I have a dream, a dream that I want to be a reality.

General Yo-Yo
1

I have a dream that I would love to see become a reality.

I have a dream that one day, the different skill toys / flow art communities would all come together as one, and have a large community gathering, where all could show their craft, and others could be exposed to the vast array of all manipulation objects of the world. In the past, there was always lots of “our craft is the best” image and mindset that many yoyoers have had (and sadly, many still do), but frankly, the way I see it, there is no “best” skill/flow thing just as much as their isn’t a “best” yoyo.
I see all of these arts as an equal, and each to be respected and appreciated for what it is.

In the recent months, there has been a huge boom with the Kendama scene, and the yoyo crossover has been tremendous. This to me, was a huge step in the right direction, as finally, people in the yoyo world were learning to accept a different art into their lives, and learning to have appreciation for the other.

Speaking with fellow multi-enthusiast such as Everett Caday, Leum Kerzic and Jamie Kennedy,
I have found that I am not alone in wanting to see a massive collaboration of all the skill toy flow art realms together as one. And I think that it is very possible for this to be done. It would take a huge coordination effort as well as many involved in many different scenes, but I think its something that can be done.

I think that for all the different arts to be exposed to one another, it would create a sense of family and togetherness that we know very well in our own communities, and to expand our communities would be something very amazing to see.
While the different worlds may have different views and mindsets, I think that seeing and learning the different views could be good for all as it would perhaps open the minds of each to try new things, and see things in a different way.

Yoyoers taking inspiration from Poi spinners, Diabolo players taking inspiration from Yoyoers, Kendama players taking inspiration from jugglers,
Stringers taking inspiration from footbaggers, Astrojaxers taking inspiration from spin top players, Staff manipulators taking inspiration from freehanders? hoopers taking inspiration from Glovers? Who knows, there are literally endless possibilities.

I imagine a day, when all players and manipulators come together, one location, and rather than only mingle among their own little “cliques”, they mingle about and learn new things from all. Just imagine how awesome that would be to see.

I feel that we are on the verge of a breakthrough, where we can kill this “elitist” mindset that some communities have, and instead all be as one despite the differences in the individual approaches and mindsets.

I know some out there will groan at this idea and pray for something like this not to happen, but oh well, such is the closed-minded individual.
I’m not sure how this could be done, I don’t know when, but I think that with some good people behind it with connections, we could see something like this hopefully very soon.
Its a dream that I greatly hope could become a reality.

bark

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^This.

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Yo-exist ;D

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This happens in every scene that isn’t yoyoing. As far as gatherings where every skill toy is represented, try going to a juggling convention. In Wisconsin, we have Madfest and when I go, I see just about every skill toy represented there.

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well my roots are in Diabolo, I could never yoyo when I was in school (never got my hands on anything modern, it was all fixed axle 2A style yo-yos) but I could really hold my own with a Diabolo, but I haven’t played with it in AGES. And now that I can yoyo it’s much more of a go anywhere hobby, Diabolo needs a lot of space.

So I definitely agree we should all be friends, especially given that 4A is just Diabolo without sticks :stuck_out_tongue: but that said, smaller niche communities are nice, it’s easier to interact with, and get to know smaller groups of people rather than being flooded and never really getting to know anyone particularly well, but we should totally unite IRL for some exiting shenanigans

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Well, I haven’t really noticed an “elitist” mindset in the yoyo community, but than again you’ve been around much longer than most of us. Still, What you’re suggesting would be cool, and it may not be as far away as you may think. I went to a yoyo contest last weekend, and it seemed like people were kendama-ing more than yo-yoing.

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Its frequent with many of the younger crowd. I have been to many a meet or contest where I will hear the younger ones blatantly mock and put down any skill toy that isnt yoyoing. Its quite upsetting.
My hope is that maybe some of these kids can get to something like this, and watch the performance and skill of the other realms, and gain a newfound respect.

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I haven’t noticed any elitism either, but I’m also not at competitions. Still, a few off-handed comments by a few kids doesn’t represent a community at large.

