Page 8 July 3, 2014 TORRANCE TRIBUNE TerriAnn of Torrance An American Yo-Yo Story By TerriAnn Ferren Did you ever have a favorite toy that was fun to play with and easily fit into your pocket? One toy that fits the bill is the yoyo. I thought the yo-yo was an American toy with a long American tradition but I found out the simple yo-yo has a rich, ancient history and noble life which continues to connect players around the globe. I asked South Bay resident Christopher Adame if he ever played with a yo-yo and he told me, “I had one that lit up when you threw it!” Vickie Vega, on the other hand said, “I had two brothers and they were learning to use it and kept knocking me on the head and it wasn’t for me. I preferred my Barbie dolls!” Mine was a clear, plastic, Duncan Imperial Yo-Yo. I played with that yo-yo until the string was frayed and dirty and the ‘shoulders’ of the yo-yo were scraped from my attempts to ‘walk the dog’ and perform other tricks. The yo-yo has a very long history. The yo-yo most probably dates back to ancient China but according to Valerie Oliver, Vice President of Spintastic Skill Toys, Inc., the first documented mention of a yo-yo was 500 BC in Greece. The humble yo-yo strung its way all over the world, finally landing in the United States thanks to Pedro Flores from the Philippines, who was responsible for mass-producing the toy. The word yo-yo is Tagalog for ‘come-come’ or ‘to return.’ Donald Duncan purchased Flores’ company, rights, and trademark in 1932 for a quarter of a million dollars, which was a lot of money during the depression. Duncan, a brilliant businessman, is responsible for marketing and popularizing the toy in the United States. Last week, I met with 16-year-old Alex Hattori, a young yo-yo champion who will be a senior in the fall at South Torrance High School. Alex was born at Torrance Memorial Hospital in 1997. He won the 2011 Most Inspirational Player Award and in 2011 came in second in both the National and World Yo-Yo Contest 3A Championship. “I’ve been playing with a yo-yo for about four years,” said Alex. He told me his older sister [Tiffany] bought him his first yo-yo, the Legacy. The first trick Alex learned was ‘the sleeper.’ “It is just making the yo-yo spin,” said Alex. He told me he practices “everywhere I go.” That was evident as he unzipped his ‘yo-yo case’ to reveal several yo-yos of different colors and types. This young man was serious. He has designed two yo-yos: the C- Force (or Centrifugal Force) in 2012, and the Collider, in 2013. “I donated my [winning] yo-yos to the National Yo-Yo Museum in Chico, California,” added Alex. Next, I asked Alex to teach me ‘the sleeper,’ and he did. It has been a long time since I played with a yo-yo. I finally performed the trick over the grass at the park, but it wasn’t the most stellar attempt. Alex told me he doesn’t do the ‘sleeper’ or ‘walk the dog’ trick on concrete because it scrapes the yo-yo and throws off its delicate balance. Now I understand why my clear Duncan yo-yo didn’t perform up to championship standards – I had damaged it! Alex proceeded to show me his favorite trick – the sideways double trapeze. He said the reason yo-yos are so expensive ($50 - $500) now is because they are made from precision aluminum and every piece needs to be identical so it balances perfectly. Alex gave me one of his cool trading cards that list his yo-yo accomplishments and stats. “It has opened a lot of doors for me. I have met celebrities and I have been on TV. I’ve been on a Nickelodeon game show called Figure it Out, on a Fox news show that focuses on teens with passion called Live Life and Win, the ABC 7 news, and on the Queen Latifah show,” added Alex. You can contact Alex at yoyoshowsforall@gmail. com and see him perform at Rock Around the Block on July 17, 2014 from 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. in downtown Torrance. The following weekend I was very fortunate to make contact with Dale Oliver, President of Spintastics Skill Toys, Inc. and Science of Spin LLC, who also happens to be the developer of the Science of Spin. Dale is the 1992 World Yo-Yo Champion, and one of only four initial National Yo-Yo Grand Masters. He is Founder and Former President of the American Yo-Yo Association, the 2006 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, World Yo-Yo Contest, and inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005. Oliver’s accomplishments in the sport of yo-yoing are impressive and it was an honor speaking with him. “Now there is so much online, we find kids all over the world don’t have to be involved in a yo-yo community. They can just use the internet. We find kids popping up in major competitions that we’ve never seen before who are excellent players. It takes probably 8,000 – 10,000 hours to become a world class competitor,” said Dale. This year, the National Yo-Yo Competition will be held in Prague. Dale told me, “The last one was in Orlando and the one in 2015 will be in Tokyo. I started the World Competition in 1992 and ran it through 1998. Now there is an International Yo-Yo Federation that is a consortium of 3-4 people. One of the members ran the Czech competition and one was very instrumental in Tokyo. In 2016 it will come back to the United States.” The nationals are held yearly the first Saturday in October in Chico, California. I asked Dale when he started playing with a yo-yo and he told me, “1949. I was 9 years old. My father bought me a yo-yo and taught me about 4 or 5 tricks because he entered in a yo-yo contest when he was young. He was a player.” I asked Dale where he grew up and he said, “Kansas City, Missouri. I was a Duncan man and started