Jacob Jensen, a.k.a. Elephark, finally released a new video! “Sweet Nothings” is a great first-person video of totally pointless and ridiculously fun tricks from one of my favorite trick creators…dig in and enjoy!
Yoyo use is the Minute by Werrd.
YoYo Related News From Around The World
By Steve Brown
Jacob Jensen, a.k.a. Elephark, finally released a new video! “Sweet Nothings” is a great first-person video of totally pointless and ridiculously fun tricks from one of my favorite trick creators…dig in and enjoy!
Yoyo use is the Minute by Werrd.
By Drew Tetz
The deeper one gets into yo-yoing, the more one is exposed to all the wonderful jargon and nebulous concepts that its enthusiasts have come up with. One of the trickiest bits of vocabulary to define has always been “technical yo-yoing”: most players know it when they see it, other players can give you a vague definition, and non-players will look at it and walk away shaking their heads.
This particular style of tricks is known for its intense complexity, its focus on slight details & variations in tricks, and its heightened level of difficulty. Yo-yo tricks exploded in growth with the introduction of the bearing, and it could be argued that the roots of technical play were established with Steve Brown, Neff, and the SpinDox during the Renegade era. However, “tech” as we know it would really hit its stride in 2003 with Johnnie DelValle’s groundbreaking championship freestyle.
The focus on intricate string play and long, risky combos was a huge paradigm shift. Though the Eli Hop and other showy choreographic moves have found their way back into competitive play, technical play shows no signs of leaving. If anything, the championship title awarded to Hungarian tech wizard Janos Karancz a decade after JD’s victory seems to indicate a new golden age of tech.
I thought it would be best to turn to the pros to discuss some of the core tenets of technical trick construction, and am proud to feature well-respected trick theorists Mikhail, Rafael, Isaac, Spencer, Gabe, and Jacob. Let’s hear about it.
Mikhail Tulabut (Team YoYoJam): “The simplest way I can define it is a trick/combo whose string geometry is more complicated and dimensional than Double or Nothing. It’s like holding up a flat piece of paper compared to holding up a paper airplane.”
Rafael Matsunaga (Duncan Crew): “For me, if I call something ‘technical’, I’m mostly thinking about complexity of tricks. Even though some simpler concepts may require more technical expertise and are actually harder than what I call technical, I’m probably more inclined to use technical to describe trick with multiple string folds and hard-to-describe mounts and moves.”
Jacob “Elephark” Jensen (Werrd): “I think of modern yoyoing as the sort of yoyoing that focuses primarily on creation and sharing ideas, as opposed to classical yoyoing, which gives importance to mastering a set of tricks and/or performing for the sake of selling yoyos.
I think of technical yoyoing as the facet of modern yoyoing that focuses on concepts and elements for their own sake, or the sake of the trick. The science of yoyo tricks, if you will. … For me, I think the term ‘tech yoyoer’ is most accurately descriptive of a player who studies and preferably attempts to expand the library of trick concepts available to the community. Kind of like a scientist. Okay, exactly like a scientist. And there’s theoretical science and there’s practical science, and each scientist gets to choose how many scoops of each to put on his plate at lunchtime.“
Isaac Sams (Duncan Crew, Innovation Movement): “Technical yoyoing: sequencing that is too complex to fully follow without learning it.”
Spencer Berry: “I usually lump technical yo-yoing into most of the tricks that non-yoyoers may be amazed by, but probably can’t tell apart. Which is a huge lump! To a yoyoer, I could probably even get more specific: tech tricks are those that explore holds beyond the building blocks. Sometimes tech tricks explore new concepts or combine multiple simpler concepts into single motions, but more often than that they are the product of kids seeking originality while they bounce from string to string, knot to knot. If the trick is complicated, it is easier to be unique, right? I often hear tech and flow pitted against each other – but a trick can easily have both or neither and of course grades in between.”
David Ung (Team Yoyofactory): “I think a good trick is one that requires every motion. Extraneous movements in tricks and combos really bother me (in most cases. Some people have really interesting “useless” moves that I think are fantastic). Good tricks generally have great pacing, too. I don’t know exactly how to explain/define good trick pacing… but just look at Yuuki or Charles to get a good idea. There is always enough original material/moves sprinkled throughout the trick to keep you entertained the entire time.”
