For the last few weeks I’ve noticed, on occasion, a guy frowning and scowling at me as I’m enjoying my yoyo sessions. It appeared from his body language that this unhappy fellow disapproved of such a frivolous activity. Over the last few days I’ve noticed him more frequently, always scowling. Oh well, ignore it and continue on.
Today I’m throwing and I hear a voice, “Can anyone learn to do that?” “Absolutely!”
I surely had misread his body language. It just goes to show how our perceptions can cause us to miss opportunities to meet others and share what we love to do.
He has a yoyo now!
I guess the lesson, for me, is to be approachable and slower to judge. I’m glad I was approachable because I wouldn’t have learned that I had misjudged him.
i believe he is attempting to learn the ancient greek weaponry tactics of the yoyo. nothing good can come from this and it’s obviously an attempt to hurt you in some way.
best keep one eye on your yoyo and the other over your shoulder
I get asked all the time “How do you do that”, and I tell them I have to practice a lot.
I think once people realize it can be an accessible hobby, I think that helps a lot. Being told that “hey, you can do this too if you want to put in the time and effort” really helps people feel they can do this. I believe if they think they CAN do it, they should have a better chance of getting it done. Granted, not all of us will be amazing, but nearly anyone can have fun with it.
Whenever people ask me how I do my yo-yo, I always tell them magic. Of course they don’t believe me, so I then explain to them how a bearing in a yo-yo works. They ask to try, and I give them a yo-yo I usually carry around, some cheap Duncan. They try to throw it down and usually mess up, so I teach them the proper technique, they throw it down and pull it back up, and their excitement soars!
Some people are just weird, body language can usually tell you a lot but it sometimes just doesn’t help. Most people are outgoing with their emotions and feelings, but some are just shy and don’t really know how to express themselves.
I wonder if maybe the man in the story is like me - my “thinking” or “concentrating” face tends to look really angry. Countless times I’ve had people ask me what’s wrong when all I’m doing is thinking hard about something. I’m pretty sure this is also my “throw face.”
I love this story! Always fun when the stereotypical mold is broken and smashed leaving us a little freer with the next person that show interest even if it appears to be not as we’d like. Never miss an opportunity to change someone’s day with a simple hello or a you trick.
Good story. Reminds me when father in law was over for dinner a few days after I started yoyoing. My daughter had a Duncan trying to just get it back to her hand and he said, “do you want me to show you some tricks way can know how to really use it, like walk the dog, rock the baby, and around the world?” And she started laughing at him and said, “those are the old easy tricks”. Later that night he was amazed by just the front style mounts/tricks I had learned in the first couple days.
