I have thrown the sidewinder to my left and my right. It does not clear up string tension. If anything it makes it worse. Why? 
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If youâre a righty and you do the sidewinder to the right, or away from you, it should clear up the string tension. It also depends on much much of that âDNAâ string spinning effect occurs though. Correct me if Iâm wrong though. The longer and more significant the string has the tornado look, the more the tension should be corrected. If it is possible, can we see how your current sidewinder looks?
Yeah, it does the tornado thing. I have thrown in both directions, it still makes it worse. Like super worse! Unfortunately, I canât get it to return yet. I can make the tornado happen. Which looks really cool! 
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Watch the tutorials again. One direction is to add tension and the other is to loosen tension. Like any other trick it just takes a lot of practice.
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Wait a sec, you canât get it to return to your hand?
That is odd because the sidewinder is usually done when the yoyo comes back to your hand. Also, I suggest practising this trick with a responsive yoyo before you do it with an unresponsive one, it is much easier to get a good sidewinder going with a responsive.
If you find that the sidewinder is making your string tension worse, throw the sidewinder in the other direction and keep at it. While itâs supposed to change your string tension very quickly, a poorly-done sidewinder can do nearly nothing for your string tension and it is really not challenging to do one poorly.
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I do use a responsive yoyo. Some of the problem was I was watching a video for the unresponsive version.
However, even with that there are 2 versions of the throw. The part that is causing the problem was the when you throw to the left or right sideways.
I see. I think the video shouldnât make too much of a difference.
Hmm, that sounds like youâre talking about another trick, called the UFO or Flying Saucer, not the Sidewinder.
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Yeah, thatâs it! The UFO. Thatâs the one that makes the tension worse, and I couldnât get it to return. No matter if I throw it from the left or right.
As far as sidewinder goes, I was just doing it wrong.
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I see, so youâre having trouble with the UFO, not the sidewinder.
For the UFO, you want your throw to be as close to horizontal as possible for the best results. Also, the throw towards the left is really awkward, because you have to twist your hand to throw to the left. You should just keep at it, and just continue to practice because it takes some time to really get it down and make the UFO effective in reducing string tension.
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I am having trouble with both. I use my left hand, so throwing to the left is the easy part. I have to throw horizontally correct?
Not really. 45° or so will do, closer to horizontal is better⌠but just worry about getting it to flat spin before it loses a lot of spin so it can flat spin faster and longer.
I would work on getting it back to your hand correctly both ways. After you can do that you should be able to very quickly figure out why itâs not correcting tension. Youâre either throwing the wrong direction, not throwing hard enough, or over correcting. Itâs really very simple; one way tightens, the other loosens.
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When I do the UFO both ways tighten. To the point of being unusable.
Thought this might help. This is what Sidewinder and UFO does to my string in either direction.
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String tension is not always going to be the same direction . Check the tension and see what direction it is twisting and then when you do your sidewinder you will do it from that side . In regards to ufo if you throw it front style I believe it will be different than throwing a breakaway
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