When it comes to tricks at competitions, do you think that originality will be a big of a deal 50 years from now as it is today? I feel that there would more emphasis on how the tricks are executed instead of how original they are due to the many or lack of concepts that would be created throughout that time span.
While originality is and should always be a defining concept of a routine and a lot of other things, is it possible that every possible trick and original concept might be exhausted in 50 years? Unless something about yoyos themselves change in that time, I would think it would be harder and harder to be original.
Uninformed opinion warning
I don’t think much will change. I don’t think trick development happens as much as people imagine, except when it comes to their own discovery. We are already recycling tricks. In ten years everybody will forget a large portion of the tricks and they will be all new again to most people discovering yoyo. What is amazing is the variety of combinations, and different ways to perform the same tricks yet they can appear to be entirely different tricks.
*except, not accept
Take a sport that also has an artistic component, like Figure Skating (I’m sure y’all are die-hard fans of figure skating!). There are a very limited number of moves in figure skating! I would wager without real education in the matter that there are less than 100 core moves. And there aren’t very often new ones added at all. You might be lucky to see one new “move” every few years.
Yet, each performance is unique and artistic. Even if the wellspring of “unique moves” dries up in yoyo, there will always be opportunities to do them with individual style, in unexpected or beautiful combinations, and with varying levels of technical excellence in execution.
A quad in figure skating was once groundbreaking, and now it’s “expected” for single mens’ routines. Yet when a skater lands a flawless quad, it still causes people to jump out of their seats. Don’t underestimate the effect of improved execution vs. raw originality!
Well said!
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Figure skating what made me ask this question in the first place.
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It’s funny how, when you ask something really thought provoking, it gets very few replies. I’m going to go against the grain and say, “yes,” it will be a big deal, and maybe an even bigger deal. I think if you asked that question fifty years ago, people would have said, “no” back then for a lot of the same reasons. And, they would have been wrong. I think that yo-yo could definitely evolve into something that will always inspire new, original tricks. If the past is any indication, where things have always evolved, I cannot imagine why it would stop here. I’m just looking at yo-yo history, and based on that, I’d bet on a “yes” answer. I think there will always be new ideas and designs to keep things interesting. I think, as the yo-yo itself changes over time, the tricks and possibilities will too. I think that will keep things fresh and “original.” I think that historically, there probably have been times of exponential original trick growth, and other times when there has been far less. But, I believe that new tricks will be invented, as long as the new yo-yo designs inspire them.
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YES!
50 years from now, I feel that yoyoing will kinda be dead…
50 years is a loooooooong time to predict anything. 50 years ago, the scene was in the process of being bodyslammed by the duncan trademark lawsuit and its subsequent buyout. the most wild boom in yo-yo history was about to bust, but the catalog of existent tricks was proportionally teeny. like the op suggested it was more about how fluidly you could execute the beloved tricks people knew rather than the volume you could create and share on your own. pro’s did the tricks people expected to see and added their own subtle variations to the canon. the trend toward absolute originality didn’t really explode until the late 90’s, and as technology has allowed us to share anything instantly, it’s continued to blossom. regardless, the landscape in 1964 is so drastically different from today, who can say what 2064 would look like.
i think there will always be people who want to do stuff with a yo-yo that’s never been done, and i think that attitude will continue to be respected. and i don’t think those people will run out of new frontier to discover, because you can always go down more bizarre and arcane creative pathways. that said, what creative players have to realize is that as new tricks get weirder and harder, it becomes less and less possible for novices to approach them. the learning curve is already insane for a new player who wants to be a “champion”. so it’s possible for innovators to inadvertently paint themselves into corners where they’re essentially alone pioneering tricks that are too hard to have mass appeal.
also consider that we are such a crazy niche minority on this forum. to the average person on the street, yo-yo’s don’t REALLY seem very different than how people considered them in 1964, and i’d be surprised if that changes much in a macro scale over the next 50 years. but of course the people who are really into it will perceive these waves of creativity and comparative lags, just like [i’m sure] guys like bob rule and dale o would have in the 60’s.
i definitely don’t see us ever going back to the days of yo-yoing canon being contained by a trick book (or even a site like sector_y or ken’s world). beyond that, it’s really hard to predict. what happens in the yo-yo scene is informed by the cultural context surrounding it. there definitely may be growing trends toward execution of “ideal” tricks, but i think people will always find ways to be weird and original. it’s just too addictive.
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Ed, I thought your analysis was spot on, I agree with basically everything you said.
Zero chance, in my estimation. We may struggle to get as many new yoyoers as the up-and-coming generation becomes more and more digital and sedentary, but it will never die. It’s just too dang fun. The availability of yoyos and tricks has never been better than it is now with what the internet has brought. I’m seeing growth overall, not death.
Right? I guess I would’ve gotten more of a response if I were to make a “List your Top 5 Yoyoers” post.
There are 3 levels of dead.
- Steve Brown on 5A dead
- Mostly dead
- All dead
Have you considered these 3 levels in your analysis?
On the topic of 50 years from now, what’ll it be when we’re Grandpas? Nowadays they say, “Back in the day we used to use wooden ones that slept for only 10 seconds.” In 50 years I could only imagine:
“Back in the day we used to use old YoyoRecreation Dazzlers and Draupnirs, not this new fancy stuff!”
win
Back on topic, people invented painting like, over thousand years ago or something, we still see originality every now and then. Can’t see how yoyoing could be much different since it’s also a form of art.
I dare to say the difference probably won’t be as much as today versus 20 years ago, which was massive. Competitions should be far more organized, judging by robots (?), most people can go to worlds because there will probably be a better and cheaper means of travelling, 3d cameras.
If someone invented a way to alter gravity, there should easily be some new divisions.