So I decided I needed to learn this trick out of how cool it looks and its the second most visually appealing thing to me next to boingy boing.
Any tips on how I can consistently land this or?
And any conceptual/technical things I need to do because hopping and keeping my NTH index on the string isn’t much help to me from all the videos i’ve been watching.
Your local turtle circle
PS Look at this sexy beast of a chief I got from a nice trade 
congrats, nice chief!
Also, to help with eli hops, I thinks its helpful to know that your index finger will always be sliding on the string. Besides that, its all timing and practice 
When you hop up, your hands must move closer together to give it the ability to move. If your hands don’t go closer together, you just dismount a trapeze. 
Besides that, some people don’t consider it an Eli Hop until your hands touch. So really, that’s the key thing to focus on… pull your hands apart to send the yoyo into the air but as soon as you’ve done that, move them closer together.
Then for the landing, it’s all about pulling the hands apart. When you pull them apart with enough force right near the end (but don’t go nuts… I said “enough” force, not “extreme” force!) the yoyo has NO CHOICE but to land on the string! That’s how it becomes consistent… the timing of forcing that yoyo back to the string.
All the best Eli Hops have the “attitude” of not sending the yoyo straight up, but sending it slightly (or even incredibly) out to the NTH side and then bringing it back with enough speed and conviction that the yoyo comes back to a trapeze faster than gravity would allow it to do.
Watch out for string burn… work up to the really impressive Eli Hops slowly… the more you practice, the more you’ll know “just the right amount” to be strong but yet not get string burn.
The way I learned the trick was to do it as a frontal trick first. It’s easier to practise popping the yoyo straight up and straight down that way. Just start with a small bounce on the string, then work on popping it up higher and higher, while moving your hands closer and closer each time you try. Once you get the feel for it as a frontal trick, try it from trapeze. You should be able to hit it quite consistently after that!
In addition, I don’t know if this will work for you but when I do my hops, I find it helps to pull downwards ever so slightly with my NTH index, to keep all slack out of the string as the yoyo comes back down. Using this method, I’ve gotten to the level where my hops look pretty much legit, with no misses. My hands are almost able to touch, but not quite, so I’m working on that.
Hope this helps!
If I could give 3 pointers these would be it.
This may be obvious but do practice this in a high ceiling place…I’ve received my first ding because of this.
I LOVE eli hops. XD I don’t have high enough ceilings to really practice them as much as I want to, but when i’m outside with friends it’s the trick I like to do most.
I’m not too good at teaching people, but these would be my tips:
Do boomerang first. It’s the same trick just going away from your body instead of up. Plus during the boomerang you can watch the yoyo and the string, and it kinda gives you an idea of what to do. I don’t like the boomerang, but it shares a lot with eli hops.
Second, Make sure the string is taunt. Any slack and it doesn’t look as good or professional, and often messes me up.
Third, when you pop the yoyo up, right when it’s at it’s apex, and it’s a split second from coming back down, I always pretend that I want to land it on my index finger. Then you push your index finger and land it back on the trapeze.
Those are my tips at least. I find it easier if I control the hops with my throw hand, and use my left hand as just a guider. XD
Btw, another huge tip. While your trying to learn this trick trim your string. Even like 2 inches will make all the difference in the world, mostly if you use a long string. I would go a little bit below the bellow button with your string untill you get this trick down with now slack