How This Guy Became a World Yo-Yo Champion | WIRED

ready yeah growing up I was always just doing like as many different things as possible I always loved learning something new and trying new things so yo-yoing was just kind of one of those things and it's an easy hobby to pick up it's something you can do all the time whether you're waiting in line at the movie theater or like waiting for a table at going out to dinner and you can carry it around in your pocket it's just something I just stuck with did he ever my name is Gendry Stein and I'm a world yo-yo champion check it out so yo-yos are my job so I basically compete in yo-yo contests travel all around the world to teach people how to yoyo and basically just share my passion for yoyo sign is more passion than most you for this toy it's love at first sight when school kids get a glimpse of the latest in yo-yos and yoyo techniques yo-yo is hardly a new amusement the ancient Troy was once made of clay and dates back centuries and that's kind of the stigma that yo-yos have because it kind of started as just a simple toy and really it is a simple toy but as the design of yo-yos has changed it's become a lot easier to learn how to do tricks with them and you can do a lot crazier tricks but gone are the days just shooting the moon and walking the dog Maya is rollin sealed ball bearing axis and slippery synthetic strings which have opened up entirely new tricks and routine really since there's such little friction like the yo-yo is gonna spin for anywhere from two to ten minutes so if I'm doing tricks I could do a whole trick that's like a minute long and the yo-yo is just on one throw sign is one of the best at making the most of a throw he's captured audiences with his mastery of sophisticated tricks the flashy style an elaborate routine set to music like this one he created for us a lot of yo-yo players are really into the technical side there's a lot of aspects that you can really dive into but something that I try to do is have a really well-balanced routine and some is cool for an audience to watch it's cool for people who maybe Joan yo-yo or don't really know what modern yo-yoing is and so if you have long enough spin you can do tricks that are really big and landing on the string really hard and so let's say you're trying to choreograph to music and land on like a really hard eat you can you know do a trip where the yo-yo shoots way up in the air and lands really hard and they are still gonna be spinning and you can continue a trip that way res with some of the older yo-yos you would be trying the trick and maybe ten seconds a new yo-yo is already almost out of spin so they're really kind of limited what you could do with a yo-yo but now that they spend so much longer the shape is a lot wider you can really just do so much more with it oh I'm sorry behind the seemingly effortless routines are thousands of hours of practice this year I practiced about six to eight hours a day for like almost the entire year for the world contest but a lot of that practice involves like building the whole performance so it takes time to create the trick once you've created your tricks you can start building your routine once you've built the routine and it just comes down to practicing the routine as many times as possible and my finger is starting to like really hurt from the string all those hours can take a toll so I build up a callus on my finger where the yo-yo is here because it's constantly pulling on it and then as you're practicing a lot you kind of get like a rope burn on your hands so sometimes I'll wear like a glove to help protect my finger his dedication and showmanship one in a world yo-yo championship when he was just 18 years old creating something and then performing that creation for an audience and feeling the energy that the audience gives to me after they see that creation is like that feeling just never got old and it's just something I fell in love with since then he's continued to refine his technique and compete at the highest level the tricks that you see me do now probably look crazy but that's because it's been like 10 years of like building up for more basic tricks and a lot of the tricks I'm doing too are very like basic simple things that are happening but they're happening like a lot of them are happening in a small amount of time and like all yours he started with the basics so there's a foundation of tricks that you can learn when you're first getting into then once you reach that certain level then really that sets you up to create all kinds of different tricks that maybe no one has ever seen before so it really becomes like this performing art where you're showcasing like these creative maneuvers and movements Stein showed us a few foundational moves and how he builds on them to create intricate original tricks the first set of moves you broke down or mounts and all amount really is is landing the yo-yo on a string with the string around your fingers in a different formation those formations can be super basic like the trapeze where the yo-yo swings around the index finger or they can be a bit jazzier like the double or nothing mount where the yo-yo is wrapped around even more fingers or the wrist now where you guessed it the yo-yo hangs near the wrist basically with all these mounts they're just building blocks to a bunch of different tricks that you can do just like mounts hops can be building blocks to more advanced tricks this is one of my favorite tricks called Eli hops it's a really flashy trick where the yo-yo hops off the string and there's a bunch of different ways that you can hop the yo-yo out the string you can just do the regular way you can do it over your arm over your head and you can even do a horizontally the last type of move at stein broke down for us slack's where the yo-yo creates a bit of give in the string and to do that you basically just pinch the string somewhere and loosen your hands a little bit so you create this slack here that you can start some maneuver with in all of your tricks slacks are useful in a bunch of different tricks like this one that's time created you can see throughout this trick I keep pinching the string to create a slack and then I use that slack and a bunch of different ways to make the trick super cool watch that trick again there's a reason why he's a world champion put slacks and hops and mounts together and you've created your very own original trick like this one I might do some hops to start put the yo-yo in a position where I can do a slack find myself in that double or nothing mount again and from here there's pretty much limitless possibilities of the different things you can do working horizontally opens up a whole new set of possibilities these are super hard on a vertical trick you're not actually going to be able to utilize the horizontal plane very much because the centrifugal force of the yoyo is forcing it to stay on this same plane so what you can do to actually open up a lot of different possibilities is make the yo-yo horizontal where it's spinning sideways in front of you and then you can completely utilize that horizontal plane and it's going to allow you to do a lot more crazy tricks but with those crazy horizontal tricks come new challenges as you're practicing vertical tricks at any time you can stop and kind of analyze what you're doing and maybe figure out what kind of step you want to take next if you're creating a trick but the reason why horizontal tricks are harder is because you can't stop the yo-yo at any time because it's just gonna fall off the string and ruin the trick so with all horizontal tricks you always have to keep the yo-yo moving the whole time and if anytime you want to stop the yo-yo you have to immediately change direction as if that weren't high enough Stein brings the yo-yo down by his knees making these horizontal tricks even more difficult the thing is with these tricks though is your hands are actually pointed down instead of up so it kind of takes a whole different level of skill to be able to do a horizontal trick downward like this and then of course there's the performance side of things something I really like to do to take the tricks to the next level is start incorporating body movement and this to me makes the trick look a lot more interesting and if you want to get extra flashy you can even jump over the yo-yo [Music] I think what makes you a living so appealing to anyone is the fact that anyone can do it you know a lot of kids might be really good at math in school or might be really good at sports but some kids don't really find that thing that they're really good at and they can really thrive in and so a lot of time yo-yoing can be that thing for them and it can bring a lot of really special experiences and into someone's life even though it's just just a toy yeah [Music]

