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[rusty]

Hi

I am trying to learn regenerations, but have some problems. I have been watching a video by Chris Neff on different regenerations and videos on snap start to start the top. I am using a Sidewinder (I am practicing indoors, so no metal tips) and I mostly practice with snap start.

What I wonder is how much should the spin top move in a circle when I am doing the roller coaster. In the regeneration video by Chris Neff it is not always moving a lot from side to side as I can see. I find it hard to make the spin top move in circles, should I give the spin top the circle motion when catching it with the string or by moving my hands? When I practice some times the spin top seems to stay horizontal and other times it just starts tipping more and more, but I have only done three or four regenerations in a row so far.

Do you have tips for other fixed plastic tipped tops that might be better to learn with? (I have ripcords, an imperial and a Saturno)

[ta0]

Both regenerations and snap start are difficult tricks to learn so, even if you already have a good snap start to the hand, you are making your life more difficult by combining the two.  I would strongly suggest you start with a boomerang while you are learning roller-coaster. I will admit that if you can keep the top going after a snap start you know you are regenerating, and that would be a good feedback. But I have not heard of anybody learning their first regen from snap starts.

It is not really necessary that the spintop does a circle: you can roller-coaster with the top precessing in one place. But a small circle gives you more control on how much the top leans. The important thing is to pull when the tip of the top is pointing in the "third quadrant", between nine and six o'clock.

The sidewinder works much better with a metal tip than a plastic tip. If you need to use a top with a plastic tip the ripcord is a better choice.

Keep at it, you will get it. After learning to rc you will ask yourself why did you find it so difficult in the first place.

[Neff]

Good stuff ta0

Also know that you need to keep the tip pointed at the center of the trick.  In other words, when the top is on your right, the tip needs to be pointed towards the left, and vice versa.  When the top is spinning slowly, it will precess (turn) quickly, so the "circle" will be small and fast.  When you do it from boomerang, the top precesses slowly, so the "circle" needs to be big and slow.

Thanks for watching my video.  My roller coaster in that video is not the prettiest, I should fix that.

[rusty]

Does the top regenerate both when I let the string slip through the fingers of my non-throwhand and when i pull up with my throwhand to pop it up?

[John Buechele]

It does regenerate both as it runs along the string and when you pop it off the string, but more spin is generated by the pop off the string than by the top running down the string.

[ta0]

As John said, both parts of the roller coaster seem to contribute. I suspect in the roller coaster the running on the string is more important at slow speeds (e.g. to resuscitate a top that is about to die) while the pull contributes more at high speeds.

[John Buechele]

For some reason I knew I was going to say it backwards. 

[the Earl of Whirl]

John, I don't think what you said was backwards.  ta0 is just pointing out what I have long suspected..........that regeneration is slightly different when the top is going slower.  That run down the string and that pull are curious things. 

[ta0]

Mike is right, I believe what you said, John, is probably correct for a fast spinning top.

[rusty]

I have gotten a bit better at this now and can do several rounds if I am lucky, but I have some problems with the spin top getting to balanced. When it is a bit tilted to the side it is ok, but if it gets straight it just slips off the string. This is also sometimes a problem when I start with the spin top in my hand and send it out to the side on the string, sometimes it just slips off. Should I create larger circles so it will not slip off or should I try to adjust my circles so it will not balance and get completely straight?

[Neff]

Need more centrifugal force on your circles, in other words get more agrgessive and more right and left motion will keep the top on the string even if it is pointed straight up and down.