String Length

If you are near 6’ exactly, I’d say go for it. If you are 6’1", it’ll feel a little short. I rock mine straight out of the box, and it feels really short at first, but then you just get going, and you stop noticing it

Eh, that’s sounding like a no-go for me, I’m 6’2". Any chance you can either measure it in inches? Or at least give a relative length to Kitty (with a knot tied in a full length Kitty)?

Not necessarily and not by much. I don’t know that specific combo, but you’re only right if people don’t do what Schnayke described, and mitigate the differences in string length.

So, when he’s doubling on, the yoyo is pivoting around whichever finger (usually one of the forefingers). The distance from the yoyo to that finger is X and the distance between his hands is Y. He can do the combo such that even when Y increases (longer string), X is the same. The yoyo will travel the same distance.

There’s going to be one point, even if it’s just the initial throw, that the yoyo will need to travel more. But once the fingers become pivot points, it’s not necessarily the case. What you’re describing is only true if instead of X and Y lengths (per the example above), X% and Y% stay the same no matter what length of string is used. Then the yoyo will travel longer overall.

Another thing a person can do is wrap around a hand or wrist to temporarily shorten the string. If you do this quickly while transitioning between combos, you don’t necessarily lose any meaningful time at all.

longer string is definitely slower. dunno what the argument is all about…

“Longer string is definitely slower” disregards the argument made by Schnayke and expanded upon in my last post. It’s not that simple and it’s not always true. It tends to be true, but that’s because people play a longer string the same way they play a shorter string. Everything relative, but just longer. That’ll make you play slower. You have to adjust your approach to get speed out of longer string. That’s the argument, and it’s a valid one.

Now, I DO find that people who use longer string tend to play slower. And I see too many players that make me want to reach through time and space, snip their strings and tie them a new loop so that they play cleaner and more smoothly. :wink:

The pictures in the thread show it next to a used kitty cut to my personal preference, a new fat kitty, and a new nylon fat kitty.

I’d avoid primes if I were you, since you’re about 2" taller than I am, and I feel like they’re a bit on the short side

Ah, sorry, completely spaced on that link. Yep, they’d be too short for me. Oh well, I’m plenty happy with Kitty Fat and XL. Thanks!

Only the throw part. possibly the bind in the end, but as far as how fast he could be through the string moves, no. He used to use much longer string and over the years made it shorter, and quiet frankly he seems to have slowed down if anything.
Full length string tricks are going too be the only that ones that, get faster or shorter with shorter or longer string and that is assuming the person doesn’t just move through them faster, which they almost always could.
What you have read around here, has given you that idea, but it is just no being fully understood by you. Basically long string lends it’s self to slow flowy styles, shorter string lends it’s self too faster choppier styles. However that doesn’t mean, you can’t do fast choppy styles with long string or slow flowy styles with short string, it just means you will have to compensate for the short comings of the setup. There is always a give and take in yoyoing where you gain you always lose somewhere else. There is no better, this is not a stale sterile environment. What we do is very artistic in nature and the limit is only with in us. Don’t limit yourself.

I don’t think I cut and knot the string in the same sequence as some other people. I see most people cut at the navel (or wherever), then create a knot, and then form the slip knot. I usually form the knot first a bit above the navel, then cut the excess, and form a slip knot. It seems they would yield the same result anyway, but the second way seems like less effort for me. I tie the knot a bit above the navel to allow for the slip knot taking up slack. I don’t think most people care about that half inch or so taken up by the slipknot, but I factor it in. My string is “shorter,” but I’m all picky about it. :wink:

Definitely knotting first and cutting later makes more sense. I assumed that’s how everyone did it.