Gabe Lozano (Duncan Crew, Sector-Y): “To me, a trick or combo should follow a general theme. This can be done in several ways, but my personal favorite is taking a move or hold, and then finding all the neat transitions in and out of that move/hold, and then tying it all together in a way that flows nicely. That way, all the pieces fit together and feel cohesive.”
Mikhail: “1. Dynamics. There should be a rhythm to it. Kind of like the 3 Act structure of story-telling. Setup (Mount), Confrontation (String hits and maneuvers), and Resolution (Banger/Reveal/dismount).
2. Flow. Things should always be moving and feel natural. When I’m working on a trick, I like to feel and “listen” to where the yo-yo and my hands want to go. It obvious when I try a movement and the yo-yo just won’t have it.
3. Surprise/Originality. Natural movement and flow is nice, but I also like to see movements/slack/mounts that come out of nowhere and haven’t been done to death.”
Rafael: “I believe good combos are like good music. Everybody likes a different style, but some characteristics are universal to good combos/music. First of all, a good combo must be well executed, otherwise, it’s the same as a fantastic sheet music being played by a mediocre musician. Then it comes to composition itself. If the elements follow a certain pattern or just go well together, that’s a nice combo. I know that’s a bit vague, but like music, once you listen to a good song or see a good combo, you know it. And just like music, some styles and elements end up becoming a fad and nobody cares any longer, even if people keep doing it (like dubstep, or I guess trap these days)”
Spencer: “I’d say most of MY favorite tricks that I CAN do have sensations to them. Either a motion that just fits right or a theme that carries the yoyo through some sort of story (not necessarily literal, but motions that build, climax, release, arc, etc).
As far as tricks I enjoy watching, my favorites are usually exemplary examples of someone’s personality made yoyo trick. I think Rojas and Haycock are perfect modern examples of this – watching them play they are unmistakeable – often imitated – but never faked. There is a sense of identity – suddenly holds, moves, even tricks you’ve maybe seen before become infused with a fresh personality.
The real challenge, I find, is making a trick sufficiently simple for me to both want to learn it and enjoy doing it. In the past i was drawn to long, complicated, proprietary tricks. Because I knew they were mine and I felt like it was new territory. But I’ve definitely shifted into a seek the simplicity phase where it is equally challenging to find something that is simple but fresh and fun to do.“
Isaac: “Since the ‘modern’ style of yoyoing is so young, we have to take inspiration from the non-yoyo world to make any sense of what we’re doing. Some of today’s best tricks are made like this, and the reason why they’re the best is because everyone can make the connection, not just yoyoers. A good combo has no borders.
Another thing to take note of is utilizing all your possible zones. A really long combo done in front of the player is boring, it usually doesn’t catch enough attention. A well-scoring combo will consist of tech placed inside-arm, outside-arm, overhead, over arm—basically, cover as much area as you can.”
Gabe: “I personally dislike combos that are disorganized. If you’re throwing in hops, boings, stalls, grinds, arms, etc. into one combo, it’s just a disorganized mess. Even if every element is cool, when you throw them all together, your elements don’t get the recognition they deserve because they’re surrounded by too many other moves that don’t complement it. The trick then becomes forgettable. Good tricks are memorable, and having a strong theme and focus is key.”
Isaac: “What kills a combo for me is when a player stays in a mount for a while without accelerating through the trick. What I love about the Russian style is that their combos only consist of ridiculous transitions, so you can barely tell when they are in a mount before they’re already out.”
Rafael: “A trick is boring/bad if no effort is put into it. If you’re just taking existing elements from two popular combos and putting them together, there’s no effort in creativity. If you come up with a new hold but can do nothing with it, there is no effort in construction.
Overusing the music metaphor again, if you’re just doing other people’s combos, you’re that dude with a guitar playing covers on the beach. People may enjoy it, even give you props for playing their favorite song, but when Tom Morello parks across the street you’ll be as good as dead. Good tricks and combos come from trick artists.”
Mikhail: “Never-ending combos. I attribute this to ‘contest yo-yoing.’ Yo-yos spin longer, and regens save time to get more points, but holy crap when a trick should obviously end at a trapeze, and they just regen out of it to regen out again it feels like a run-on sentence that should have clearly ended a while ago but it just didn’t and kept going because it could and it didn’t even use a comma to break up the thought and just started a whole new thought because it was easier to just keep going even though the statement was clearly over and came to a natural and fitting end but nah never mind let’s just keep going for a little bit because I can and then an abrupt. End.”