Channel: WIRED

Views: 3,931,905

Rating: 4.9170756 out of 5

Keywords: yo-yo, yoyo, yo-yo tricks, world records, yoyo tricks, walk the dog, gentry stein, world yo-yo championship, yoyo museum, chico, round the world, cats cradle, yo-yo museum, yo-yos, yoyos, yo yo champion, yo yo tricks, how to do yo yo tricks, yo yo obsessed, wired obsessed, obsessed wired, obsessed yoyo, obsessed yo yo, yo yo wired, yoyo wired, yoyo trick, gentry stein yo yo, yo yo championships, yo yo champion wired, yo yo record, yo yo champ, best yo yo, wired

Id: -wiNh4LLQzg

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Alphuh]

It’s cool to see yoyoing on Wired. Thanks for sharing your story.

[u/yyfGentry]

My name is Gentry Stein and I am a world yoyo champion. When I was just 8 years old, I started taking yoyo lessons in my small hometown. I developed so much love for this hobby and continued playing for years. Eventually I found myself in a business calculus class at community college, being forced to turn down opportunities to travel the world doing what I love, simply because I had to study. One day I asked myself “why am I holding myself back?” I decided to drop out of college and start taking those opportunities instead of turning them down. Now just a few years later, I’ve traveled to over 25 different countries to share my love for yoyoing, and its been the most incredible journey. Heres a video I made that shows the process of what it was like to rise to the top in my passion. I hope it inspires you to pick up a yoyo or find something you can fall in love with.

[u/dngexplorer]

what if the plan A goes wrong?

[u/yyfben]

I think this is my favorite u/yyfgentry vid

[u/kpodpru1]

I mean, it's cooler than vaping..

[u/bikeram]

How much does a ‘good’ yo-yo cost?

[u/Slothra_Destroys_All]

I played baseball with you when i was like 10 lol! Sick to see that you are still YoYoing!

[u/TooShiftyForYou]

Becoming a Yoyo champion certainly has its ups and downs.

[u/marylander1]

So cool! Always love seeing people share their passions on this sub. Just out of curiosity, you said you’ve gotten to travel a bit for yo-yoing. Where has it taken you?