What defines a new trick? Just a simple question. Is it bringing a new element to yoyoing like a new string configuration or is it putting other tricks together in a certain way? Because I would define a new trick as a new string configuration something no person has ever seen before rather than just a new combo of tricks that have already been done millions of times over. Don’t take the old and make it new take the unseen and make it great!
Sure. Why not.
I mean, let’s go through some of the stuff on YYE and LISTEN to what Andre is saying. Many tricks are re-using elements of other tricks, sometimes merely in a different order. Granted, many of these tricks have been around for a while.
Whatever it takes to make a new trick is whatever the person coming up with can come up with. It will most likely involve some existing elements, but may also involve some new string configurations as well. I think because so much has been done in the past(including recent past), it’s hard to come up with something way “out there” as often as used to happen in the past. Even so, once in a while, stuff will pop out of seemingly nowhere.
Yeah I was just wondering so I knew how to label it as such. Thanks for clearing it up.
I think this thread provides us with a really cool conversation.
Often, I’ll be hanging out, trying to make a trick, and I’ll come across some combination of moves and I’ll think, “Hey, that was pretty cool and new.” Then I’ll do it a couple of more times, and, more often than not, I’ll realize that it’s very pedestrian, that it doesn’t really challenge anything.
I think it is possible for there to be a combination that had never been done before, but I would still resist calling it “new.”
On the other hand, though, we have the following unique scenario in which a player comes across a series of moves that he or she considers to be really exciting. Let’s say it happens to be the same thing as Kwyjibo. Has that player developed Kwyjibo as a new trick? Well, most certainly not, because Kwyjibo already exists. The trick, however, for a period, was still “new” to this player, and it was achieved with the goal in mind of developing something “new,” and I think it still maintains some of that quality, at least for a little while.
A trick that you learn from a tutorial can still even be “new,” because it challenges you in new ways and teaches you about new aspects of yoyoing that you are yet to experience.
So I would say that some old tricks can still be new, and some new tricks can still be old. A new trick gets you going, makes you work, gives you that strangely wonderful feeling that you’re pioneering something. An old trick doesn’t.
That’s probably not the kind of answer you were looking for, but it’s the best I’ve got.
No these are exactly the answers I was looking for. I want to know how a person individually feels about what defines a new trick. So I greatly appreciate your input. Like in the beginning I posted my opinion on the subject and ask what everyone else thinks.
I tend to define a new trick as one that contains a unique element or movement. Sometimes these new elements can stand alone, but most of the time they can only be accessed from another trick.
For example, Matrix. Matrix is made up of trapeze and double or nothing which are tricks on their own. However, the two mounts only serve as a setup and dismount for the unique movement between them. That movement, the extra swing between trapeze and double or nothing, is what makes Matrix a new trick distinct from the two mounts it contains.
I would have to say a new trick is mostly defined by one thing: Style. Every player has their own style, which is why you can see totally different tricks in different players but the elements are the same or very similar. Take Paul Han for example. His tricks aren’t necessarily the most complex, but his style brings them to life more so than many other yo-yo players could do. It’s why he is my favorite player. Just the right balance of speed and fluidity combined with his image.
A string can only be moved so many times before people start reinventing the wheel. So what’s next? Throw in that one thing nobody else has: You. Add your personality into the tricks, make them your own. Doesn’t matter if they have been done before, but if you can give the people YOUR version of the trick and they can see your own personality shining through, then you have made a trick. I think that’s why Jensen Kimmitt won Worlds in 2010, because his style was fresh. People didn’t just see the tricks, they saw what Jensen had done to elements already in existence and they were taken.
Think of it. If you see players just standing there grinding out tricks, no amount of variation is going to keep your attention for very long. Not me at least. Once the player’s style is thrown in, the tricks become what the player makes them. Let’s take a look at some technical factors that are judged:
Mounts
Dismounts
String Hits
Hops
Grinds
Lacerations
Release Catches (Suicides/Iron Whip)
Slack Catches
Regenerations
Binds
This pretty much covers the bases of all yo-yo tricks. The variations of them and the number of combinations of such elements are staggering, and new tricks can be technically created this way. But then what? After a trick is made, it’s set in stone. How are new players supposed to become professional? Well, by learning the tricks already in existence, and then adding their style. Like I said, style is the most unique thing you can add to a yo-yo trick, and since everybody has their own unique style, an infinite number of tricks can be born. The way I think of it is, is that if every professional had the same routine for a competition, their own style would make it a totally different beast.
I don’t claim to be a professional by any means, but this is what I have picked up over the years and years of watching other people yo-yo and doing it myself. It’s not necessarily all about the tricks or how complex they are, but how you turn them into your own creation. How you make them your own, how you choose the tricks that cater to your style. Essentially, how YOU yo-yo defines a new trick.
That’s just what I think though. 