A Father's pride?

General Yo-Yo
1

Yet another one of those stories. Grab the barf bags. Better safe than spewing chunks on your keyboards.

Back-story:
I picked yoyo as something to do in May of 2011. Just said to my wife “I’m going to Toys R Us and gonna get something”. Well, three of my kids decide to tag along. I think their motivation was “we can probably get him to get us something”. Yeah, it usually works.

So, I go to the Toys R Us, armed with not a lot of information, but determined to get myself a Duncan Reflex and star this whole yoyo thing. I won’t go into what research I did, but it was very minimal. I get there, and I’m already screwed. Well, not immediately. I have to find the end cap where they have the stuff. When I finally find it, then I’m screwed. They got Yomega there, I wasn’t prepare for that. They have some other generic brand too.

OK, we’re down to colors. Blue Reflex? In stock. On the peg. In my hands. Good. Done. It’s so cheap I decide to get an Imperial. No blue, I get green.

So, my boy decides he wants in on this and picks out a red Yomega Brain. My eldest, a girl, doesn’t want anything to do with this. The younger girl wants in, so I get her a YoBall, which just for infomrational purposes, it was broken within 15 minutes of getting unwrapped at home. The other girl, the one who didn’t go, was 3 months, so clearly she could care less about anything other than eating and pooping, and probably in that order.

OK, skip ahead. I’m having fun and am learning and by this point, so I order DM2 from YYE. When that arrives, the eldest girl decides she wants in on this yoyo thing and is DEMANDING a DM2. Right, like that’s gonna happen. My boy is playing with his brain here and there, but being 4 and a half, well, you can’t expect much, but he tries it now and then, often when I am trying stuff. My girl doesn’t want to use the Reflex, and in the meantime I had picked up a blue Yomega Brain and so she started using that.

Jumping forward again to my 2nd YYE order. These two kids seem to be interested in this, so what to get? At this point, I’ve learned a bit so I can make some informed decisions. I chose three YYF ONE’s. Two in blue, one in black. A blue one had the DVD package, the other blue and the black had the 2 bearings. Of course, extra string too. The motivation: if the kids could do the gravity pull with the Brain, they were ready to move up to a ONE.

My girl got her ONE a month later I think. But after that she’s been a bit inconsistent, but she wants to jump beyond where she should be, which has been frustrating for her. It takes my boy 5 months to get his ONE. This was set back by his mother misplacing his BRAIN for a month, but he finally made it.

So, now we jump to today. Myself, I’m amassing a collection, I’ve got more time to throw an get better. Double or nothing, Mach 5, I’m almost ready for The Matrix. But the past couple of weeks I’ve been trying to have the kids learn something besides gravity pull. The girl has been working on Jamaican Flag, but skipping rock the baby, walk the dog and other precursors. I can’t convince her otherwise. But the boy is learning. Slowly, but he’s 5 now and he’s starting to have a better attention span. He’s got gravity pull, he’s learning to adjust his sleeper by bringing it back and adjusting his throw. Rock the Baby is too much right now but he can walk the dog.

Now, today I have to go to a client’s house to do some computer consulting. He goes with me so I can use the carpool lane, which saved a lot of time. Anyhow, my client has 3 girls. Him and his one trick, he’s impressing the ladies.

I’m not sure if I should be proud or a bit worried. “Yay, he’s 5 and already performing” or “he’s using it to pick up chicks and he’s only 5… isn’t there something fundamentally wrong with that?”

Regardless, this is a fun activity that two of my kids are enjoying.

Oh, regarding the 2 year old with the YoBall that she broke? Well, that was returned and I got this wooden Bear yoyo. She proceeded to beat the two who have yoyos with it. It was taken away as a result. She wanted it back a couple of weeks ago so I gave it back. She again beat the other two with it. However, when she’s not beating the crap out of others with it, she’s trying to do tricks with it. The string is purposely jammed into the axle as this is a real simple old-school yoyo. I think there is potential in there once she can get over trying to beat up everyone.

Yes, this is what the yoyo is about. Fun and sharing.

Enough sharing.

