What am I doing with my life
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Holy damn that’s so good.
But I only heard this in my head
Song says 15.
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I swear at times I felt like I was Scotty from the new Star Trek reboots and the Yo-yo was stationary in space and the string was just moving around it.
That was impressive.
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Wish I could like this comment twice.
The yoyoing was incredible but I imagine professional yoyoers getting younger and younger and careers getting shorter in the future. There will be no way anyone can compete unless they are totally devoted starting at age 3.
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I don’t think that kids training regimen to get to that level is quite as intense as you’re imagining
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Lmao that horizontal Brent stole, I love how the crowd goes wild for every bind, binds ftw
Big binds from small people are apparently the fad in Korea.
I’m about it.
Anyone know the yoyo he used?
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actually quite the contrary, i’ve heard this kid has an INSANE practice regimen. It shouldn’t be that hard to believe because people usually don’t just not miss like he does…
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I think it’s a Turning Point Anubis
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i like how i was psyched by all of the technical stuff, but the audience was psyched by the fact that he could bind.
Holy crap where did this kid come from? Lol wonder where he’ll place in worlds.
Proof that the Asian way is the best way:
He got 2nd at Korean nationals the last 2 years and I think I remember seeing his name somewhere at worlds last year(I could be thinking of someone else though) so he’s been around. Most Americans just don’t really follow Asian players or competitions though
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I was half-joking about starting at age 3. But either way, don’t you think that we have yet to reach the peak in yoyo technical skill? In other words, the top players of the future might be able to wipe the floor with the top players of today, as far as pure technique goes.
PS Creativity is another story - as exemplified by the song choice… 11 year old kid yoyoing to a song about a 15 year kid smoking and drinking… the cognitive dissonance of the whole thing is really jarring, hahaha.
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Koreans and Japanese don’t exactly have the greatest english, they just pick it because it has a catchy melody with sufficient cues. Kpop songs are similarly popular in asian contests with people that don’t speak Korean. Lots of people expressed dissatisfaction at Hajime’s song choices for his older Worlds FSes similarly.
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I do think the ceiling will keep going up but I also think it will also become easier and easier to reach a high level as well due to more resources being put out.
What was world class 10-15 years ago can probably be achieved by a talented individual in under 2 years nowadays. Not necessarily because discipline and competitiveness is going up an insane amount but because there’s just more resources and knowledge now. Overall I think getting to a world class level and reaching “complete” yoyo mastery(whatever this entails at any given time as the meta evolves) has and will always take about 3 years of heavy dedicated meaningful practice and maybe some mentorship and guidance. It’s just a matter of who’s willing to put in that practice.
Also I could be wrong but I do think there is an overall general ceiling though for how good you can get competitively and I think we’re getting somewhat close to it as competition routines are getting more and more optimized and we get closer to the physical ceiling of what humans can even perform. Routines will probably become more optimized in 5-10 years but I’m not sure if it’s possible to get THAT much better than Evan or Takeshi or Shion currently are
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The anomaly with the Korea scene is that most of the champions there are YOUNG. It isn’t really like that anywhere else in the world. I would argue that this is due to Korea’s schooling system, which afaik gets extremely competitive once you enter high school years. Then, once you’re 19, you have to devote 2 years of your life at some point around that time to be in the Korea military. Pretty much it’s just difficult for older teenagers/young adults to devote time to yo-yo, and once you go through that 2 years in the military you probably end up losing interest in yo-yo in most cases.
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Pretty much this. It’s competitive from the middle school examinations to get into a good highschool and depending on parents could be from earlier if they are sent to cram schools from an earlier age.
Army has that effect also but it depends on vocation inside the army as well, Singapore has seen a similar phenomenon with some of the champs disappearing and just losing touch/drive after spending two years in compulsory service.
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What’s interesting to think is that there could be an optimum age window for achieving max skill in yoyoing. My hunch is that it could be pretty young. So then things could line up well where a country like Korea that pushes their kids at a young age due to school requirements could produce such advanced young players.
Of course here I just mean advanced skill in terms of speed and accuracy - pure physical skill - that can dominate contests.