I feel ya on that. It’d be ideal, or at least pretty neat if all throwers were able to perform a few tricks on an old school / traditional yoyo. I think almost everyone on this forum can do that anyway but it’s just not their main focus. Not being able to perform a few loops or some basics is like having a masters degree in History but only history from 1980 to our current time.
7 Likes
There certainly was a time when looping was not just foundational to yoyoing, it defined what yoyoing was for the most part. But that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Just like there was a time when programming in FORTRAN was foundational to programming, period. But that hasn’t been true for nearly four decades now.
4 Likes
I’m firmly of the belief that yoyoing is play, and so am not a fan of anything that disqualifies anyone from being a “real” yo-yoer.
But I would be on board with a statement like
“It’s cool to learn how to loop, even if that’s not your main style. Maybe give it a try.”
8 Likes
Right! Maybe I’m not a real yoyoer because I only throw unresponsive frontstyle and never really practice sidestyle except for the rare occassion where I try to do a breakaway. I just do what I find interesting. I can throw a few loops but rarely do.
5 Likes
All you need to be a real yoyoer is to actually make yoyoing what you want it to be in your world. A real yoyoer simply yoyos for their own reasons.
6 Likes
You know that really helps to be a all around great yo-yo pro?
Freaking lasers.
10 Likes
You only need to own 1 yoyo for 1A… 
7 Likes
So pick one yoyo based on your current daily session. Sell or give away the rest. What’s your pick?
4 Likes
Oh man… @eternalmetal with the hard hitting truth.
This is a very difficult question.
If I had to sell or give away all my yoyos apart from just 1…
Duncan Freehand AL probably…
(Freehand AL and Memento are my two most used yoyos right now)
urgh there I said it, this will probably be another unpopular opinion too.
I actually sold a whole bunch of yoyos recently and only have a few left as it is though already
7 Likes
Hmm. If I could only keep one yoyo for playing purposes, and one yoyo purely for showcase collection purposes, it would be my gold VTWO and my powder-coated white VTWO, respectively.
6 Likes
Hmm if I can only have 1, I don’t want it to be the case but probably my first base. Not my favorite by any means but its an easy swap in and out of responsive play so it gives me the most options and is a solid yoyo for what it is in both styles.
5 Likes
Only 1 yoyo - an easy question for me: CLYW Chief. 90% of the time I’m throwing a yoyo, it is a Chief.
7 Likes
This reminds me of a conversation I had with my nephews just a few days ago. Long story short, I showed my family a few pics of a yoyo and my nephews both immediately went “That’s not a yoyo.” I’m just like “uhh, yeah it is.” I didn’t really know how to respond. But apparently in their little 7 and 11-year-old minds, a yoyo is shaped like a Duncan Imperial, and anything different from that isn’t a yoyo. They couldn’t comprehend a modern unresponsive wing-shaped chunk of metal as being in any way related to the plastic, relatively round down-and-uppers they’re used to.
Yes, I’m a terrible uncle for not introducing them to unresponsive yoyo before now, but I’m just gonna blame coronavirus since we don’t see each other as often these days.
Point is, that’s the same thing as this argument. To me, if you can throw a round thing on the end of a string and get it to return to your hand, then you’re yoyoing. Whether it’s just a down and up with a yoyo that has the string glued to the axle, or if you’re Gentry Stein, either way you’re a yoyoer. If all you can do is down and up then maybe you’re not a good yoyoer, but you’re still a yoyoer because you yoyo.
5 Likes
He specified only 1 yoyo for 1A. So can I just keep the rest of my collection if I put counterweights on them?
Joking aside, the wording does leave it more open to have one yoyo per style of play (or two, as needed). I don’t play 2A, 3A or 4A (yet), but at least I could keep a yoyo for 1A and a different yoyo for 5A! Also a fixie for 0A, although I don’t have one yet.
6 Likes
That’s actually pretty interesting. I was yoyoing around my grandpa a year or so ago and he did not realize how far yoyo tech has advanced. He could barely recognize it was a yoyo. I went into my room and pulled out a wooden yoyo (picture a generic wooden Duncan Tournament) and handed it to him. He then showed me his tricks (which were really cool and stuff even I cannot do). Point of the story is that there is not one type of yoyoer.
In my opinion, you should really dabble in all styles at least a little. Think about it learning a little 2a helps with regens. 5a opens your creativity. 1a is the building block for 3a and 5a. 3a is hard and will help you with complex mounts. 4a is just fun and is good for showing off.
Something interesting Tom said on one of his Throws and Brews videos is that we are too small of a community to create mini-groups. We are big enough to be a family, but we cannot have a sect that is against 5a or 2a or only plays Duncan. Really and truly, we show love. I often see on this forum that people do not necessarily stay because of yoyoing, they stay because of the family and friends they have made here.
Anyway, I think you hit it right on the head with there not being one type of yoyoer.
7 Likes
My brother called me out for cheating when I was showing him modern unresponsive ball- bearing yo-yoing. That’s probably why I embrace 0A and keep wood in my daily rotation, I don’t always have to cheat.
9 Likes
I hear ya, @Exmime. All the stability that a modern high-performance yoyo provides does sort of make it feel like I’m yoyoing on Easy Mode. I’m okay with that since I’m not really keen on making it harder on myself to yoyo, even if that means my technique stays a bit sloppy (for the time being).
Interestingly, competition throws have gotten wider and wider every year, which is intended to make landing tricks easier. However, I find that wider does not always equate to easier, especially because wider also means the yoyo will hit strings I don’t want it to during tricks, making it actually harder to execute them. Nevertheless, players manage to make wide yoyos work for them, which is a testament to the adaptive power of the human brain.
5 Likes
Maybe my thoughts on pursuing sponsorships are unpopular?
6 Likes
I definitely would not call it unpopular. I mean, I can remember being the kid that could barely throw a trapeze that wanted to be sponsored (I was 10 and I did not beg anyone, I promise ).
I think part of the trouble is that just about everyone grows up with a phone and some form of social media these days. Whenever I go out and about, there is always some kid nose deep in their phone. Now I am 17, this means that I grew up with phones starting to come out. My parents made sure I was the last in my class to get a phone (I think I was in 8th grade) and they gave me rules. I think there is a sort of lack of these rules with some of these kids, like they know how to act in the “real” world, but the internet becomes this “alternate ego.” While this does not excuse these kids, it explains the rational of them.
Some of the older people of this board can remember picking up the family phone and saying “Mr. (insert father’s last name), this is son/daughter speaking.” I never learned to do that. I still have trouble on some phone calls.
I think part of it is just youth, like in 5 or so years, they will look back an be like “what the heck, why did I do that?” It is our purpose to shorten this 5 or so year gap by carefully calling them out. Like everyone loves free yoyos, I will totally attest to that. I have been one to enter any yoyo related giveaway I can, but at the same time, I know that there are boundaries.
Anyways, I know this is sort of a rant and I do apologize for that, but that is just my 2 cents on it as part of Gen Z.
5 Likes