So over the weekend I was at the triple crown competition in Chicago. I saw someone using something that was connected to his string near his throw hand. Then I over heard him talking about how it was something that could fix the string tension of a yoyo without the player having to do anything. He also said it was sold on yoyo expert. I forgot to go and ask him about it and now I turn to you guys. Does anyone know if this is a real thing? Or did I just make it up?
It’s called a swivel.
I don’t know much about it, sorry.
Just search swivel.
You can use a fishing swivel. I didn’t know they sold them on YYE though! You can get one at any bait and tackle store. Get a good one (Supro or something? Can’t remember the good brand anymore).
It automatically fixes tension???
A swivel is designed to let a fishing lure spin freely in the water without twisting up your line. Honestly, though, I’ve heard it’s not worth the hassle.
Well… it’s a swivel. Look it up on the internet to see what it does. 
You can still get a LITTLE bit of tension, but more or less if there’s any torque on the string at all, the swivel just rotates to even it out.
Still, I don’t bother with it. A little bit of tension isn’t the end of the world.
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^^ This. Just learn how to get the string tension out before slack tricks, and you’ll be fine otherwise.
I designed this swivel arrangement about a year ago and found that it worked really well.
The only concern is that the swivel has the potential of leaving small scratches on your YoYo.
I’ve always used it with either RAW YoYo’s, or on Delrin/Plastic throws.
Interesting but I agree, it sounds like a hassle. Anyway the more you know!
Here’s some advice that might solve your problems with string tensioning.
If you’re playing with a responsive yoyo especially if your string gets too tight or loose you can do a couple of loops or you can do something like computing. You can go over something like that. But those tricks don’t really work if you’re playing with an unresponsive yoyo.
One thing you’ll find while using an unresponsive yoyo is everyone you throw a yoyo the string will continue to get tighter and tighter. Everyone you throw it gets one half tighter. Eventually you will always need to loosen your string. Get the yoyo onto a trapeze and then it’s going to hook over your thumb. Take your first finger on your yoyo hand and then grab the middle string.
Pull the string in front of the yoyo, that’ll cause a real prototype motion making the string spin around the yoyo. Everyone it goes around the yoyo it’s going to it’s going to get a little looser. It will be a little frustrating for you when you first learn this trick. The yoyo is going to have a tendency to lean backwards and then lean forward.
Eventually you’ll find a perfect balance that tension between your ups and hands. Once you done that, you may or may not have gotten all the twists out of the strings.
…or just take the string off your finger for a second and let it unwind itself… place back in finger, snap start and go.
Or use magic!
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I used to recess ball bearing swivels in my counter weights years ago…
swivels aren’t new, they’ve been around since at least the 90s, probably earlier… 2a players used them to keep the tensions right for looping.
(for those who don’t do 2a… as you loop, one yoyo tightens up, one loosens… the loose one will eventually unwind completely unless you alternate your loops)
Hahaha. I’d be concerned about my yoyo getting dinged by those conspicuously hard metal bits.
Yoyo magic, that is.
First of all, I’m sorry if I sound a bit rude.
Like seriously?
I mean, you got ultra wide high performance yoyos with massive gap, string centering aircraft rated bearing, and you can’t handle a bit of string tension issue?
What’s next, yoyos that plays itself?
Not trying to be a smartass here but instead of trying to make your yoyo even more foolproof, why don’t you just practice?
Some elements will make the string tighter, some will make it looser, it’s all natural. Fixing the string tension is so easy it shouldn’t even matter.
As with looping I do play a bit of loops, I think it’s actually an advantage to have variable string tension instead because one can adjust string tightness optimized either for looping or wraps.
just my 2c
Woah calm down, the poor guy was just asking about something he saw at triple crown and how it worked. By the way there are tons of yoyos that play themselves, any looper with an autoreturn option;)
I’m going to have to say apology not accepted. Yeesh, if you have to preface your post with “sorry if this sounds rude” it’s probably rude and you probably shouldn’t say it.
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My point is, most yoyos nowadays are really good enough to the point it’s not necessary to make it even easier to play. I mean, nobody wanna watch someone play kendama that has magnets on it that makes hitting the ball easier. Difficulty is necessary to make things interesting.
Yea, sorry I went too far in my previous post, I should have rephrased it better… thanks for reminding me though.
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