In this article we will explore the different types of yoyos, the different tricks styles, and potentially find the best style yoyo for you to start off with.

First, we will explore the different shapes and types of yoyos. There are three different shapes, these are imperial, modified and butterfly.

Imperial Yoyo This is the most thought of yoyo shape, but in fact is the least used yoyo shape. Due to its shape this makes it great for learning how to control a yoyo, but not so good with string tricks as it doesn’t have a long sleep time (once thrown, how long it will spin for).

Modified Yoyo This shape was commonly used in the early era of yoyoing, and the most popular yoyos sold to this day are this shape. Their slightly curved edges make them easier to perform tricks with, due to less resistance on the string.

Butterfly Yoyo Due to this yoyo wide shape, it has made the more complicated string tricks more possible. When it comes to yoyo competitions, four of the five trick styles are performed with this shape of yoyo.

Types of yoyos

A responsive yoyo is one that when thrown, a slight flick of the wrist will send the yoyo right back into the palm of your hand. This is what most people think off when they think of yoyo’s.

This yoyo is one that requires a little more skill to return to the hand. When thrown you will need to preform a trick called a bind, which will force the string to wrap around the bearing in the yoyo to create friction and force it to wind back up and return to the palm of your hand.

These two types of yoyos come in all three shapes, so when choosing your yoyo look out for whether it’s a responsive or unresponsive yoyo in the description.

Now that we have talked about the different shapes and types, we will touch on the different trick styles there are out there.

There are 5 different main yoyo trick styles 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, and 5A, all these different styles require different skill sets to preform them and are also separate categories at the yoyo competitions.

• 1A - The most competitive style, using one unresponsive yoyo spinning for a long time./
• 2A – Fast paced and high risk of error, this style is considered by some as the hardest style to master. Using two modified shape responsive yoyos performing looping tricks.
• 3A - A two-handed style, this style is performed with two long spinning, butterfly shape, unresponsive yo-yos. This yoyo style is also fast paced.
• 4A – This style of yoyoing is very different from the others, with this one the yoyo is detached from the string. This style of tricks is very common to the diablo, as the tricks involve catching the yoyo on the string. One perk of having the yoyo detached from the string is you can use two yoyos at the same time on the same string! They are butterfly shaped but slightly larger than the average yoyo.
• 5A – Again this yoyo style is slightly different to the first 4, as the yoyo string in this case isn’t attached to your finger but instead has counterweights on the end. This freehand style allows you to switch your hands whilst mid trick. This shape of yoyo is a wider unresponsive butterfly shape.

We have now touched on the main shapes, types, styles, and tricks within the yoyo world. Hopefully the information provided in this blog will help you on your journey to deciding what yoyo to get and what style you’d like to learn.

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