How 3A shortened my strings...

Earlier this year, probably in mid March, I got an itch to give 3A a try.

For those that don't know what 3A is listen up: Two long spinning yo-yoes, one attached to each hand, are thrown about and woven into complex mounts and moves whereby the string of each yo-yo are crossed and potentially knotted together on almost every trick. Then once the complicated combination is complete the yo-yoes are separated from each other and returned to the hands. This is not a formal definition of the style but if you ever see any tricks you will understand fully.

From what I am told, and from experience now, the strings of 3A yo-yoes should be right around 6 inches shorter than a player would usually play 1A. This will give quite a bit more control over the two yo-yoes at the same time.

Now, I hadn't given it too much of myself until recently. A friend and teammate of mine, Alex Curfman, taught me how to do a kink mount and I was happy with that little sample of the 3A style of play. I have given a lot more effort into learning the 3A style of play since the beginning of this month and I feel like I will stick with the style for as long as I can. I have a couple of different mounts down as well as some other fun tricks and my desire to learn more is growing.

This is not the story of my 3A experience, I will tell that story at a later time. This is the story of how 3A has possibly shortened my strings forever.

I was practicing my 3A tricks I have been working on and I decided to throw some 1A with the shortened strings. To my surprise I had a lot more fluidity with my movements. The same tricks I would do with a normal string, cut to my belly button, were almost seamless and smooth and I was told that if I took away the yo-yo I looked like I had perfected some Tai Chi routine. Was it coincidence? I have been practicing different moves a lot lately. So, does it really make a difference?

The short answer is I don't know. Sorry, if you thought I had discovered some principle of physics where a shortened string can allow a player to do more than one who uses a full length string. For me though, it seems to work wonders. I will stick with it for now, capture it in action on video and share it with you.