I binged a bunch of Yoyo videos from like 10 ish years ago and it got me thinking—are trickcircles more homogenous today than they were 10 years ish ago?
It seems like people were doing more weird and optical and just funky tricks like 10 years ago. A ton of what I see now seems so similar sometimes and I can’t tell if that’s real or if people felt like that about the tricks people were doing a decade ago as well. It might just feel more different to me because a different style of tricks were popular. I know this netdecking type phenomenon exists in other fields due to the internet basically and easy access to information.
I dunno, it’s still my first year playing so I really don’t know if this is real or not and I’m curious to hear what y’all think. Also I want to add there are a ton of people still doing really weird and interesting tricks, this is just a general observation that might be imagined.
I think your observation is pretty valid. If everyone is learning from the same material, the play is going to to look very similar. It’s funny…. I can sometimes tell if someone learned from yotricks because their play looks very similar to mine. :).
It then becomes a matter of taking the basics and finding our own style. “Make the simple amazing” as André would say.
It’s that but also the easier tricks from tutorials. Like I see the same tutorial tricks often so I didn’t wanna just say competition meta but that is definitely a part of it
maybe a it unrelated/tangential, but i feel like a lot of people learn a bunch of tricks bit have no “style”
the timing of trick elements and the transitions from trick to trick matter just as much as the tricks themselves, but some people neglect that aspect and it can look a bit “unsmooth”
Trickset for the average yoyo player is 100% more homogenous than ever before. I think most of this has to do with access to good tutorial content. But a fair bit of it can also be attributed to both mindset and competition.
For competition play obviously a meta has evolved to a point where abs elements are basically required to know. But most people don’t compete.
I think the two bigger factors are now people have access to really good tutorials, and there’s more of a mindset to just learn from said tutorials. This isn’t inherently a bad thing, if anything this makes yoyoing more accessible than ever before. It just means tricksets become way more homogeneous since people just go on youtube and learn from the exact same pool of tricks, and people aren’t encouraged as much to be original, and instead are pushed to just keep learning more from tutorials.
Bro…how you gonna call me out like that…hah just kidding but I agree and I often do have this problem like I didn’t realize that adding a good style to a trick would come after getting it consistent and that is really like the hardest part of learning a trick imo also easy to neglect
Hah like 50% of my trickset is from the TaW tricks you picked so I’m glad you pick super sick tutorials to learn lol I totally see what you mean tho and at least there seems to be like a growing diversity to tutorials or I’m just exploring the options more idk not necessarily a problem like you said. I will add that learning lots of trick tutorials has helped me get the like physical motor skills together enough to start experimenting and being funky and trying to make up some of my own tricks…poorly but it’s a work in progress!
Overall I definitely think the homogenization of trick sets is a net positive tbh. Like collectively all of our yoyo skill is raised when we all learn the same Takeshi combo compared to if we never ripped off anything from Takeshi at all and just tried to be fully original.
i know its not meta (either competition or trendy)
but I do wish more people incorporated grind tricks and front style, just to break up the side style tech and slacks some more, so it doesn’t get as samey
if only i could do horizontal to ad more variety, but tbh i like my teeth where they are
I been practicing about 6 years at this point, and my trickset is not huge or difficult,
so they should all be smooth by now or else I would just be embarrassed
unlike many i need to up my trickset way more than my execution, learn some tech or chopsticks so im not just on the same dozen elements all day
I agree with @mable saying the homogenization of trick sets is a net positive. Everyone’s skill being at a higher par raises the fun and understanding of yoyo for everyone. This is turn allows more people to spread and explain yoyo tricks to more interested people.
I do notice a negative from this however, keeping in mind I work with rotating small groups of troubled teens so take my input as you will. Kids and newer players rarely just take the time to throw and watch what the yoyos doing. I see a lot of kids just looking for the next trick to learn and the next video to watch rather than allowing themselves to think and understand what’s actually happening. The history and the simple act of yoeing seems kind of removed from most tricks. I blame platforms like tik-tok and instagram for this as i’m an old man in a young mans body. @Jeaves mention of style really highlights this as I believe style comes from within (and tons of hours playing of course.) There’s a constant rush of fomo, and “whats next!?” and rarely any just existing in your room with your yoyo. I also think I may have been reading too much of @edhaponik’s blog lately
I see what you’re saying but I don’t know if the kids need to understand what’s happening.
If their goal is to just play yoyo and have fun, what does it matter if they’re hitting that goal? Love me some Ed tricks…such a fun and creative player and I do think it’s funny his jazz man philosophies come through to the yoyo playing lol
i think it’s pretty natural, especially with the way technology has changed the way we communicate. we always explore trick ideas based on the feedback from our informed yo-yo friends. 20 years ago, you had clear regional styles developing among players in the northeast, bay area, socal, texas, etc. this happened because the easiest way to share trick ideas was in person at clubs. so that still leaned toward homogeneity, but on a smaller, local scale.
now, the easiest way to share ideas and get kudos is through social media, AND the reward has shifted from getting the approval of players in the know to the appeal of “going viral”. and how do you go viral? you do a take on what’s gone viral before.
i think it’s a lot easier for players like me who are older and who came up before social media to kind of see outside that fishbowl. it’s hard if your attraction to yo-yoing was through it initially, and it’s always been the paradigm to you. but there is still plenty of room for real creativity, and in my experience, players still reward each other for thinking outside the box. but yeah, i do see those players becoming more and more anomalous.
yo-yoing is an art form, and art is always a little contrarian. there will always be a powerful rebellious streak among players to defy whatever seems like the “meta” and whenever it becomes too ubiquitous. BUT, as the reward for that kind of playing shrinks, players will have more incentive to just throw the tricks they see. (and that’s fine, too - it’s still yo-yoing, and the upside of technology in yo-yo is there’s a lasting record of the most creative players’ efforts.)
If the goal is to have fun, I’m all for it! Yoyos are the funnest object and I wish for that to spread far and wide. Should also add I agree with your perspective in the OP. The more connected we are the less we’ll see small players that don’t connect and their weird and funky tricks will be lost in the homogenization process. Most modern meta is so beyond my comprehension at my current level, I couldn’t tell you more than maybe five or six tricks if my eyes are able to catch it lol. So it really looks the same to me.
I was mostly tipping off what Mable and Jeaves were talking about and commenting on the positives and raising a negative. Definitely wasn’t trying to bash the fun at all! Although I agree it’s a positive for the community to have this meshing of tricks and ideas. it’s also possible to lose a lot of what made all the new ideas come about by everyone being on the same page.
Anything done for fun is always worth the time though!
I kinda knew you didn’t mean it quite like that but I wanted to push a positive spin bc I think we all can agree that having fun yoyoing is good, however it’s happening
