One or two Sundays out of the month I’m gonna try and come up with a good conversation around yo-yos.
Do you or did you play sports, and do you think it has helped you in any way with yoyo (other than hand-eye coordination)?
And if you don’t or didn’t play any sports, what do you or have you done physically that you think has improved your throwing ability?
I played baseball all my life so for me I think my reflexes help with certain things as well as my timing but that’s about it. You aren’t hitting a yoyo at 90mph with a bat so…
I’ve played soccer my whole life but seeing that I can’t yo-yo with my feet yet I would say the flexibility helps. Understanding the importance of stretching and staying limber is of great benefit. Yoga rocks!
Spinning poi for 16 years before really getting into yo-yo and thought it’d translate a little better . I like to think it helped with some things though.
I’d like to think playing baseball and then juggling when riding the pine helped my yoyo-ing.
I’m really curious if any musicians think playing instruments helped. I don’t play anything, but would like to think getting into the flow of yoyo-ing is the same as a jam session.
I enjoy drumming, but already being comfortable with limb independence didn’t make learning 3A any easier. Simultaneous yet asynchronous yoyo movement is going to be hella hard no matter what prior physical experience you have.
I think other hobbies/sports/etc. only really have a mental carryover into yoyo, not any kind of physical benefit. But that mental aspect can be incredibly understated. Progression and overall style in yoyoing will radically change based on your mental approach to yoyo.
I started yoyoing at 12. Wasn’t big into sports, played flag football and baseball from 8-12. Don’t think it helped, but maybe it did?
What helped the most was the fact that that was 27 years ago. Didn’t have internet or smart phones. Fun was riding my bike, playing Mario on NES, and listening to music.
The lack of technology distraction made watching a Duncan how to yoyo VHS 3 times a day with my Duncan butterfly palpable. That’s what got me good. Less distractions and time spent just yoyoing.
There is a lot of layover for sure. I’ve been in a lot of jam sessions and I love throwing a yoyo around to some good music. It’s one of the reasons I got into this hobby. Having that background really helps with being able to pick up on musical cues and stay in rhythm. Also the manual dexterity probably helps. I’ve seen at least a few other dudes around here that play bass, guitar, or drums and I’m sure that isn’t a coincidence.
I also used to be really into extreme sports when I was younger, mainly biking and skateboarding, but my sense of self-preservation prevented me from getting any good at it. Yoyoing, to me, is a relatively safe version of that. Sometimes when I’m playing, I imagine the yoyo like is a little skateboarder riding along the string.
I was a diabolo player before getting into yoyo so I’m pretty sure all that experience helped me a bit when it comes to learning yoyo tricks as both yoyo and diabolo are quite similar.
I use to do aggressive inline and skateboarding then went into yoyoing and playing guitar.
But while yoyoing and extreme sports weren’t super related for me, yoyoing really helped me with music.
The philosophy around yoyo where you learn tricks and then the tricks themselves get harder helped me to create a sort of “trick ladder” for music and recently that I started piano I am using the same philosophy and is working like when I did with guitar.
Yoyo playing changed so much my mentality about “how to” something and how to learn it and taught me patience and that trial and error is good and help the process, this gave ma patience to go through hours of bad or boring music (played by me lol) or very simple one note songs at the beginning knowing that that was the fundamental for “better tricks”.
I used to skateboard. Throwing has a lot in common with skating to me. I look at them as artistic expression earned through perseverance and will. You learn tricks and then string them together with your own style and flow.
Back in my childhood days I was into B- damans, Beyblades and pellet guns they were very popular at that time and it was all for fun until the mini yoyo boom came on our primary school. Kids around our classrooms became competitive and throw a bunch of special moves by doing basic tricks (kinda cringe but ok) and thus yoyoing became one of my main hobbies after a decade of playing.
. I like to think it helped with some things though.
