I use the price as an excuse for not wanting them to touch it I’ll be like “if you break it you owe me $50” and by that time they’re like “I don’t wanna touch it”
Man, share the love! Get people excited about yoyo, even if they only know “walk the dog” in order to relate to you.
Little old lady asked to use my $170 Krown. She was so short and the string was too long, but I helped her get it on her hand, and held her delicate little hand during the throw (partially to help a straight throw and partially to encourage holding the hand up). It didn’t help, and the yoyo dinged off the ceramic tiles.
She apologized and felt bad, but I simply asked, “Want to try again? I can try making the string shorter for you…?”
She declined and asked instead to see a few more tricks. And when we were done she was all smiles and thanked me and walked away glowing.
Similar story with my El Ranchero. New thrower was learning to bind on a Whip. But wasn’t getting the stability or spin time to even get to the part where he could practice the bind. Yes, he needed to work on his throw more than he needed to work on a bind, but that’s not the point. He was surrounded by people doing successful yoyoing and man, wouldn’t it feel good to get your first bind when surrounded by real yoyoers? Sure it would.
Gave him my El Ranchero, a powerhouse with great stability. A few minutes later I heard the telltale sound of a ding. He was embarrassed and tried to give it back, but I just insisted he keep using it.
Gall dang it, people… isn’t this kind of attitude better than the alternative?
This is definitely a continual struggle for me. I’m not willing to sacrifice all of my throws to the beater gods, but I definitely don’t mind loaning my summit (every-day-carry beater, and possibly my favorite yoyo) or my benchmarks to people wanting to learn.
I will say, I feel for those like Erik who don’t have the budget for as many throws as you or I Greg – if you only have one or two $100+ yo-yos, handing them to other people is that much more painful, since you don’t have backups.
Why walk the dog for yuggles when you can please everybody just as much with an arm grind?
No yoyos are damaged, and you simply change the surface which the yoyo grinds on. In my opinion, your friendly and open attitude is more important than doing the exact trick walk the dog. I have a rule of not bring any yoyo into public that I don’t mind getting damaged (so my Sleipnir stays at home).
I do agree with this; in my case it’s more about letting people actually USE the yoyo. If they just want to watch I have lots of tricks other than walk the dog. It’s not so much the damage (though so much damage for so little reward isn’t worth it), it’s just that asphalt is a terrible surface to do the trick on. Linoleum tile, though… no problem!
Good rule that I follow as well, don’t bring it into public if you don’t want it to get damaged. Once my throw gets one good ding on it I don’t mind people throwing it there after. My cascade has yet to make an appearance at my work for this reason. Plus I always have my protostar that I let people throw who want.
