Don’t mean to go so deep into this but it’s pretty sad the world that we live in today. Everyone focuses so much on social media like Instagram, Facebook, twitter, etc. that some just forget about the little things that could be so appreciative and fun like a YoYo. Don’t get me wrong, social media has it’s benefits and advantages, but the way that most kids in our generation utilize it is wrong. It’s about selfies and trying to look good for the camera and all this bs. I’m 23 years old and I’m proud to say that I’m very old school and don’t let all this new tech take over me like others do (hence i’m an IT tech). Kids now-a-days are born with an Apple product in their hands instead of a baby toy (sarcastic joke). To some extent, it also has to do with the parents and what knowledge they pass over. You can have a good mom or dad that teaches their kid about a certain sport or toy like a YoYo, or you can have the mom or dad that teaches their son about “swag” and smoking hookah all day.
So I agree with you 100% OP. A lot of kids these days are missing out on all the fun because of the world we live in today with all this technology and social media that most people overuse without the right purposes.
Oh I do. We joke around that I carry a Duncan Butterfly as a punishment. If you’ve been bad you have to put down your shutter/metal drifter/gradient/or whatever, and you have to play with the butterfly.
Although I completely understand your point. If you want to make sure a kids get frustrated with yoyo then give him a butterfly. If you want them to actually enjoy the hobby then something like a YYF One or a Velocity are perfect. A FAST 201 is cool but honestly, the One is just as good and it’s quieter. My grand daughter absolutely LOVES her Duncan Metal Drifter which is a $15 yoyo. There are so many good responsive starter yoyos that there’s no excuse to start somebody with an Imperial or Butterfly.
Hey Greg, Its Colby… I believe we met at Yolex… I thought the Metal Drifter was $25. I enjoyed it for the first week I started yo-yoing and then it kinda went down hill… Didn’t you get her a Replay Pro? Does she not like it?
You know what? You’re right, it’s a $25 yoyo. She loves that yoyo but the friction pads wear out really fast. I’m going to get her some silicon pads for it.
She likes the Replay, but the only trick she does on it is the bind. I try to influence her to practice different tricks, but there’s a fine line between encouragement and being pushy. She doesn’t like being told what to do and she’s perfectly happy throwing a trapeze and Lindy loop for an hour. I showed her how to bind a breakaway throw and she didn’t want any instruction from me. But then I saw her practicing it in the backyard. She’s a confident 10 year old and sometimes you just have to let her do things at her pace or that confidence becomes stubbornness.
But she still likes to practice yoyo together. She just goes at her own pace.
I’ve seen YYF at Big 5 and another sporting goods chain, Sport Chalet. I had seen some YYF at Toys R Us, but my local Toys R Us actually…ready for this? …no longer stocks yoyos. Yea…pretty pathetic, not even a Butterfly or Imperial in site.
Around here, you can buy DV888s at Big 5 and Velocities at Sport Chalet.
^ It depends on where you live and the region… Quality modern yoyos are hard to find at common retail stores in most places…
I’m not making this up. The struggle is real…
You’re in the Bay Area, right? A large metro area that is home to one of the largest regional contests. Yoyos would probably be easier to find there than say Jackson, Mississippi.
I’m a child of this generation and I’m totally not missing out… I am 14 and most adults stand in awe as I yoyo… No kids in my town ever say anything. I live by most of the kids in my town and I try to avoid them only because they are loud obnoxious brats. The only kids that have decent manners in my town give me a thumbs up when they see me or rarely a high five. Since I started yoyoing 3 months ago I have obtained skill that surpasses a person that has thrown for over a year, literally, I can do the most difficult tricks like ladder escape and white Buddha and I also have a plethora of long combos. But to see kids not having any common knowledge of what a yoyo is, is quite depressing… :-[ I hope that one day someone will stand above the rest and spread the news of what a yoyo can be, what can be found inside a yoyo and what you must do to pull out what’s inside. I do hope that this generation of kids and future generations will spend less time on technology and spend more time with a string around their finger.
I totally with you on this one man. I’ve always wanted a skill toy club at school, but It would be hard to get a teacher to sponsor it, and not much kids would join. I really want to mingle with other players more often.
I remember growing up seeing advertisements like in Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon about the YYF F.A.S.T yoyos and what not. Big YoYo companies should start advertising themselves a bit more.
Yup I remember seeing those as well. And that was when Walmart and Target actually had a selection of decent starter yoyos at the time, from Mosquitoes to Speed Beetles to even the Freehand 1. And kids were buying them. Why? Because this stuff was being shown on TV and was widely available.
Disneyland area is doing a good job with giving the yoyo some exposure, having a yoyo kiosk set up in their shopping hub, Downtown Disney. On my last trip down there I saw several kids trying (and failing) out their Metal Drifter, saw some getting the sleeper going. Even saw one in the airport when I was flying back up to the Bay playing with his yoyo. But having exposure in just 1 tourist area alone can’t get everyone going, going to take more than that.
Nationals being held in a heavily populated area is also a huge win and can hopefully spark the general public’s interest. Not sure if the media is promoting this or not. I’ve seen small blurbs about Bay Area Classic with the local news, but so small it’s easy to miss.
These types of things need to be advertised more, not only so the Yo-Yo world can expand, but because these things play a big part in a kid growing up.
