365 yoyo tricks

The End of 365yoyotricks.com

December 31, 2013 By Steve Brown

In 2010, I had the idea that I wanted to push myself to be a more active yoyo player. Back when I first started playing, and all through my days working for Duncan Toys and then briefly as a tour demonstrator for YoYoFactory, I threw constantly. It was not at all uncommon for me to put in at least 5 – 6 hours a day, and if I was on tour or handling a trade show then it easily became 8 – 10 hours a day. But having kids and starting a business take a lot out of you, and in 2010 I was coming off several years of barely touching a yoyo at all. I needed something to kickstart my creativity, and nothing does that like a public declaration so I announced that I was going to start 365yoyotricks.com, a website where I created, filmed, and uploaded one yoyo trick every single day for a year.

It turned out to be a lot harder than I thought, but in 2011 I did it. One original trick, every day. I dipped into a well of older tricks for days when whatever I was working on wasn’t ready yet, but I published video of 364 original yoyo tricks in 2011. (Halloween was a treat instead of a trick, with a coupon code for YoYoExpert.) In 2012 I decided to bring in some people who I personally wanted to see more play from, and put together a roster of players that are some of my personal favorites: David Ung, Nate Sutter, Ed Haponik, Drew Tetz, and Guy Wright. They contributed about a trick a week each, and I filled in the gaps. For 2013 I did the same thing with a new roster of players: Jacob Jensen, Spencer Berry, Darnell Hairston, Jake Bullock, and Rafael Matsunaga. As always, there were plenty of guest spots, but the formula remained; one new, original yoyo trick every day.

I even started a spin-off site, 365cooltricks.com, that is run by my friend Mark Hayward, featuring all kinds of tricks…juggling, kendama, magic, sleight of hand, bar tricks, and other object manipulation. It’s awesome, by the way, and Mark Hayward now has a much stronger understand of what I’ve done for the past 3 years in keeping 365yoyotricks.com going. Ha. Hi, Mark!

Today is the last trick of 365yoyotricks.com, “Denouement” by Hank Freeman.

My time is filled with fatherhood and husbandhood and running this site and organizing contests and generally doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work to better the yoyo industry and community. So in the interest of making sure that I put all my energy in the best places possible, I’m closing the doors on 365yoyotricks.com. The site will remain up indefinitely, and thanks to the tireless work of Greg Pettit it’s a LOT more searchable than it was before so it’s now a much more functional archive of amazing tricks from a lot of fantastic yoyo players. (And me. Ha.)

A huge thanks to André Boulay and YoYoExpert.com for his help in keeping 365 going, helping me move the site from Tumblr to WordPress, and sponsoring the project with kickbacks for the players. Much love to everyone who ever contributed a trick, to everyone who ever watched a trick, and to everyone who slapped one of our stickers somewhere inappropriate. A huge thank you to Tressley Cahill for designing the logos for both 365yoyotricks.com and 365cooltricks.com.

It’s been a great three year run! The theoretical successor to 365 is the #trickcircle series that Drew Tetz has been curating from Instagram clips…so follow that hashtag on Instagram, and keep an eye on YoYoNews.com for weekly roundups and discussion.

Happy New Year, and thanks so much for supporting this project! It really did wonders for me as a player, and I hope you got as much inspiration from it as I did.

365yoyotricks.com – Weekly Roundup

June 24, 2013 By Steve Brown

We’ve got another batch of tricks from the gang, and an addition to the roster…please welcome Jacob Jensen to this years 365yoyotricks.com team!

Jason Lee checks in from Persopolis, Iran with some more of the best flow you’ve ever seen.

Spencer Berry revs up his Walter for an especially challenging repeater.

Jacob Jensen brings us a deceptively difficult counterweight repeater.

Darnell Hairston checks in from our favorite local burrito joint, Chili Peppers.

Takeshi Kamisato brings us another “Good luck hitting this, buddy” trick from his repertoire.

Elbow mount!

And Rafael Matsunaga reminds us that simply and silly are pretty awesome.

See you next week!

365yoyotricks.com – Weekly Roundup

June 17, 2013 By Steve Brown

Here we go again…another week’s worth of “where do you guys get this stuff?” from me, Spencer Berry, Darnell Hairston, Jacob Jensen, and Rafael Matsunaga.

A repeater that’s really all timing.

Spencer Berry is untouchable.

Jacob Jensen gives us one of his favorite counterweight freegen tricks, and it’s beautiful.

Darnell gets creative with this leg hit trick.

I’ll never get tired of fiddling with repeaters.

