Super Orbit and Orbit reminds me of the cowboy roping trick the Butterfly and Ocean Wave. The analogy is perfect: one trick is done in front of you and the other is the same trick but done in a large spectacular way all around your body.
I wonder: can you do Super Orbits with a regular size Mexican plastic top?
Tao wrote: “I could be wrong, but I know of at least one player who left top spinning because it was going to be ‘learning orbits or go bust’. It was bust.”
What a surprise to read that. It really hit home because several months ago I was finally able to “get” Orbits. The start of January this year I decided to learn the trick and it took me many months to finally nail it down. At one point I actually thought I would never get it. Despite its simple looking appearance it’s one of the hardest top tricks I ever learned. So I can really understand those that got “busted”.
Anyway, I thought I would describe what I went thru so that others who have given up or who are struggling with it might find something here that will help them learn the trick. Despite the forums and all the videos on the internet showing people doing Orbits, it’s still difficult to figure out what is really happening. You could blindly follow the videos, which show but doesn’t explain, and hope you’ll eventually figure it out. But it would probably take a very long time to get it, assuming you didn’t get burned out first. The weird thing is that when I first started to learn Orbits in January I could do a few of them with the 5” Watts top but not any other top. But I desperately wanted to do it with a regular toy top and only ended up getting severely frustrated.
So I emailed a few top (pun intended) people asking advice on how to do Orbits hoping to save some practice time. Each time I learn a new trick I dread the weeks and months I know I will waste trying to reinvent the wheel. Plus the looming possibility of getting burned out before you get it (which seemed what happened to the “learn or bust” people Tao mentioned). Anyway, I only got one response back telling me to make large circles (thanks Alan).
On hindsight (the really fun part where afterwards you look back and see what you could have done differently to shorten the learning period) I realized the really confusing part, which makes the trick so difficult to learn, was there are really (for me) two different tricks: Orbits and Magnetic Wire. On the internet I noticed the two names are used interchangeably and loosely. To me not making that distinction makes learning and understanding the trick very, very confusing. Again it’s actually two tricks: Orbits and Magnetic Wire. But Orbits are harder to do. Just check out the YouTube videos. Some have argued that they are the same trick. That is true topologically. But you can see that the top in MW mostly goes up and down and in Orbits it mostly go in a horizontal circle. The execution is different: when you do Orbits correctly the top should be pretty much upright all the time. But when the top slows down (because as a newbie you couldn’t generate enough spin or for other reasons) it wants to go horizontal and that’s where the Magnetic Wire starts (which on hindsight was why in the beginning I was able to do a few on the clunky, heavy 5” Watts top). Magnetic Wire is like Drumbeat but without the pop-ups and where the spin is generated by giving the top a “pump” when it’s down/ horizontal and additional spin added afterwards as it falls and rolls (spin generated)down the string where the cycle then repeats. Whereas the spin for Orbits is generated by the forward “fling” of the top from your right hand where the top is forced to roll along the string thereby spin is generated (a sort of horizontal pumpless Drumbeat) and additional spin added during the pull back (like the pumping in drumbeat). It might help some to think of Orbits as sort of like a horizontal Drumbeat.
While practicing I came up with a learning aid or tool for learning Orbits that I call the “Orbit Trainer”. You can use it to practice Orbits and save many hours. One of the frustrating problems of learning Orbits is the constantly dropped top and the constant rewinding so you never get enough “flight” time to develop the touch. I’ve attached a photo of the one I used. As you can see, it’s just a sliding weight on a nylon string. You can use any object that can slide smoothly on the string; the smoother it slides the better. I used two round magnets with holes that I happen to have on my refrigerator door. You could easily just go to the hardware store and get a brass ring. I used two magnets to approximate the weight of a plastic top. Since the weight is threaded onto the string it doesn’t drop off the string like a top and you don’t have to rewind anything so it saves a tremendous amount of time. You just twirl the weight around just as if you were doing Orbits with the top. It also works just as well for practicing Half Orbits. The feel and motion are practically identical to doing Orbits with a top. You can easily get a feel of where on the string you will be generating spin as you twirl the sliding weight around because you’ll feel the extra friction where the string is rubbed the hardest which is where the spin would be generated. And just as important: you use it to practice making consistent circles, large ones above and smaller ones below. Be warned that it still won’t be easy to transfer the motions right away onto the spin top (that’s where the bearing top comes in!). But it will definitely give you the correct idea of what it should feel like when doing it with a real top.
