So you want to be a chopsticks superstar.

[drewtetz]

It totally sucks that there aren't any good introductions to chopsticks besides The Fidget. Not that The Fidget isn't a great video - it's one of my favorites of all time - but it's not exactly the easiest to learn from. So I'm going to do my best to start putting out some easy-to-follow chopsticks tutorials.

We'll start with the super-basic.

Lesson 1: The thumb mount. Invented by Kohta, greatly expanded by Jason Lee, Spencer Berry, and many other yo-yo pioneers, and the foundation for modern chopsticks style.

Okay, so this mount is mostly just practice. But hey, it doesn't hurt to do a tutorial anyways... and now you'll know at least two directions to go with it.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/CesjKNmZwUA&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/CesjKNmZwUA&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0</a>

downloadable mp4
yoyoing

Many of you will already know this mount, and those of you that don't can probably figure it out by taking a look at it. But it is an annoying mount to learn, simply because you aren't used to the motion and it's a really small space to work with. You won't be wanting the BigYo here - grab a Squirrel, kick back, and absorb the knowledge.

Basically, what you're going to do is throw a trapeze and then bounce the yo-yo over your thumb. This creates another loop of string, and ta da! The thumb mount. Think of this, if you will, as a mini-trapeze-brother, with the thumb taking the place of your right hand's finger. The key to this is to PRACTICE. Other than that, PRACTICE.

But seriously. Real tips? Uhh, don't try to pop it. That's just awkward. The best thing to do is the dismounting motion I do in the video, but stick your thumb out, so it naturally kinks over your thumb and lands in the gap. It'll come to you, I promise. My sympathies if you have small fingers.

The simplest trick to do from there is probably to just flip it over in a little somersault around your thumb. The fancy dismount is to do that, move the slack off of your finger, and pinwheel out. Whee!

The pull-out is a touch more complicated, but not much. After you get the thumb mount, swing the yo-yo (lightly) towards the right side of your body. Now's the fancy part - getting your throwhand involved. Push your right finger into the bottom string to dismount the yo-yo and send it out towards your left. It should naturally wrap around the left finger into a double or nothing. wowie! another mount!

...yeah.

This installment may seem a little elementary, but it's all very important stuff! Learn well, my children! And don't be afraid to experiment - nobody wants to see these old tricks, after all.

Next installment: the chopsticks double or nothing, featuring chopsticks ripcord. Any requests, suggestions, or contributions are appreciated. thanks for reading.

[Kyrok]

I'm going to go practice this.
Thank you, Tetz.

[YoYo NY]

Drew Tetz, you're a good man. We met a World's and you taught me blue line rolls. I had two pink speed makers. Thanks to your 3A for dummies, I'm rocking velvet rolls, flourish, mach 10, kink fu, barrel rolls, butterfly and still working on more. Thanks for the chopsticks stuff, you're a great asset to the yo-yo community.

[knowonecanknow]

thanks man, cant wait to go start this.

[YoBemis]

 

Duncan = Love!
Drew Tetz = True Love!
This video = Awesome!

I should have been a math major. 

-Bemis

[yozilla]

I thought my hands were too small to do chopsticks. After reading this i could do it within 5 minutes. Awesome, Awesome stuff Drew, can't wait for the next installment

[David_Ung]

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Thanks for making this, Drew.

Hopefully my small hands don't get in the way in the other chapters.

[jakebullock]

HASHBROWNS CHOPSTICKS TUTORIAL!

so this is a combo that i suppose is not technically chopsticks, because it involves the use of your middle finger. i guess you could use your index finger, but it would be really hard and awkward and stupid.

yoyoing: http://www.yoyoing.com/videos/play.php?vid=3299

youtube:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/pZomN4Z_pqs&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/pZomN4Z_pqs&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0</a>

ok, it's easy.

step one: using chopsticks, eat your yo-yo.

step two: do the trick.

just kidding.

first, you basically just dismount a trapeze and get the yo-yo draped over your middle finger. get comfortable with that, because you'll be using your middle finger a lot. i would actually recommend learning the tricks drew posted using your middle finger too, just because it will help. i'm a freak and i use my middle finger rather then index for all chopsticks tricks i do. probably a bad habit to get into, so learn both ways.

the next part of the trick involves a bunch of string in the gap, so it sorta has to be done quickly. just pop right in then out again. if you sit there too long you lose spin and LOSE THE GAME SON. GAME OVER.

the next part is hella awkward and will take lots of practice. just like swing it right in there, move your hand in a vertical upward motion to get some momentum and just do it. i dunno.

swing around some more, end up in a single wrapped trapeze on your thumb. unwrap the trapeze and get ready for the last part of the trick.

the last part of the trick is really similar to the first move, except instead of thumb and middle finger, it's thumb and index, middle and um that third finger. this opens the whole mount up nicer so you can swing back and get into a GT. hard to explain, just watch and you should understand.

any questions just let me know. good luck and have fun and stuff.

jake

[DavidA]

Thank you soo much Jake!  Anyone able to host it for downloading?

