Next we are going to teach you the One-handed Star. It looks like this.

Alright, let’s break it down. As with any picture trick, the first thing you want to do is let the yoyo hang down at the bottom. From there we are going to take our thumb and lift the string. Next, our ring finger, we are going to wrap it around. From there we take our pointer finger, and again, we lift the string. Next is our pinky. Again we wrap. Followed by the middle finger. You are going to lift. Finally, you are just going to take your thumb and just hook it around there. Then you want to give it a little shape and it looks like the star.

Let’s do it one more time in regular speed. There you have the One-handed Star yoyo trick.

I’m gonna teach you how to do Rock the Baby in the Pyramid. It looks like this.

Let’s break it down. As with any picture trick, the first thing you want to do is let it hang down at the bottom. From there, what we are going to do, is we are going to take our first finger on our non-yoyo hand and lift up the string. From there, we are going to take our yoyo hand, almost like a hand-shake, clip your thumb and pinky around the string. Come across like that. The string will come across your palm. From there you reach down, pinch, and turn it over.

There you have Rock the Baby in the Pyramid. One more time in regular speed.

There’s Rock the Baby in the Pyramid.

This trick is called the Cross and it looks like this. Now the Cross, it starts off exactly the same as the Eiffel Tower. So, if you haven’t learned the Eiffel Tower yet, I recommend going back and learning that because that will make learning this trick a whole lot easier.

Just like the Eiffel Tower it starts by laying the string over your opposite hand, lifting up the string with the thumb on your yo-yo hand, twisting your hand back towards yourself. At this point, where you would normally grab the string, you want to do that, but instead of letting the rest of the string off of your opposite hand like you would with the Eiffel Tower, you are going to let all of it off except on your thumb and of course the first finger where you just grabbed that string. So now you’ve got string on both of your thumbs and on the first finger of your opposite hand.

To complete the trick it is similar to the Eiffel Tower where you bend over the front and pinch the string between your ring finger and your yo-yo finger. And, when you do that, you just give it a little shape; you hold it just like this, and you’ve got the Cross.

Here it is in full speed.

The next trick I am going to show you is a picture trick. It is called Darth Vader. It looks like this.

Just like all picture tricks, Darth Vader is easier to learn when the yoyo is not spinning and it is down at the bottom. You actually start this trick off by doing an Eiffel Tower and you want to make sure to do your Eiffel Tower properly otherwise Darth Vader might come out looking like a deranged mutant instead of a Sith lord.

Once you have your Eiffel Tower you want to make sure that, instead of pinching (the string) between your middle finger and ring finger like you normally would, you want to pinch between your pinky and ring finger.

From there you are going to turn the Eiffel Tower on its side, and take your middle finger and stick it through the center gap and actually pull the yoyo string through. From here you are going to take your pointer and thumb from your non-yoyo hand, reach through the hole in front of them and grab the yoyo string.

When you bring your hand to the side and turn it it is going to make Darth Vader.

Some things to keep in mind is that if you use your pointer and thumb to spread the top it will help it to look a lot more like Darth Vader’s helmet.

This picture trick is called the Four-Leaf Clover (aka Butterfly). To learn it, again, it’s easier if you just let the yoyo hang down at the bottom of the string without spinning.

What you want to do is you want to take your fingers and split them apart just like this. Have all your fingers paired in twos. What you’re going to do now is take your opposite hand and lift the string up, then take the bottom two fingers on your yoyo hand and lift the sting. Then take the bottom two fingers on your opposite hand and lift the string again. Now you’re going to take the first two fingers on your yoyo hand and bend over the string and lift it up.

You want to make sure to give yourself plenty of room because what you are going to do is take the yoyo and flip it right over the top. You are going to flip it towards yourself. When you do that you kinda want to get it more towards the center because when you spread your fingers apart it makes the Four-Leaf Clover.

This is how it looks with the yoyo spinning.

One variation on the Eiffel Tower is, if you flip it upside down, it spells the word “Yo” where the Y is made up of the string and the O forms the yoyo. And again, you just make your classic Eiffel Tower, flip the word over and it spells the word “Yo” just like that. It’s not too difficult once you get the Eiffel Tower and audiences really love this trick.
You always want to make sure when you’re spelling “Yo” that you that you don’t throw the yoyo straight but you actually need to turn to the side and that way when you do the trick the yoyo makes an O and not an I… or something. You always want it to make that perfect O for “Yo”.

This picture trick is called the Eiffel Tower and just like any other picture trick it’s easier to learn if you let the yoyo hang down at the bottom of the string without spinning.
For this one you’re gonna take your opposite hand and pull it right into the string and use your yoyo hand to just lay it right over the top. Next, take your thumb on your yoyo hand and just lift the string up. Next, take your opposite hand, you’re gonna twist it back towards yourself and that will cross the strings just like that… and take your first finger and grab the string. And next your gonna pull that sting right through that little loop that you made and your gonna let all the rest of the string fall off your opposite hand. So now the string is only on your first finger of your opposite hand and the thumb of your yoyo hand and of course on your yoyo finger.
So the last step is to take your yoyo finger and your ring finger on your yoyo hand and twist forward and your gonna pinch the string between those two fingers. As you can see you can shape it a little bit.
That makes the Eiffel Tower. Once you get used to it you can do it at full speed and it looks like this.

Once you’ve got Rock the Baby down pretty well, you can move on to a more advanced version of the trick. This one is called Throw the Baby out of the Cradle. To practice this trick, just like any picture trick, you can let your yoyo hang down at the bottom of the string.
The first thing you want to do is make your basic cradle and then your going to pinch the string and kinda move your fingers out of the way above the yoyo, and you’re gonna swing the yoyo towards you. Then to release the trick you throw it up in the air. When you throw it up, the yoyo, if it’s still spinning, it will get the slack in the string and it will come back. You just want to catch it just like this.
Once you’re used to the motion you can try it while it’s spinning. Just rock it… throw it… and just catch it. It takes a little while to get used to, but it’s a real crowd pleaser.

There’s a lot of different tricks on the classic variation of Rock the Baby, this one is called the Itzy-bitzy Baby. It’s also pretty easy. Again, it’s a picture trick, so to learn this trick it’s usually easier to let your yoyo hang down at the bottom of the string without spinning. And for this one you take your opposite hand and you just roll it right into the string, then take your yoyo finger and roll it into the string. Take your opposite hand and roll it into the string again. Take your yoyo finger and roll it into the string a second time. And finally take your opposite hand and you want to just cup it right underneath the yoyo. As you can see it makes a half-size cradle. That’s the Itzy-Bitzy Baby.
At full speed the trick looks like this. You want to make sure that when you dump the yoyo out you don’t do it through the cradle you want to do it out the back side. That will make sure the trick comes off smooth every time.

Rock the Baby is one of the most famous, but also one of the easiest yoyo tricks for a beginner to learn. Now, Rock the Baby is a picture trick which means that you make a picture out of the string. The easiest way to learn these types of tricks is to just let the yoyo hang down at the bottom of the string without spinning and that will give you all the time you need to actually work on and practice the trick.
This trick, like I said, is pretty simple. The first thing you do is you take your opposite hand and grab the yoyo string right about in the middle, and then you want to take your yoyo hand and pinch the string just a couple of inches above the yoyo. Next, take your yoyo hand and put it right under the yoyo and point your fingers forward and that makes a cradle. You just rock the baby through a couple of times. When you drop it, if the yoyo is still spinning quickly, that will give the yoyo some slack in the string… it should come right back to your hand.
In full speed the trick looks like this.