How to Adjust Gaps in a Yo-Yo

Yo-Yo Trick

So, initially when yo-yos came out we used really tight gaps. Once bearings were starting to be used, people figured out that the wider a gap is, you know the better it's going to spin and the less it's going to grab the side of a yo-yo. You'll see if you go check out the advanced trick section that we have up, the yo-yos are spinning for incredibly long amounts of time, the tricks involve lots of string landing against the groove of the yo-yo, so you need a wider gap. So, the first thing people started figuring out is something called the Beefcake Mod. This was developed by a guy named Doctor Popular and what it does is its two bearings in a yo-yo. So it's one ring next to each other like that. What you would do then, let me get my other half here, you could actually screw these two together like so and you'll see that now it's about twice the size it normally was. With this, you need a little more response. Sometimes people put two or three stickers on either side to make sure the yoyo is actually going to shoot back to your hand but what this allows you to do is that yo-yo is about you know it's a whole bearing-width wider. It's a little bit easier to catching on the string and it's not going to snag on the string nearly as much as it would normally. So that's one way to increase the gap with your bearing and keep it smooth. Another way that people have developed overtime is something called an adjustable gap. If you look at this yo-yo here, I can actually adjust the gap of it. So the tighter the gap is, if I just sit here and tighten it up, you'll notice it's tight enough so if the strings in there it's very likely to grab onto it and tug it right back to your hand. It's going to make a more responsive yo-yo, so the yo-yo is going to shoot up to your hand when you want to and then if you want it to be unresponsive and smoother, you simply just open the gap you untwist it like so and you'll notice as I untwist it, the gap gets slightly wider and you can make it just about as wide as your bearing is and it's funny doesn't look like I twisted it too much, but the twisting I just did there is more than enough to make it unresponsive, make it be smoother, make it shoot back to your hand when I need it to. I prefer adjustable gaps because I can then change the yo-yo to how I want to play with it, if I'm working on a specific trick that needs to be more responsive. I can adjust it to my level. It's also great when you're learning 'cause at first you want a more responsive yo-yo, as you get better you want to less responsive yo-yo and with a quick adjustment gap, you're ready to go for your next trick.

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