Yo-yo slowing down and then stopping during skin the gerbil

The part after the trapeze where I push the two strings with the back of my fingers to make the yo-yo swing over my NTH pointer causes the yo-yo to slow down a ton and then it’ll die at that part (or sometimes bind). Other times when I do the trick, I don’t have that issue. I’ll post a video when I can.

I assume from how you are explaining it is that you are unintentionally pulling your throw hand a bit more when you pull it around making the yoyo start to reverse bind, which slows it down very fast.

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Here’s a video of the issue, I’m having!


I think I figured it out, I just needed to do more of a follow through with my TH when pushing against the strings.

From watching the video - It looks like you’re not letting the yo-yo swing over your TH. You’re swinging it over your NTH and stopping the swing before it passes over your TH, which is causing the string to loop around the bearing an extra time.

Try to perform the swinging motion without spreading your hands apart, that will help it continue over your TH.

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How does this look? (I’ll try to keep my hands closer together next time)


Hard to tell from that video, but looks like the rest of the trick went well so I think you got it!

I just got to make sure I don’t move my TH away from my NTH after I push into the strings

Also, IMO you shouldn’t count this trick as being hit, until you can do it in what we used to call Alpha Style. That means without the pauses between the elements, but rather with a smooth flow throughout the whole trick from element to element. That is subjective, as I believe the way you did it would count in a trick ladder competition.

As far as the issue you were having with the yoyo slowing down. Do you have sweaty hands sometimes? Sweaty hands or even high humidity, can cause the string to catch as it’s sliding across your finger, and cause a partial bind, that can slow down the yoyo. If it’s a consistent problem you could try a glove, or keep a towel handy to dry off your hands.

I noticed that Andre can do some hard tricks without even looking at the yo-yo! I guess over time it will become second nature to me like playing an instrument? The problem was that I was not letting the yo-yo swing over my TH.