This trick is called Ladder Escape, and it looks like this.
I did an extra Jump Rope at the end.
That is not really part of the trick, but it seems to help it finish nicely.
When you start this trick, what you are going to do, is you are going to start by throwing
the yoyo around your thumb, almost like you are going into a One and a Half Mount.
Instead of going into your One and a Half Mount, what you are to do is push the string
that is on your thumb forward so that the yoyo goes right behind those strings and kind
of over this first finger, but instead of letting it drape over this first finger you
are actually going to hook the string as it comes around.
As the yoyo swings around you are going to twist your finger inward and then point it
forward and then insert your thumb yo open up that loop.
Let me show you that again.
You go over your thumb, behind the strings, you are going to hook your finger down so
that the string goes around it, twist it inward, and the way that I keep this string from wrapping
around my finger like this is I just push it down with my thumb right here, and that
makes it a little bit easier.
The last part of the beginning of the trick is just to mount the yoyo over your first
finger here and then to spread the string apart with your thumb and that creates this
ladder mount right here, which is where the trick begins.
When you do the ladder mount, the yoyo should never stop its motion until it mounts onto
the string over the first finger of your opposite hand.
You are going to have to untwist the string with your yoyo hand while the yoyo is swinging
around, and that can take some getting used to.
Once you have the yoyo in your ladder mount, the next step is you are going to hop the
yoyo off the string over your middle finger on your opposite hand.
Over here what you are going to see is this little gap here in between the string coming
off of your yoyo finger and this bottom string down here.
What you want to do is use the momentum of the yoyo to go up over the strings, and then
down into that hole that you have just created.
Sometimes when you do that, what is going to happen is the yoyo is going to land on
the string coming off of your yoyo hand, just like this, and that is not really a big problem
because you can just move your yoyo finger back and usually the yoyo will just come right
off that string.
If that is giving you a lot of problems you can cheat a little bit and you can grab the
string with your pinky right down here and really just get it out of the way.
That seems to help eliminate that particular problem.
The other thing that you are going to find is, once you get the yoyo into that hole there,
you are now in what I like to call knot land.
Knot land, what that means is, if you were to just drop all the strings right now you
would get a knot in the string.
What makes it even more confusing is that there is a lot of different elements in this
next part of the trick and you may... you are going to be messing up a lot as you are
practicing, most likely, and you may lose track of where that hole is going to undo
the knot.
If that happens, what I suggest you do as you are practicing, is just one or two strings
at a time and make sure that you do not drop the yoyo completely.
Then, you can sort through this and look for the best way to undo the knot.
If you are really patient about that, and make sure you do that then this will make
learning this trick a lot less frustrating.
Once you get through, up and then down through that hole, what you will find is that you
have this string wrapped around your middle finger right here, and there is a little hole
in here.
I suggest you put in your thumb and your first finger, and maybe even your ring finger because
you are going to want to open this hole up.
The yoyo coming down through this hole, it is going to have some momentum to swing towards
the outside of your body.
What you want to do is keep that swinging motion going into a full circle in front of
all the other strings, and then after one full circle you are going to pop it up and
then catch it on the bottom string of that hole that is created with these fingers.
If you are having a hard time hitting that bottom string you can, again, kind of cheat
a little bit.
As it comes around you can hook it with the first finger of your yoyo hand and then set
it on that string and let it off the first finger of your yoyo hand.
That is totally fine, and that might help you get that part of the trick a little bit
easier.
Once you have the yoyo in this mount right here, what you are going to do is bounce it
out towards the dominant side of your body, and you are going to catch the yoyo on the
first finger of your yoyo hand right here.
What you are going to do with that, is you are going to stop the motion of the yoyo and
then toss it around in a full circle, again in a full circle in front of the strings,
just like you did last time.
This circle is going in the opposite direction as when you did it just a moment ago.
You are going to use the momentum of that swing to pop the yoyo up and catch it on this
string right here.
