How To Do A Thumb Grind

Yo-Yo Trick

Next trick we're going to teach you is something called a Thumb Grind. It's kind of a way of, another way of grinding the yoyo. It's very cool looking. It actually looks like the yoyo is just balancing on your thumb. Let me show you what this looks like. The trick itself, you hook the yoyo in, and it shoots around just like so. I can do that again for you guys. It shoots right around like that. You can actually just grind it back to your hand. The thumb grind, you want to actually have a yoyo that you can land into the gap, like that. This specific yoyo I'm using has two ridges, you'll notice. It's got an inner ridge down here and it's got an outer ridge that's a little tighter to get into. When I first start, go in towards the yoyo. You might not have this specific yoyo, most of them have an inner edge like that, though, that you can hook your thumb into, push your thumb in there. You'll notice a lot of people think that fingernails play a roll, my fingernails are pretty short. I just make sure that my thumb nail is pointing up towards the edge of the yoyo. It really helps me hook it in there. So what you want to do to start with this is throw a trapeze. Let me show you from this angle what it looks like. I throw a trapeze. I've got the gap of the yoyo there like so and I take my thumb and put it into it, like that. So I'm going to hold the trapeze like that, my pointers there, and I put right into it, like that. Once the yoyo hits your thumb it's going to start revolving, kind of like a gyroscope, it starts turning around. Just keep your thumb in there as long as you want and drop it off. The yoyo will start spinning again down at the bottom of the string and from there you can just bind return it back to your hand. So let me show you again. It looks like this. You catch it, hook your thumb in, and it shoots around like so. It's a cool looking trick. It's there to impress. Another tip, use your middle finger to pinch the string as you do it. It stops the yoyo from grabbing that string and shooting back to your hand, which it can sometimes do. If you're using a really unresponsive yoyo it's not as big of a deal. Let me show you one more time what it looks like from a trapeze. Trapeze, hook your thumb, comes across, like so. You can also jump it up to your hand and catch it, like so, it shoots straight across. It takes a little more practice to do it that way. Definitely worth it, though. One more time. Shoots across, like so. And that is a Thumb Grind.

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