David A.

[MagL33To]

This thread inspired me to create an awesome trick. I loves it alot

Thanks!

[Colin]

Duncan = Love!
Drew Tetz = Drue Love!
This video = Awesome!

I should have been a math major. 

-Bemis

[drewtetz]

Thanks a lot for posting, Jake! I'm super-happy to see that this could turn into an actual big resource. One Mr. Brewster has also expressed interest in joining the crusade, and I'm frankly stoked about that.

Also, anyone notice how damn smooth Jake's gotten with that combo? Geez.

Anyways. The new one from me is a chopsticks version of the double or nothing. Word.

Lesson 2: The Double or nothing, chopsticks style. This is a logical follow-up to the thumb mount, much the way that double or nothing follows trapeze-brother. Basically, you throw a trapeze, then it wraps around your thumb and mounts on your pointer again. Now picture your thumb as your right hand and your finger as your left. Bam! It's a double or nothing!

You can do a ton of stuff out of this. I did a real basic pullout thing and a ripcord, but it can get pretty intense. Adam Brewster even does chopsticks cold fusion. Zonks!

yoyoing
download

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/bAAWJxQFM2M&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/bAAWJxQFM2M&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0</a>

As I said above, this is pretty much the double or nothing... ON ONE HAND.  Don't worry, it's simple.

Throw a breakaway like you're going to a trapeze, but overshoot slightly so it starts to wrap around your finger. Hold your thumb out and let it start to wrap around that as well. Finally, when it comes full circle and arrives back at your finger, let it mount. Ta da! Simple as that. It's a bit of a tight squeeze at first, and you gotta get used to having it fall a bit farther forward, but it'll come to you in no time. Promise.

To dismount, drop your thumb out and roll out. It looks super-official. Word up.

Or, to expand your possibilities, let's go for another pullout-type thing! This is actually basically the same motion as the last pullout we learned, but it wraps around your fignger so it's a little funky. The way I demo in the video is really fun, but not terribly impressive - mix it up in combos, though, and it's real neat. Jason Lee does some cool stuff with one finger wrapped, check him out for all your chopsticks inspirational needs,or just mix it up yourself. Crazy kids. Back in my day...

*cough cough*

Yeah, it's basically the same as the last pullout. Swing the formation towards your right hand, hit the bottom string. This dismounts the yo-yo, which you should then let wrap around your left hand pointer and mount for a partially wrapped double or nothing. Bounce out and back into the formation. You can get your freestyle on from there or whatever, but yeah, not too complicated if you learned the last pullout.

So you might not be too interested in another boring pullout or the basic somersaults. Fair enough. I promise the next thing is cool.

Chopsticks ripcord. You've seen Jake do a version of it. You've seen Mark do a version of it. You've seen Henry do a version of it.

I have no idea which version this is.

But regardless of that, it's an intermediate level trick and a good introduction to the world of one-handed adaptations of "normal" tricks. First, you get into the chopsticks 2or0 mount. Swing the yo-yo over towards the right, but carry through with it so it actually swings up, around, and over your thumb. This will put the yo-yo in a mount that looks suspiciously like a thumb mount with an extra wrap of string. The yo-yo will have more string in the gap, so if you're playing with a lot of response you might suffer a bit of slowdown or some snagging. The next step is to simply swing the yo-yo towards your right again. The string should naturally (more or less) fall off your finger, which makes everything unmount, but since it's swinging around your thumb anyways it'll put you into what's essentially a normal thumb mount. Bam!

Also, educate yo' self on the original ripcord. Sucka. http://sector_y.yoyoing.com/Tricks/String_Tricks/Ripcord/ripcord.htm

Building! Building! Building! For the next trick, I'm thinking maybe a nice chopsticks 1.5, or maybe getting both hands in on the act. If anyone has any requests let me know. I'm thinking of getting self-indulgent and doing some archery stuff, but I dunno how big the market is for that...

[beverchakus]

this is a great post!

[Bloozboi]

This is great! Thanks you guys for putting this together!

[etienne]

Very nice tutorials, thanks !

[Adam Brewster]

This episode is going back to some of the earliest roots of chopsticks tricks.

