Beginning 2a: A Technical Guide

I’ve seen many questions about 2a coming up and some people asked me personally about it, besides there is pretty much almost no information about it. So instead of retyping the same thing over and over again, I decided to make a guide. This will cover more of the technical detail from the setup to the actual detail about what kind of “physics” are going on in a loop. Keep in mind this is mainly only based on my personal experience and the information I gathered over the years, feel free to disagree. This is my way of doing it, but really there is no exact way.

-Getting in the right mindset
2a is hard, and it will take month to years to learn. I’m not saying this to discourage you, but just so you know you can’t expect overnight progress. There will be times when you feel like you’re not progressing at all, find what is wrong and try to fix them, just keep at it.

-Yoyo Choice
Unlike 1a where some say it’s better to learn with a lower cost “beginner” yoyo and then get a better model later, in 2a I’d strongly recommend not cheaping out and getting the good pair right away. A pair of decent loopers only costs about the same or less as budget metals. If you absolutely cannot afford them, I recommend getting a pair of Proyos, but since it’s fixed axle you can only do so much before needing to upgrade.
I personally use modded fireballs/raiders/ex, but there are other good loopers like loop900/1080, unleashed, LP, Hornet, Initiator, etc.

-Yoyo Setup
When setting up, you need fresh strings with neutral response, single loop only, get the string length to your liking.
This is where it gets tricky, in order to get a good setup, you need to be able to loop, but since you’re learning, you don’t know whether the problem is your skill or the setup. 2a setup is not “a” setup, but it’s like a range. Different person may have different preference, don’t worry it’s not necessary to get completely perfect.
However for some of you who can’t loop yet, here is what you can do:
First, the yoyo absolutely must be able to sleep.
Throw a Gravity Pull, get the yoyo back to your hand immediately without letting it sleep, you’ll notice some slack on the string/response loss just after the yoyo bounce back, before the string catches the response, this happens in split second. Basically reduce the amount of response loss to the point that you can do quick gravity pull with the least amount of slack possible, but it should still be able to sleep.
This will put your setup “in range”.
You may want to tweak it, some like it to be a little loose, some like it tight.
Keep in mind that string tension affects A LOT, so when playing the yoyo will gradually become more responsive or less depending on the trick you’re doing.
Personally I like the setup to be exact on each hands. To check if the setup is exact, just throw both yoyo at the same time with about the same power then catch it, compare the diameter of the string wound, if they look the same then it’s a similar setup, if one is smaller than the other, the smaller one have wider gap.

-Advanced Setup
You can skip this section if you want, as it’s not crucial if you’re completely starting up, but can be useful at times.
Now let’s define kickback, basically it’s the amount of resistance of the yoyo when thrown. Now what is kickback doing on looping play?
A looping yoyo with high kickback will feel tight and heavy, the string will bite your finger more and it tends to loop upward/hop the fence backward.
With low kickback it will feel feathery, light, and indirect, as if your power is not translated well, the yoyo tend to loop downward/hop the fence forward.
Wider gap, shorter string, thinner string, all increase kickback, while narrower gap, longer string, thicker string, all decrease kickback. Say if your yoyo feels too heavy and tight, you can use slightly longer string so that you don’t alter the response but you can get less kickback, or if one yoyo feels heavier than the other but you don’t want to change the string length, you can narrow the gap on the heavier one to make them feel more similar.

-Basics
I’d recommend learning both loops and hop the fence at the same time as they are somewhat different sets of skill and being able to do one doesn’t mean you can do the other, also learn how to do around the worlds and planet hop. Once you can do basic loops and hops, do the outside variations and shoot the moons.
There are three kinds of 2a tricks, flip (loop, hop the fence), non-flip (planet hop, shoot the moon), sleep (around the world, wraps).
When doing flip tricks, the yoyo literally flips for every repetition, and that will affect string tension in different ways. String tension affects responsiveness, so keep an eye on that.
Just as any other division, you need to be able to control the trajectory of the yoyo, even more so in 2a. The reason why you can only loop for a few times before it tilting out uncontrollably is simply because you don’t try to keep it upright, because you don’t know how, yet.
The most important part of looping is not the loop, it’s the form, it’s so important that I have to make a new title just so you take it seriously.

-Form
Pull your throwhand out, palm facing downward.
Pull your middle finger down and pull it back, twist your wrist downward to get it further back.
Push your middle finger back forward.
That’s how you move your hands.
Some people will tell you to do “shake hands” movement, I’d advise you against that, because you’re exerting forces sideways against your finger and there is high risk of injury.
Go on Youtube and look at the high level players hands, none of them are shaking hands, and it’s not a twisting/rotating movement either, it’s a backward pull and forward push, while the palm never facing up (unless for outside loops of course).
As with hop the fence, there is nothing much to it than how it looks, you can however use your pointer finger to increase strength and lay the string on it for more control.

-Tilt
A proper loop will have certain tilt because the way your hand move, there is a line which will “lock” the yoyo in place. Basically the yoyo on the right hand will tilt slightly to the right with regards to the loop, and the yoyo on the left hand will tilt to the left. There is no exact amount of tilt, but I’ll say around 20 degrees, or about 1 o clock or slightly less on the right hand and 11 o clock on the lef hand, it may tilt more or less depending on how you loop, the yoyo you’re using, and your setup. Keep in mind that the yoyo tilts with regards to the loop, so if the loop is not completely straight the tilt will follow. You can loop straight and keep the yoyo tilted, or loop slightly tilted inward so that the yoyo looks straight (but it’s in fact tilted compared to the loop), you can do it either way.
As with hop the fence, the yoyo should tilt outward, the yoyo on the right tilts to the right, and the left tilts to the left (looking from the leg).

A question raises, how does one keep the yoyo tilt at certain angle? well it’s not too straightforward unfortunately, but there are certain minute ways of moving your fingers and altering the power slightly, that you can keep the tilt locked in place, it will only come with practice.
Use the tilt as a gauge, if it tilts wrong or out of control, stop, try again, don’t learn bad loops only learn the good ones. With enough practice however if it tilts slightly off, you’ll be able to nudge it back to place.
Once you can loop properly with eyes closed, and can feel if it tilts wrong, then you know you can loop.

-Around the worlds
How does the high level 2a players do long series of wraps without the yoyo dying? it’s because they can control the balance of the yoyo so that it doesn’t tilt too far. Most of you who have been into 1a would know how to keep the yoyo balanced upright even if you throw slightly crooked, it’s the same thing only with looping yoyos it’s a lot more sensitive. Practice a few reps of around the worlds on each hands, do side by side around the worlds, do retro around the worlds, and in no time you’ll get how to move the string in certain way to keep the yoyo spin for the longest possible.

-More Advanced Tricks
What’s more from here? well once you can do them on each hands, learn to do them on both hands. From there you’re basically done with the basics and should already know enough to learn by yourself.
Punching bags and vertical hops are all based on hop the fence, they feel somewhat similar.

-Important Points

1. Don’t expect instant progress, slow and steady.
2. Always setup with fresh strings.
3. Form, imitate high level players you like.
4. String tension affect responsiveness, A LOT. Use this at your advantage.
5. Watch the tilt, if it loops bad, stop, try again, don’t become good at doing bad loops!
6. Practice both loops and hop the fence at the same time, also around the worlds and planet hop.
7. Move up to outside loops and hops variations, shoot the moon.

I think that’s it for now, I’ll edit this later if there are things I want to add especially images. Please tell me if I missed anything or if you have any question, I appreciate it.

Really nice read.

Thanks for writing.

after reading this im going to try to get a decent looper and try out looping

For a while now I’ve been trying to hit cow wraps. I tried practicing throwing the sleeper into the wrap first and then going into the hop the fence motion with some success. But when I try to start the trick with hop the fence and throw down to start a wrap, my hop the fence hand fails and throws a sleeper.

It’s been many months now and I can do other tricks like sword and shield and basic tangles, but for wraps, I feel that I’ve totally hit a brick wall no matter how much I practice wraps :-
Seems like no matter how well my hop the fence hand gets, it just fails when my other hand sleeps and
starts a wrap haha.

I’m also not good enough with wraps to begin with, to be honest it has been years since I’m working with cow wraps. One way I did it is to do “shadow” looping where basically your left hand is making looping motion without the yoyo, and only play the right hand one. Get it down this way, then try the other way around. Once you can do both easily, it should work.
Also it might be because when the string got tangled, you somehow put too much tension on the right hand string restricting the cow, or you probably switch your focus to that hand instead.

Right so for the last few weeks I’ve been working on vertical punches and wraps, and actually been able to do them pretty ok, but ok definitely isn’t my goal and I’m still working on them. Thing is, I found an interesting way of practicing that I think will cut a lot of time in learning 2a in general.

First, learn four things, loops, outside loops, hop the fences, outside hop the fences.
You can add around the world tricks and even tanglers as they are pretty straightforward.
Master these four tricks until it’s very easy before even trying to do anything.
Next is the interesting part, learn to do loops and fences while changing direction. For example you’re facing north, start looping, then gradually change direction until you face south. Practice both right and left turns. Remember, the loops must be correct at all times, if it tilts the wrong way, start over.
You will notice that in order to turn the yoyo, you’ll need to put pressure at certain point. Basically, for loops on right hand you’ll need to push a little downward to turn left, and pull up when the yoyo is at the tip of the string to turn right. Fences are like that too but reversed and facing down. It’s easier to try than explain though. This will teach you how to nudge the loops and change directions which is essential later on. It’s like learning how to fix a tilting 1a yoyo.
From here you can start exploring by yourself, as you got the basics already. I’d recommend learning punches, vertical punches, two handed shoot the moon.

The best way to learn 2a is actually to learn as many looping combinations as possible BEFORE learning wraps. You need to get really really good at looping to the point you can do it blindfolded, by then you are ready for wraps. This will test your patience as many people will jump for wraps once they can barely loop, and then give up too early because of that. Take wraps as horizontal tricks in 1a, it’s not totally necessary even to get points on comps, yet it can actually make things worse if you do it sloppy.

Nothing like getting love seven years after you post something. l appreciate how you broke it down.