Many times when I throw a sleeper, instead of the yo-yo being in front of me or straight down, it will want to start sleeping behind me. It’s as if the yo-yo is kicking backwards. I’m not having this issue with another yo-yo. Any ideas how to fix this?
What kind of yoyo is it?
YoYoFactory Shutter
Oh, That is weird. Is it acting responsive at all?
Actually when you think about it when the yoyo touches the ground when spinning it rolls forward aka walking the dog. So from a regular sleeper I can’t think how it would push backwards without another acting force. My only guess would be that for some reason your throw is slightly different on the shutter so when you throw it it is aimed backwards slightly. But when you bring it back to where you want it don’t think that it is physically possible to roll backwards. My suggestion would be to make sure you are using the same length string as your other yoyos. Also maybe the response pads are slightly sticky and are causing it to unwind a tad slower so you may just have to adjust your throw a little.
That’s commonly called kick back. It can be caused by a relatively large gap in combination with a heavier yoyo. Are you using a thinner string? Adjust your throw to throw it a bit in front of where you normally do.
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It could be a combination of bearing and string. The yo-yo that doesn’t kick back has a responsive bearing and 100% polyester string. The shutter has a non responsive bearing and I’m using the green string that came with it.
Yep, as JHB stated, the larger gap is mostly the culprit. Adjust your throw, and eventually you won’t even notice it. As yoyo gaps started to increase, this phenomenon was talked about quite a bit, often as a negative. Now that the majority of yoyos have wide gaps, you don’t hear much about it. It’s the new norm! Even though I throw responsive and unresponsive, I don’t even notice it any more. I just unconsciously adjust.
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You can try throwing it over your non throw hand.
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Kick back only is a mild issue in front throws. Do a breakaway and it works to your favor. 
I’ve seen this, and it always seemed awkward to me, and felt awkward when I tried it as well. I also thought it would diminish spin time. I just tried it again, however, and it didn’t feel so strange. and I seemed to get just as much spin. Interesting… I’ll probably stick to what I have been doing, but I’m going to mess around some more with it.
Another thing I’m noticing is on some throws the is vibrating (or like fluttering) more. Which then makes my spin times much shorter.
It’s most likely because you’re used to narrower gap or probably plastic yoyos, when you go to metal the increase of rim weight will do that if you throw it the same way as the narrow gap yoyos. Don’t worry just keep playing with it and your hand will adjust. It will help releasing the yoyo in a bigger curve and more forward, if that makes sense.
Once you go into bi-metals, you’ll notice that most of them will be way more aggressive than that. Shutter is I feel in the middle when it comes to kickback compared to most metal yoyos, so it’s not even that strong but not weak either.
On wide gapped yoyo you need to throw more smoothly and straight, as a small inaccuracy like when you don’t throw completely straight will be translated to vibration. Just keep playing and it will get better over time.
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I’m getting a smoother reaction on the yo-yo by following the “strong throws” video.
Doing this also allows you to go straight into a front-style combo quickly and smoothly.