Interesting perspective! Great response.
3 Likes
The “key” is to enjoy yourself. If that’s throwing and getting better, great! If it’s collecting and looking at your Yoyos that’s fine too. We all should just do what makes us happy. Right?
21 Likes
Absolutely!
3 Likes
Play how you want and to whatever extent you find it meaningful. Everyone gets to decide for themselves how and whether it focus their energy within the hobby, and someone would be just as spot on telling “serious” players they’re taking their skill too seriously.
When I started focusing on fixed axle and responsive, plenty of players saw it as a waste of time and said so. That I should focus on “real yoyoing” (meaning mainstream/competitive). Plenty still see it that way, and that’s 100% cool. Yoyoing is deep enough and broad enough for it to enchant people in lots of different ways, whether the “playing” part is most integral to that equation or not. 
I get the point of the post, but I’ve been around yoyoing long enough to know that there are more ways in which to really take deep meaning and joy from it than I can even process.
25 Likes
I think the problem here is that the creator of this thread was a little too passionate when he wrote this thread
especially here because it implies that if you’re not pushing yourself to the limit, that you are not even using your yoyos. I think that this could have been worded better. But I can also definitely understand where he is coming from. When someone owns a high perfomance yoyo but doesn’t do high performance play then can this person really fully appreciate it (or if someone owned a drift car but doesn’t do any drifting in it)?
I think it depends on what perspective you’re having. OP sees it from more of a competitive standpoint but not everyone is as competitive as him.
what @edhaponik says perfectly sums up what I’m trying to say
6 Likes
Yeah. Mostly everybody would agree with the general statement that folks should yoyo more and learning new tricks can be very fun. The wording is max poor.
4 Likes
but I’m 100% feeling what OP says! I also wish that more people would push themselves more with their skills
but do what you want
yea 
2 Likes
I don’t think I have ever heard someone say they don’t want to get better at yo-yo. This whole post seems like it was meant to motivate but it really is missing the mark.
People collect all kinds of things for example stamps action figures , pins , and so on. You’re making it seem like it is bad for people to do these things and it’s not.
I am a mixture of both. I practice as much as I can but not everyone e has that luxury . I have a son who is on the spectrum . A two year old daughter and a full time job. Between cooking dinner washing kids down time is very tight . Not everyone wants to sacrifice the little free time they have with their family to play with a yo-yo. At times when possible I stay up late 1am -2am or so but it’s not something I would recommend .
I just don’t understand this post because the great part about yo-yo is there are so many different styles (yes some that don’t include horizontal).
8 Likes
Ouch, I’m right here you know
6 Likes
Its constructive criticism. Just like what you are trying to do for the community 
11 Likes
To me I think people might forget about the huge age range there is in yoyoing. The collectors tend to (but not always) be older players who throw for the pure enjoyment of the action itself and then collecting is something they can really get into because they are at a point in their life where they can drop hundreds of dollars on a yoyo and not have to eat cheap noodles for the rest of the month.
I’m in my 30s now and couldn’t care less about competition style play. I still want to improve (who doesn’t) but I’m in no rush to get good for the next competition date etc. I just want to learn at my own pace, throw when I can and buy yoyos when I can. Does the amount of yoyos I buy out way my skill? most likely but thats because buying a yoyo takes a couple minutes if that. Practicing takes time and 1 thing that comes with age is just more and more responsibility. Dont get me wrong its crazy impressive that you can practice so much and still study for a much as you do. But you also probably dont have the same commitments as someone else. They could have a family to look after, multiple jobs to deal with, the list goes on and on. Maybe you also have these commitments to but at the end of the day with any hobby its about time management and we all lead very different lives.
17 Likes
I totally hear what you’re saying, I love learning new tricks, and the more things you can do well with a yoyo the more you can appreciate the nuances in a design. I’m a 50 something year young dude who has plenty of stress and responsibilities (like most of us), often I like to zone out and just noodle around with my yoyos. There is no other activity that can help me relax in the same way like tossing a yoyo around. Once I’m relaxed I usually find myself in the mood to learn something new. I don’t learn tricks as fast as I once did, but I keep at it. I’ve found if I try to learn tricks and I’m not in the right frame of mind then it is not enjoyable and I get easily frustrated. Sometimes I’m happy trying different combinations of strings, response and bearings until I feel like I tuned a yoyo to play its best. Sometimes I just go though a case of yoyos, inspect them, appreciate them, throw them. Sometimes I go on a nostalgia kick and throw yoyos I’ve owned for almost 3 decades. I have to balance these things.
My father and grandfather were both machinists for some portion of their careers, and my father in law is a metal worker. I grew up hearing talk about the quality of machining, metal work,etc. I really enjoy the craftsmanship, skill and artistry that goes into designing and making good yoyos – but this is more of a topic for your other thread.
I find both sides of the hobby highly rewarding.
17 Likes
Really nice post. The hobby is pretty much the same for me.
@nightshadow - I think I understand where you are coming from. We buy yoyos with extreme capabilities but still do the same old tricks. The forward thinking competition yoyos get ignored, but the next organic gets lauded. The trend of modern buyers going towards antiquated designs is frustrating and is taking away the hype from better yoyos and possible future innovation.
But the thing is, I got back into the hobby as something to unwind and relax. I take trick learning at my own pace, and im not aiming to achieve a goal. I will occasionally get the spark and up my game, and I love the grind. But it will never be about the grind. As Ed puts it, it is to get into the state of yo. However you do that is the right way to yoyo.
8 Likes
This is a superb post which describes with clarity the many aspects that are encompassed in the hobby.
None are contradictory and none definitive.
You could immerse yourself in any one of them or appreciate them all.
8 Likes
i like yoyos, and the different people that yoyo, that’s why i consistently come here. it’s a good time
12 Likes
I’ve noticed this as well. Practically every other drop is yet another organic yoyo. Yeah, I like organic yoyos, they’re what I grew up with so playing with them is like comfort food. And then I’ve seen drops like the 2Sick crusade, unprld nostalgia and coglite, c3 vanitas, a bunch of YYF drops, sengoku’s kiwami, OP’s sprite, hypothesis v2, outlier 2, etc etc etc drop with hardly any notice. Maybe its because they make doing all your well known tricks almost too easy, but there is nothing like a good competition yoyo for learning new tricks.
5 Likes
Well put!
2 Likes
I am a player, not a collector.
I’m all about maxing my skill in different substyles of yoyo (mainly 1A, 5A and 0A).
That being said, even for me, the overall message underlying between all this layers of positivity and self-improvement is weird, to say the least.
4 Likes
How so?
I think you already know how, because multiple people already told you.
1 Like