The yoyoing site: http://www.yoyoing.com/videos/play.php?vid=3303
Hosted by GReg via Drew: http://yo-yo.org/drewtetz/chopsticks/adammetronome.mov
and at youtube:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/H_dEhiQWhlI&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/H_dEhiQWhlI&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0</a>

Metronome and Kota Watanabe's Thumb Mounts
(It's so old, that before he was known as "KohTa," he went by the alias of "Poo"... and these tricks are from the "Poo" era.)

Metronome is Jason Lee's trick. It was in a few of his older FSs back from the Duncan days. (The Golden Apple FS where he's wearing the grey hoodie sticks out in my mind most notably)

With Metronome, you'll want to take the wonderful mount that has inspired us for eons (since the old days of lesson one!) and just sorta hold it there... in the meantime, go ahead and wrap the string around your hand (kinda like a magic drop... but just more obnoxious and INYOURFACE)... from there, pop the yoyo into that little hold on the front string.

From here, you'll do a cross between an unwrapping motion, and a motion where you dump the yoyo to the outside of your throwhand. (READ: The string coming from your middle finger) From here, it'll slide back into a trapeze... and you can repeat the trick as desired - or of course... you can do the right thing and do something original... just using these ideas as a base.

For Kota's Thumb Mount's... well, the key here is just practice. At first, it might even be MORE awkward than it looks - but if it's any hope, this is the trick that I think develops more chopsticks skill/control than any other trick that enters into the chopsticks realm. This is quite literally THE trick that got me into chopsticks... I would do it all day... and it's still a huge inspiration for a bunch of my tricks. (and funnily enough, if you look closely you can see how this is based off of Metronome)

The "simple" version is just going back and forth into and out of the green triangle mount on your throwhand. (One other funny little bit of trivia - If you've ever seen the SuperYo Kickin' Tricks VHS/DVD Bill DeBoiseblanc does a trick called William Tell which has a lot of similar concepts at play - concepts which *I* personally believe have a lot more room for growth) And even though it's the simple version, it'll take some time to get used to the motion... however, if you're having trouble, don't lose hope - it's definitely one of the most fun and satisfying tricks out there.

For the full version, just keep up with the back and forth for a bit, then when you're ready, get that same hand/string wrap from metronome ready, and pop the yoyo from the Green Triangle into the hold on your throwhand. However, UNLIKE Metronome, with Kota's trick, you'll actually POP the yoyo back into the Green Triangle, instead of sliding/dumping out.

The last trick starts with Kota's mount and dismount, but then has the yoyo swing out and to the front of the string, then as it finishes its first orbit, it'll swing around the back of the string, and land in the space between your fingers and thumb. After it mounts into this position, you'll swing it back around, and land in the same place coming from the other direction... Once again, you'll swing back into the hold, but while having reversed the direction (once again). Now... If you've gotten this far, I'm sure that you've noted how you can repeat these previous few steps as much as you like... but if you wish to dismount with the shown exit from the video, you'll want to be in the most recently listed mount before attempting the dismount.

WHEW! That's confusing, but we're almost done... The last thing to do is to swing the yoyo from your thumb/finger hold, back out like you have previously, but this time, instead of landing on both strings, you'll just land on the front string - this will provide you with a Green Triangle - just like the beginning of the trick. From here, you exit as you like - or continue into whatever else you desire...

AND that's it. Despite all the text, it's more simple than you might expect (and while simple doesn't mean easy - it's at least simple haha).

Enjoy!

[Crownrocks]

This is becoming a sticky worthy post.

Thank you.

[Colin]

I just learned my first chopsticks trick and now im expanding they are a LOT of fun!

[drewtetz]

Lesson 3: Chopsticks 1.5. This turned out being REALLY LONG. Sorry all. It's probably easy enough to learn from the video, but if you wanna get in-depth, believe me... we get in-depth. Baby.

A logical follow-up to the 2or0 and the thumb mount, right? Sadly, it's really hard to think of beginner level tricks from it. If you learn the mount, though, I'm sure you can have some fun coming up with your own stuff. With those three under your belt you should have gained enough experience to move around a bit.

The stuff I put is 3 basic ways into it, a roll to 2or0, and a slightly more advanced trick. The last trick I kind of just threw together to give some more concepts to build on, so it's not really meant to be replicated, but whatever.

And just to encourage you again - MESS AROUND WITH IT! Don't just learn what I suggest and do that over and over. Nobody wants an army of Drew Tetz kids, his tricks are ugly.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/idMl8TmMAvk&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/idMl8TmMAvk&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0</a>

downloadable mp4
yoyoing

It occurs to me that I put a lot of tricks in this vid. Hrm. Okay, this one might be a bit longer...

