Zach Gormley is without a doubt one of the foremost names in modern yoyoing. His innovative, genius tricks have not only gained him recognition within the yoyo community but actually outside of the yoyo community as well. Zach is a double threat in his combination of innovative and competitive tricks on stage, all the while remaining pretty humble and just being a pretty nice guy in general. If technical, well-developed tricks are what you’re looking for, Zach Gormley is definitely the yoyoer to watch. I had the opportunity to interview Zach and was super excited to learn more about one of my favorite yoyoers!
Hey Zach, thanks for doing an interview! First of all, how did you start yoyoing?
I got into yoyoing when I received a Yomega Brain as a party favor from my friend’s birthday party. After that I began looking up Youtube video of professional yoyoers and was hooked. I then purchased a FHZ and started to learn more advanced tricks. However that yoyo broke and I didn’t get back into yoyoing until a couple months later when I bought a Throw Monkey at a toy store in Japan.
We definitely had some of the same first yoyos. So, what’s your creative process like behind your tricks and videos?
My creative process behind my tricks are always changing. Someday I may look at a mount and think about where to send the yoyo next compared to other times where I will already know how I want my trick to look and I’ll work to make it happen. Lately I have been trying to make tricks that feel natural and make sense composition wise. Inspiration from other players certainly helps too. I think we naturally yoyo more and more like the players we always watch. When it comes to videos I try to portray my tricks in a way that are easy to see and also work to make the video in a way that will create interest in the hobby itself.
That method honestly works, I know some of your videos have been watched by a lot of people that don’t yoyo. In your opinion, how do you make up a “good” trick?
I personally think that the two biggest factors for making up good tricks is originality and trick composition. By trick composition I mean the way you order each element in your combo. In this current generation of yoyoers I think trick composition will be huge for standing yoyoers apart from the rest. So many players right now have good ideas but when those ideas are put together in an order that makes sense and flows it becomes all the more impressive. Takeshi Matsuura, Tatsuya Fujisaka, Sebastian Brock, and Charles Haycock are all great examples of players with good trick composition.
I totally agree. How do you prepare for all of the contests that you always seem to do really well in?
For me the hardest part of making a good freestyle is just finding the right song haha. Once I do that I can just start putting my tricks in places that fit the music until I have a complete routine. I try to have this done around a month before so I can practice during that extra time but it doesn’t always end up being that ideal..haha.
Nice! As a super creative yoyoer, who are some of your favorite yoyoers?
When it comes to 1A I have many yoyoers that I like, but my absolute favorites are Yuuki Spencer, Takeshi Matsuura, Charles Haycock, Tatsuya Fujisaka, Takahiro Iizuka, Anthony Rojas, and Shinnosuke Miyamoto. All of these players have an outstanding mix of tech and creativity in their yoyoing. They manage to tie those two components together into clean, aesthetically appealing tricks. I could watch them for hours! I also really enjoy watching Shu Takada, Shinji Saito, Rei Iwakura, Ben Conde, and Hank Freeman.
You definitely have good taste in yoyoers! You’re sponsored by CLYW, how did that come about?
I got sponsored by CLYW in May of 2009. This happened because Chris liked some of the recent videos I was putting out. I was always showing off my tricks and ideas through videos and in a sense promoting myself. He contacted me prior to BAC and told me he wanted to ask in person there if I’d be willing to join CLYW. You can probably guess what my response was.
I would assume that you said yes! You are also one half of Innovation Movement, which is kind of exactly what the name implies in regards to yoyo tricks. What’s the story behind Innovation Movement?
Innovation Movement was a project that Isaac Sams and I decided to start up to try and get players thinking outside the box. We wanted to feature a wide variety of players and have many players from all over the world including Russia, Japan, Hungary, and more on our channel! If you would like to see you can visit our page at InnMovement.com.
I have to say, I’m a big fan! Next, what are some of your favorite qualities in a yoyo?
I wouldn’t say that I am too picky when it comes to yoyos. Lighter, more nimble playing yoyos can be more fun but a very solid yoyo you can rely on can be nice as well for that reason. You don’t have to try as hard to keep the yoyo centered or spinning fast. Of course you’ll always want to be trying to do so when in competition.
Absolutely! Speaking of which, what’s your favorite contest to compete in?
This is a no brainer. My favorite contest to compete at would have to be Worlds. Nothing can beat the roaring crowds and level of competition at that contest!
For sure! Last, but not least, what can we expect to see from you in the future?
In the future you will definitely see me at more competitions. I plan on going to US Nationals and 44 Clash next. I’ll also always be working towards that Worlds title. When it comes to videos I plan on posting more tricks to Instagram. A full fledged video for YouTube will hopefully come in due time haha. They require a lot of time and can be hard to make without another yoyoer who knows how to use a camera.
I’d personally really like to see you get a Worlds title. Good luck, and thanks for doing this Zach!
You can next see Zach compete at the 2014 US National YoYo Contest in Chico, California and at 44Clash in Kanagawa, Japan. His signature model yoyo, the Arctic Circle: 2nd Expedition, has another release scheduled for Thursday, September 11th at 10 pm EST.