I just remember getting knots in imperial-type yoyos when I was a kid that I actually couldn’t get out, even with a paper clip. Not a big deal on a 2 dollar yoyo, but I’d hate to be in that situation with a 32 dollar yoyo. I’m probably just overthinking this.
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Yep, you are. Have never had a knot I couldn’t get out.
I take offense at that too.
The Butterfly is one of my favourite yoyos.
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It’s like this: There are drivers that work a stick, back up without cameras, know where their vehicle is without all the alerts and then there are those that love driving around, while the car or someone else does some/most/or all of the work.
Yep just like yo-yoing! ;D (jab-jab :
)
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This post just warms the heart!
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Well said
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I’ve had knots I couldn’t get out. I’ve taken a knife and cut up the string until I can get the pieces out. Even so, the extra time I’ve spent on the occasional knot I’ve gotten on a non-take apart yoyo, is less than the time I’ve spent undoing the much more frequent knots I get with unresponsive yoyos. Either way, it’s a non-issue to me. Just goes with the territory…
I have done the same and then I went right back to throwing. I just fix it and keep on having fun.
Why throw fixed axle… man… ok…
• necessity: When i started as a kid (the late 80’s) the most reliable yo-yo’s were fixed axles, while transaxles were a novelty and ball bearings were still a ways off. I’ll grant you the yo-yo’s i played were mostly inexpensive Duncans (Midnight Special!), but I thought they were fun, even if I was just doing Breakaways and Around the Worlds… for years.
• nostalgia: I only played transaxles and bearings during the 90’s boom. When i got back into yo-yo’s in my 20’s, the idea of going back to my roots had some appeal. The more I got into fixed axle, and especially wood, the more I felt connected to where yo-yoing came from. Modern yo-yoing is as old as the internet, and that’s about how far most players’ knowledge base goes. In beginning to dig, you realize the depth of our shared history. You get a sense for what it was like to be a pro when the fastest way to share new tricks really was the YoYoTimes newsletter. Those guys had spent a generation learning their craft and materials, both of which might seem instantly irrelevant with the advent of bearings. But you watch Dale O, Dale M, Bill deB, Bob Rule, Larry Sayco, Dennis McBride, or Steve Brown (yeah, I put him in there - he started on fixed and was one of the true purist holdouts when transaxles took over). You watch those guys throw and there’s a quality and precision there that’s just inimitable. And you want to find it.
• esoterics: To get even halfway decent at throwing fixed, you have to learn some secrets. In aikido, we call it “kuden”. It’s the stuff yo-yo’s (or masters thereof) teach you. How to get the most out of a spinner, how to break in an axle, twist a string, tune a gap, keep your Moons straight, how to throw reverse-spin and make it look normal. It’s maybe a little lame, but you start to feel like you’re part of something - like you’ve got some special understanding that only a few possess. And then you remember, it’s yo-yo’s which is sort of silly. But it still makes you smile.
• facility: I teach middle school. Every year, I’ve taught, I’ve had a new crop of kids who get into yo-yo’s. A few make their way to binds and modern tricks, but most just want to have fun with the basics for a few months. It’s nice to be able to hand my yo-yo to them and they can see there’s nothing to it. It goes down, and up too. Spins just a few seconds. They can use it and relate to it, whether they’re “serious yo-yoers” or not.
• challenge: At some point, I hit Kwyijibo on a Proyo, and at some contest I bragged about it to Jack Ringca. He told me about a time he and Spencer went back and forth trying to hit Cold Fusion on a Russell. At first I thought “that’s got to be impossible”. For the next few years though, throwing fixed became a matter of “what can i hit?” especially on my favorite yo-yo, the No Jive. Branding, Pop n Fresh, Cold Fusion, Superflow, Red Clover, Kamikaze, Spirit Bomb, Gyro Flop, Double Suicide… each challenge led to another, but it was a dead end. It relies on bearing yo-yo’s to throw down the gauntlet and then you rise to it on fixed. Some dead ends are worth driving down anyway though, and it DOES change the way you throw a bearing yoyo.