First, I show a couple different ways into the mount. As the name would imply, it's basically just a 1.5 mount... in chopsticks. So, the first and most obvious way I get into it is the same way you would get into a 1.5 normally: throw a breakaway, wrap around the finger, start to wrap around the thumb and hit the top string to mount.

Unfortunately, that is also probably the hardest way. So, I perform a simple version of it next, by throwing a trapeze over both my thumb and finger and then popping slightly up and to the right into the top string. I say "pop", but really it's not much of a popping motion. Really, you're turning your whole hand to the side slightly (like you're pouring a refreshing glass of tang) and pushing your thumb down into the string a bit so the yo-yo goes to the side and mounts the string. Yay!

That's better, but there are easier methods still. The next one is probably the second easiest ever: you just throw a trapeze over your thumb, do a lindy loop, and stick your finger in. Bada bing. Actually flows pretty well, too, if you get it smooth.

The final method is my favorite. I dunno where it stands for difficulty, 'cause it's really awkward to learn, but once you get it, it sticks with you much more than the other methods. Pretty sure it was created by Jason Lee - you can see him demonstrating it much more smoothly in Whip's Worlds '04 video. Anyways, you basically do the trapeze over the thumb and finger again, and spread them apart as wiiiide as you can. You're gonna do an underpass with your pointer so that your hand is palm-up and the yo-yo is on a trapeze on your thumb. From there, you flip it up and you're in chopsticks 1.5. You can make your own karate noises here. I know it's impressive. (it should be noted that when Jason does it he focuses more on passing the yo-yo through and less on passing the finger other. I know, I'm a sucker. Whatever. do it how you'd like.)

That's a lot of text on just a mount! Oh, and if you're wondering why I said the "second easiest", it's because Jake told me an even easier way after I finished filming... just do a double or nothing wrapping your finger and mounted on your thumb and then drop the right hand strings. Bah.

Now, for tricks! Uhh, it was really hard coming up with tricks for this mount. I've mostly just used it as the intro to other combos, so I had to improvise a bit, so excuse the poor quality of these... but yeah. You can probably translate most of what you know for normal 1.5 tricks to this mount, and experiment yourself to get even more tricks.

First, let's learn a lil' roll to chopsticks 2or0. This is pretty simple - you might think it's kind of boring, actually. But, it is a nice way to flow into chopsticks 2or0, and it's good to learn as many transitions as you can to be a smooth player. (Lord, who am I to lecture about smoothness? But I digress.) Basically, you get into the 1.5 mount however you please, and then you spread the strings with your thumb and finger. Roll the yo-yo to the left over your finger and land it on the front string. That's all there is to it, really. After that, drop your thumb out, do one roll, and you're in 2or0 ready to kick butt. (Can you tell I'm trying to keep these kid-friendly?)

The next trick is a little more intense, but, not too rough. I think you could probably call it the first advanced technique we've covered so far. To start it off, you get into - big surprise - chopsticks 1.5 mount. From there, you're going to do a pullout type motion. I know, I know, I need to stop doing pullouts, but this time it's interesting - it's all on one hand. To accomplish this, you need to hit the far string on your thumb with your finger. It's easiest to learn it by reaching over with your finger and then rolling your yo-yo to the side, but it looks much smoother when you swing it out and then pull the string out.

After that, let the yo-yo swing out and mount on your right hand finger. This part is borrowed from Jason Lee's phenomenal first combo in Glasslab 06. You're going to dismount from this pseudo-trapeze-bro, and then quickly move your finger underneath the string so it doubles back on itself, and then mount the yo-yo on the thumb in front of the other string. Next, you drop the strings off your right hand. boring step. After that you're gonna tuck your finger in (so it doesn't get in the way) and roll to the left. And you're back in 1.5! Give yourself a pat on the back! I like to roll one more and then roll back to give myself momentum for the next pullout, but that's just me.

Phew! That's... way too much text! I don't even want to proofread it! But I hope you guys at least check out the vids, you know, if you want. big ups to everyone who's helped out with the thread here.

[RSJ]

Two tricks by me:

"Can o' Pringles" Simple chopstick comob incorporating a mount that involves a twist around the thumb, I think it's neat =P

"The Clumsiest Ninja" Another trick with a thumb wrap, that centers on a whip. Named because even though I've made up a few different mounts/methods for it, I always do it clumsy and it looks like crap. Hopefully someone out there will make it not look sucky. If you guys want I can show you the similar alternative mounts that you can whip in the same way, but this is the simplest.

http://www.ricks.preytor.com/mark132/RSJChopstickTutorial.mov
Thanks to Mark/Ricks/Preytor for teh hosting.

Any feedback on the tricks is, as always, greatly appreciated =D