Next, after practicing with the Orbit Trainer, I practiced with a bearing top to get the feel and develop the consistency in making the circles using a real top instead of a weight. In my case I used an old Yoyo Jam Bearing top. I think I read in one of the forums that you should not use a bearing top to learn Orbits because you will pick up bad habits because the motion is not the same as for Orbits with fixed tip tops. It didn’t work that way for me. I used a bearing top to get used to doing consistent circles and it’s easier than a fixed tip because the fixed tip top will fall off quickly after a few “twirls” because at that point you haven’t learned enough to generate enough spin (or maintain the existing spin) to keep it going. Of course, the bearing top will eventually lose all its spin. BUT I also discovered that as the bearing top slows down I naturally and desperately tried to keep it going and began to recognize that I was using the same identical motion as for Magnetic Wire!!! So I knew I was on the right track for at least the MW trick. It’s an exciting feeling knowing that you are on the verge of getting something.
Next, practice with a larger fixed tip top; something like a 3” or 4” top. With a fixed tip you can generate spin. Be prepared when practicing Orbits that as the top slows down you will naturally go into MW. It’s only after you get more experience regenerating and maintaining spin that you should be in “Orbits” for longer and longer periods of time.
Finally, you transfer what you learned to the small plastic tops. I normally don’t play much with the larger tops or the bearing tops because they seem more like juggling props rather than toys. For me, part of the charm of tops has always been that they are simply cheap toys you can get in a toy store.
To summarize, here are the steps I went thru to learn Orbits:
1. Practice Orbits with an “Orbit Trainer” (or just use regular size top if you’re a masochist)
2. Practice with a bearing top to get feel of making consistent circular “orbits”
3. Practice with a large 3” or 4” fixed tip hollow top
4. The “fling” and the “pull back” to generate spin, Orbits to Magnetic Wire
5. Transfer what you learn to a regular size top (unless you prefer playing with larger top)
The “fling” and the “pull back”. The Pullback is very much like the “pump” in Drumbeat. I think of Orbits as something like a horizontal Drumbeat. Another way of thinking about it is that you pump back up when the top is circling below and fling forwards (i.e. away from you) and downwards from above (using gravity to generate spin as it rolls down the string) from the right hand. Actually, the word “fling” is too strong but I don’t know how else to describe it, “letout”/ “throw”/”launch”?
I have to mention that I met Gustavo towards end of January and he gave me some advices that were extremely helpful. He saw me trying to do Orbits and knew right away I couldn’t do them and so he tried to show me how it should be done. He got down on his knees and had me stand behind him. Then he did Orbits but he did them high above his head so that from my viewpoint behind him I could see what it would look like as if I was actually doing them myself at chest height. I was immediately impressed by how smooth, slow, and effortless it looked, not at all like a struggling Magnetic Wire. He told me the best top to learn Orbits was about a 3” hollowed out top, which was what he used when he showed me. Unfortunately I ignored that advice because at the time I didn’t own any hollow tops of that size (unlike most of you, I’m not a collector) and so I tried doing it with a regular size top without success and thereby wasting another couple of weeks. Finally I got hold of a fixed tip Neptuno top from which I finally nailed the trick. A month or two later I bought a Quick Silver Hybrid with a C tip and regretted I didn’t get it earlier because that was even easier and better! In fact, using the QSH I was finally able to duplicate Gustavo’s slowness and smoothness when he did Orbits. It was a very satisfying feeling!
He also emphasized the “flinging” (my word) of the top forward, but I was already familiar with that from another regeneration trick I first learned many years ago. By the way, I think it helps to think of Right Orbits as “flinging” and Left Orbits as “pulling”. Again, I think the word “fling” is too strong. You “throw” the top forward and downward so it increases spin as it rolls on string.
This sequence I described is how I went thru to finally learning the trick; how I was able to pick something out of here and there and finally putting them all together. Of course, without doubt the best and fastest way to learn the trick is to find somebody to teach it to you in person and correcting your mistakes right away or at least watch someone do it in live just as I watched Gustavo.
I am very interested in other people’s experience in learning Orbits and how they were finally able to master the trick. The impression I have is that everyone was easily able to learn Orbits except me, which I guess is probably incorrect. So for those that can already do Orbits/Satellite I’m curious how you learned it. Did you go through the same experience? Did it take you weeks or months? Did someone show you? Did you start with a large top? Start with half Orbits? Bearing tops?
Also, I don’t think you need to learn half orbits before doing Orbits. Although I briefly played with half Orbits before getting the Full Orbits, I got the Full Orbits before fully trying the others. And I don’t think learning Bastones (Suns) is a prerequisite either since they are different tricks. Bastones has its own peculiar difficulties that are not found in and unrelated to Orbits. I found Suns harder to learn but I learned it in much shorter time than Orbits.
You might find this is incredibly long winded and I’m sure many will be overwhelmed by all these words. If so, here is the ultimate bottom line: the biggest mistake for me (your mileage may vary) was trying to learn Orbits using a regular size plastic spin top. Start with a large top. If you keep at it, you will get it.
