Is an unresponsive throw just a yo ?
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I was playing responsive the most around the time people started to transition from playing responsive to unresponsive so I remember that feeling, like @Damb said though, technically speaking it’s just another trick, just treat it that way till you got it down. I know from my experience it did feel awkward and weird at first but I was also super slow making it feel combersum.
Also there is a mental hurdle to get past, it’s like with a lot of things, if it’s not something you feel like doing or if you have resistance to change, your brain will make up irrational excuses that sound rational to you.
To me using a bind is actually exercising more control than tug response, in a way a bind to me feels like I’m telling it to return, but with responsive you give it a tug and the response system does most of the work for you.
All that being said I say do both, there are even those still making modern RESPONSIVE metal throws for those who want to do that, there are some tricks without a doubt that just look better on a responsive.
Just remember to have fun. 
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Woah.
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wouldn’t that be more of a worht
In @yoyodave42’s defense, originally yoyos had the string tied around the axle. You threw them down or out and they came back immediately. I read somewhere that “yo yo” means “come come” in a Filipino dialect. I can’t find proof of that though so that may have been written in error or it may be a regional slang meaning. If that is true though it’s fair to have a definition of yoyo where the yoyo “comes” back with little or no interaction.
All sides make good arguments though.
And if anyone doesn’t know @yoyodave42 has been around for a long long time. Longer than YYE. 
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Linguisitcally, there is nothing in “yo yo”, or its apocryphal translation as “come come”, that dictates the manner in which the toy returns to the hand. Only that it does (or can be made to). “…with little or no interaction” is an extrapolation neither stated nor implied in the toy’s name.
Except (if the “come come” definition is correct) the people that named it wouldn’t have had any idea of the disc not returning immediately. Safe to assume that their naming of come come referred to the disc “coming” back. Maybe I should have left out the word “little” and just said no interaction.
Yeah, I see what you mean. If the name “yo yo” was intended to describe the behavior of the toy in its earliest form, then you’re right, it refers to a toy that returns without any effort on the part of the thrower (not even a properly timed tug). However, has that been proven to actually be the case?
I dunno. You mean at this point in time? Maybe. But the origin of the definition would remain the same. If you went back as recently as 15 or 20 years ago many people thought a yo-yo that would sleep forever wasn’t really a yo-yo.
I’m part Filipino - I can confirm “come, come” - fun fact: most Filipino’s don’t know the modern ball bearing yoyo was designed by a Filipino
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It may be time for a new name then, because the number of styles that no longer resemble yoyoing of 15 years ago has only grown (3A, 4A, 5A, and other more exotic styles). And grown to the point of eclipsing the older, more primitive insta-return style. If “yoyo” is to maintain an exclusive definition stuck in the past, then a new name is needed. If it is going to continue to encompass (and embrace) all the evolved forms of play, then people have to get on board with that and leave behind this notion that unresponsive play “isn’t yoyoing”.
I have said this before, but it is kinda unfortunate for the long term health of yo-yo that responsive choices have narrowed so much over the years. The barrier to get started is soooo much higher when you add “must learn a bind” versus “tug to return”, and if you’re tasked with “buy a yo-yo” you’re very likely to buy an unresponsive because there’s like a ZILLION of them on the market versus what… 20… major brand common responsives out there? I mean, if that!
That is kind of a big deal because if you don’t get a regular influx of new blood, you’re already dead, you just don’t know it yet.
Other than the barrier to entry thing, I have no problem with responsive vs. unresponsive, but I will note that the “ask” when you had some random human an unresponsive … is HUGE versus handing them a simple responsive!
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I don’t think anyone needs or wants a new name. The reason for my post was simply to state that @yoyodave42 had a point. I think your suggestion of renaming yoyoing means you agree. Yes?
There’s part of this I agree with, which I mentioned above – the barrier to entry on dropping an unresponsive yo-yo into a human’s hands, is huge, and that a beginner responsive yo-yo makes sense for beginners versus dumping them into deep end of the pool in the first minute of class.
But the rest of this reads like “When I was a kid, we had to walk six miles uphill in snow to school every day, and we liked it! You don’t deserve this, you’re taking a shortcut, you gotta spend years playing on much worse yo-yos first to have ‘real’ skill?” That whole mentality is completely bogus.
At least you’re not recommending wood fixed axles though. 
I guess I would say that the term “yoyo” has now come to mean far more than just responsive, and that no renaming is necessary. If anything, those holding onto its obsolete meaning might want to reconsider what “yoyo” means (to them) to be more in line with the current reality.
As for “funelling” beginners towards unresponsive, I’m not so sure that happens. The Walmarts and Targets of the world don’t carry very many unresponsive throws—if they carry any at all—and so they aren’t doing it. And today’s online sources typically have beginner tutorials and beginner “packs” that steer beginners to responsive tricks (and responsive yoyos) first, and introduce unresponsive play later on. So I don’t quite know who is misleading all our beginners in the wrong direction.
Lol. I think you overestimate our little yoyo world as far as the masses go and what they likely interpret yoyoing as. I’m pretty certain Duncan still probably outsells everyone with their plastic imperials and plastic butterflys.
With all due respect the fella you’re referring to here has likely forgotten more about yoyos than you actually know about yoyos. I wouldn’t be taking pot shots at a guy that said been around the yoyo scene for as long as he has.
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Sure, the masses who don’t know anything about modern yoyoing might also think (incorrectly) that “unresponsive isn’t yoyoing,” but these forums are a considerably different audience than “the masses,” and so that perspective isn’t going to find much traction here. The fact that I have not played yoyo during the entire four decades since I owned one as a kid doesn’t change this.
I’d think any non-yoyoer who hears yoyo and is then told it’s designed to not come back to your hand anymore is going to be confused.
I’ll also add that I don’t think learning on an unresponsive yo-yo with a centering bearing is a good route to go if you’re trying to develop great technique. This is where yo-yo jam stuff was pretty great. Started out responsive and took very little modification (clean the bearing, trim the o ring or replace with silicone) to turn semi or completely unresponsive when you were ready.
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YYE (and others) do a great job of making this clear, and brick & mortar stores usually only have responsives. Where this is a problem is Amazon, where there are lots of unresponsives, not clearly explained to the uninitiated. Just look at the reviews to see how many "It didn’t come up!"s there are.
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Interesting. There are different binds that feel different and much more like a tug like slack binds where you sort of throw the yoyo into the string but those might snag if your yoyo isn’t great