Well I guess I'm officially starting offstring :p

I already have a duncan hayabusa in the mail! I was just wondering why all I need to know or any tips anyone can give me when starting in on 4a. And Mayr dumb question but you just use regular yoyo string right? Well any IMO anyone wishes to share is appreciated :stuck_out_tongue: I know I’ll learn as I practice but I like how much awesome info I get from all you guys, you’re awesome

Info* not IMO sorry for my atrocious spelling

Don’t practice over concrete and learn the toss and catch before anything else! You’ll be sorry if you don’t, trust me. Also, practice outside instead of indoors and make sure people stay clear of you (10 feet oughta do).

Most importantly, use the 4A tutorials by Ben Conde on the site :wink:

Practice a lot, and don’t give up. It took me over a month just to learn the basic tricks. Some people are quicker learners in offstring, I was shocked when my friend learned a trick in a couple days, then he told me that I was doing it wrong, and I got it then. I remembered that I had to promise my mom that I would not do it indoors. It was raining when I got it, so I broke that promise. I didn’t break anything, so if you practice indoors, use the largest room available at first. Stay away from breakables. Don’t worry about the yoyo flying forward, as long as you get the string when you throw it, the yoyo should shoot strait up.

Same as everybody else except dont practice on or near any tile or hard floor because if you make one noise then you get yelled at by your whole famiy :-\

Do it on grass and carpet and never attach the yoyo to the string otherwise you mess up the sting tension.

The basic toss and catch is the hardest part of learning offstring. Once you get that down, the sky is the limit (literally, if you do really high whip catches).

Don’t give up, like I did. :stuck_out_tongue:

As a newb OS player, my only OS yoyo is a Flying Panda. I got a Panda a year ago and only used it a few times and quickly went back to my 1A stuff. I found that I was just having problems catching it and becoming frustrated. Top it off, the FP has a pretty narrow profile for me. Fast forward a year later when I had MOD spacers laying around (Pro Z in looper mode). After fattening it up, I decided to try 4A again and found it a lot easier with the wider profile…looks like a mini diabolo. About FP durability: of course if you don’t mind making your yoyo dirty, the flying panda seems to handle the concrete pretty well…just bounces around a lot and rolls off! I definitely prefer softer surface though as the yoyo is less likely to go running off from me.

Definitely work on the toss and catch, takes a lot of practice. In fact I miss about 60% of the time. I do tend to have a short distance of string between hands as it makes it easier to catch and I can ‘soften’ its landing by lengthening the distance after landing. I find I can get a good long sleeper when I do a harder forward pass (yoyo will launch pretty high).

Playing surface: Definitely grass, avoid indoors unless it’s an empty room, and don’t do it near pets (I freaked my cat out many times now). Do you have the regular Hayabusa or the Hayabusa SL (Soft Landing, has softer rubber rims)? Keep in mind that when you miss the yoyo will always roll away behind you. I like to have something right behind me to stop it so I don’t have to go chasing it down. Actually a couple weeks ago at a park, I did it at the bottom of a large grass hill, with the slope behind me. The yoyo rolled up a bit, then came back down to my feet, minimizing the whole chasing it down thing.

And wind…it sucks…a lot! If it’s gusty outside, you can expect seeing your yoyo drift off course when doing a higher toss.

Yup, that’s pretty much it from what little I know :slight_smile:

And 1 more thing: though I haven’t seen them at stores, it looks like Duncan is actually making 4-hole response MOD spacers geared towards fattening up their Offstring throws, packaged with a longer bolt and the thinner spacers.

If you do decide to do off string indoors make sure it’s on carpet. I recommend putting something soft behind you so if you do miss, the yoyo has backspin and will roll into that. (That has saved my wall from many dents :P)

If you start to get bored but want to keep going, mix it up a little bit. Go into your backyard and just pop the yoyo up as high as you can and try to catch it. I did that for 2 hours at one time.

Just have fun with it! I think off string is one of the most fun and unique variations of yoyo play out there. I’m not that good at it, but it’s fun. Just practice, practice, practice and you should be fine.

1 more thing: learn to snap start (it’s pretty easy). You’ll get tired of winding it up real soon.

don’t practice in a parking lot. I have a story that involves me dropping a fiesta and me doing the matrix so my entire arm is down a water drain thingy with the fiesta caught with my pinky and thumb :-\

Yo-yoing is so confusing. When you said the “matrix,” I thought you meant the 1A yo-yo trick. Then I thought to myself, “how can you do a 1A trick while doing 4A?” Then I realized you were referring to having quick reflexes instead.