After three months of trying it at least once a day, I finally got it. The past few days I have been watching every tutorial, trying every technique, and just practicing a ton. My arms are like jello right now because once I got it down, I didn’t want to stop. I just went on a boingy boing marathon doing it over and over for 30+ minutes. In the past, I got it once and then couldn’t get it again. I think I got it this time.
A few things I noticed: I have to start off the mount with the first boing or I can’t get in a good rhythm. Also, because of that, I think it’s causing my yoyo to eventually fall out of alignment because it doesn’t allow me to take the time to line everything up. After about 10 or so boings it’ll eventually get off center and shoot out.
Didn’t wanna make a new topic so I found this one. I’m pretty pumped up about this.
That’s awesome! Isn’t it rewarding to make a breakthrough like that and finally get a trick that you’ve been working on for ages?
When I first started in the late 90s, I saw some boing-e-boing videos online and I thought that was the most remarkable yoyo trick I had ever seen. Then when I started back up during the pandemic, that was one of the tricks that I really wanted to learn. So like you, I worked at it for months, watched, rewatched, then ultimately re-re-rewatched all the video tutorials for it that I could find online. I eventually got it and can now do it regularly, but if my setup is lousy then I often can’t overcome it and it fails. But as long as I start it with enough momentum, I can get a bunch of boings before it either shoots out the front or I stop because it’s angling too much. The only sad thing is that since I’ve spent so much working on it, the trick has kind of lost its novelty and it isn’t as exciting as it used to be.
Personally, I found that it was easier if I did a couple of things:
Boing-e-boings are easier for me with a shorter string. If I do a few barrel rolls before the boings, then it shortens up the string a little more since the rolls cause the string to wrap around my fingers. So the barrel rolls do a good job of adding more interest to the trick as well as shortening the string, making it easier for me to do the boings. If I don’t do any flips or rolls and try to do the trick with a long string, it’s significantly harder.
It’s a little easier if I angle the boings upward instead of having them parallel to the ground. For this, I basically rotate everything up about 15 to 30º and for some reason, it’s a little easier to do the trick this way.
It helps me to think of locking my throw hand elbow to my side, then performing the boings by only moving my throw hand forearm. If I keep my upper arm totally still and only rotate my forearm from the elbow, then I do a better job of staying in the right plane and rhythm.
And the last tip that helped me was the most difficult. I know that my throw hand is only supposed to go up and down, but since I want the yoyo to go back and forth my brain still tries to change my arm’s movement since it seems like you shouldn’t move it a different direction than you want the yoyo to go. But if I concentrate hard to keep my throw arm going up and down, then I have a better chance of succeeding. If my throw arm starts moving forward and backward, similar to what the yoyo is doing, then everything gets messed up. Basicallly, it’s really hard to do what seems like the wrong movement to make the yoyo go in a different direction.
That’s exactly where I’m at with it. I also did everything you said about rewatching multiple tutorials. If I can get momentum starting I can get it. No chance I can start with vertical strings and get the boing going. I almost feel like my top hand locks up when I try to start from that position. I been doing this thing where I skip the first boing and do a barrel roll then I go reverse and start the boing from there. I feel like I get more momentum that way. I’m going to have to try a shorter string.
Thanks for all the pointers. It’s funny we think alike with some of our approaches to do the trick. I was doing the same thing with locking my arm to my body. I still am not solid with it by any means but I think I’m on the right track finally. Appreciate the help!
Yeah, I don’t know how helpful that advice will be, as it seems like there are different tips that suddenly make it click for people. I saw at least one video where the goal was to get familiar with the motion, and they could start from a complete stop with tiny boings and increase up until they were doing full boings. I tried that, but that wasn’t the thing that helped me the most. In fact, I found it far easier with a lot of initial momentum which is basically the opposite of that!
For this part:
“skip the first boing and do a barrel roll then I go reverse and start the boing from there”
what do you mean about going reverse? It sounds like something that might help me, so I’d like to understand it better. Do you mean that you’re doing a regular barrel roll, then reverse it by doing a barrel roll in the opposite direction and then start the boing? I’m hoping that there are tips to help me make them more consistent!
Another thing that I haven’t figured out yet, is why the yoyo starts turning and pointing to either the left or right as I’m doing the boings. I’m guessing that I’m not perfectly in-plane with my hands/arms/string, as that’s usually the cause of it. But I don’t know enough about that setup yet to know how to compensate for the yoyo turning. I was hoping that it would be something like “if you’re doing the boings and the yoyo starts turning (on the Y axis) so that it’s now pointing to the right, that means that you have to XXX”. I’d imagine that there’s something that I could do to gradually bring the yoyo back in line, but I have no idea what it is
Yeah, I know what you mean. I could do both the techniques they show at the end of the yotricks but it still didn’t equal being able to perform the trick. I think the last one they showed was a little helpful in keeping my bottom finger steady. The technique I use is kind of similar to that. So say I’m at the point where you line everything up before you go vertical. Instead of going into the boingy boing from there, I let it pass over the front side of my finger and go down into the strings like you would with that second technique at the end of the yotricks video. Then, when I come out of that, I start the boing from the outside string into the inside string. It’s kind of confusing to explain, but it’s actually simple if I could show you in person. I don’t know why, but I feel like I get more momentum that way.
I know exactly what you mean. If I get going for awhile with doing boings, it will eventually spin almost 90 degrees and eventually pop out. I think it has something to do with hands being aligned straight. Maybe someone can tell us on here? I think I know what you mean, like something similar to how you can correct a slant on a trapeze? That would be nice if there is something we can do.
Boingy boing is definitely a hard one. Sometimes when I wanna keep practicing I’ll completely lose it but then when I come back to it a few hours later I’ll be able to again. I’m gonna keep at this until I get it good.
Yup, that’s exactly what I was trying to say. I’ll give your description a shot later tonight and see if I can figure it out. Thanks for explaining it again, even though it’s hard to describe
Got Kamikaze for the first time today. Been doing the first half and the second half separately. Finally put them together and had barely enough spin to bind. To be honest, the bind made it up to within a couple inches of my hand . I’m counting it!
Also, finally figured out Magic Drop. It was definitely frustrating for awhile. Now I can hit 9 out of 10 times approx. Feels good.
I am getting it pretty solid now even from starting vertical with no momentum. Just gotta keep doing it now to get it solid. I noticed my bottom hand looks super awkward in this video.
I’ve technically landed this before, maybe 20 out of 1000+ tries. But this is my first one after doing a lil’ sum’ sum’. Hopefully this means i can land more. I’m not sure of the name. I just call it the cross arm brent stole thingy. Very hyped!
Didn’t know how to straighten a yoyo on the trapeze at Christmas so I’m happy to pass this milestone…Video is trash cuz I’m from the myspace era but y’all know what trick it is…
Okay okay one more and I’m done for a long time but this took me forever to figure out/land and is just such a cool trick…It’s so hype immediately and just doesn’t stop…Spencer Berry’s Havoc…I’ll be back with this again when I can play responsive better…probably will be a while though…
I finally got ghost bind down today! I been messing with it here and there for a couple months. The other day I recorded myself in slow motion to see what exactly I was doing. Turns out I had been doing another bind where you kinda drop the yoyo into a bunch of slack. I think getting more consistent with my hooks lately also helped. I was pretty excited as I wasn’t expecting to get it at all. I like how tight the bind winds up the string and usually it’s very clean with no extra strings hanging out. I almost got caught slipping once though with not doing a safety throw after a sketchy one. It feels good learning new binds, I been doing the basic boring ones too long now.
. I’m counting it!
