Yoyoing in public

General Yo-Yo
21

So you only needed gas in the car since it’s fixed axle Friday?? That’s kind of odd… Lol

22

Dude who cares what people think man. I promise that the people who think bad about you yoyoing in public there are 10 times the amount of people who are interested in it.

1 Like
23

Soooo…

  1. You feel uncomfortable playing with a toy in public because someone might say something?
  2. You practice something you love and enjoy but don’t share it with the world?
  3. You care about what people will say that don’t know or care about you?
  4. Do your friends support you?
  5. Do you feel guilty playing with a toy?
  6. You really want to be a pro?

Well then…

  1. Don’t worry about people being negative, you are trying to bring a smile to their faces. If they choose to hate that’s on them, not you.
  2. Share what you love and others will see the joy it brings.
  3. Caring is good but I’d suggest focusing on the positive experiences yoyoing in public will provide verses the negative.
  4. Real friends support each others interests.
  5. Most people have toys or hobbies even if they don’t recognize that’s what they are.
  6. Pro’s play in public. You must share what you do, you have to take the risk, and risk is where you find value in life.

A little more directly:
There are worse things than failure. The fear of failure and others opinions is dehabilating, deflating, and usually based on false premises. There are even occassions when the fear of failing or other’s opinions is actually worse than having failed.

Push through it and free yourself.

1 Like
24

Deep, great motivation

25

Throw hard, get better, don’t care.

Just do yourself a favor and do not give someone who asked “omg can i tryyyy??” a throw that you’d prefer to keep mint. Skip the explanation of the bind and just say no, and if it really kills you to have to deny them, carry an old fireball or something like that for them to screw around with

1 Like
26
Give this guy a cookie.
27

HA! Yeah, reads that way. Dang wood yo-yos make me need gas!

28

Lol, I’m still not sure exactly what you were trying to say either.

29

I’m 13 and I yoyo at school all the time. All I get is praise for my intermediate/advanced yoyo skills. And now I got a few of my friends into it it’s really cool so just go out there and have fun!!!

30

It’s certainly better to start earlier :slight_smile:
People are much more easily impressed and they’ll actually notice you haha :smiley:

31

Alright I want to share my experience with yoyoing in public so far:

I really enjoy throwing outside, it's refreshing. Places I usually yoyo are waiting for the bus, at work(on break) at the bowling alley (I'm a league bowler and it really helps calm me down when I'm on over 5 strikes in a row. Most people love to see it. I feel like most people who see me haven't seen a yoyo in years. People always say stuff like nice moves or do you juggle(random but people have said this 4-5times already). The one comment I get a LOT, almost exclusively at my work (I work at a bar/pub, customers are mostly 30+ I'm 18) and this sort of gets on my nerves is stuff like "wow you're cheating, how do you miss when the yoyo is that wide" "you ever seen yoyos from my day" "it's like there's a motor spinning you're yoyo" which sound like neutral comments or compliments but they generally have a tone in their voice that implies shunning with undertones of envy and self regret. I don't let it get to me at all because I can see that they are jealous and often very drunk. However, it still takes some of the fun out of it. I wish these people were less cynical(not all of them some are extremely nice to converse with). Overall though it makes it one of my least favourite places to throw(I bring my yoyo everyday regardless)
32

“You should have seen the yoyo’s back in my day…You had to have skill…Dang kids…”
(but most of the older gentlemen I have shown a yoyo are just excited to see a yoyo, it brings a lot of them back and most are cool and positive, I just love this pic for the old man cynic stereotype :slight_smile: )


1 Like
33

People will either ignore you or think it’s cool. I don’t think you’re going to run into many people who will make fun of you, and if they do, they’re probably not going to say it to your face.

I mean I’m 28 and I’ll yoyo in public if I’m bored. I don’t care what people think, though if someone were to get in my face about it I’d probably garrote them with the yoyo string :wink:

34

If you garrotte them you have to use a YYJ Hitman (ba dum tsss)

35

Fun fact: yoyoing in public and yoyoing at comps for years has given me steel nerves. It helps me a lot with Cubing. I don’t shake or get flustered like a lot of competitors, and I actually tend to do better!

36

What is Cubing? You mean Rubix Cubing / Speed Cubing? Just guessing.

37

Yup, thats what he was talking about.

38

I’ve been yoyoing in public pretty much everywhere I go for the better part of a year, and I’ve never once had someone ridicule me for it. (I’m 23, so if was a “kids’ toy” issue, it would have happened.) People usually have one of three responses: Watch, think it’s cool, but not say anything; Watch, think it’s cool, and say so; or ignore it altogether.

39

I also find lots of people give awkward glances and don’t watch but this is the same as when I’m walking and say hi to somebody I pass on the street and they don’t look at me or say anything

40

Expanding on what I said earlier…

Random passersby when you’re yoyoing in public fall into three broad categories

A) People who seem to ignore you
B) People who make comments.
C) People who ask questions

Furthermore these groups fall into more refined categories.

A) People who ignore you
i) People who see it but have no opinion
ii) People who see it, think it’s interesting, but are too busy to give it much notice
iii) People who see it, silently think you’re childish, and continue on their way
iv) People who don’t notice at all
B) People who make comments
i) People who make positive comments about your hobby
ii) People who make negative comments about your hobby
iii) People who make annoying comments about your hobby (e.g., “Those tricks look easy, I bet he
can’t do ‘walk the dog’ like I could back in the day”)
iv) People who make irrelevant comments about your hobby (e.g., “Yeah I remember yoyos.”)
v) People who already yoyo and want to talk to a fellow yoyoer
C) People who ask questions
i) People asking annoying/obvious questions (e.g., “Is that a yoyo?”)
ii) People asking you to demonstrate a specific trick, usually stupidly easy ones (e.g., “Hey can you
‘rock the baby’”?
iii) People asking to use your yoyo (Don’t let them, in general as they’ll probably just smash it into
the ground)
iv) People genuinely interested in your hobby who want to know how they can learn how to do what
you’re doing

It depends where exactly you are, but if you’re doing this in a fairly busy location like an outdoor shopping boulevard, I think about 90% of people fall in group A, and 5% in B and 5% in C. You don’t really have anything to worry about except for people who want to use your yoyo. Others can be annoying but just ignore them or indulge them for a moment and they’ll likely go away.

This is my experience anyway. If you’re in a special type of situation like you’re doing this at school and you’re already liked/despised you could get much more positive/negative reactions. Or if you’re a really talented street performer doing this for money and drawing a crowd, it’s another situation entirely. In that situation people will either ignore you or think it’s cool, maybe even cool enough to give you money. When I lived in Eugene, OR I saw some yoyo street performers at the weekly Saturday market. Pretty cool. I wish I still lived there :frowning:

Anyway, bottom line: Just do it, and who gives a (censored) if you get a negative reaction? No one’s going to get violent unless they’re completely psychotic, and I don’t think many people would try to steal your yoyo, because nobody realizes how expensive modern yoyos are. Most people think yoyos cost a few dollars :-\

And if you’re lucky you might just run into a fellow yoyo-er and make a new friend! I’ve made a friend this way. Basically, you’ve got nothing to lose unless you’re playing over concrete or asphalt and have a tendency to chuck your metal yoyo into the ground at high speed :wink: