Ive been yoyoing for about 10 months now and the longest streak of someone yoyoing with me at school was 2 days. What is the best way to try and get more people to yoyo with me?
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In my experience it’s just kinda a hobby you do in your spare time when you get a few minutes. I don’t find it to be very social or attract much interest sadly. Plenty of people on here would probably have a different experience than me though
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i’ve attempted to get a bunch of my IRL friends into yoyo, only one has stuck with it out of probably a dozen lol. sadly this isnt a hobby with super wide appeal, hopefully there is a yoyo club near by so you can go to the meet ups! ive met some really cool people at the DXL yoyo club, as well as here on the forums, and the discords i frequent.
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I had your same issue when I was living in Italy, I was the only person in the whole island playing it (and not a small island), to go to yoyo meetings I had to take the plane which it was insane in terms of time and cost.
What you can do is try to look for a close meeting to you, maybe writing an announcement here in the forum or in facebook BST and find people close to you.
Now I live in London, we have meetings regularly but there is some people that does 2/3 hours train just to come to the meeting, honestly mate, I can feel you.
Many people say that yoyoing is kind of a “loner” hobby, because yes you can play alone and be fine but the most of the tricks and advance a lot in the game is learned when you are in group
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That’s probably the biggest void I can think of for this hobby. I’ve never thought about it before but I just realized how often I’ve actually wished I had someone around to practice with. I know it would make me so much better for sure. Having someone to learn from and with and also challenge urself with. And it’s just more fun when u have a friend or someone who enjoys the same thing u do. So ur is a bit of a bummer the way Yoyo is super niche. I feel like the people who play Yoyo were meant for it. And everyone else just isn’t. And I’m pretty glad to be one of the people who is.
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I played for a full year before I met anyone in real life…and I know people who’ve gone for much longer.
My solution…I started organising meetups.
This years there’ve been 4 moments where we met up with a bunch of players, and we’re talking about organising a contest.
And the best part, other people have picked up on it and started organising meetups as well.
Be the change you want to see…
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This is the answer. I went 4 years not knowing anyone else who yo-yos till i sought out and became part of a local group.
Easiest thing start a club or a group or something. It’ll go a long way to bring people interested into the hobby and those that like yoyo too to the same space.
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I’ll mirror most of what others have said as well. In my experience growing up, playing yo-yo was considered nerdy by the masses. Many who throw have done so alone. I never really came across another thrower in real life until this past year. I’ve been able to get yo-yos in the hands of several friends and most have let me know how much they’ve enjoyed it (not all though). But we’ve not gotten together. This is one reason I’ve truly appreciated this forum. While not in person, it’s still been a great connection to people around the world who love to throw as much or more than me. I have been considering arranging a yo-yo day to get all the friends I’ve gotten back into it together. If you build it…they will come.
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Ive had alot of friends buy a throw and drop the hobby, the appeal isnt the problem i think its quite appealing, but very few people can commit to the hours of learning itll take, especially just learning to throw the yoyo with enough power to even get anywhere lol. Usually have to throw it for them to teach them the bind😆
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Where I live in Pittsburgh seems to actually have a decent amount of throwers surprisingly. There’s even a contest here in a few days. Meeting some throwers here in real life this past Summer after months of yoyoing alone was awesome. The throwers I have met were through this forum. I’d make a post and ask if there’s any throwers in your area or see if there’s any contests nearby coming up. Just be careful, take your parents with you to meet people.
On the otherside of getting people to start yoyoing, I haven’t had much luck myself.
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Yo-yo throwing is very personal to me. It is a very intimate relationship with the throw and time. I get allot out trick progression the work put in and the reward of the feeling of accomplishment when hitting a trick.
It is very hard to transmit that excitement to a casual observer. Those that have been bitten by the bug know and appreciate your tricks.
To the rest throwing is allot like magic, it is fun to watch
Everyone have a great rest of the week
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I upload a couple of YouTube videos for fun, that’s kinda entertaining. A black light with some neon yo-yos always help, a friend getting into is harder to do, but way better. This year I’m also participating in the trick a week thread so that will also be very fun
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I’m a 53-year-old woman living on a small island (2 hours north of Seattle, 2 hours south of Canada). Through acquaintances I met one man (not from the island) and he’s a lone looper. Other than that Zero. 
It’s unconducive for me to try to start a meet up so I’m hoping the Seattle meet is still going and I can make it there once in awhile.
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I know this might sound corny…
If it were me, I would try to get your group of friends to challenge eachother, along with forming a club.
When I was your age, all of the kids had yoyos at school because we were competing with eachother. Everything revolved around competition and who was better back then. Who gets the longest sleeper, who could walk the dog the furthest and still get it to come back, how many rock the babies you could do, all of these seemingly simple things made us come back to school every day to try and one up eachother.
Here I am, still throwing because of it.
Just do something with YoTricks app first 50 tricks. Like have a competition every week for who can do 1-10 tricks or something.
I also recommend, if you haven’t already, to suggest all the beginners responsive yoyos first.
I sincerely do not think that starting unresponsive is a good move. People who have no interest or drive to yoyo on their own aren’t going to want to play something that is “broken” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve given my unresponsive yoyo to someone and they go “its broken” then immediately lose interest because its too difficult. Yes, for some, unresponsive can be fine to start on, but for the majority this makes no sense.
The first trick you learn is the sleeper, the next you learn is the gravity pull. Unresponsive skips all of those steps and forces the person learning to not even be able to play with the yoyo, or experience the feeling of successfully completing a trick with the yoyo and basically gates them from playing.
Lastly is that I would encourage people to try other styles to bring them into the fold. With 4A, you and your friends can launch yoyos to eachother from virtually anywhere and try to catch them, loads of fun imo. Some people just wanna throw a yoyo up and down and that’s no better or worse than someone who is at the top level of competition. Maybe your friends don’t want to play yoyo, but they’re willing to record and edit videos for you, that would be cool. Either way, I think there’s a lot of ways to get people interested because the ceiling for what you can do with a yoyo is infinite. I think giving people that realization only happens when they find a distinctive style they enjoy, whether it’s 0A or 3A, a competitor or someone who throws on their break at lunch. Whatever the style of play, we’re all here enjoying yoyos in our own way.
(also show them cool yoyo videos, not competition routines, yoyo videos)
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In my country yoyoing is a very obscure hobby. The public perception of the yoyo in my country is of that nostalgic toy from the 60´s in which you walked the dog or did the eiffel tower. I remember seeing some guy on youtube who would do modern string tricks on the city park with his wife and kid. But that was 7 years ago. All traces of modern yoyoing in my country are very old, and most people here do not even know about the butterfly shape on a yoyo. so I am pretty much alone, except for my friends who see me yoyo and know my tricks
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You can try introducing yo-yos to groups that do exist , like at a skate park or things like that.
If you keep throwing, you are bound to find some enlightened folks out there.
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I’m not really a social person so generally I’m ok. But sometimes I do wish I was able to have some IRL friends to throw with
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Can not say this enough time, if there is no meet around you then you should try to form one! Western Washington meets went from 3 people, to 20+ in the last year. It’s been so worth the effort to keep things going and to advertise the meets.
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At school I made a yoyo club. You could try that.
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I would ask whether yo-yo is a social activity? To me; it is something you challenge yourself to do. I am not sure that playing yo-yo with others would be any more fun than having a few beers and watching the weekend ballgame with the same people.
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