Controlling a fingerspin

You need to balance it like a spin top. Soft finger helps, but that’s not the real trick behind it. That’s not how to control it.

^^ Wait, now… now this is a tip I’ve missed that shows some promise. :slight_smile: . Move your finger in a circle, too? I gotta start trying to get the hang of this. I can’t even picture getting the knack yet.

Just to muddy the conversation up a little more, I don’t make contact with my nail to the yoyo during a fingerspin. Fingernail fingerspins seem more popular, but I’ve even read some people say they prefer fingertip fingerspins with little or no nail. I have to do them this way since I don’t have long enough nails. You can do them using only your fingertip and get really pretty good results with some practice, even if the skin contact makes the yoyo die quicker than nail contact would.

One thing I consider key with fingerspins is keeping your finger loose. A stiffened finger makes the yoyo shoot right off my finger after only a spin or two. I let my finger move with and be controlled by the yoyo in small movements and that seems to help.

Most recent face bashing was finger spinning with an Irony Jpx with a dirty bearing. That yoyo is number 2 to the Horizon for finger spins out of the yoyos I have.

An update, something I’m finding that works with the move is kind of pulling the string when it starts to spiral out of control. I also kind of moved my finger around to “feel around” for the center.

The Elysian is a piece of cake now to spin after trying to spin the Move. I was even starting to spin my Shutter.

With all of this said I’m going to keep practicing it. I see a strong throw helps a lot.

Maybe I forgot how to internet, but I can’t get this video to work…

Here it is, cleaned up:

It’s the Paul Kerbel video.

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You don’t actively have to do it once the yo-yo is balanced and upright. A soft finger will keep it there. But when controlling it to get it into that position, doing slow circles in sync with the procession of the yo-you will get it upright. Remember, move away from where the yo-yo is leaning.

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^ This. Mr Gumball I spent yesterday evening experimenting with my MOVE to try and figure out how to help, and I came to the following conclusion:

Your finger must be kept as soft and relaxed as possible to begin with. As Brian said, once it’s in the dimple spinning you don’t have to keep it soft (I was spinning my MOVE on a pen yesterday like Greg mentioned and had no issue), however for the first jump, you have to keep it as loose as possible.

Now this is easier said that done. Since you’re aiming your finger for the yoyo, the natural reaction is to ‘point’ the finger or otherwise keep it rigid (even unintentionally), but as long as you keep it completely relaxed, the move will naturally slip onto the dimple.

I tried landing like 20 fingerspins in a row with a stiff finger and didn’t land a single one. Did the same thing with a relaxed finger and landed all 20 easily. It really is the key. :slight_smile:

Also, I don’t mean to be critical, but I noticed in your instagram video that the way you throw for the fingerspin seems to be the same way I did to begin with, which doesn’t work all that well. If you throw it with your thumb pointing up, sort of like a frizbee, then you can keep the yoyo as horizontal as possible (which is also very important).

Rather than throwing it to your left hand side, try holding the yoyo to your left and throwing it towards your right foot. It took me a while to get the hang of it but it makes all the difference.

If I’m not making any sense please let me know and I’ll film a video. :slight_smile:

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Just so that I’m not trying for the impossible, I’d like to understand a thing:

I have a yoyo with a flat hub. Say, an OG Pulsefire or a Krown or an Irony JP.

If the yoyo stays at a slight tilt, I can fingerspin for a decent amount of time, riding on the “transition” between the flat hub and the cup walls. Eventually, it goes completely horizontal and then the whole thing falls apart.

If I throw completely horizontally and hop up, the whole thing falls apart.

With a flat hub, is it virtually impossible to get those 1-minute spins? I have always assumed so, but it looks like other people are disagreeing and I wanted to make sure my understanding was correct.

Or in other words, it seems to me that you don’t really WANT to go fully horizontal with a flat hub. You’re just asking to spin out, and you should probably finish off your fingerspin trick before that happens. However, you DO want to go fully horizontal with something with a concave cup or with a “channel” (ie. Mo-Vitation).

Is that a fair assessment, or is it just that I’m still not “getting” flat-hub fingerspinning? With the flat hub, it wobbles out almost as soon as it’s fully horizontal for me.

So is the Too HOT good for fingerspins?
I was thinking of learning it, but I don’t want to bang my head against the wall too much…

I use it for fingerspins, but only those slightly off-axis ones. Not for a persistent 30-second or 1-minute spin.

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A pen is a solid thing, sure, but if he hold it soft enough, it can balance itself out just like relaxed finger. It’s not a matter of how rigid it is, but if it has “wobble range” wide enough to balance itself.
Do you have a top loaded washing machine? because it works just like that. It has some kind of springs so the clothes inside doesn’t have to be too balanced, the springs allow it to balance itself out. If there is no spring, the whole washing machine will wobble too much it may tip off or break its axle.

Anybody?

Send me one of those throws and I’ll try it out :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ll take an Irony JP. Don’t have one of those yet. :wink: I do have the other two…

Actually it might just be me, but it seemed like the Jp2k13’s cups were ever so slightly concave. There were a couple times I could get it in the center.

Bend your knees, keep your finger loose and don’t let the string go slack.

I’ve been following this thread but somehow missed your post until today. Trying the technique you mentioned with the thumb up has actually been a huge help as for a while I was struggling to get a decent horizontal throw. Doing this helps set the yoyo up for being horizontal.

I’ve been playing with some finger spins over the weekend and am getting a feel for it, keeping the finger gentle while I land and kind of feel around for that center on those yoyos with dimples in the middle. Also keeping the string tight helps getting my finger to find that center and control any wild spiraling that begins to happen.

I’ve now been able to spin my Puffin (Grindwinder?) as well as my Aluminum Dream. It’s not true finger spin but more of a horizontal grind as it rides the wall. Still lot of fun and pretty cool.

Next step is getting the yoyo to wind back up!

Update: The horizontal bind. I could practice this with a hubstacked yoyo if I want to strictly focus on the bind.

Spinning my Shu-Ta btw.