gaining popularity throughout the nation as an
alternative sport
Andrew Teem demonstrate his yo-yo skills at Flying Clippers. The store is located at 1680 W. 11th.
Azle Malinao-Alvarez
Yael Menahem
Oregon Daily Emerald
Yoyo&are making a comeback.
Who kn#y the little toys have such
a deep in pact on people’s hves?
Andre v Teem, a yo-yo enthusi
ast who icked up the alternative
sports f( :m two years ago, feels
that the o-yo made its way back
to the m Lnstream, including Eu
gene, a ear and a half ago, be
cause it’sii cycle, just like fashion.
“Yo-ya| have come back with
vengeancl,” Teem says.
There ale many yo-yo groups
around theipountry; most are affil
iated withlthe American Yo-Yo
Association which was estab
lished in Odlpber 1993. Its mis
sion statemenreads, “The mis
sion of the AY^kis to provide a
venue for players collectors to
come together in feSl^ship and
to engage in the promotn
yo playing as an art form
sport, for both amateur and pro
fessional players.”
They take yo-yoing seriously.
Locally, there’s Club Yo, which
Teem is trying to reorganize so it
will be a place for all to learn new
tricks and different styles of yo
yoing. Teem plans to set up clin
ics and club gatherings for those
who want to share their tricks
with others.
The history of the yo-yo can be
traced back to 500 B.C. in Greece
when they were made from clay
and were used for decoration
rather than playing. At a certain
age, children would offer their
toys to the gods, and the yo-yo was
one of the toys that was given up.
It’s believed that yo-yos made
their way to the United States in
the 1920s when a man named Pe
dro Flores brought the first one
from the Philippines to the United
States and toured the country,
leaving audiences in awe of the
tricks the he could perform with
the toy. Teem believes they were
most popular during the 1950s.
Today, yo-yo championships
and competitions are held
throughout the nation and world
wide. The 1999 AYYA World
Champion is Takumi Nagase, a 12
year-old from Japan.
Not all yo-yos are created equal.
There are the solid wood yo-yos
that have a fixedaxle that doesn’t
come apa^rfffa xstr^pheapest.
There’sjftso the trans
that Ma metal axle with
sle<»n around the cen
thiffe’s the yo-yo with the
sflrn, which Teem uses, c
11-bearing yo-yo, ala
rbo
[e yo-yo
plastic
and
iperior
led the
own as
_ t was suc
sstully“created in 1997 and of
:s “a new level of yo-yo,” said
, who thinks the axle is like a
hoard wheel.
is new technology lets the
yo-ydfcsleep,” or spin, for 11 min
utes, wmich gives yo-yoers an op
portunilWto develop more tricks.
One ofultemost popular is Tom
Kuhn’s “N^Wive 3-in-l” yo-yo,
which was creafcai in 1978. It’s the
first take-apart-by^l|Mid yo-yo that
has a replaceable axll^p 1980,
“The yo-yo with a Brain”1
ated by Michael Caffrey and offer
a centrifugal spring-loaded clutch
mechanism that causes the auto
matic return of the yo-yo to the
hand when the rotational spin
slows to a predetermined rate.
Sounds like a bunch of scientific
terms, but the rotation and the
axle of the yo-yo is essential to the
player.
The Silver Bullet II, considered
the top-of-the-line yo-yo, runs for
$90 and is considered the world’s
longest-spinning yo-yo.
The key to keeping the yo-yos
rotation fresh is replacing the
string often, according to the
AYYA’s Web site.
The Flying Clipper, an alterna
tive sports store in Eugene, where
Teem works, offers the most en
thusiastic yo-yoer a wall full of yo
yos, some instructional videos
and accessories.
According to Teem, there’s two
yo-yoing styles. The imperial is the
simplest form, where people do
tricks like “walk the dog,” where
the yo-yo touches the ground and
continues to move forward, while
the butterfly is fit for the advanced
yo-yoer who experiments with
freestyle yo-yoing and a variety of
string tricks based of the art of Dia
bolo, a Chinese technique.
The sport is non-competitive,
and that is its appeal to many, in
cluding Teem, who believes the
sport “instills concentration and
agility” in him.
“It’s a balance and meditation
for me,” he says. But that doesn’t
mean that he doesn’t get hurt
when trying new yicks.
Sometimes Jpe yo-yo can
“wake-up,” wjflch means that it
(SjaajDSjand^n hit a person any
wnereT including the head or
teeth.
And who said yo-yos can’t be a
good workout too?
“I think my biceps got bigger
from yo-yoing,” Teem says.
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