The Surprisingly Complex World of Yo-yoing
Credit: skilladdicts.com
By: Taran Nulu
Most people have seen or used a yo-yo before in their life. But as simple as a children’s toy it may seem, yo-yos are surprisingly complex.
Yo-yos are a seemingly simple toy—two disks connected by an axle and a string. However, this simple mechanism allows for lots of creativity through tricks, a sequence performed with a spinning yoyo to create a motion, visual effect, or pattern. There are thousands of yo-yo tricks which all allow for personal creativity which has created a small but passionate community of yo-yoers.
A key mechanic of yo-yos is their ability to sleep, or spin at the end of a string after being thrown without immediately returning to the thrower’s hand. This is important for tricks, as it allows the thrower to move the yo-yo and manipulate its string while the yo-yo is spinning. Without sleeping, the thrower would have no time to do any tricks.
Credit: YoTricks
There are two main types of yo-yos: responsive and unresponsive. Responsive yo-yos are the type most people have been exposed to: when you pull up, the yo-yo comes up. The most common yo-yos have a fixed-axle, meaning the string wraps directly around the axle connecting the two halves of a yo-yo. These yo-yos do not spin for very long after being thrown, limiting the tricks that can be done with them.
Credit: usastrojax.com
The other type of responsive yo-yos have a ball bearing axle. This makes it so that the yo-yo spins more independently from the string. This gives ball bearing yo-yos a substantially longer sleep time than fixed-axle yo-yos, making them more often used for tricks. To allow the yoyo to be wound up, there are response pads made of silicon. These pads are located in the inner edge of each half of a yo-yo, sitting around the ball bearing. They provide friction with the spinning yo-yo and the string, winding up the yo-yo.
Credit: Shinysix, Walmart
Finally, there are unresponsive yo-yos, which are the most commonly used for advanced tricks and for a majority of the divisions of the World Yo-Yo Contest. Like responsive yo-yos, unresponsive yo-yos use a ball bearing axle. However, unresponsive yo-yos are designed in a way to stop the string from hitting the sides of the yo-yo, preventing them from winding up when tugged on.
Credit: Magic Yoyo
Image Description: Because of the groove in the ball bearing (which the string is placed on), the string cannot touch the sides of an unresponsive yo-yo.
The only way to wind up these yo-yos is with a technique called a bind. This added complexity comes with benefits, as unresponsive yoyos sleep for much longer , allowing for: looping tricks, where a yo-yo loops around your hand repeatedly;string tricks, where the sleeping yo-yo is placed on the string and moved around, similar to a gymnast on a tight rope;and rolling the yo-yo on a even surface of the thrower’s body. The incredible amount of variety and innovation that can be done with these tricks is showcased perfectly through the Yo-Yo World Contest.
The Yo-Yo World Contest is an official international competition, where the best players around the world compete against each other in tricks. Each competitor has their own routine of tricks they perform in a set time to music. Routines are judged based on the difficulty, creativity, and execution. The contest has several different divisions, with 1A for single yo-yo tricks being the largest. There is also 2A for double yo-yo tricks, 3A for triple yo-yo tricks, 4A for tricks where the yo-yo and the string are separate, and 5A, where there is a counterweight tied to the end of the yo-yo.
Credit: YoTricks
Image Description: The 4A division adds even more complexity in the tricks that can be done, as the yo-yo isn’t even attached to the string.
The most recent winner of the 1A division from this year’s world contest was Mir Kim from Korea. You can see his astonishing performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It1ZUhLSDMY.
It is incredible how such a simple toy can be pushed so far. As time passes, the tricks and the community will only grow.