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An Intro to Responsive Counterweight Yo-yoing

A thumbnail drawing of a yo-yo and text that says "Responsive Counterweight Tutorials

Responsive Counterweight style is a combination of modern responsive yo-yoing and counterweight yo-yoing. It’s become my favorite style recently, and I love sharing tutorials for it on this Responsive Counterweight playlist.

I’ve heard good feedback on these tutorials, but a few folks pointed out they were looking for something that helped get them started in the style. So I recorded a ten minute long introductory video to teach all of the basics of Responsive Counterweight play.

For this video, I used a PLPTS yo-yo:

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Save Deth Volume 2: Doctor Popular segment

The Save Deth videos, by Dave Poyzer and Seth Peterson, are fantastic time-capsules of yo-yo culture. Inspired by skate videos, Save Deth wanted to make high quality videos that captured the style of each yo-yo player. I really was excited about recording my segment for Save Deth Volume 2, but when the day came to record the segment in SF, everything was running later than expected and I had a hard stop that I had to get to. So I think my clip looks a little more rushed and sloppy than many of the other pros…. but I guess that I’m also known as being a little more sloppy in style too, so maybe this captures the day just right?

Here it is:

If you view the on Youtube, you can see a timeline showing what trick is playing for each part of the video. A few highlights for me are the “Gerbil Wheel” at :23 in, which might be the first time that counterweight move was documented. You can also see a bunch of my favorite moves documented here, like the Overhand 1.5 Whip, The Sabering Dismount, the Bicycle Kick Rejection, and some Astro-Style counterweight tricks.

At 1:03 I grab a coffee and start doing some one-handed tricks. This may seem kind of random, but I’ve been wanting to do a one-handed Artistic Performance routine in the World Yo-Yo Contest for many years. The idea would be I’d bring a cup of coffee on stage with me and do tricks with the non-coffee hand. I never fleshed it out much further than what you see though.

Artist: So Many Wizards
Song: "My Friends Are Nice"
Website: somanywizards.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/somanywizards
Notes: The concept of this video was to show what goes into making a Save Deth video. Behind the scenes shots, bloopers and really good yo-yoing. Yo-yos used are the Yes, Absolutely The End and YoYo Jam + Doc Pop Bolt. Shot in San Francisco California, May 2009.

If you want to see the rest of the videos from Save Deth Volume II, you can go to http://www.savedeth.com/volumeii/

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Restocked on Bolts, Pawns, and Bishops

5 yo-yos on a white surface. The yo-yos are Bolt yo-yos in each colorway. Black, red, blud, white, and green.

Good news everyone, I’ve just restocked my site with fresh new Bolt yo-yos and counterweights.

Brand new to this batch is the new green Bolt yo-yo, which comes sets up for responsive play. This yo-yo comes lubed with a narrow bearing and is great for beginners or old school players.

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Responsive 5A Workshop livestream on Youtube tomorrow

I’m teaching a responsive 5A workshop on Saturday July 3rd from 3-4pm PDT for those who want to learn the basics of modern responsive yo-yoing with a counterweight. This livestream will be free and the recording will be archived. You can watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk3klVEYtEg

You can use any yo-yo, as long as it has a snappy response, and a little counterweight on the end. If you’d like to get a head start, you can watch some of these tutorial guides here before the workshop, but it’s basically the same stuff I’m going to cover.

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Pop Arts back in stock and an upcoming responsive 5A workshop

Howdy y’all. Just a quick update to say that Pop Arts are back in stock. The Pop Art is a machined delrin yo-yo I designed with the folks at Rain City Skills. I believe it is the first modern responsive yo-yo designed specifically for counterweight play. Most counterweight yo-yos are designed for long sleep times, but this is designed for snappy response and high walls for string stalls.

I’m also teaching a 5A workshop on Saturday July 3rd from 3-4pm PDT for those who want to learn the basics of modern responsive yo-yoing with a counterweight.

If you can’t make it, or just want to get a head start before the livestream, you can watch my ongoing responsive freehand tutorial series on Youtube.

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PopCast #47: Astro Counterweight Style

I’m really excited to finally feature Astro counterweight in this new PopCast video. Astro is a sub-style of counterweight that uses two weights instead of one. One of the weights slides around while the other is tethered to the end of the string.

The goal for Astro was to still be able to do all the normal 5A counterweight tricks, but occasionally throw in a sliding trick to really keep things fresh, but recently a bunch of players have been taking the style and really developing it into it’s own thing. Seeing the work they were doing really motivated me to come back in and share some of the basics I’ve found along the years.

Along with the video, I’ve also released a set of 3D printable Astro designs that you can print out at home. The licensing on these designs is really wide open, so I hope that manufacturers start playing around with them and selling their own versions.

There is a ton of great Astro content going up on Instagram too, so be sure to check #astrocw for tricks and ideas.

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Pop Art yo-yo, coming July 9th!

The Pop Art is a brand new collaboration between myself and Rain City Skill Toys! I’m really excited for you to try it!

Features:

The Pop Art features a slimline design for responsive play, but with some interesting design elements.

  1. Size A bearing – gives it that real classive feel with a smooth tug-response
  2. Response – The extra-wide gamer pads to give the string more surface to grab
  3. The gap – Slim catch zone with high walls, broken up by a pair of “Schmoove Grooves” combining for snappy, predictable response.
  4. Cup – The hub is a wide, tapered aluminum insert that ends at a high Delrin wall. This allows for pull starts and other tricks that are fun with responsive 1a and 5a play
  5. Light weight but well balanced for snappy stalls and regens.

The first release of the Pop Art will also include the new Rain Drop counterweight from Rain City Skills (Base Bead edition). Doc Pop get’s really creative with a trick style called “Responsive Freehand”, taking advantage of the responsive throw for some neat stall tricks that verge on Begleri play!

Specs:

Weight – 52.6g

Diameter – 59.9mm

Width – 32.5mm

Available July 9th at 5pm Pacific from

DoctorPopular.com
Raincityskills.com
Yoyosam.com
Yoyoexpert.com
I also recommend Traxxas Silicone Grease https://amzn.to/2Z7oZHu

Videos: