I don’t understand being above any trick. When we roll our eyes at people because we are above “walk the dog” it’s a bit of a put down. I really don’t want to put someone down for showing interest. Actions speak so loudly. Nothing personal guys that just the way I see it.
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Give me money and I’ll walk the dog all you want. Otherwise I’m perfectly happy to put my headphones back on, ignore your presence, and practice my own tricks here in this nice open space like I was doing before. Just because you can see me doesn’t mean I’m performing for or desire attention from you.
Nevertheless, if you ask nicely, I’ll usually do a few flashy tricks to ‘make your kid smile’. Not that she will, but since her (and your) attention span only lasts 20 seconds I don’t really care either way. I’ll take an interest in you when you become interesting to me.
I’m also happy to teach you how to yoyo, but only if you already want to learn. You can have other motivations, but if you lack enough interest and desire to actually learn the stuff, I won’t be dragging you along. Someone else can do that if they want. I’ll guide you, show and explain stuff to you, and rejoice in your success and happiness, but I feel zero obligation to evangelize, or reward from evangelizing, yoyos to uninterested parties.
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I guarantee you all have asked some professional of something one of those standard annoying questions before. Keep in mind we are all just people, and when one of us people ask a question like that, we are looking for a conversation with someone we don’t know, and have only that question or comment to throw out hoping for it too start a conversation. How you handle it just shows what kind of person you are. No one is responsible for that other then you. Just think how you would like to be treated when you react.
yea but this is kind of besides the OP point
if you are practicing and keeping to yourself, that’s one thing. but if you are actually showing stuff to an audience, that’s another thing.
this exactly, there is absolutely NO good reason for being a jerk, ever. We all happen to do it anyways sometimes but this. exactly this quote. I couldn’t have said it better. We all are annoying uneducated noobs in some fields.
Gonna take this in a different direction.
I was working on tricks, when the dog decided “you’re done, I want attention”. I got pugs. They are needy and clingy and when they need their pettins, they need their pettins!
Today at my kid’s school, I was asked to bust out the yoyo and do some stuff for them. I’ts not like I hide that I yoyo. I have my DM2 on a holder and my XCon Pro and Hitman Pro on another, and my YYE Medium Bag over my shoulder with my Fiesta XX strapped the outside of it. Because I was asked, I did so. No walk the dog, it wasn’t asked for, but I wouldn’t have anyways due to the asphalt. If I was asked to do walk the dog, I would have explained that I have expensive yoyos and I don’t want to scratch them up. I’m gonna try to learn grinds soon so I can provide a alternative for walk the dog if I’m over hard surfaces. I was kinda annoyed only because I couldn’t do any whips or slacks that I can do because of the very slight breeze. But I did some stuff for them and they were happy. In the end, that’s all that matters. Kids showed an interest, I was able to oblige. I had fun playing and showing, they had their curiosity engaged. End result? Win-Win.
Yoyo for yourself when nobody is asking you for anything. When people ask, try to oblige. It doesn’t take that much effort. I’ve been asked to do tricks I simply don’t know, and when that happens(some kids know stuff but don’t know how to yoyo), I simply tell them that I don’t know how to do that trick. I haven’t had a real problem yet. Worse case is they end up thinking I’m not very good, which I could care less about because I’m not very good at yoyo yet anyways. However, I can, will and do work hard and I’ll just continue to improve. With a little luck, I may get those kids into really wanting to take up the yoyo as a lifelong hobby, or maybe inspire some older people to consider it as something enjoyable to participate in.
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Clever… 
I’m going to agree with Chris here. I’ve seen this said before, but when you’re playing in public, you’re representing the YoYo community, and when you go out and act as if you’re too good to walk the dog, these people are unlikely to think that our community is a particularly nice one. The one or two times I’ve played in public, I’ve hoped to try to get through to somebody to pick up a YoYo and give the hobby a try themselves.
We might know how great the YoYo community is, but the public don’t. Don’t turn people off of YoYoing by being rude - either do the trick or politely tell them that you’re just trying to practice, don’t just ignore them or act cruelly towards them.
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I don’t mind walkin the dog but don’t ever ask me to wash the cat!
I dont care how good you are you should never think that you are too good for any “trivial” trick. Like others have said, people know walk the dog and rock the baby, thats why they ask. Learn to be humble and be happy to yoyo for others and most of all dont be a jerk and make yoyoers look bad.
If you really love yoyoing then you would buy some responsive yoyos and go to a public place and do a demo, possibly even teach others how to yoyo and try to help the community grow.
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I know. It takes forever to get all that hair off the tongue!
Side note:
Was at the kid’s dentist today. Was requested to do a few tricks. I obliged. Rock the baby, dizzy baby, Jamaican Flag, Eiffel Tower, Mach 5. Happy folks! No room for side-style stuff.
Earlier at BAC, one of the news guys/photographers came up to some kids and had them do some fancy stuff. Later, he asked him if he could walk the dog. I couldn’t help it but chime in and tell the guy that walking the dog is a huge no with metal. The kids held back as well, agreeing. I was actually going to pull out one of my plastics to let them try until I realized how much dirt that would kick up into the bearing so I suggested an arm grind instead. The news guy was satisfied with that.
Me at school: Revolutions, to Skin the Gerbil, to Trap. and his Brother slack, to Mach Whip repeater, dismount to Trapeze, Hidemasa Hook, bind
My friends: “Cool, now do Walk the Dog!!!”
Just goes to show the knowledge gap between those on the inside and those on the outside. I find most journalists are kinda idiots in regards to most topics. This isn’t a weakness, it’s a strength because they’ll ask not only the hard hitting questions but perhaps the silly ones to help bring the story back in touch with the viewing audience.
They have no clue that you’re using metal yoyos, much less costs and technologies. You did good explaining that to them. You did one better by providing them a usable alternative to their request. Give them a cool shot and some eye candy and they are a happy bunch!
The other day at a softball game I was doing some stuff and slowly had an audience forming. Eventually I get the classic request and I do an arm grind. I hear the “wows” of excitement followed by “now walk it on the ground.” I quickly swap out my Avant Garde for my Pro Z in looper mode and kindly answer their request. Next time I will end it with a dog bite!
Agreed
^I can tell you love your yoyos 
(Love marks galore!) I remember when my plastics had those marks, I actually liked the looks of my Imperial with dark streaky marks from walking the dog in the street. I actually had someone at the YYJ table tell me when I was testing out the Dark Magic “If you ding it, you bought i…(pauses) I mean, if you love it, you bought it!”
Not really walk the dog related but I often get told to do “the (insert made up random name here)” trick…let’s say as an example:
Kid: Wow dude, you’re the yoyo master! Hey, can you do the 'wiggle waggle?
Me: ???..never heard of that one, sorry.
Kid: : It’s when you do this and do that (describing some form of aimless jerking the yoyo around)……It’s a trick I made up.
Me: Ah, that’s why. Here, check this trick out! (Does some other nifty trick).
Ill make sure to do the wiggle waggle at my next contest!
Last year, someone asked me to Split the Atom, and I was pleased.
I know what you mean…I was goining to pull off a brain twister, mach 5, buddha’s revenge, the matrix combo and everyone was to busy wondering why I couldn’t just pull up the yoyo and had to bind return to care…it’s a cruel world 