Kickback: Myth or Reality

I confirmed there is a difference. First between a custom wooden yoyo that has too little rim weight vs Yoyojam Odyssey, then I retry that with modded fireball/raider that has slightly different setting, and last with a modded fireball vs plastic Auldey yoyo that has quite a lot of kickback.
The difference however doesn’t really observable in the case of modded fireball vs raider, but it’s clear for two yoyos that has significant difference. The one with more kickback starts rolling slower.
I apologize for the somewhat useless experiment because since it involves gravity as the only force unwinding the yoyo as opposed to your muscle, the difference is only consistently observable when there is a lot of difference. This is however the only “simple experiment” I can think of that doesn’t involve using muscle to throw the yoyo consistently.

Sorry but, isn’t kickback the force at which the yoyo returns to your hand after a bind? Or is it something else? This is what I always thought what kickback to be.

I just got done throwing my Draupnir and a few other Bimetals; and I still don’t notice kickback to be a problem. If anything, it adds to the feeling experience of throwing a yoyo. Kickback isn’t a problem for me :slight_smile:

But hey, Each to his own right? :wink:

Also I’ve heard that long string reduces kickback, is this true? I do use longer string than what most throwers would use, but even with shorter string; kickback isn’t an issue for me.

Yes, imagine a bike with changeable gears.
Now we will only talk about the rear gears that is attached directly to the rear wheels.
The bigger the gear (low gear), the lighter the pedal feels, because it is closer to the rim of the wheel, and vice versa.
In this case, the bike wheel would be the yoyo, and the gears (and the chains pulling it) will be the string wound.
Let’s say you have a yoyo fully wound, if either:
-The gap is made narrower and or
-The string is made thicker and or
-The string is made longer;
then the whole string wound will have bigger diameter (the string will bunch up more), this translates to less kickback, just like using the bigger gear (low gear).
The reason why a beefcaked yoyos have a lot of kickback is because the string wound suddenly has smaller diameter, which is like using smaller (high) gear on the bike. I know the analogy is not 100% accurate as when the string unrolls it gradually becomes smaller and smaller, but it’s close enough to show you the idea.

1 Like

No. The description of kickback given above in this topic is the long time accepted definition.

1 Like

when talking about weight distribution we should always if possible specify whether we mean axial or radial distribution. They are correlated but definitely not interchangeable.

Absolute nonsense. This is an issue made-up by manufacturers that cannot compete with modern yo-yo designs.

I think you know who you are.

People have been referencing kickback for 15 years or so since people started beefcaking Tigersharks. It’s always been something that some people are more sensitive to than others.

Q.E.D :wink:

Yes… this is it… all the discussions (and video evidence) are invented… riiiiiiiiight…

rizki’s descriptions of the mechanics/physics involved… pure imagination… Got it…

1 Like

Now there’s a phrase I never thought I’d read… :stuck_out_tongue:

Kick back doesn’t bother me at all. It usually takes me about 2 throws to adjust from a yoyo with a lot to a yoyo with a little. I actually prefer a yoyo with more kickback, especially for break away throws. It bothers me a lot more when a yoyo with little kickback hits the bottom of the string at around 5 or 6 o’clock during a breakaway. I feel like i can’t get a full throw in. Even then it’s just a minor adjustment to my throw.

1 Like

I was thinking the same thing!

Physics and science are stupid. Speculation for the win!!!
/sarcasm

See, whereas I feel that the lateral travel that comes from a lot of kickback is cramping my ability to just rip the yoyo. Because if I just rip it, it will go right across to almost 8 or 9 o’clock. The awkward feeling makes me tone back my throws to accomodate. I feel like I can’t get a full throw in!

i have argued about this, a lot of times and i still got no clear answer.

One kind of people say that kickback is the effect of an unwinding yoyo to “fall trough” the last 15-10cm of the string because there is no string left to hold on for the Yoyo because of an too wide stringgap or bad/worn out response system.