If you look at it, this is the string where you had caught the yoyo before, and then there
is this little kink, and this is the string where you are going to catch it now, coming
off the first finger of your yoyo hand.
The other thing that you want to do is, as soon as the yoyo lands on this string you
want to drop this string off of these fingers, this string that was making this hole that
you used before, you want to drop that string off of these fingers, just like that.
You can see that the only string that you have left on your opposite hand is this string
going around your thumb, and that is the string that went around your thumb at the beginning
of the trick.
When you are working on this part of the trick you want to make sure to make sure to give
it a lot of practice and get it down so that you can do each element without hesitation,
and that will help this part of the trick look as good as possible.
From here you are going to toss the yoyo off of the string towards the dominant side of
your body, and what that will do is tighten up all these strings right here in the middle,
which will allow you to have enough room to mount the yoyo over your first finger on your
opposite hand over here.
What you want to do is pinch the string right here, then drop the string off the thumb of
your opposite hand, that will leave some string over here on your yoyo hand.
What you want to do is take the thumb on your opposite hand and lift this string up that
is right in-between your thumb and your first finger of your yoyo hand.
As you do that you are going to pull down with the thumb of your yoyo hand.
Before, you will remember that the yoyo was mounted on the string right here, so when
you push down with your thumb you are actually going to pull back toward you, and that will
help the string get off the yoyo, which you are going to need for the next part of the
trick.
Now that you have your hands like this, you are going to rotate your hand in towards yourself,
and you are going to insert your fingers into the back of the string right here.
Then you are going to drop the string off your thumb, and while it is falling down you
are going to swing it over your wrist.
You can actually use the momentum of the string dropping off of your thumb to get it to carry
right over your wrist, and then it will be in one nice big motion.
Once you have the strings in this position right here, what you want to do is you want
to take the thumb on your opposite hand and push down onto this string right here just
on the inside of that kink, and that is going to open up this area for you to pass the yoyo
right through.
The string should be sitting on top of your first finger right here, just like this still.
What we have found is that the easiest way to compete the next part of the trick is to
just hook the string with your first finger, just like that.
What you are going to do is... you can lift your elbow up, that seems to open that up
just a little bit more...
you are going to pass the yoyo through that area and then around again in front of the
strings, and then drop the string off of that finger - but you want to do it all in one
motion.
So you just go through, and then drop it on that second pass.
If you have hooked the string the way that we showed you, that is going to make doing
that is going to make that a lot easier to do in one motion.
Once you have passed the yoyo through that area you have exited knot land, so congratulations
on that.
From here you want to take all the fingers on your yoyo hand out of the string, so that
it is just your two thumbs in the string like this.
Then you are going to take the first finger on your opposite hand and lift the string
up.
You are going to pinch the string right here, and that will allow you to have some slack
here.
You are going to drop the string off the thumb of your yoyo hand.
The last part of the trick here, you are just going to want to position this slack right
underneath the yoyo, because you are going to want to drop into it.
The easiest way to do that is to twist your opposite hand forward so that your thumb is
a little bit more forward than it was before.
Then you can also move your yoyo hand forward to get that string into place.
You let go of the pinch and the yoyo will drop right into a Green Triangle.
If you look at that Green Triangle, there is going to be a little extra twist in the
top, that will just let you know that you have done the trick properly.
All you need to do to finish the trick is pop the yoyo out the front and catch it back
onto your Trapeze.
One thing that you will notice is that there is a little bit of an extra twist in the string
right here.
If you are like me, and you don't really like to end tricks that way what you can do is,
you can do a Jump Rope.
You are going to jump the yoyo out the front again, and then do a Jump Rope where you pass
the string from the front of the yoyo to the back and then land the yoyo back on, and you
can see that puts you right back into a Trapeze.
Again just dismount, bring the yoyo back to your hand, and that is Ladder Escape.