Throw in public

General Yo-Yo
1

If your not sure if you should throw in public, because I see this all over YYE all the time. I think everyone should throw in public, so if you ask me I’m always going to say YES!!! I will give you some reasons, and how to do it well.

Reasons

  1. It introduces others to yoyoing
  2. It’s Fun
  3. To show people your skill and how much fun it is
  4. It shows yoyoing is for everyone not just 5-9 year-olds
  5. To show there’s more to it than just up and down

How to sucessfully do it

  1. Bring a beater for others to try(one you don’t mind getting scuffed up
  2. Answer questions when asked
  3. take requests, if someone wants to see a trick and you know it, do it
  4. Be polite when talking to people(I know this is obvious, but I do feel it is neccessary for some people to have a reminder)
  5. Take pride in what you do!
  6. Represent! If your really nice people may think that of the whole yoyo community, same if your a jerk!

All in all It’s great to throw in public, plus(at least for me) when people are watching I do better.
So yes bring your yoyos to school, bring them to work(depending on your job), bring them to reasteraunts, bring them just about everywhere. the only place that it would be a bad idea to bring your throws is a store that sells them(for obvious reasons). And the main point of this is basically take pride in what you do, show off, have fun!

1 Like
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Good little guide there, you forgot to mention to only do it with the right amount of space and at an appropriate time. You don’t want to hit anyone with a yoyo and annoy them. Show them the older tricks like walk the dog, rock/spin the baby, Eiffel Tower, etc…

If you have a good throw that you don’t want to damage when asked for walk the dog, just show how we’ve changed it over the years with a grind, but if you do have one your happy to risk scratching then by all means do it.

Also avoid making it ‘look’ boring since while a White Buddha will be impressive to me and you, non-yoyoers not so much since the more complex tricks look the same.

Try and explain how it has changed since the 90s phase and all the new styles of play that have been introduced, show them if you can.

3

Ok thank you csi112, I was just trying to make the point to do it, with all these questioins should I throw here, should I throw there, I was just trying to help, but thank you for adding on! I will take any help I can get if I need it.

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Very good guide.

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Yes sir! I’ll tip my hat to that. I NEVER leave the house without a Yoyo. I Yoyo in public every day of my life, and as a result, usually have an interesting conversation with a complete stranger once or twice a day. I’ve met some very cool people that way.

6

Personally, I’m so much worse when I think or know people are watching. Not that it stops me from throwing where and whenever I want, but I have a hard time hitting the groove like I can when it’s just me and my headphones. Luckily, most of my satisfaction comes from doing it alone like that, I’m really not that concerned with showing off how good I am or aren’t. It’s a zen thing.

I usually find when I show people, a lot of the time they’re aprehensive to try it themselves even if I can tell they want to. Sometimes I have to intentionally bang my beater off the ground to let them know that I really don’t care what they do with it.

7

It has nothing to do with “showing off”.
I just like to yoyo. So i always have one with me and am throwing it when i get a spare minute, regardless of who’s watching, i just don’t think about it.
I yoyo for myself, because it’s fun.

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Ya I love at stores everyone looks that is working. I was eating out the other day and yoyoing while waiting for a bill and the guy working got everyone in the kitchen to come watch.

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I yoyo in places that sell yoyos all the time. In fact I probably improve sales by yoyoing. At game daze (a store near me that sells yoyofactory stuff) I’m kinda like an unofficial demonstrator for yoyos. I an usually asked by the customers what yoyo they should buy. No one accuses me of stealing because all the yoyos are locked up behind the counter. Also my yoyo club sells yoyos too and obviously everyone yoyos there. most places aren’t going to keep $100+ yoyos lying around so they are probably locked up. Pretty much what I’m trying to say here is don’t be afraid that a store will think you are a thief, if all the yoyos aren’t locked up maybe but I’ve never seen a store sell yoyos more than $20 without locks. Game daze even locks up the cheap yoyos like whips and starbrites.

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I reckon if they see enough of a increase you might be able to pick up a job…

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No they need me as an unofficial performer. The employees used to be allowed to yoyo but recently the big bosses said that they couldn’t yoyo because of customer safety but they can’t do much about me as a customer. I guess they could kick me out but they don’t seem to mind.

12

If a customer pops another customer with the yoyo, it’s either an assault or a civil matter that won’t involve the store.

If a store employee hits customer with a yoyo, it’s an assault and/or a lawsuit involving the company and can offer enter the realm of “I don’t want to work a day in my life” kinda numbers.

I mean, $4 million dollars for a lawsuit againts McDonalds because a CUSTOMER dropped their OWN coffee(purchased at McDonalds) into their OWN LAP because it is “too hot” and burning themselves with no permanent damage? Yeah, it’s that bad.

You could say “well, they could rope off an area for demonstrations”, but then there’s the real possibility of the string breaking and then hitting someone and hence, we start the cycle of legal actions.

Situational awareness is key in life these days. Understand and be aware of your surroundings and be smart when choosing a place to throw, especially in the crowded confines of a store. But please note that I am all in favor of throwing in public. But, typically for me, in public means “crowded stores and narrow aisles” and I just don’t want to deal with it, although I do have a yoyo on me the whole time. The only time I can really throw in public is at my yoyo meets because I’m in an outdoor setting in a field and there’s adequate room for everyone!