1 Like
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What fun. After I got back into yoyoing several years ago, my son (then 20 years old) came home to visit (he lives on the left coast). After watching me for a few minutes, he decided we should dig out his stuff from the boom. (Brain, Losi daBomb, TurboBumblebee GT) He never got really back into it like me, but he does play once in a while. He got a Journey in his stocking that year. My first daughter, started showing interest a few years ago (then 16) And bought herself a Dragonfly. She messed with it once in a while, but one night about a year ago I hear “DAAAAD, OMG DADDYYYYYYY” so I jump up and fly into her room…and she’s standing there with her Dragonfly hanging in a trapeze. She was so excited. Serious dad moment. That year she went to watch the Georgia States with me, and we got her a Throw Monkey from a vendor there. In her stocking that year she got a pink SpeedMaker with a custom “Hello Kitty” counterweight. (Is it weird or wrong that I now prowl the toy dept, thinking “the head on that figurine is the perfect size” Right now I’ve got my eye on a perfect Ironman figure, waiting to find it on clearance…) Now she’s 19, away at college, and e-mailed me that while she’s home for Thanksgiving I have to teach her about bearing maintnance. I’m so proud.

Yeah, we’re probably making you young guys sick, but let us old guys have a moment here…

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the current best 5a player in the world started out around that age. I think you’ll be ok. :wink:

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Oh I forgot, the eldest girl, 7, pulled off Jamaican Flag yesterday. I forgot that part. She can’t walk the dog, but shes did that one.

The 3rd child, the one with the wood yoyo, does “tricks” with it. Looks more like a tangle of strings, but she thinks they are tricks. I guess she refuses to be left out. At least she hasn’t beaten anyone with it in the past 72 hours. But I hear it’s been misplaced. It wasn’t me!

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we need videos please.

Here is my little one some years back.

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Video? Sorry, that’s one area I’m not willing to go into.

Long story, but there’s issues within my side of the family so protecting the privacy of my family has become something I need to control. it’s not a happy story. I’d share, but I’d have to go into NYYR and break it up due to the 20K character limit. You’ll note I won’t ever use their names or post their pictures. HOWEVER, at the same I respect your decisions as to what you choose to share.

As far as me ever videoing myself, that’s highly doubtful. I’m the “invisible man”. I don’t like attention on me more than is necessary. I like to blend into the background, which is my objective when doing events. I may be running the desk making it all happen, but it’s my job to be as transparent as possible.

Now, regarding your video: Yeah, it’s something like that. Well, kinda. I mean, I think she’s trying to do double or nothing, so I call it trouble or nothing, because she’s either apparently causing trouble or she’s not doing anything.

It would be nice to post up a “family throw photo”. Oh well, stuff is outside my control.

We have to get them started young before they just get totally hooked on electronics being required to entertain them. I like video games and I like my Nintendo DS and other portables an consoles, but my kids have too many “batteries required” toys. I am pleased my kids are trying other things, and despite having access to my games and stuff, are choosing to do stuff like read and the yoyo. Fun doesn’t have to beep or flash or talk back or make video images. Now, having said that, I’m gonna throw my FHZ Pulse today just to contradict everything I just said. Then I’ll give myself a headache from the confusion and take a nap!

Once again I am reminded of what a great decision choosing to take up the yoyo has been. It’s been an amazing inclusion into my life, and now into my kids’ lives, where it may last their lifetime. I’m going to try to push them through the beginner tricks and see if I can get them to bind so I can “upgrade” them for Christmas. They keep eyeing my Dark Magic II, but they aren’t upgrading that far!

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All you gotta do is not show their face. But you do what you gotta do. I won’t fault you for that.

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My boys and I got into yoyo-ing at the beginning of the year (mid Jan sometime I think). We were hooked right away. The boys were picking up tricks pretty quickly, so I tried to make sure I stayed ahead of them so that I could help them out if they needed it.

In June, there was a talent show at school. I asked my 8 year old if he wanted to do it and he said ‘NO WAY!’ This boy was scared to death of doing things in public. I remember him going up with his Sunday School class at church to sing a Christmas song and he just stood there, petrified, the whole time. He wanted no part of this talent show.