• frontier: I hit my first Trapeze Stall on accident. Then I tried to do it again. Then I tried to do it from Man & His Bro, then Double or Nothing, then GT, 1.5, Split-Bottom, then pretty much every mount I could think of. Then Higby taught me Lunar Landing. Drew and I had some fixed axle sessions, along with guys like Nate, Randy, Colin Leland, Joey Fleshman, Uri, Spencer, Seth P… which revolved around ridiculous stall tricks. Silly or not, it became pretty obvious pretty quick that we were on to some stuff no one else had bothered to look at. Was it good? Was it crap? Eventually Drew and I were texting each other every few days trying to determine where it led. I felt pretty good about Stop N Pops and Zipper Stalls… then he hit a Kickflip. Since then, it’s felt like fixed has a unique direction which many VERY good players are clarifying every other session. We never thought we were “cutting edge” - we mainly thought it was stupid fun; a counterpoint to all the seriousness. It hasn’t lost that, which is a reason to play fixed in itself.
• humility: I have played mainly fixed axle for a long time now. I’m pretty good at it. I feel ok saying that. I’m better at fixed than I am with bearings. I have hit some stuff that I legitimately thought was impossible, and which has caused me to reevaluate my sense for what these yo-yo’s are up for. People have given me money and prizes, flown me to cool places, designed neat yo-yo’s for me, put me on a trading card, put my name in nice internet posts saying I did a good job. I get texts (if not hugs) from many of the players I admire. And yet… AND YET… when I pull up too quick on Kamikaze, BLAM! When I don’t throw far enough out on a suicide, SMACK! When I get lazy on a GT Varial, KNOT! The yo-yo does not care who you are, who you know, what accolades you’ve received, whether or not you’re “pro”. If you’re throwing fixed axle, you need to forget everything but the trick, and even then it might bite you. It reminds you to see through the BS, so that when someone is too nice and says “dude you’re like… a legend” you can smile and be sincere in saying “thank you, but I’m not”. Because anyone who truly throws fixed is an ant surfing a tsunami on a toothpick - another voyager on an unimaginably vast, stormy ocean. If you throw fixed, you will mainly wipe out - you will FAIL at what you try to do MOST of the time. Which is wonderful, because you will come to learn that the State of Yo - that momentary magical synergy you stumble upon which allows you to hit something truly special does NOT come from you - but if you can forget yourself enough and get out of your own way, sometimes you can go to IT.
Anyway, those are my reasons. AND of course, because there’s so much money in it.
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Thank you Ed. It makes me feel much better to hear the reality that everyone gets their knuckles busted by fixed axle. However, the feeling of hitting the trick that has been causing at least discomfort, maybe some level of physical pain, during learning makes it all worthwhile. Plus, it is nice to not have to explain a bind to someone who just wants to try your yoyo.
Say three times: “I’m knot afraid, I’m knot afraid, I’m knot afraid.”
That didn’t help! :
Thank you for that ed, very well said. btw i am totally going
to hug you next time i see you.
For anyone with a fear of nasty knots on delicate wood axles, i would suggest getting
a seam ripper from anywhere that has any sewing supplies. they have the perfect shape for getting into the knot or under a sting without scratching anything, and when you push it into the tangle it has a sharp inner edge that cuts right through the string.
I remember late 80’s, early 90’s, doing trapeze stalls and being upset about it. I was just trying to land trapeze smoothly, and the darn thing kept coming back and “stopping” on the string. Eventually, while working on Man and his Brother, I realized that I could “stop the yoyo” in a trapeze and then throw it the opposite way. Never thought of it as a “trick” just a means to learning something. Don’t ever remember seeing stalls mentioned in YoYoTimes, or any of the trick books I had, so never thought of it as a “trick”, or that I could do more with it. After learning those tricks I never did stalls on purpose again until a few years ago ;D
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Ok, I’m convinced. Totally knot going to worry knots.
have you seen Ed’s instagram videos with his katana, or his Aikido skills? I wouldn’t try to surprise him with a hug, you might end up on the ground looking up at an apologetic Ed
Just kidding, Ed seems like a pretty chill guy…unless he thinks the hug is a distraction as you go for his wallet…
Lol nah. I’m not messing with Kevin. He gets super powers from caffeine. Goes all Super-Saiyan!!
Ed, you are an inspiration.
Second that
Gotta go along with this.
Do you really need to use a cotton string with wood axles?
I’ve been using poly just fine and I tend to throw really hard plus I’ve been doing a fair bit of (beginner) wood axle looping. Zero string melting in sight, no smells, no nothing.
I am also afraid of cotton because I’ve had multiple cotton strings (and even cotton/poly mixes) break quite rapidly in play.
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