Let me also say this:
If you do have someone doing tricks as a demonstration, it WILL drive sales. This is even more so than a video running in an endless loop of a professional doing tricks. Why? True interactivity. But, most stores aren’t going to spend money running a monitor and videos. And they certainly aren’t going to hire demonstrators IN the store. Yoyo isn’t at that level in the “trend-o-meter” yet. I hope it does become more mainstream soon.

I also don’t see anything wrong with thowing inside a store, again, provided that there’s nobody around who will get injured. If you can plan it right, you can use a yoyo they don’t have(maybe they don’t carry that brand for example) or something unique enough it can’t be mistaken for store inventory.

Nearby, a store does “yoyo lessons” twice a month, and I’m going to start trying to get to at least one of those. There are two professionals that work with a store that sells yoyos and other learning toys and skill toys and it seems it would be a good thing to attend for many reasons. 1: I can learn new stuff. 2: I can be corrected of stuff I’m doing wrong. 3: I can help participate in any community being created. 4: I can expand the community.

If I’m in a store, I will typically not throw in public unless asked to do so. Please realize that my “adventures outside the house” are for running errands and my wife typically only allocates me barely enough time to get the tasks done, yet I need some additional time away from the house, kids and dogs to clear my head, so I might wander over to the nearby Toys R Us as well just to check out the yoyo and skill toys they may have. But most of the time, it’s usually “go here, get this, come back” because honestly, time won’t permit anything else!

Still, I can be “representing”. As I said, I always have a yoyo on me at all times, and on display on a yoyo holder.

Just use good judgement.

13

Yeah guess I didn’t really think when I said that, I just assumed that you could apply for a sort of public liability insurance but I guess we’re living in that day and age where people will take the most petty situations and bring them to court. Not that I am saying a bit of spinning metal or plastic is petty but you get what I mean. People just don’t use common sense any more and get rewarded for it… sigh, rant over.

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It’s not that you didn’t think about it, I think that there’s some differences in the United States as opposed to the UK. At least in the United States, nobody wants to be held accountable for their actions. I had a run-in with an overly litigious individual recently who feels “she must be PAID for any injustice done to her”, when she herself did injustice to those she is looking to take action against, and through her own acts of injustice brought about just cause to have acts she considered injustice to be done unto herself.

There was nothing wrong with your thinking process. You just didn’t considering the potential legal ramifications that go along with those thoughts. You come into it with the best of intentions, while I have to play devil’s advocate and assume worse case scenario and how to minimize liability.

In a day and age where someone can, through their own negligence, without any outside assistance, spill coffee into their lap and get paid in a lawsuit, well, that’s scary. Bars are being sued by people getting into DUI accidents and DUI arrests for “not calling them a cab” or “assessing their level of intoxication” or “for not taking away their keys”. These lawsuits usually don’t go in favor of the one bringing about the lawsuit, but it does costs the bars thousands of dollars per incident in their defense, and in some cases has forced bars out of business or caused their liquor licenses to be revoked(as in the State will step in and say hey, we notice too many DUIs tied to your customers…)

As they say, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions…

Even so, that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to bring the yoyo back into the public eye and expose more people to it. I think organized meets(not exactly flashmobs) at high profile locations(such as a busy park) is a great first step. I’m considering moving my meets to a busier location.

15

Could the store not just put up a disclaimer? A warning of sorts. That way people would be informed of the possibility (no matter how small) of being struck or making contact with the demonstrators yoyo.

And yes, I completely agree with Studio, meetups in public places are the best way to get more popularity.

To raise popularity I yoyo at the school that my mom works at and do basically a demonstration cracking jokes and showing the evolution of the yoyo from fixed axles all the way up to 3a and 5a. At the end I do a “freestyle” and answer questions and the sort. I have gotten four or five of the students involved in yoyoing, although I can only say that when I was there recently, one kid had a yoyo. But it was a Dv888 which is just awesome.

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Disclaimers HELP, but won’t really do much. At my in-laws barber college, the rates for walk-ins recently was raised a dollar(from $4 hair cuts to $5 haircuts) and despite it being in 12-inch high letters on the door, people still won’t read it. Disclaimers WILL help reduce the amounts awarded, but it also depends how much effort they put into it could range from “useless/ineffective, effective, excessive, imposing and overbearing”. Even so, it only reduces stuff!

I’m planning something like this when I get better. Maybe in a year or so. Make it about history and science and fun and then get kids involved. Kind of a follow-up to the NED shows. The NED shows comes on, does an educational/motivational presentation, sells yoyos and walks away. Mine will be more of a “what can you do with this” and “how can it tie into education”, as well as make that yoyo more than a bunch of plastic sitting forgotten in a bag.

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In my opinion the kids like the history and science aspect more than the motivational stuff. I have done the demo for middle school kids and for very young kids, maybe 1st grade or so. The crowd favorites are always doing the flashy modern tricks (eli hops, gyro flop, boingy-boing) and the music/freestyle thing. I like to always tell people “Ya know, about 3 years ago, I was just as good at yoyoing as you are” Gives it good perspective, motivates the kids.

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I think here in the UK we have laws that, oversimplified of course, prevent people suing another if they were completely aware of the possible consequences. Or not that might just be me hoping… We just don’t hear of it that much.
Anyway back on topic I think…

I would love to try to increase yoyo awareness in the area I live, it is no where as big here as it is in the US. I have recently bought a t-shirt so people still know it is around or ask me questions and carry my yoyo often enough, sometime I will also carry a beater as well, depends.

Yeah my mum asked me asked me as well since she works at a school as well but I don’t consider myself good enough yet. I would to talent shows if we had them as well, though alas they are more of an American thing.