For Father’s Day I grilled and ate a two pound steak. Then I had to film this trick.

Rafael Matsunaga gives up a bomb-ass repeater that even he can barely control. Seriously, this trick is amazing.

365yoyotricks.com – Weekly Roundup

June 11, 2013 By Steve Brown

Here we go again, another weekly roundup of tricks and concepts from the all-star….oh just watch ’em.

Everything good starts with a snap!

Spencer Berry gets weird with an old counterweight trick from about 10 years ago.

Jason Lee checks in from Iran with some more of the smoothest play you’ll ever see.

Darnell Hairston is back some some 1A goodness!

I have the flu right now, which means lots of blowing my nose and watching Doctor Who.

A personal favorite exercise in trick theory: intentionally miss a mount and see what you can do with it.

Rafael Matsunaga illustrates that old adage: If you aren’t sure how to end a trick, just throw the damn thing.

See you next week!

365yoyotricks.com – Weekly Roundup

June 4, 2013 By Steve Brown

Change your strings and get ready for another week’s worth of stuff you should probably learn!

Here’s a trick with sudden movements that should probably end with a fly-away dismount except that I don’t have any half-spec bearings right now.

Spencer Berry gives us a really nice, stripped down trick that gets right to the point.

Spencer made me think about triangles, so….

Ed Haponik comes out of nowhere with the hardest fixed axle trick we’ve ever seen. Damn, Ed!

An extension of last week’s “Curls” trick.

Brandon Jackson pops in for a guest spot with a trick inspired by old Sector Y videos.

And Rafael Matsunaga throws down one of his all-time favorite counterweight tricks!

See you next week!

Cabin Tutorial – Rancid Milk by Spencer Berry

May 29, 2013 By Steve Brown

Charles Haycock and CLYW bring us another Cabin Tutorial, this one laying out the loveliness of Spencer Berry’s milemarker of a trick, Rancid Milk.

And as a bonus…here’s Spencer doing it too!

365yoyotricks.com – Weekly Roundup

May 27, 2013 By Steve Brown

It’s that time again! Here we go with another batch of miscellaneous radness from old people and young people!

Jacob Jensen pops in for a guest spot with one of his first original tricks.

Spencer Berry brings things to their logical conclusion…and then keeps going.

I throw like an old man with a mechanical repeater.

Jacob comes back for another round with a solid counterweight repeater.

Another repeater that I’ve been enjoying lately.

I channel the great Ed Haponik with this kendama-ish kinda stall.

And Rafael pulls some counterweight from the vaults with this rad combo.

See you next week!

Drew Tetz – Top 5 2012 tricks

May 5, 2013 By Drew Tetz

Hey gang! Drew here, I’m very excited about my signature Barracuda and we’re pulling together some awesome exclusive stuff for Yoyonews celebrating the launch, but I thought it would be nice to start with some of my favorite tricks from last year. I was extremely proud to be a part of the 365yoyotricks roster and ended up filming a total of 64 tricks for the project – not a bad run! While you should really be checking 365 everyday (or at least following it on Facebook and Twitter,) we understand if you missed a day or two, and I wanted to give a rundown of my personal highlights for the year.

5. Keith Haring Dog to Flying Ice Cream Cone to Spider-Man in a Propeller Beanie to Batman

In my opinion, every yo-yoer worth their salt should have at least one signature picture trick, and if you can link a couple of good ones into a picture trick story then you’re gonna have my respect forever – shout outs to Ed, John Bot, Hank, Nate, Abe, Blake, Malcolm, and everybody else still making tricks that nonyoyoers actually like. Also, when I was 8 I made a bunch of comics featuring “The Amazing Spider-Bat”, so this is kind of just a continuation of that dream. (ART SNOBS: I know this doesn’t actually look that much like a Keith Haring dog, next time you see me ask for Keith Haring dog 2013 and I’ll show you the new & improved one.)

4. Hyper Drew Special Engine

I’ve probably gotten more questions about this than any other trick, so I was glad to finally have a clear video of it. If you’ve never seen it before, it’s a pretty neat rejection illusion, check it out! Rei Iwakura named it for me, which makes me feel super awesome, so every time I do it I shout the name as loud as possible.

3. Mousewrap

I didn’t have too many all new full-length 5A combos in 2012, but I definitely considered this one a banger. Proud of the density of concepts, the aesthetic, the way it feels, and… frankly, I’m also really stoked on the way that Steve synced the catch up with a handclap, haha. This is a pure representation of how I wish 5A looked, made much easier by the use of a Barracuda.