Spencer: “I don’t want to say that any tricks are bad, I think if someone came up with it and it brings them joy then it is a success.
If a trick or combo is boring it is probably having trouble distinguishing itself. With the abundance of tricks that exist now, it is very easy to create something that may be technically new, but has nothing fresh about it. Which is strange to say—because people make fresh tricks out of old holds, old moves, old tricks all the time—but there is also a lot of new tricks that don’t seem fresh because they don’t assert themselves to anything beyond a series of moves someone put together. Does that make any sense?”
Technical yo-yoing may rightly be regarded as one of the most unapproachable styles, but persistent practice and mindful trick design can also make it one of the most impressive. This is by no means a complete summary of the wide world of tech, but hopefully is enough to inspire you to try some kink mounts.
By Steve Brown
Jacob Jensen is one of the most creative yoyo players in the game today, and in his new video he drives that fact home with each and every trick. There are so many great concepts in this video…Jacob really established himself as one of the most creative players on 365yoyotricks.com this year, and this video is a perfect way to end a hell of a year.
Yoyos used are the Werrd Irony JP, Sentinel, Tre, Hour, Fruiture, Eighty-Six 400, and Minute. Anyone else notice that every single yoyo Werrd released this year was amazing? 2013 was a huge level-up for Werrd. Keep an eye on them in 2014, and pick up a Minute and Eighty-Six 400 the first chance you get.
By Steve Brown
Werrd has released another episode of their Minute Minute series, this one featuring Werrd Alliance and 365yoyotricks.com player, Jacob Jensen! Jacob is one of the most creative tech players out there, and severely under appreciated…so check out this video and appreciate the hell out of him!
By Steve Brown
Another weekly roundup of original yoyo tricks from 365yoyotricks.com….MY GOD, WILL IT EVER END!?!?!
No. No it will not.
This is what happens when I watch too many Spencer Berry videos.
And this is what happens when you are Spencer Berry.
Jacob Jensen gives us the cure for the common bind.
I’ve been working on progressions from the concept of 7-Fisted Mantis…here’s the first one I’m happy with.
Daniel Dietz!!
Moar Daniel Dietz!
And Rafael Matsunaga gets his old school on.
See you next week!
By Steve Brown
Another week, another slew of inspiration from your favorite yoyo players!
Jason Lee checks in again from his travels with more awesomeness.
Spencer Berry rocks out a repeater inspired by Danny Severance.
Jacob Jensen gives up some goodness.
Ed Haponik plays with bearings!?!?!?!
Yuji Kelly gave us a crazy original trick for his first guest spot!
What happens with you lose control of a Figure 8? What happens when you keep going it?
And Rafael Matsunaga brings us some old school flavor.
See you next week!
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!
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.
This video is recommended for audiences 18 years and older.
Youtube version here.
Because it is my regional contest, The Bay Area Classic is dear to my heart. Currently held in San Francisco, CA, the BAC always manages to bring together many of the world’s greatest players.
Since I personally never compete, I am always a spectator on the sidelines. I don’t mind this. In fact, I embrace it. Very rarely do you see me without my trusty camera. Since 1998, I have shot video at pretty much every yoyo event I’ve gone to. Some people have said that my work has documented the growth and change of yoyoing over the past 15 years. While I don’t feel I’m worthy of such high praise, I do feel that my videos have made a large impact in the yoyo community. That is why when the BAC committee asked me if I was willing to help shoot freestyles for the event, I gladly accepted. This acceptance, however, came with a downside.
This year, BAC ran freestyles throughout the day (as opposed to the end of the day). While this made everything run much smoother, it meant that I was unable to film tricks for a clip video since I would be busy with freestyles all day. I was pretty bummed, as I really enjoy making clip videos. So, to get my “documenting fix” in, I decided to shoot photographs and maybe hope that I could grab some good video footage at the Official BAC BBQ on Sunday.
My initial video plan was to make a video that showed people hanging out at the BAC BBQ. I wanted to make a sequel to last year’s BAC video, but this time focus on the players themselves, instead of their tricks. I wanted to show all of us hanging out, laughing, having a good time, making up and sharing tricks, and relaxing after a tough competition. This was the plan until I got home and realized that the photos I had taken all weekend showed a much more interesting story.
Over the course of the weekend, I shot approximately 2000 photos using a combination of my iPhone, Lumix LX7, and Sony NEX-5N using (primarily) a 8mm fisheye. If you were in my vicinity at any point this weekend, odds are I took your picture.
