Some say not doing breakaways is a bad thing...

General Yo-Yo
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I have seen many players watch a fellow thrower yoyoing, who may have trouble with breakaway throws, so they instead do front throws to go into their tricks.
Upon seeing this, the thrower may say something along the lines of “You really need to do breakaways bro.”

It’s seen as a bad thing if you don’t feel comfortable with breakaway throws for many it seems.

Well I would like to shatter this ideology and say that by no means are breakaways crucial to yoyoing in any way. It’s a throw, a way to get your yoyo spinning, and nothing more.
There are no great disadvantages to throwing front throws instead of “side throws”

I would like to present to you, three throwers I know, who throw front style, and have absolutely no issue with doing so, and greatly excelling at their style.

Leo Qin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRS22sK1Isk

Alexis JV

Our own Alex G

As you can see, these players have no issue throwing frontstyle instead of a breakaway, as it is what feels comfortable, and they flow well with it.

In the future, if you see a thrower throwing frontstyle in their tricks, don’t try to “correct” them, instead, look at their trick content, and give advice on that itself.

(And personal note, I have heard some say that magic drops are not possible on front throws, I find this to be not true, it just takes a bit of finger placement adjustment as the yoyo is spinning different, but it’s no issue.)

Keep on throwin.

Bark!

Haru

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But the direction your yo-yo is spinning is important.

2 Likes
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Sometimes, but I have found that for each instance, there is quite often an alternative that isnt much different.

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yeah. I find this advice pretty bad. Direction the yo-yo is spinning is critical on some yo-yos and for some tricks.

I think you are making more problems than fixing them with this advice.

2 Likes
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Yeah, most sidestyle tricks will work fine on front throws, but you’ll have too keep in mind that the spin direction will be opposite, which will make rejection tricks impossible to to normally (although I suppose it would open up a new world of reverse spin rejections) and you’ll be more likely to snag due to the regular mounts being backspin mounts. I wouldn’t say it’s worse or better, just different. Some things will be harder, some things will be easier. It’s not a substitute or an equivalent for a breakaway.

Also, sometimes I like to do a front throw to go into sidestyle, but have the string wrapped up the wrong way so the spin direction is normal.

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How might the direction of a yoyo spinning be critical on some yoyo’s more than others if at all? That throws me off there.

As for the issue of some tricks. I have found that all tricks in my arsenal can be done on a front throw just as well as on a side throw. Even rejections, with a bit of adjustment can be catered to the front throw and look just as smooth.

Obviously, as the 2 players I have shown examples of, there aren’t any ill affects to the trick development. :wink:

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The new world of reverse rejections are what I have recently been fooling around with.
Honestly I really love it.
My Frontstyle is now consisting of plane breaking, and many more slacks.
and These Rejections. Boy do they look nice! :slight_smile:

And also, I like to do this frontstyle and regen it into side style, to do my other tricks, and vice versa.
Regens are absolutely amazing :slight_smile:

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I’m definitely gonna experiment with that. I’d also recommend trying out the “wrong-way string wrap”, which is fun because you can do reverse spin from a breakaway or regular spin from a front throw. Just opens more options.

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Coffin (I’m still not sure exactly what his last name is, or even entirely sure that his name is actually Coffin, maybe he can give some confirmation) also does sidestyle from a front throw. He’s got some pretty sick tricks.

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Yes Coffin! Another player who does this I forgot to mention.
:slight_smile:

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The man is a true enigma.

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it’s kind of like pushing mongo on a skateboard to me. as long as you’re not going to bite it by pushing that way, and you can still get your foot back there to ollie, there’s not a terrible disadvantage. it’s just a noticeable stylistic quirk. that said, i definitely feel that there’s a value to learning classic tricks the way they were initially presented. i think being able to do breakaway helps you to interpret the feeling of an entire family of tricks (particularly west coast y2k-era spindox stuff). also, as a fixed axle player, knowing which way the yo-yo is spinning is of utter importance, so understanding not only frontstyle/breakaway but also reverse-spin throws makes a big difference.

beyond that, throw how you want to throw.

2 Likes
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There are always alternative mounts to make it not an issue. And Haru is not saying, “throw frontstyle, it’s better,” he’s saying stop thinking of it as a bad thing. There are pretty good people out there that throw front style and I say Go on! It makes you who you are and that’s reason enough. You said it yourself, for some tricks. Well, maybe the Frontstyle players have some unique combos where you can only do it frontstyle, not breakaway. If you’re saying this advice is bad, you’re basically joining the crowd of negatives towards frontstyle throwers.

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Nothing wrong with throwing front style, just as long as you’re not avoiding throwing a breakaway simply because you can’t. It should be an alternative, not a replacement. I would think learning a reverse “anything” would be easier to do if you already understood the original trick.

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I don’t know what to say about the first one video, but I know for the 2 other ones, I believe it’s easier for left handed people to start their tricks like that so their binds and all would stay the same, otherwise it’ll all have to be reversed. But it’s definitely a nice play-around to start off a combo.

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen him throw a breakaway lol, he is an amazingly talented player, and he hasn’t been throwing very long either. I somewhat agree that front throws don’t really affect play, but I’m not really able to provide input as I prefer breakaways.

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It’s exciting to see this as a topic since I am one of the 3 people Josh shared in the first post.

First off I want to say that I CAN do a breakaway, I just prefer not to. When I started yoyoing, I used the front throw for everything. It wasn’t until later (when I was learning magic drop) that I learned to use a breakaway. I do have to deal with the yoyo tilting a since throwing a breakaway is not my primary throw method, but I can do just about all of my tricks from a breakaway without much trouble.

Like Hendy and Ben said, there are tricks that I cannot do properly from a front throw because of the direction the yoyo is spinning. Magic Drop is one of those tricks. I do know how to do a magic drop, but it isn’t a trick I use a whole bunch. There are tricks that I have made that will only work with a front throw that will snag if done from a breakaway. I discovered this when I was teaching fellow club members some of my tricks and found their string snagging at different points.

I’d also like to point out that I am naturally a righty. I do everything with my right hand, but for whatever reason, I throw with my left. In my mind, I think it made sense to throw toward my dominant side, and maybe that is the reason why doing front throws is more comfortable for me. Not sure if there’s a real reason behind it, but it feels right to me.

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Dude, I learned from my left hand too!
But, I’m pretty much Ambidextrous with yoyoing now
3A is fun haha!
And I Switched to my right hand after 3 months in.
Realizing tutorial were hard to follow.
Go figure eh?

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Never knew you were a natural right throwing lefty Alex, that’s sweet. I’m a lefty as well…we’re a rare breed

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Each skill is a tool. Fill the toolbox.

Tool boxes differ in types of tools, quantity, and quality. I’ll spend a lifetime adding and upgrading mine.