Peg top progress log of ortwin and random questions

[ortwin]

Topwise, today it was mainly a Koma day. (wait, ist that covered by the title of this topic? - No idea, anyways...)
I found a rope that works with the Koma that Jim sent to me from Paris a few days ago.
I can do now the Spinner, Spinner to target, Big Scoop, Boomerang and Hacky Top with this Koma.
I kind of enjoy the fact that it does not have to flip over like the other throw tops I have - more intuitive to the simple minded.
I am still struggling now and than with the winding. Probably the rope I use is not optimal in material and structure - sometimes it just falls of the koma.
Also it could be thinner and thereby allow for a longer cord giving possibly longer (more?) acceleration to the Koma. -Comments on this are welcome.
.
Besides koma, I made changes in the Bearing King knock off. I reported earlier that the plastic tip broke off. Now I crazy glued it directly to the plastic body of the top. That means it is now a fixed tip top with a plastic tip. It is now silent and at the same time nice to our floors in the flat. But now it loses its spin quite fast when landing on my hand - probably due to the very rounded tip I guess. Oh well, you can't have everything at the same time.

[ortwin]

Another trick from my goal list I could do for the first time:
Today I was using the koma for the "boomerang under leg".

[ta0]

Somebody is really hooked with the hobby . . .   
There are likely players in Germany that can do some top tricks, but soon you will be able to claim with confidence that you're the best in the country! 

[ortwin]

...
...but soon you will be able to claim with confidence that you're the best in the country! 

Thank you ta0, ... "In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king." 

[ortwin]

Motivated by ta0's comments, I guess, I put in another practice session today.
"Crazy 8" was the trick I could do for the first time now. I used my Trompos Space Saturno Roller for it.
The list of my goals for the bearing top has still a few tricks in it that I could not yet do, not even once correctly:

   
• trapeze
• gyroscopic flop
• corkscrew
• mach 5

Tomorrow I will concentrate on practicing "mach 5" and the "gyroscopic flop".
.

The "trapeze" seems to be easier to do with a koma, or is that just a misconception of mine?

[Texture]

The "trapeze" seems to be easier to do with a koma, or is that just a misconception of mine?

The trapeze should be easier with a koma, since it has a much longer tip to catch the string on. I guess it depends on what part of the top you aim for with the string.

[ta0]

Well, I was forgetting a professional German top player: Jochen Schell. In his act he plays mostly with tops that look similar to Chonkakegomas, although he sometimes does a corkscrew with a spintop. He actually joined this forum as "Schellatti".

[ortwin]

He certainly can do tricks past the corkscrew!
Thank you for pointing that thread out to me. I enjoyed watching the videos and reading  the discussions you had there.

So I certainly won't claim the throne in the land of the blind, although I might be one eyed one of these days. With Jochen Schell we have a two eyed man with a vision far better than 20/20!

[ortwin]

Today I filmed myself doing a boomerang with the wooden top from Rocco.
Happy to say that my first try on camera was successful enough.
https://youtu.be/k4-pPdYrRWg

[ta0]

Solid boomerang!

Who lives in the igloo?   

[ortwin]

...
Who lives in the igloo?   

The "igloo" is a playground toy. Children try to get on top and  have fun in trying it  and even more if they succeed.
Later today I sat my spinning top on the iglu. It spun there quite happily for a long time on the first attempt. Quite surprising given the convex surface contour!
I wanted to make a video of the top spinning on the iglu, it looked kind of cool and it would go with the other video I posted recently where I threw the top on to the spinning carousel on the playground. But on all further attempts the top did not spin for a long time before sliding off. Oh well, at least I got to practice my boomerang. Maybe I succeed tomorrow.

[jim in paris]

Salut Ortwin
Great progress in such a short time !
Don't go too fast   
it took me 6 months to get a clean boomerang,
in 2001 there was hardly any info or help for that matter
Its our friend yochi who went to yoyo worlds in orlando and kidnappned unkle steve for one hour in the hotel lobby and got a master class lesson

Once a spinner always a spinner

Bye
Jim

[ortwin]

Top on "igloo".
https://youtu.be/kYK5-2-PvZ4
.
Since I could again not get a good long spin on the "igloo", here are some snippets of short ones.

[ortwin]

A word of advice needed:
With tricks like "Merry go round", "crazy eight", "pole dancer" and such one wants to land the top on the palm at the end. For that the top needs to be at least a little bit upright still, right? But for me it is often almost horizontal when I am close to the end of those tricks.
The only way around that working for me up to now, is to throw a harder boomerang, get the top upright fast, got through the rest of the steps of the trick fast.
But I feel there should be a way to get the top stand up a bit more when hanging on the string  - just by using string movement. I just can't find the way to do it myself, can anybody understand what I am babbling about?

[ta0]

A word of advice needed:
With tricks like "Merry go round", "crazy eight", "pole dancer" and such one wants to land the top on the palm at the end. For that the top needs to be at least a little bit upright still, right? But for me it is often almost horizontal when I am close to the end of those tricks.
The only way around that working for me up to now, is to throw a harder boomerang, get the top upright fast, got through the rest of the steps of the trick fast.
But I feel there should be a way to get the top stand up a bit more when hanging on the string  - just by using string movement. I just can't find the way to do it myself, can anybody understand what I am babbling about?

On those tricks it's important to synchronize the revolution around the center of the circle with the top's natural precession. This becomes second nature and you never think about it. If you make it revolve faster or slower, the top will lean during part of the revolution.
But if the top is already leaning too much, you can make it stand up by pulling with the string in the direction the tip is pointing. As the top is precessing, this pulling is part of a circular motion. When you learn upside-down merry go round, you'll have to do the opposite and this will become very clear.
Good luck!