working for Duncan full time in 1957. I did that for a number of years and finally decided to start my own company in 1989, Oliver’s Toys. I started traveling when I was 17 and traveled all over the United States and ended up in Washington State.” In 1996 Dale was working his successful school program, Science of Spin, which demonstrates physics, form, and motion through the yo-yo, and people began calling, asking if they could buy the yo-yo he had designed. He had never intended to sell it in stores, but could see this could lead somewhere. Dale decided to make yoyos available and called his friend, Valerie, another yo-yo expert and the two started a business selling yo-yos, which became Spintastic Skill Toys. The company moved to the Fort Worth, Texas and in 2001, Valerie and Dale married. Check out their website, www.spintastics.com. “Through many years of doing this and teaching kids and hearing so many anecdotal stories about ADD/ADHD kids, the yo-yo teaches focus, discipline, and practice. I have heard so many stories from parents that their kids – how much improvement - that their schoolwork got better, their self-esteem and growth. It is a cross over in the brain ‘cuz they have to use both hands on a lot of those tricks,” said Dale. I asked Dale if he likes what he does and he said, “Oh, sure. That was the whole idea. I really like working with kids, I enjoy playing with yo-yos. My advice would be - don’t go to a big box store to buy a yo-yo. The company that sells the most yoyos is Duncan and the most popular is the Imperial – it sells for $2.50/$3. There isn’t a yo-yo player anywhere who would even pick one up. I mean, the yo-yo has to be able to unscrew, that is number one. You can’t play with a yo-yo for 15 minutes without getting the string caught up in it and if you can unscrew it, the knots come out easily.” There are 2 basic kinds of yo-yos: fixed Axle yo-yos and ball bearing yo-yos. Fixed axle yo-yos means the whole yo-yo spins as a unit – so the axle that goes through is affixed to the sides to the yo-yo. Dale told me, “Old wooden Duncan yo-yos used to be turned on a lathe out of a single piece of wood. Most of the yo-yos you find today have plastic sides with a steel pin and they are not supposed to come apart. Almost all decent yo-yos unscrew and the fixed axles are really considered beginners yo-yos because they don’t have ball bearings. On a fixed axle – if you double loop the string around the middle it will go down and it will come back half way without you doing anything. If you do that with a ball bearing yo-yo, it will go down and stay down and you won’t be able to get it back up because the string around the bearing stays still and the plastic sides spin. But it has to be spinning fast enough for you to jerk it to come up. With a bearing yo-yo you have to be able to throw it hard enough to make it function correctly. Ball bearing yo-yos are what everybody uses except for rank beginners.” Guess that includes me! “I have taught literally over a million kids to yo-yo in my life so I have pretty much seen it all. It was designated ‘toy of the century’ in the 90s and we know that as a toy, it is dated at least 500 years before Christ but it didn’t achieve the level of popularity until Duncan started promoting it in the late 30s,” said Dale. Since then, it has matured from a fad toy into a sport and now there are people who yo-yo all over the world. This 4th of July I am going to bring out my yo-yo and see how many of my friends can keep it going longer than I can without a miss – which won’t be too long. Grab a toy you love and share it with someone else. Happy 4th of July everyone! • Draft from page 6 Either way, even if the Lakers don’t make the huge splash that they intend to make in this year’s free-agency period, they will still look forward to next year when there will be other huge names out on the market for taking. “It’s a good [free-agent] class,” said Kupchak. “But in terms of today of who might be at the very top, it might not be as large as next year and the year after.” Kevin Durant, Kevin Love and Rajon Rondo should all potentially be free-agents in the summer of 2015, giving the Lakers ample opportunity to revamp their club whether that happens this year, or in the near future. The only thing that has remained consistent with the Los Angeles Lakers is that they always rise to the top. The Lakers of years ago will certainly be back, we know that for sure. Now it is only a matter of guessing how soon. • Up and Adam from page 6 a 1-0 defeat at the hands of La Serna, a team that wound up making it to the championship game this season. Despite their loss, however, it was still another very successful season for the Lady Saxons to add to the list. The 2014 Softball Player of the Year, Sydni Overly, earned All-CIF honors in Division III this year, but as a senior, has experienced her last season as a pitcher for the North High Saxons. Over her years at North, Overly has taken a large part in the Lady Saxons’ success. Her departure will surely leave a void in the lineup, but coach Miller has never had a hard time filling those voids in the past. Look for the Lady Saxons to be back on top of their game next season as they look to win yet another Pioneer League title with the hopes of bringing home another championship for North High. Yo-yos in action. Photo by TerriAnn Ferren. Dale Oiver, 1992 World Yo-Yo Champion. Photo by Val Oliver. Alex Hattori, Yo-Yo Champion. Photo by TerriAnn Ferren. Inside a professional modern yo-yo. Photo by TerriAnn Ferren. Alex rolling a yo-yo on his arm. Photo by TerriAnn Ferren.
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