Thread: Which yoyo for 9 year old?

Hi,

My son has bought a PowerYo Black Widow and has had real problems with it... it won't return after sleeping. He wants to do simple tricks... any advice as to which YoYo he'd be best to try? Big thanks.

Hi,

My son is desperate to get into yo-yoing and has just bought a PowerYp Black Widow. Unfortunately, he's having major trouble with getting it to return after sleeping despite trying all sorts of flicks/twitches!...

Is this a decent yoyo and if not, what can you recommend please?

The reason the yoyo won't return is because it's "unresponsive." In order to get it back up he must learn the bind return.

You certainly could get a different yoyo. However if what you need is for the yoyo to return on a tug, all you need to do is apply a drop of oil to the bearing. Oil actually slows the bearing down increasing the ease of getting the yoyo to return with a tug. After your son progresses he wont want the yo to return with a tug any longer. He will learn to "bind" the yoyo to get it to return. There are many threads on binding!

The thicker the oil the less you need. A very small amount of the following oils work well for yoyos: 3in1, remington gun oil, trumpet oil, and yoyo jam thin lube. There are other oils as well. I think most of us have tried some very unusual oils over the years.

It takes a small amount, a drop or less. There are numerous threads on how to clean and lube a bearing properly.

I'm not certain your goal is to purchase another yoyo, but kids (and adults) always can use another yoyo!

If you decide to purchase another yoyo we will be glad to recommend our favorites for learning. I have often used YoyoFactory Velocity, Spinstar, and YoyoJam ProJam, DarkMagic2, LynFury, Kickside, and others as well, to instruct new yoyoers. There are so many great choices, and I did forget to mention the Journey? It's a great yoyo too.

Good luck and let me suggest getting a yoyo for yourself. It's a very awesome experience to yoyo with kids! (Not only would it be an awesome experience, you would be so coooool! Coolest parent ever! You know you want to be cool so, DO IT!)

Regards

The Black Widow comes in a little light at 58g (We use metric to measure yoyo's). Most good performance yoyo's weigh in between 63 and 71g with the majority being in the 65-67g area. After reading a review it seems like the skill level will be two low for him in a couple of months. I suggest on of YoyoJam's plastic models, because they are a little bit more and offer a wider variety of tricks, due to there adjustable gap and easy upgrading.

Your son will also go through string relatively fast. Don't be surprised if he's changing the string every couple of days. You can buy extra string right here at Theyostoretoo.com. I suggest a pack of a hundred. It may seem like overkill, but I change those strings every day.

To make it responsive you will want a thick lube (you will have to go through the YoyoJam pages) of some sort.

This may seem like a lot, but it's worth it.

Hi yoyomum, welcome to the forum!

It looks like Plasticwhip and Skitrz have got you covered with advice on oiling the bearing to get tug response, or learning to bind as an alternative. I don't have any experience with the Black Widow, but it sounds like a pretty good choice to get started with. Plasticwhip has you covered on recommendations there too (He posted as I was writing this). :)

I've got two kids, 7 and 12, that I'm teaching to yoyo. Playing with skill toys makes for great family time! Good luck, and let us know if you have any questions!

Wow!

Thanks for that... we will try this after school x

In lieu of that, lube the bearing with some 3-in-1 oil. That will help it return also.

Will olive oil do or is this yo-sacrilege?!

I'd probably not use any vegetable type oil. Fishing reel, gun oil or musical instrument oil work well if you have those. You can get 3-in-1 oil at the hardware store, or sewing machine oil. Also most hardware stores sell a product called Synco Super lube. It's a teflon based oil that comes in a small tube. Looks like a pen.