where you come from & where you go

it's so gratifying to watch something you've cared about grow. 

definitely true of children, and I suppose also cats, guinea pigs, or house plants... and (incredibly) also of yo-yo styles.

i'm running a little giveaway thing this month (it being Fixed Axle February). basically i developed a somewhat arbitrary trick-list and said i'd randomly draw a winner from those who filmed themselves hitting it. people like yo-yo's, so i guess i did assume a few people would try it, but i wasn't actually prepared for the feeling of seeing other players stoked about hitting stuff like varial and bird. in fact, even just people asking for advice about them has been cool.

it's interesting that with the 0a scene having collectively enjoyed a bit of a hiatus from focusing energy on fixed 1a tricks (being hard at work in establishing whatever it is that the 0a style is becoming), stuff like split the atom represents a fairly significant challenge, even for some experienced fixed axle throwers. i remember visiting steve brown one year when he was doing street performances in virginia beach and i was just getting into fixed axle. he made the point that after yomega changed the game with the influx of transaxles, it was hard to find a player who could hit split the atom on an old woodie like the demonstrators of old.

that conversation (along with several with jack ringca about exploring the limits of fixed axle throws) was definitely a catalyst for me. ~17 years later i don't think about it in quite the same way, but at the time it was important to me to somehow retain the stoicism of the players who toiled to master tricks before bearings (or the internet) provided solace. i couldn't fully retain that, of course, but i DID put in  work, and wonderfully pointless though it may be, the canonical skill set i developed in those years feels like something worth maintaining.

in jazz, you need to know the rules in order to break them. in the last decade, 1a has represented "the rules" and 0a has developed as a counterpoint by focusing on trick elements which are better suited to responsive and fixed axle yo-yo's... but i confess the idea of developing skill in 0a WITHOUT jumping through string-trick hoops on fixies is something i never really thought about. like if we were effective in developing a style of yo-yo that people wanted to play, a benchmark of success would be that they start to learn it independent of the context and references it came out of. charlie parker understood the style of lester young, and consciously threw it out to make his own style. ornette coleman did the same with charlie parker. a generation later, you had saxophonists seeking to sound like ornette without having gone through the same process with regard to his stylistic predecessors.

and that's ok - it's inevitable, and it's how style evolves. it's really interesting to think about what i have ignored, as opposed to what's influenced me. watching players hit the tricks for this contest, it's even more interesting to consider where the players watching THEM will take the style next.

it's supposed to be hard

merry fixed axle february, everybody! 

it's funny to realize that "faf" has been a thing for so long now. i remember it's first upstart incarnation and the contests which sprang from it, as well as the original "fixed friday" tags used by nathan martsolf. (while we're on the subject i remember the first time i saw a "trickcircle" on insta... when the term transitioned from an informal contest hangout to ray g and sonny using it to post awesome 15s content. it's weird to have watched elements of our microculture evolve from curious anomalies into foundational pillars of our communication.

2/1 also marks the end of my first month of this little journey. it's almost eerie how little i've missed throwing bearings (or even a diversity of other wood throws), especially given that i walk past my locked display case every day - a strange yo-yo time-capsule in my dining room. 

i make it a point to throw a little every day. i'm not sure if it brings me back to myself or gets me AWAY from myself. maybe either, depending on the day. but it's nice to know which yo-yo is in my pocket and to feel more accustomed to its shape and texture each day, along with the way it spins and responds.

one of my kids at school asked why i always have the same yo-yo lately and i tried to explain it. their response was "right but why, when you have 100's of yo-yos would you only play that one?" the idea of self-imposed restriction in such a frivolous context just doesn't compute. why make it harder on yourself? if you have every kind of surfboard, why would you restrict yourself to just one - and one of the hardest to ride at that? (maybe to make it more about the wave and who you are in relation with it? maybe to settle more deeply into your understanding of what it MEANS to ride a wave?)

i've frequently made the point that fixed axle yo-yos are naturally a bit unpredictable. a bit fickle... sometimes downright difficult. you have to put a lot of attention into them just to execute the simplest string tricks while keeping them from snapping back at you. and i see those aspects of it as a tremendous benefit because they force me to be more PRESENT and they force me to grow. but i'm often guilty of neglecting the fact that some players (most players) play yo-yo to ESCAPE things like difficulty, frustration, and chaos. they have enough of that in their day-to-day lives. if your outlook is that yo-yoing is supposed to be for fun, then the idea of intentionally making it more difficult or intentionally restricting your access to a single difficult yo-yo - at least at first - can seem downright dumb.

meanwhile if your yo-yo is a more of a meditation tool... if tricks are places you go to be honest with yourself... if you're trying to get closer to the forces which govern reality and brush up against failure and frustration, where to hit the trick you have to kind of disappear into it... then a fixie is where it's at and the idea of focusing on a single one might not feel so strange. electric guitars don’t need to pull the strings hard across the instrument’s top to produce an audible sound. so you can set them up to play with almost effortless ease… but if your goal is to HEAR the air inside an instrument explode as the tones are created, then you have to embrace all the mercurial difficulties of an acoustic instrument. nature of the beast.

and the thing is, you CAN start to feel peace in the midst of difficulty, just like (as i mentioned in the last post) you can find space in the limitation. you CAN interpret the signs of progress through the frustration. the failure starts to feel less like something to be afraid of and more an integral part of the process - a teacher. i would never claim it’s more meaningful - it’s just the journey i’m on.

wishing one and all a lovely fixed axle february. 

throw hard and love each other.

and hey if you haven't already seen it, i'm running a little contest all month long on the yoyoexpert.forum. if you can hit the 7 tricks i've listed on video and post them in the thread, you'll be entered into a random drawing to win a DeHcade yo-yo! the tricks aren't super easy, but you've got time. 

(and a little difficulty is ok.)