Should your next yo-yo be a spin top?

I haven’t seen it, but if I do I will link it, he has a lot going on in social media.

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As tops are my main toy/prop I could write an essay about this :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
They come in all sizes, materials and shapes (the design envelope is much larger than for yoyos).

But even if you are just a hardcore yo-yoer, learning the basics of top spinning is worth the effort. If you can do a basic boomerang, non-players will think you are an expert.

Snapstart club at ta0.com: Snap start club - iTopSpin

I think Quentin needs somebody to put the top on the sole of his shoe after he does the handstand. Here he is with Figaro:

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Here’s my 3 part plan.

Step 1: learn to regen top.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Snap start!

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Step 2, learn roller coaster like there’s no tomorrow. It’s the most efficient regen. Learn sewing machines then joker choker. These all regen a top great but also get you able to catch out of position.

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I’m still working on Merry-go-round. I’ll get there.

My boomerang is almost consistent :grin:

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It’s raining here, so I am making string.

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Please pardon the one swear word.

Today is my first day of trying. It keeps landing on its side rather than upright.

Please give me critique so that I can improve

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If I may,

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Excellent, thank you very much. I will report back in the coming days

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I know nothing about spin tops but I just ordered this tonight. Not sure if it was a good buy or not, just seemed like it might be a good start with a fixed and rolled tip. I guess let me know how bad I messed up lol

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You’re hooked now!
A couple things I would suggest, don’t actually hold your non throw arm up, just imagine it there, throw at a slight angle down, throw a tad softer, you are just making the top spin, you can work on power later, and don’t wrap your hand around the top, just hold it against your fingers with your thumb, and simply let go with your thumb. Also, that’s a mighty fine looking top you have there.

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Thank you, I believe between your tips and the previous gentleman’s, I should be set up for success. Thank you for the compliments on the top, got it from a real solid dude that made my day

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Omg @danemartin video and @kretzschmar videos should be spliced together as examples of the perfect spin top instruction and the classic first experience everyone has, expletives may vary, but not much :rofl:
The first time I threw a top, it was a Duncan RipCord, and I busted it to pieces! Then the searching for help and the learning process began.

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These aren’t bad tops, probably higher quality than yyf or Duncan tops

I completely agree with @DaneMartin , you have to get down a variety of regens, but the real challenge is controlling a top that isn’t spinning very fast. I have gotten pretty decent at regens with tops that are spinning enough to feel stable, so I have been practicing lately with light weight tops, trying to regenerate spin just enough to keep them going. You have to be very smooth and finesse the catch just right or the top will simply bounce off the string when you try to wrap it. As of now I have a long long way to go.
In keeping with the yo-yo forum angle of this, it’s kind of like 0A, you have to keep a light touch and keep it balanced.

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Alright, got it spinning upright. It was still slapping the side and the side has battle scars but it eventually went from its side to the upright position.

Goal is to obviously get it to where it doesn’t slap the side at all and just lands on the tip, and that’s just gonna take practice.

Winding the string around is actually pretty comforting. I’ll have to sand the sides down to get the battle scars from cutting on the string. I can’t imagine using a fancy wooden top until I am very confident of my throw

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@kretzschmar , that’s great, you will get the feel soon. I usually throw over grass or carpet, but even so, it sounds like you may be putting more heat on that throw than nec.:slightly_smiling_face:
So this is what you have to looks forward to if you go too far down the rabbit hole,





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I will try to embrace my 0A and slow my throw. That string making setup looks awesome.

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K’nex! Those are awesome.

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The timing of this post is actually a little scary, because I’ve been considering switching to spin tops for a couple of weeks.

Don’t get me wrong: yoyos are still cool. But the yoyo tricks I always liked the most were ones that really utilized the spin and/or response (if I wanted to play with string, I would’ve taken up knitting :stuck_out_tongue:). 2A is great for that, but the trouble I have with it is that my health really limits how much I can practice. Considering 2A is arguably the hardest style of yoyoing to progress in already, it’s discouraging/frustrating to know I can’t really make headway with the level of practice I can put in. Having small, achievable goals was one of the biggest factors that got me back into throwing after more than a decade.

That leaves me running low on new tricks that I thorough enjoy learning (e.g. stop and go, pop the clutch, gyroscopic flop, and the infamous walk-the-dog/creeper & fingerspins). Trompos seem to heavily rely on utilizing angular momentum to perform tricks. It also looks challenging, but it might be worth exploring.

I’m with Dylan on this one:

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