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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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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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Restock alert: Weekenders available in new colors

If you’ve been on the hunt for a Weekender, I have some great news… I now have Weekenders available in orange or light blue. I’ve been out of stock all year, so don’t miss out on these yo-yos. I think Weekenders set the bar for metal modern responsive yo-yos. They are light, snappy, and easy to stall.

I have 11 available in classic orange and 11 more available in a new light blue color that I think looks fantastic. These colors remind me of the classic Bolt colorways.

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How to get an exclusive Superblack edition of a Weekender, Shawn Exploder, or Bolt II yo-yo

Many of y’all may not know this, but the PopCast Yo-Yo Vlog is a crowdsponsored yo-yo show. It’s made possible with the help and support of my patrons on Patreon.com/docpop (shout out to John Anderson, Taka from Spingear, and the rest of my sponsors on Patreon). As a special thanks for their support, I offer my patrons a 10% coupon code and access to a virtual yo-yo club each month.

I also offer an exclusive “Superblack” colorway to my Patreon backers whenever possible. The Superblack editions are yo-yos that are laser etched before they get anodized. The end result is a subtle black-on-black logo that looks super rad.

I’m currently offering Shawn Exploders, Weekenders, and Bolt Part IIs in this Superblack color. If you’d like to get your hands on one of these special editions, sign up for the Patreon for as little as $2 a month. This will get you a 10% off coupon and access to this post where you can buy the Superblack yo-yos.

Superblack Bolt Part II (photo by Shawn Garcia)
Superblack Bolt Part II (photo by Shawn Garcia)
Superblack Shawn Exploder with complimentary yo-yo stand

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Responsive 5A Workshop livestream on Youtube tomorrow

Iā€™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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Trick Battle: Me VS Ed

This month was 5A May, the time of the year where yo-yoers celebrate the wonders of using a yo-yo with a counterweight attached to the end. I released a special episode of my PopCast yo-yo vlog, a 3D file for a counterweight, and a bunch of videos on Instagram, but I also took part in a “battle” with Ed Haponik on a livestreaming app call Livee.

Ed and I both competed using responsive yo-yos with counterweights attached to them. The crowd voted and I won! It was great to chat with Ed afterwards and I’ve been really stoked to see how quickly he’s learned 5A and carved out his own unique style.

You can watch the video here.

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Responsive 5A workshop streaming on Livee tomorrow

Word up, y’all. Steve Brown has been working with the folks at Livee, a live-streaming app for iOS, to do a series of 5A workshops all week long. I’ll be teaching a Modern Responsive 5A workshop tomorrow at 5pm PST (8pm EST) and I hope you can make it. If you have the app installed, I believe you can click this link to find the stream.

I’ll try to do a screen recording for later viewing which I may post on Youtube later if it feels like good enough content.

If you can’t make it, or just want to get a headstart, I have a big playlist of Modern Responsive Counterweight tutorials on Youtube. You can watch those here.

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An Interview With Jeremy Park From Zip Line Strings

The Day Tripper is a new yo-yo I’m releasing this week with Zip Line Strings. To celebrate I wanted to share this recent Q & A video I did with Jeremy in his home studio. Thanks to everyone who contributed questions.

I’m still planning on releasing a new episode of PopCast that is all about “redirects” with modern responsive yo-yos, but there was an error with the footage I shot on Sunday, so I’ll have to reshoot it all sometime this week. I hope to have it up before the yo-yo launches.
The Day Tripper will be available on DoctorPopular.com AND ZipLineStrings.com at 5pm PST this Friday, January 15th. Price will be $85 USD.

Patreon members, don’t forget to use your 10% discount code when checking out!