Fixed Axle

One of the best posts I’ve ever read here yoyodoc!

I didn’t realize how hungry I was for fish sticks until reading yoyodoc’s post. IMO, he captured the essence of fixed - it’s hard, but, that is what makes it so fun and rewarding. Now to just find a recipe for tartar sauce…

It’s fun to feel like you’re in a community of fixed axle players, but above all make sure you do it because you love doing it. I probably play 50% of the time with a 2015 Baldwin and it’s all for me. Now that I’ve shared that, it’s 99% for me and 1% for you guys.

Still obsessed with doing shoot the moon and round the world combos continuously… I play pretty simply :wink:

I think it’s good to have people to relate with.

Sir, we have different ideas of simple. shoot the moon and lunar landing still baffle me. Of course, the video for shoot the moon makes it look easy (but, André can make anything look easy) I just need to buckle down, put in the time, and let the trick develop through work sessions.

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In aikido we say all the time that “simple isn’t easy”. Very true for fixed axle.
Shoot the Moon is very simple - even more so than Loop-the-Loop and way more simple than Split-the-Atom. A Varial or Kickflip is simple… But man they ain’t easy, especially to learn! I think the fact that there’s not much TO them but they are still so esoteric is one of the things that keeps progressive fixed axle feeling radical (even if it’s also one of the things keeping it from gaining widespread traction).

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Fixed axles turns a regular yoyoer into a philosopher.

Anyway, the last time I play fixed was yesterday, and I managed to get a friend into it too. Now he is making prototypes and actually do it more than me, which is great.
Also I saw yoyovideoarchive uploaded videos of fixed axle division in Japan, with the system similar to kendama grading I think.
So dying, nope.

SO true.

Lol skill toy dan-rankings are the thing right now. Come to the YO-jo! Black belts for everybody!

Black belts, not black string?

We all need yoyo black belts.

No, just no. There’s nothing that makes fish sticks worth the effort. Tartar sauce or not.

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I don’t know, I hear fish fingers and custard are all the rage.

Even if you are very active in the forums and go to contests and hang out with other players, throwing a yoyo is still basically a solitary activity. If you enjoy what you are doing, does it matter if the majority of the main stream plays the same way? Persue what interests you, you’ll last longer.

I think I’m still a white belt. Perhaps with an extra strip or two on the belt end, but the more I learn the more I realize how much I need to clean up my playing.

Regarding fixed axle, I bought a simple Duncan Butterfly when the fixed axle contest started last year just so I could try it out. After a couple of hours of frustration I wanted to throw that thing out the window, go outside and retrieve it, and then smash it with a sledge hammer.

I’m sure part of it was the yoyo, but the level of frustration was so high that I can’t imagine ever playing fixed axle again. Regular yoyoing is tough enough, there are enough challenges already. But at lease I can do SOME tricks with a standard non-responsive yoyo. With a fixed axle yoyo it didn’t just feel like starting over, it felt like starting over while wearing mittens and a blindfold. I’m sure it’s fun for some people, but it quite clearly showed that for me there was no reason in the world to continue. For me there was absolutely no sense of fun or potential accomplishment with fixed axle.

My liking of fixed axle comes from regens, they are my favorite trick and the only reason i still play with unresposive yoyos is for regen binds and sometime spin time.

Well that’s one nice thing about fixed axle… it tends to show pretty “clearly” whether it’s for you or not. :slight_smile:

Greg, before you write fixed axle off completely, I suggest you pull it out every once and a while, and just yoyo with it. Just do even “Gravity Pull”. There’s something meditative about it when you relax, and let go of comparisons to what you can do with a bearing yoyo.

When bearings came around, I slowly went “meh” with fixed axle, and pretty much considered it obsolete, and mostly a source of frustration. I still threw them from time to time, but only for a few minutes. Then recently I stumbled upon modern FA play, and got really excited! In the process, and maybe in large part because I’m older now, I became appreciative of the connectedness with the yoyo. The simple tricks give me great satisfaction. The ability to control the responsiveness, the fact that so many of the tricks are great repeaters. Nowadays, I may be playing FA the most, and not just the modern stuff.

Some other nice things about FA:

IMO it’s so much nicer to play with one hand vs unresponsive. It’s great for yoyoing while you walk.

There’s a different flow to it. This ties in with what Sergio is saying about regens. At first it seems limiting, especially if you’re coming from unresponsive. Once you can regen, however, you can keep things going, including when you miss a trick. I don’t necessarily just mean long combos with regens, either. Just the fact that if it stalls out on you, you can flick it out into a loop or breakaway to get it back to your hand, rather than having to stop and restart the yoyo.

You can have fun with many more yoyos! Pick up a Butterfly at Target and go to town!

You’ll get a lot of smiles when you do the old tricks people can wrap their minds around.

I don’t know if I’ll ever pull off Spirit Bomb with one, but for me personally that’s not what’s important. I’m just glad to have rediscovered it, and I’m thankful for all the new found variety and fun.

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Sometimes GregB, I just like to throw a trapeze, or a Double or Nothing on a fixed axle. If you’re like me there are days you just don’t want to play, but you also don’t want to slide backward at all.

So I have found simply doing “simple” things like a trapeze or double or nothing, will really smooth out your playing in general (I even like practicing with a Duncan Professional some times). Throwing a trapeze and letting the yoyo sit on the string trying to keep the yoyo centered and spinning for as long as you can, then having it return to your hand. Same with double or nothing. It helps with accuracy and smoothness so much, which will transfer to your playing with a bearing.

Fun test is to go through the Sports Ladder and work on each trick on a fixed axle, or go through the YYE Tutorials. Super Frustrating at times, but SO satisfying when you get consistent with them. And again, transfers over to playing with a bearing yoyo.

So don’t completely give up on using a fixed axle, can be looked at as weight training, difficult at first, but becomes a little easier as time goes by. And your butterfly (while some are better than others) should be able to be good enough to continue with :slight_smile:

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+1 for everything Aaron said. Personally, sometimes I just like throwing trapeze or double or nothing. Eli hops are also fun with fixed.

However, if you don’t enjoy throwing fixed, don’t let us bully you. Yoyos are toys, they should be fun, something you look forward to, not something you dread picking up :grin:

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What?! That sounds crazy!
I struck out on google, do you have link for this?