Once you’ve got the yo-yo string properly adjusted for your height it would be nice to find a fast way to wind the yo-yo up. Now, I know we all know the old standby to just wind the yo-yo like this, but if you’re trying to learn tricks that can be really frustrating and tedious because it takes forever. So I’m gonna show you… how to wind the yo-yo like that.
Now, to learn this trick it would actually be easier if we first learn the three basic principles that help a yo-yo come back. The first principle is that the yo-yo has to be spinning. I know that one is kind of obvious but if the yo-yo isn’t spinning it’s not gonna come back. The second one is that there has to be some slack in the string. Until you give this slack to the yo-yo, it’s not gonna come back. And that’s why, actually, when you pull the yo-yo up, or, if you were to drop your hand quickly, the yo-yo comes up… because you’re giving the string slack.
Now the third principle is that the string has to be straight in-line with the yo-yo. So I’m gonna use a trick I’m gonna show you in the future called sleeping beauty (aka UFO) to illustrate this point. Right now there’s some slack in the string, but until we line it up and make it straight, it doesn’t come back.
So those are your three principles: you’ve got spin, slack and straight. So we’re gonna use this trick to do all three to the yo-yo at the same time, and that’s what’s gonna make it come back.
So, what you wanna do is hold the yo-yo in your opposite hand between your thumb and your middle finger. And then take your yo-yo hand and put it straight above your head. Now, I’ve taught this trick to some people and they get nervous that the yo-yo is going to hit them in the face to they move their hand off to the side; that doesn’t work because the yo-yo doesn’t come up straight. So, with your yo-yo hand over your head your gonna pull up and with your opposite hand your gonna push down at the same time, and ideally the yo-yo will pop up and sit right about here in front of you. If you pull up too hard then the yo-yo is going to go straight up into the air, and if you don’t pull up hard enough then the yo-yo is just going to stay there and it’s not going to get the slack it needs; so you need a good balance between your two hands. When you get it just right the yo-yo just goes up into the air, you can put your hand under it, it will wind all the way up.
It takes a little practice to get it just perfect but if you can really nail this trick early on in your yo-yo career it’s going to make learning to yo-yo a whole lot more fun and you’re gonna see much faster progress.
The Originator, with its clutch return system, is the perfect Peter Fish yo-yo for beginners. The Originator comes back automatically before the spin dies out to help beginning yo-yo players learn the basics of the yo-yo craft.