Inspired by Kohta’s EYYC 2012 video, this BAC 2013 video shows a different side of the contest filled with friends, family, spirits, camaraderie, yoyoing, and kendama.
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!
By Jacob Jensen
[Editor’s Note: Drew Tetz is in Italy, drinking coffee and swooning at the sight of his lovely girlfriend this week. So the newest member of the Werrd Alliance, Jacob Jensen, is filling in with some crazy fixed axle goodness. Thanks Jacob! – S]
How do you make Eli Hops harder? Do them in a chopstix mount! How do you make them harder than that? Alternate them! This trick is a good example of one of my favorite things. Take something and push it to the next level. Now push it another level further, because one level is for regular ol’ people. You, on the other hand, are awesome. And who’s stopping you from pushing it another level further than that? Step ya game up, son.
Aqueous is a really great trick by Jake Bullock. I made a parody trick called Vacuous back when it came out because I thought of it as the philosophical epitome of everything I hated about trick creation. Later on I changed my mind about it, and later yet I decided, you know what? Jake only ever landed the trick once…I should see what’s so hard about it. So then I got in and really studied it, and discovered that it’s loaded with cool concepts that most people have never tapped into. If you want to know where I look for inspiration, Aqueous is one of the richer sources for me. Way too much of my stuff pulls from some part of it or another, from almost direct copying of maneuvers to abstract approaches I can’t even really put my finger on. What you see here is a small excerpt, and it’s one of my favorite parts, where the very first maneuver in the original trick is finally explained (an unusual chopstix mount using both index and middle fingers, which for several maneuvers appears inconsequential…until it suddenly becomes critical for the dismount of the first “act” to function properly).
I love instant wristmounts. It’s all like, yeah, I’m doing a forward pass like any other dude, but then BAM wristmount. I think the first time I figured out how to do it was nats 2010. I was playing with lots of instant mounts around then. Instant mounts are the bomb, and more people should do them! But anyway, out of that I go into Willie Terrian’s picture trick Eiffel Architect, which is like a super tower. Except I’m not sure if the name “Eiffel Architect” refers to just the picture itself or the whole trick leading up to and including it (which I forgot the rest of once I figured out a quicker way in). Them’s the hazards of learning from videos. BAM BOOM anyway.
This is probably one of my more favorite moves of mine, and was inspired by some of Paul Escolar’s old tricks. The last part, the loop drop to trapeze, was the focus of the trick when I made it, but once I started showing it to people everyone was getting more excited about that slack that stays vertical as I throw and catch it. And I was like, okay, whatever, but then I watched a video of it and I was like…oh yeah, that is kinda cool, isn’t it? I’ve shown the trick to Paul like three times, and each time he sees it he’s like, whoa, show me that again. So I’ve taught it to him twice (the other time he was kinda busy and didn’t have time). I don’t remember if I’ve told him the name of it or that it’s named after him and his old spiky hair from back in the day. I think it’s funnier if he doesn’t know and I just keep teaching it to him over and over again. Plus who can say no to Paul Escolar saying your trick is cool more than once?
So now for something more like what you’d be expecting in a Fixed Friday video: this is a shrinking trap stall to full inward z-axis flip with a half turn to…whatever that dismount is. I was originally trying for this trick without the half turn, but we don’t always get what we want, do we? Like it kept doing the turn no matter what I did. So I did it intentionally and it still looks like a mistake. Also I’m punching through the…man, it totally looks different in third-person. When I’m doing it there’s this gap between my left arm and the string/yoyo that I punch through and that forces the dismount out, except I don’t make a fist while I’m doing it because that messes it up. BUT THAT’S WHERE THE MOTION CAME FROM.
By Steve Brown
Jacob Jensen has officially joined the Werrd team of sponsored players, and it seems to us like a perfect fit. Jacob, better known on yoyo forums as “Elephark”, is one of the most creative technical players out there, and his videos are usually just banger after banger. Congrats to Jacob on his sponsorship, and to Werrd on picking up another tremendously creative yoyo player for their roster!
By Steve Brown
Every single trick in this video is pure gold.
Every. Single. One.
By Steve Brown
David Ung was awesome enough to put together this great clip video showcase of the Fixed Axle Throwdown from the 2012 World YoYo Contest. Be sure to check out Ed Haponik’s amazing kendo catch at 1:52.
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