This is the speech most people have that I totally disagree with. I consider competitive yoyoing a pure skill demonstration, I’ve nothing against artistic freestyles, but there is an AP division for this.
Including props and such.
I see other freestyles as art as well. But limited as to what you can set up and different scoring.
I guess I just will never see yoyoing as a competitive sport. More of a creative outlet. Very small scale of say flatland BMX.
You don’t need props for an AP performance…is it recommended, probably.
Yoyoing while I don’t consider it a physical sport (like football, soccer, etc.) as a non physical sport I would. Freestyle yoyoing uses more movement, muscle memory, and as competitive if not more than lets say Bowling? Yet bowling is considered a legitimate sport.
yomagic, it’s like you didn’t even read my post. 
I had a whole counter-example (the 3-legged race) in which there are competitors who do not (or at least should not) have winning as the primary goal. One can easily recognize that not all competitions are the same or have the same goals. Your football analogy applies to any number of other sports (any team sport, really), but that doesn’t mean it’s universal.
I suspect you have a strong love of team and pro sports and find true competition not only a great challenge (the struggle to be the best!) but also an entertainment (to watch teams giving their all to be the best on that day!). It’s natural that you’d extend this enjoyment to how you choose to enjoy yoyo competitions as well (even as a spectator). But it’s localized. And your own distaste doesn’t mean that it’s actually a slap in the face to anyone at all.
PS, bowling is not a legitimate sport.
Bowling is legit sport to me. No judging involved. Winner is not debatable
Only worlds and some other small contest have an AP division. Until all other contest have as such, this is an invalid point.
Trick ladder is more competitive in a sense to me. That is not your Art being judged.
So tell me what is the purpose of competition? Why do they have 20 people yoyo and get judged? It’s all a show of skill and winning. You don’t compete to lose, that defeats the purpose. My sport comparison is universal to all competitions. You go and at least TRY. Whether you win or not you tried and that’s what matters but you don’t go to do bad. You go to do your best and hopefully win.
I love pro sports and I’m a fan of competitions. I am not a competitive yoyoer, I personally don’t like being on stage in front of a crowd so that’s why I don’t actively compete. However if I did my intent would be to do my best and win if possible even though I know its slim to happen. I said all this is my opinion so to me its a slap in the face to the other competitors, contest organizers and your associated “sponsor”/“employee”. Of course to others this is perfectly fine and gets praise but to me its disrespectful.
If it is so invalid, why does it exist?
I’m not dissing bowling, I love to bowl haha. I consider it a sport to but from a physical and competitive aspect, yoyoing is just as if not more than bowling. There may be no judging but its still a competition to prove who is the better bowler.
And the results show who the better bowler is. Yoyoing freestyles don’t really do that. They should, but it’s far to subjective.
And we moved on to a completely different topic. Lol
Well, the fact that there are judges turns out to be incidental to some people. You’re hung up on the word “competition”. As already stated, their goal is to have fun, and “competitions” are one of the only ways they have a chance to showcase their talents for a large number of peers. For some people the “fun” is just the rush of getting on stage and trying to hit their routine as flawlessly as possible for an audience, without very much regard for how many clicks that routine is going to get.
A common attitude seems to be, “I want to show off this freestyle and/or tricks I have created.” Another common thing people say is, “I go so that I can hang out with friends in the Yoyo community that I don’t otherwise get to see, and if I’m there already I might as well hop up on stage.”
These aren’t just outlier attitudes… they seem to be prevalent throughout the competitive yoyo scene because the participants are generally under no illusions about their hobby/sport. (the fact that some competitors still call it their hobby rather than a “sport” should be an indication that attitudes will be different from person to person).
I am in no way saying that somebody shouldn’t try to win or that the majority don’t also have thoughts of winning. Or that it’s not also “fun” or “entertaining” to try to win. I’m simply saying that we are not all the same person and we need to consider that other people’s goals and ambitions might not be the same as ours.
your point was that players who dont want to go on stage for the competitive serious aspect have AP as an option for this. But there is barely any contest that have an AP division, so to say what you said is only valid for that small .01 percent of contest. Until other contest have such an option, is doesn’t make much sense to say.
I get that, however, the fact that this division exists in the most important contest does show that the artistic aspect of yoyoing and performance yoyoing should be apart from each other, IMO. Whether it still has to be democratized or simply disappear to fade in the scoring system of the other divisions is what needs to be clarified, I honestly don’t like the situation as it curently is, it makes absolutely no sense to me.
I’m thinking even if there was an AP for Jensen to mess around in he still would have messed around in the freestyle division. It is more funny that way, and Jensen is always “more funny.”
Probably, but “funny” is not the word I would have used though
I think Jensen plays with his toys wrong.
Hes a bad dude.
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I think you have the wrong thread. We’re not really discussing that…at all.
No, this whole thread is about how people think that the way Jensen decided to play yoyo in a freestyle was wrong.
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