Archives for March 2013

Good ol’ Man & His Brother. I feel like for a lot of kids I’ve taught, that trick has really represented the leap necessary for calling themselves a “real yo-yoer”. Nailing that second string hit and hanging out in two separate formations might seem like baby steps to the initiated, but that first time you hit it, it’s an undeniably huge deal. Trying to recapture the sense of wonder I felt in my first days/months of yo-yoing is a big piece of my rationale for trying to come up with new tricks (albeit, with old yo-yo’s).

One way to renew the classic Man-Bro trick is to stall both sides out. One of the first and most essential stall patterns you learn in the progressive fixed axle style we’re pushing, it’s incredibly rewarding to bounce back and forth between trapeze and his brother. You can do it all day, and it’s the kind of trick that becomes positively automatic once you get it under fingers. That said, the back and forth symmetrical motion is also ripe for applying some significant challenges once you have the necessary tools.

In the initial example, you have the aforementioned “Trapeze-Stall to Bro-Stall” pattern. If you’re taking the time to watch this video, this is probably old hat to you. Keep watching – I bet something in the next few minutes won’t be.

One fun way to re-think the standard pattern is to put that Bro-Stall on the free hand, as in the 2nd trick. After stalling out and regenerating, just come around the bottom of your free hand thumb and land the stall in a chop mount. The regen out of that 2nd hold can be tricky if you have a loose wind, so really spread out that left thumb when you throw it back out. Another nice back and forth motion, though less bouncy than the original.

I think I’ve shown my trick Wimbledon on here as a string redirect, but whatever – here’s another simple variation. This time the Bro-Stall is happening in a throw-hand chopsticks mount, but it’s all the same animal. In fact, so is the trick after that, just with a little Lunar Landing thrown in the mix. I love doing Shoot the Moon right out of a Trapeze Stall. Always feels like it wants to come right at my face, and yet it never seems to nail me (watch, tomorrow it will).

Next up is not really a Man-Bro variation in the strict sense, but its symmetry makes it feel like it fits the theme. I don’t even remember what I originally called it, but Drew named it “Salvador Dali Windshield Wipers”, which remains the best-named trick in my repertoire.

Following that, whatever you can do in front of you, it stands to reason you can also do it behind the wrist, right? I’m not sure why, but I find this application inordinately HARD. I suppose off-plane stalls typically are.

Last but not least (I mean, unless you hate it) is a fun little GT stall repeater. Going back to those free hand chopsticks stall landings, this time cross over the string and stall out in a [tight] GT hold. Pretty tricky to hit that stall AND regen cleanly and repeat it, but it’s doable if you get the throw hand in there and help. If you want a solid regen, you’re probably going to need to shorten the hold up. GT’s can really waste string on a stall, and you need to try to compress it to have any juice left on the way out.

Best wishes to everyone in YoYoNewsLand, and Happy Friday! Stay fixed.