Something to ponder.

General Yo-Yo
1

Hello all.

I want to take you into the world of an individual who lives in the realm of fiction, and while his reality may be that from a conjurer of mystery, the realism of the scenario is such that could be quite the possibility.

There is a young man. This man has fallen on some hard times and finds himself alone with nowhere to go and nobody to turn to.
He lived out in a remote forest away from most civilization with the exception of a small town nearby.
He had studied survival and knew how to care well for himself, and from going into town on occasion to do small little jobs for people, he managed to support himself barely, by getting a bit of food on occasion to sustain himself in his tent out in the woods.

One day, when walking down the roadside back from town, he spies an object in the dirt. Upon closer inspection, he finds that it is a yoyo. He had remembered learning how to do “rock the baby” many years back in his early childhood as he had a basic cheap fixed axle yoyo at the time.
This yoyo he notices is quite different, its shape is wider, its weight feels different. This yoyo is a yoyojam kickside that had fallen from a moving truck a few hours before. The man takes the yoyo and brings it back with him.

Once back at his tent, this man tries the yoyo, noticing that it will come back with a tug but just barely. He finds that this toy brings back good memories and that he could still do the “rock the baby” he used to do.

Over time, this man finds joy in throwing this yoyo, and he soon finds that he can be a bit creative with it, as weeks turn into months, and months turn into years, the man daily tries new and unique things with the yoyo to see what he can find. It becomes a bit of a treasure hunt for him as he finds that the possibilities are endless. On his treks into town, he plays the yoyo, and during his free time in between small jobs, he is seen trying new things with the yoyo. The locals start to call him the “yoyo guy” as he is so often seen with it. His string grows quite old, but luckily, the man is crafty, and has managed to use cheap thread and fibers to create a string as best he could to the original string he found his yoyo with.

As another year passes, now almost 4 years since his finding of the yoyo on the road, the man finds a stable job, much thanks to the new store owner who gave him a chance, and he starts to get back on his feet to support himself. After much work and trying, he manages to afford the rent of a room in a run down house in town.

Still finding new things with his yoyo, the man hears via word of mouth that there is a yoyo contest happening in the larger city about 25 miles away. The man decides to go check it out and see what people were doing with yoyos. He manages a bus ticket and soon finds himself in the major city, and going through the doors of the contest venue, to see what awaits within.

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Why do I give this scenario to you?

Simply to make one thing and wonder.
Ask yourself: What sort of tricks would this man do? After about 5 years of much yoyo play, would his skills have grown to something outstanding? Or would they have stayed the same? If one experimented with tricks with ZERO influence from anyone (keep in mind, 5 years of no internet, and not even a notion that anything beyond “rock the baby” exist), would he have figured things out that nobody had ever thought of? or would he have done mostly things that have already been done?
If this man did exist, and he walked into a contest not knowing anything, the lingo, the products, the people, would he enjoy the contest at all? Would anyone reach out to him?

Think about these things.

It is certainly an interesting idea to consider.

bark

Haru

2

It primarily would depend on the Creativity potential of the man himself. There are people in the yoyo community that have thrown yoyos for years and ‘NEVER’ came up with their own Original trick moves. Then there are trick generators like: Steve Brown, Paul Escolar, Spencer, the Longorias, to name just a few, are exceptions and in a minority. Another Perfect example would be Sage. Sage was an ‘Original’ trick machine.

so just guessing, I would say 2/3rds of folks that would be in the Forest on their own, throwing a yoyo for 5 years, in the Realm of Probability, would not get very high on a trick ladder.

And then it could get Worse, much Worse.

He could get Swarmed by Trusted Wolves. The Wolves yoyo too. And being out in the forest, with no form of income, they are usually Totally low on yoyostring. So they have pretty bad attitudes.

Trust me on this, the Trusted Wolves yoyo. I seen em on YouTube. They are pretty good. To you, a pile a string may just look like a pile of Spagetti noodles. But to yoyoing Wolves in need, You would just look like a sad stack a Meatballs.

Nice Story though Josh.

1 Like
3

Without influence he would certainly not become as good a player as other players who’ve played for 5 years, at least as long as we define “good” based on our current definition in this community. It’s just not terribly likely for the simple fact that 2 minds are potentially more creative than 1. Let alone millions of minds, and each “competing” with the others.

But, I think his progression, however far he got, would follow an extremely similar path to one that we might take. All yoyo tricks are based on the same things. Simple ideas like trapeze, or using a string wrap to create momentum, are the basis for every trick no matter how complicated. So, given these tools to work with, and a human mind, you would think he would probably “invent” a lot of the tricks we do now. After all, that’s how they were invented in the first place. Just a person and a yoyo.

4

I think that that man would love going to that tournament. It would be his first chance to see where yo-yoing has gone, what others are doing, and his first chance to get influence instead of solely relying on himself to come up with tricks. It would also give him a chance to see just what yo-yoing can be and is. It would be whole new world to him, like landing on Mars. So much that is foreign and alien, but closely tied to him at the same time.

5

I agree with YoNinja. The chance of home coming up with an original trick would be pretty slim. Have you made a trick without using some type of mount or move that hasn’t been already done? He probably found out some tricks that have already been made, but depending on his creativity made a couple of his own.