a real challenge (less so now with the Plutonium string, but an issue nonetheless).

In fact, even throwing a really powerful sleeper is proving difficult (for me) because it feels like string friction is really slowing the yoyo on the way down. I can feel (and hear) it chafing and I don’t feel like the yoyo is acquiring a lot of inertia as a result. Having said that, I find that I get more inertia (and resulting spin velocity) out of a sleeper than I do out of a breakway, which I figure is another reason why binding from a front mount (reverse front mount?) has been so much easier than from a side mount.

Breakaways are much harder for beginners than front throws so that makes it a little harder to get power.

And are you using the center trac C size bearings or are you using the responsive bearing? Either way spin time shouldn’t be a problem when you’re just throwing and binding but you should be practicing on the C size bearing.

Maybe your throw just isn’t straight and that’s causing it to tilt too. Maybe you just need to work on your throw to make it more powerful too.

This is all just speculation, it’d be a lot easier to pinpoint what you’re doing wrong if you sent me a video or something

1 Like

Oh I guarantee you that my breakaway is wildly inconsistent. It’s something I’m working on, but I can’t seem to find a really comfortable sideways throwing technique. I’ll try to find some time to make a video showing my awful breakaway.

All my yoyos have C size bearings, either slim (half spec) for my responsive yoyos, or Center Trac for my unresponsives.

Yeah breakaways take some practice to get good at.

I’m kind of learning this all over again as I’m trying to get better at 3a. If both of my throws aren’t perfectly aligned, it can get ugly real fast.

The normal mount that you bind from with a breakaway throw is called an “Undermount”.

Your yoyo could also be slowing down if you are off plane on your trapeze. The string rubbing on the yoyo will cause it to lose speed more rapidly.

Yeah, that is very likely to be a factor in my case.

I had a lot of trouble with this learning skin the gerbil, by the end my yoyo would be spinning too slowly to bind it. Just practice and repetition and you’ll get it!

Thanks for the encouragement!

The important thing, I feel, is to make sure I’m practicing good/correct technique, otherwise all the repetitions will just be reinforcing bad form. :thinking:

1 Like

Throwing a straight breakaway that doesn’t rub takes some work. For some bizarre reason, I seem to get the most power and consistency from throwing with my thumb in the groove (kinda like a 5a throw). I still get a wonky throw if I’m not paying attention, but it’s getting to be second nature more often. Practice seems to do the trick. A 25hr day would help so I could throw that extra hour, lol.

1 Like