There’s a certain point where it just becomes semantics. That’s kind of why I think the book ends of “throw” and “bind/return” make sense. Think about the Breakaway Throw. That’s considered a “trick” in the trick ladder as far as I know, but it’s such a fundamental element of basically anything you do in side style that it’s hard to argue it’s a stand-alone trick. So how does the trick ladder define that trick as successful? It has to return to your hand. So I think the bookmarks of “throw” and “bind/return” have precedent and make sense.
The label really just comes down to how you use the trick/element. If it’s stand-alone, it’s a trick. If it transitions into or was transitioned into from something else, then it’s an element. And same for combos. Skin The Gerbil can be a stand-alone combo trick by itself bookmarked by a throw and a bind/return or an element in a larger combo.
haha thanks a lot guys on the discussion over the definition of “trick” vs. “combo”!
As I was typing up the question, I felt rather silly about why I was even asking for some reason lol…glad I’m not the only one who’d been curious about this!
During contests, judges must decide when to click trick elements, and it isn’t as simple as merely clicking every time the yoyo lands on the string. For instance, they endeavor to avoid clicking when they see a trick/element that’s a repeat of one that scored clicks already. So there must be some reasonably formal definition of what constitutes a “trick” for scoring purposes, if only to define when something is or isn’t being repeated during a routine.
I have decided that I will try and use all the string I have by the end of the year. This has prompted me to start playing more, and learning more, and changing strings at more respectable intervals rather than letting them get hella-frayed before taking action.
I’d actually be really interested in that, as that definition would probably be more appropriate and organic for the style of play that most of us are talking about.
You and me both. I’ve been trying to change my old habits of not changing string until it has so much loss of ability to hold tension that a single trapeze results in spaghetti string. Nasty, fuzzy spaghetti string.
