Classic Yoyo Tricks

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Yoyo Trick: How to Throw a Time Warp

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A time warp is a yoyo trick that you can do once you’ve mastered the around the world.

The time warp is basically an around the world, followed by a backwards around the world – all in one motion.

Simply throw an around the world, then whip your hand around and to a backwards around the world. Then catch the yoyo.

This video will show you how to do this trick. It’s easy. If you can do an around the world, you can do a time warp. It might take a little practice to get the backwards around the world down pat, but you should be able to do it with ease.

Yoyo Trick: How to Throw a Pinwheel

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A pinwheel is kind of like a hybrid between a breakaway and a trapeze. To throw a pinwheel, you want to start off by throwing a breakaway.

After you’ve done this, stick your finger out as if you were throwing a trapeze. However, instead of catching the yoyo on the string, you are going to let the yoyo swing around the string 3 times in a circular fashion by using your index finger and the string.

After the yoyo has completed its rotations, simply bring it back to the palm of your hand.

This video shows you how to do just that and gets up close on the finger movement so there’s no confusion.

You can do a pinwheel in front of you instead of a sideways one like we demonstrate here, but be careful…it’s an easy way to whack yourself in the head. The sideways pinwheel will eliminate this risk.

Yoyo Trick: How to Throw a Brain Twister

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The Brain twister is a cool looking yoyo trick. In addition to looking cool, it’s actually fairly easy.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is throw a real fast sleeper. Then you’re going to take your index finger from your free hand and push it forward into the string.

After you’ve done this, bring your yoyo hand down, and then thread the string into the notch of the yoyo that’s facing you. This will create a double string.

Take the double string and pull it toward you and upward as well. Use your yoyo finger to do this. Take your other hand and push it forward and down. This will result in an upward motion for the yoyo, and then it will quickly swing away from you.

After you’ve done this, take your yoyo finger hand toward you, while simultaneously pushing your other index finger out in front of you. Because of this, the spinning direction of the yoyo will reverse, and it will propel itself over your index finger.

Release and then wake it back up.

This yoyo trick actually sounds a lot more difficult than it looks. Once you see it for yourself in the video, you’ll have no problem getting it down with the quickness. So watch and enjoy. Once you master the flip once, see if you can do it two, three, or even four times. This will always go over well when showing someone a brain twister.

How to Rock the Baby

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Rock the baby is a traditional yoyo trick, and a really fun one to do once you’ve mastered the sleeper. It’s a popular trick, so it’s inevitable that whenever you are around people, someone will ask you to do this trick. You could do a difficult trick like The Matrix, and someone still would say “cool man, can you rock the baby?” So, it’s definitely a crowd pleaser.

Here’s how you do it: First, throw a sleeper. Then grab the string with your free hand. Next, use your yoyo fingering hand and grab the string about five inches above the yoyo. This will make an upside down triangle shape.

Flip that triangle right side up, and use your free hand to push the triangle out, creating the base. Swing the yoyo back and forth between the triangle a few times. Then when you’re done, release back into a sleeper and wake the yoyo up.

If you need practice, the nice thing about this trick is that you can practice making the triangle shape with a dead yoyo. You can do that first and then once you get used to the motion, practice it with a sleeping yoyo.

This is a great trick to learn. We’ll show you how to make the triangle step by step in this video as well.

How to Throw a Breakaway Yoyo Trick

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The breakaway is a foundation trick. It’s going to lead to lots of other tricks, so you definitely want to learn it.

This trick is basically part of an around the world, except you throw a semi-circle in front of you. So throw the yoyo out to the side, let it sleep, sweep it around in a semi-circle and then let it come back to your hand.

This foundation trick will lead to learning tricks like a trapeze or a double or nothing, so make sure to practice this well.

How to Throw a Forward Pass Yoyo Trick

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The forward pass is a great beginner trick to learn, because the basic motion of a forward pass leads to many other looping style tricks, such as an around the world.

A good way to think of a forward pass is a variation on the gravity pull, only you are throwing the yoyo out in front of you and using your wrist as well.

To throw a forward pass, you are basically throwing the yoyo out and letting it come back to you. Throw it out in front of you with your palm facing the ground. As the yoyo extends, flip your hand over to where the palm is facing upward and tug on the string to have the yoyo come back to you.

The basic motion is: out, over, and back.

And that’s how you throw the forward pass! It’s a relatively simple trick, which we take you step by step through in this video. This will help you later on with some other looping style tricks.

How to Do The Sleeper Yoyo Trick

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The sleeper is the next trick you want to attempt after you’ve learned how to do the gravity pull. The sleeper is the basis for many yoyo tricks. It’s basically where you throw the yoyo down, and as the string is fully extended, the yoyo stays in place and spins.

Throwing a sleeper is easy. First, throw the yoyo down like you normally would. Right before the yoyo hits the maximum length of the string, you want to sort of pull your hand and pad the landing. That way the yoyo won’t land in a violent fashion and it will “sleep” while it spins.

When you’re ready to have the yoyo return to your hand, just give the string a tug and “wake it back up.”

If your string is too tight, a sleeper might be hard to attempt. Let your string go to neutral and then re-wind it around the axis of the yoyo and give it another shot. This should correct the problem.

Once you’ve got the sleeper down, mess around with it. See how long you can make it sleep. You’ll find later on that many yoyo tricks build off of throwing a basic sleeper, so this trick is ideal to learn.