But I figured that it would probably be nice if he did the talent show. It would help him overcome his fear of performing in public and he could show off his yoyo skills to his friends. So I told him that if he decided to do the talent show, I would get him a new yoyo that he could use for it (he had been wanting a Counter Attack). It took him a while, but at the last minute, he decided to do it. In fact, the auditions were the following day. He wrote down a list of tricks to do and brought them with him. Now, the audition was him in a room with 3 teachers (that he already knew). But he was still unbelievably nervous. He did a great job though and the teachers really liked him. For the actual show, he put together a routine to music and practiced it as much as he could (the show was 5 days after the audition). He was so nervous the night before that he could barely sleep. I had never seen him so scared of anything.

But he did a great job! The whole school loved it! He had a few mess ups, but he had practiced what to do in case he made a mistake, so he didn’t get flustered.

Here’s his routine:

To see him perform that well considering how nervous he was, and to see how happy with himself he was afterwards…it was awesome stuff.

Now, this year, he’s started having to do oral presentations in school. And he blows through them like they’re nothing (he’s done 3 of them already). He’s gets a little nervous about them, but he’s very confident that he’s going to do well. That Talent Show really helped him out with that. Anyhow, that was one of my proudest Dad moments.

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I just had to comment and say that the Duncan Reflex was my very first yoyo when I got back into the sport.

I want to get another…nostalgia is grabbing hold of me.

I think it’s awesome there are so many other fathers here who have gotten their kids into yoyoing.

I really hope my daughter takes after me. It may be too late for me to be a champ (I’m 24)…but if she’s as determined as I am than I can see her getting far. She’s too young though (18 months)…she does enjoy chasing the yoyo around and she “tries” to make it sleep like I do haha.

I have to be extremely careful around her though. I’ve already hit her in the head (not very hard but hard enough). She likes to bum rush me when I’m going through a combo and by the time I see her I basically have to pull the yoyo up into the air and catch it…usually resulting in a mess of knots and such.

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I wish my dad yoyoed, but he is too ‘old’ for them. :frowning:

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I’m almost 40. I’m not too old. I started when I was 39, earlier this year. I’m not 40 yet, but it’s not that far in the distant future for me.

Then again, I earn my money by doing what I equate to be play.

You’re never too old!

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Tell him that!

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I feel so much better having taken up the yoyo. While age is a phyiscal thing, there’s a lot of age that is in the mind. If you think you’re old, you’re old.

In my case, my body is telling me “dude, you can’t lift big racks, amps racks, heavy speakers and subwoofers anymore. You need help!”. So, yes, I’m physically OLD. My brain isn’t in complete agreement with my old. However, I’m not too old or too proud or “too important” to NOT be able to hump gear around and get dirty wrapping and running cables. I won’t have anyone do anything I wouldn’t do myself. My crew also notices how I seem to hog the especially messy and undesirable tasks for myself.

Some fathers and sons throw the ball around. I’m not against that, but my wife keeps hiding my other sports equipment. What makes throwing any different?

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He just might not be interested. I know a ton of kids that yoyo, but very few people my age. I know a lot of people that enjoy watching people yoyo that have no interest at all in trying it themselves. My boys and I taught my wife how to bind the yoyo and do trapeze. But that was as far as she went. She really didn’t care to learn any more at all and never picks up a yoyo to throw, even though they’re lying all over the house.

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I think it is that he still sees it as a children’s toy. But I think I will ask him.

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It may very well be a children’s toy.

DO NOT TAKE MY YOYO’S FROM ME!!
Or my Nintendo DS.

GRRRR!

Hey, I get territorial.

I’m gonna go play with Lego bricks now. Excuse me.

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I’m 45. Still lovin it!

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Yo-yoers are like expensive cheese, we only get better the older we get. And smellier.

My oldest boy was basically afraid of his own social shadow. He had zero confidence and had a hard time making friends. Then he started learning to throw like his step-dad (me). Now not only is he more gregarious and out going, he has a group of kids who he is teaching to throw at schhool, and an even larger group of fans!

Ididnt start throwing for real til I was 26 and I may not be as widened as some of the other dads here but we all share the common bond of our yo-yos. Both the toy and our kids :wink:

For the record my 5th stringless wonder is due to be born this June!

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Hey, do you have mario kart? we should play each other.

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I will win.