What i always mean with kickback is the amount of mass inertia that is needed overcome to make a throw. So Oversized/rimweighted YoYo have more kickback that undersized/center weighted yoyos. for example, you can observe this effect when useing an offstring YoYo for 1A. the first breakaway will feel pretty awkward as you have to overcome much more inertia in the first time.

i know both effects exist, but what is meant by kickback ? and how is the other effect called ?

Read the first 3 pages. The answer is given quite clearly there.

Re: Draupnir
I never noticed an issue with “kickback” on the Draupnir so I did a bunch of throws with a bunch of yoyos for comparison. I don’t know what string you guys are using, but I notice no more kick on the Draupnir than any others that I would consider average or below, and this is the wider gap Draupnir with YYR string.

You got me. It’s a mystery. The only plausible explanation I’ve come across is Gambit’s. Since I have never bought the Draupnir, I have used whatever string their owners have had on it. None of them stood out as being weird strings, so probably normal or fat Kitty or “similar” strings for the most part.

I notice it with my “standard” throw instantly. It’s unmistakeable. The throw goes at a nearly 45-degree trajectory different than my “standard” on a good rip.

I notice it on the Draupnir. Doesn’t bother me. The only 2 yoyos that kickback has really bothered me on were the Rhinoplasty and the Irony GBA.

Let me start right off by stating very clearly that I don’t doubt for one second that what you say you experienced with Draupnirs is your imagination. You have been around for quite awhile and you have thrown enough yoyos…

But while not discounting the validity of your experience; I have to say my experience with Draupnirs(and I have had several over time since they came out) aligns quite closely with Rosenbergs’.

I have nothing but slight kickback with my Draups… And I know the ‘kickback’ feel… No doubt.

I started modding in 98 and I can’t put a date on it because it wasn’t anything really notable to me. But I was well into the scene when guys started beefing Sharks and Renegades, etc.

Stuff was mainly front mount way back then. So when we threw the ‘Beef’ we would deliberately stand with our feet about 15 inches apart because the yoyos would literally swing back between your legs as they rolled down the string, lol.

If you threw with your elbow close to your torso, the kickback would even seem greater. If you extended your arm on the throw down and deliberately ‘threw forward’ the kickback would be much less severe.

Personally I didn’t care at all for beefing yoyos.

I think Doc Pop was one of the first guys to double up the bearings… Can’t remember?

You guys know how the beefing mod came about, right? Nobody ever told me this, but since I was kind of a modding machine waaay back then, I would always try and figure out what clicked in somebody else’s head before they made various yoyo performance enhancements.

This is my personal opinion but I do think it is pretty accurate regarding Beefcaking yoyos.

Realize Nobody…was really using ‘C’ size bearings. So the widest gap wasn’t that wide. The more advanced players ‘needed more gap’. The levels of their increasing skills was going beyond the performance potentials of the various small gap, small bearing yoyos. Beefing created additional gap width instantly and economically.

So I think the mod was was simply ‘the shortcut’ to a Wider gap. Once the C size bearing was put into yoyo designs, beef caking was ‘old’.

I’ve been throwing my Draupnirs deliberately since this thread started; trying to recognize as much kickback as possible by throwing various ways: string diameter, string length, various outer race configurations of C diameter bearings, clean or lubed, etc.

The Draupnir does have a ‘little kickback’ but not enough to even think about until this thread appeared.

But before that, I hadn’t even consciously thought about it.

PS. The Draupnir is a Top player in my opinion. There is nothing I don’t like about it.

PS 2. Actually there are a few minor things I could say I don’t care for. 1. I think the yoyo could retail for ‘less’ and 2. I think YYR should make more of them; instead of releasing them about 6 at a time, lol.

2 Likes

Whereas I’ve had to do the “step out of the way” thing on a front throw with the Draupnir. :wink:

But regardless… whether a factor of setup, throw trajectory, or any number of other variables, this thread isn’t specifically about the Draupnir. If the question is “Kickback: Myth or Reality?” I think the answer is, “Um… it’s reality… !”