I think that if most of us had access to events where yoyoing was just ONE of the skill toys “in attendance,” we would still happily go! The suggestion for a juggling convention made a lot of sense to me. Those jugglers, man… they’ll do any kind of “throwing and catching and object” as Steve Brown puts it. :wink:

On a different note, there probably aren’t more multi-enthusiasts out there because each of these things takes time, and some of us have limited “stacks”. My stack is pretty full with just yoyoing, though I respect the heck out of other skill toy players! Would love to go to a “Skill Toy Fest”.

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Kendama people and yoyo people have been getting together, like at cal states.
I can totally see astrojaxers and 5A people getting inspired by each other.

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AstroJax were the Kendamas of four or five years ago, a lot of what is now considered standard 5A is related to them.

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I so want this to happen, I can’t even tell you how much awesome that would be. I started with juggling as a kid, then to yoyoing as of a year ago, kendama as of a couple months ago, and by Monday I’ll have a contact juggling ball! I can’t wait to try it out!

Skill-Con? Skill Toy Con? YES ;D

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At New Hampshire Yo-Yo Club, we had a little thing going on in the corner once with yo-yoers who are also cubers. That was cool, because it was like a club within a club for that day. We’ll have to do that again sometime. I like cubes…they are for sitting, yo-yo for standing. :slight_smile:

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If it’s in the younger crowd that you’re noticing this, I think it’s probably because their just immature. Kids will oftentimes say things without really thinking about what they’re saying.

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Well I know last year il state was at a toys fair. If it is again that could be a meeting place, but it might be very far for most who cant make the travel. Although I do kendama, cube, yoyo, and learned to juggle in elementary school this gathering should be somewhere easily accessible to every community

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Theres been some talk about having one of these meets in the bay area of cali, mainly for the fact that we have literally the largest yoyo community here in the area, a very large juggling community, obviously a large dama community with kengarden, one of the last stringing meet ups, huge glovers community, and a very active poi community all within a matter of miles of each other.

Haru

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I was thinking the same thing. I haven’t been to madfest in a while, but the last time i was there it was just the sort of thing you are looking for Haru. Jugglers, yoyo, diablo, basicaly every sort of object manipulation you can come up with. I first learned about cigar box tricks there too, its awesome. If you haven’t been there you should visit.

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I don’t mind a melding of the different skill toy communities. My problem is when one person starts branching their craft into too many different skill toys, they start becoming a jack of all skill toys, a master of none.

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That is me. I’m not sure whats bad about it though. I had before my shoulder injury a fairly lucrative career demoing skilltoys all over my area. multiple gigs a week.

So far I yoyo, juggle(balls hats rings clubs randoms), diabolo, cigarbox, contact juggle, astro jaxs, jitter rings, spin tops, kendama, flower sticks, poi(although I am not really into poi) probably others I am forgetting at the moment. Also like skill kinda’ games like pool, darts, shuffle board, horse shoes, ect. multiple forms of transportation. drive, bike, recumbent bike, skateboard, inline skates, freeline skates, ect.
I like all that kinda stuff. Been at it for 28ish years. I’m not the best at any of it, but I am probably up there in 5A, and flower sticks/devil sticks.
What I have found is you don’t have to spend any time on these if you don’t want too. How ever each time I come up with a new toy to play with it changes how I play with my other toys in a good way. The motions that are normal to one toy can sometimes translate in a awesome way to another skilltoy. Its a great creative experience you can’t get by learning one skilltoy or learning tricks from other peoples creative ventures.
Also like several other people have said, madfest is basically what you are talking about already. more stuff like that would be nice though.

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And this type of mentality is one of the many I wish to avoid.
Nothing wrong with branching out, as nobody needs to be a “master” of all or one.

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Yet at the same time, if you really only apply yourself to yoyo, I’m sure you’d be welcome at a multi-enthusiast meetup, right? Nothing wrong with only devoting spare time to one skill toy, either, as long as you have an open mind to enjoy what other people are doing with other skills!