2. Crazy Counterwrap

This trick is a blend of some of my favorite original 5A concepts, and a continuation of an idea my Red vs. Drew video. I’m pretty stoked with it on a theoretical level, but also happy that I’m finally good enough to get it looking close to the way I want it to look, haha. I would be thrilled if people wanted to learn it, but at the same time I’m secretly proud of how difficult it was to get down.

1. Kickflip Suicide

Those of you following Fixed Friday may be well sick of this move by now, but it was definitely my favorite trick of 2012. I feel very proud having run into this element, simple tricks are often a lot harder to discover. This one is cool because it’s a new school trick, but is quite a bit easier on responsive yo-yos, and sort of represents the new wave of fixed axle yo-yoing for me. It can also be used as a transition move or in more advanced suicides, and I’m really trying to push it, ’cause it’s super fun and I want everyone to do it.

Thanks for indulging me! You’ll be seeing a lot of content from me this week as part of the big YoYoNews takeover – or should I say YoyoDREWs takeover?! No, I shouldn’t? Okay, yeah, you’re right. I’ll try to keep the puns down from here on. Keep checking back throughout the week for more tricks from me, battles with my friends, exclusive clips and other goodies!

365yoyotricks.com – Weekly Roundup

April 29, 2013 By Steve Brown

It’s Monday morning, and that means it’s time for you to witness the furious awesomeosity of the incalculable creativity of the incomprehensible something something something whatever.

Takeshi Kamisato sets the bar high for the week with a Snap to Green Triangle. Damn.

Spencer Berry gets his fixed axle on with an EH from SPYY.

More fixed axle goodness as I find a Spintastics Technic axle in my junk drawer, throw it in a YoYoFactory Velocity, and start getting weird.

I’ve made up hundreds of tricks, but I still have no idea which ones people are going to get excited about. For some reason, this one got a lot of praise. Still no idea why.

Here a stall, there a stall, everywhere a stall stall…

An experiment in minimalism…what are the simplest components you can create something new from? I chose Trapeze and a Split Bottom Mount. Turned out nice, I think.

And Rafael Matsunaga wraps things up with a benchmark trick in the history of counterweight play, the One-Handed Helicopter. Still beautiful, still really damn hard.

365yoyotricks.com – Weekly Roundup

April 15, 2013 By Steve Brown

And here we go with another batch of tricks from 365yoyotricks.com guaranteed to be so good you’ll slap your mama!

It’s a joke! Get it!?

Spencer Berry never stops impressing us with his gloriously chaotic style.

I love tricks that require really unlikely components…or at least, those that are not likely to be kind to you on stage.

Darnell Hairston is flexible. But credit to Mark Mangarin who slipped this one out first without Darnell realizing.

This trick is hard and weird.

SEBBY!!!!

…and Rafael Matsunaga gives us a great repeater based off an old Alex Lozyniak trick.

See you next week!

365yoyotricks.com – Weekly Roundup

April 8, 2013 By Steve Brown

Here we go…another week of “OH SNAP!” tricks from a roster of international playboys.

Jason Lee rips into a new variation of Wave Rider with another trick from his travels.

Spencer Berry reminds us that if you like a trick, do it twice.

Not sure what’s better about this trick…finding a weird 1A wrist wrap, or the still frame that came out of the initial mount.

Get out of the basement, Darnell.

I have no idea how I came up with this. Sorry, no backstory.

Ladies and gentleman, Colin Beckford!!

Rafael Matsunaga slacks off with a slack combo. (Hyuk hyuk, get it?)

More next week! And don’t forget to follow my new project, 365CoolTricks.com on Twitter and Facebook…we’ll be launching soon with tons of cool tricks featuring kendama, juggling, spin top, awesome bar stunts, and more!

365yoyotricks.com – Weekly Roundup

April 1, 2013 By Steve Brown

And once again, here are a fistful of yoyo tricks to make you popular with the ladies! (Or the fellas, we’re cool either way.)

Adam Brewster stares you down with unrivaled intensity with this ~~Arrested Development reference~~ trick.

Spencer Berry is all elbows, man.

Ed Haponik drops in for a guest spot and reminds us that Wood is Good.

Darnell Hairston, everybody. Because 365 is for the children. Puffy is good, but 365 is for the children.

NOBODY BEATS THE BIZ.

Drew Tetz just gets under your skin, doesn’t he? I’ve been messing with kickflips a lot lately. Also, dig that $200 Brioni tie that I got at the thrift store for $4!! SCORE!