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The Effect of Environment
I spoke with Tobias Schneider about 4 years ago, regarding why the level of 2a is so low in the US compared to Japan.
Let's break it down here. I had attributed previously that 2A benefits heavily from people practicing together, and sharing thoughts and concepts in person. Let's dive a bit deeper into history.
The Yomega Hyper Raider was one of the most popular yoyos during the Bandai yoyo boom. The yoyo was the Yomega Raider licensed to Bandai for distribution. A larger company distributing the brand allowed for a larger market spread. Let's now look at the players that started during that time that were in finals at 2015 Worlds
Takuma Yamamoto
Shinji Saito
Shu Takada (or indirectly through his father)
Tomoyuki Kaneko
Hiraku Fujii
Shuhei Kanai
(Liu Man Ki and Chan Chun Hay, I do not know)
The only players that were not part of this boom were Arata Imai and Ginji Miura.
Every single player in this list is a residence of either Japan or Hong Kong. Out of these, Takuma resides in Hyogo, Shinji in Hiroshima although he had residence in Tokyo, and the rest in Tokyo. Liu Man Ki and Chan Chun Hay lived in Hong Kong.
This means that every single player had the ability to share tricks and continuing developing together. I have trained with Shuhei, Tomoyuki and Tsubasa Onishi, and have seen personal growth during these training sessions that I've had with them. They are good friends of mine, and they have my complete respect as people and as yoyo players.
Seeing how fast I grew in those few hours, I started wondering how fast people could learn together. Now then, let's see what the US scene presents to us.
In the US, we have two major yoyo cities. Chico is home to three large players, Gentry Stein, Nate Dailey, and Zac Rubino, and (Greater) Los Angeles is home to Michael Nakamura, Anthony Rojas, and Andrew Maider. The distance between these two cities is 473 miles. The distance from the southwesternmost part of America to the northeasternmost part of America is roughly 3000 miles. This is not to mention that the actual surface area covered by the demographic of United States yoyoing is significantly more than this 3000 miles. (9.3 million miles^2) Japan's surface area is 380000km^2, which is significantly less than the United States. In addition, Japan's mode of public transportation makes it significantly easier for players to meet up and share tricks and theories for trick execution and construction.
As you can see, Japan has heavy benefits regarding actual in person practice. This gives Japan an advantage in learning new tricks, sharing tricks, and developing as a community. However, the Japan domination has started to wane.
Technology has started to make us be able to communicate faster, more effectively, and stay connected. The pervasive use of Google+, Skype, and ooVoo has made it easier for people to have virtual practice sessions in yoyo. In addition, smartphones have made it easier for us to record and upload tricks to share with the community. However, none of this truly replaces practice.
The way that I see it, Japan is still at the top, with their peak players and their weak players performing stronger than peak players and weak players in other countries. However, in my opinion, the average yoyo player (middle of the pack in national contest) in the USA is now the strongest in the world. I believe that this is due to the environment that we were fostered in in the yoyo community.
With every rule, is the exception. There will always be players from outside, who do not come from ideal environments, winning huge contests. Janos Karancz, Jake Elliot, Michael Nakamura (questionable,) Jensen Kimmitt, are examples of these players.
I hope that we can continue to find undiscovered talent, and that communities continue to form and bond stronger to elevate the yoyoing as a whole.
Top 10 Must Watch Freestyles from 2018JN
These are my picks for the top 10 must watch freestyles outside of the winning freestyles in each division.
10. Mizuki Takimoto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYCsyjlBing
Reason: Clean freestyle, has one of the highest levels of control in the game
9. Akiba Hirotaka 1A Finals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMXhIfIEgNM
Reason: Chopsticks gorilla is always amazing to watch
8. Yuki Uchida 4A Finals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTnx-0_YCd8
Reason: Great freestyle construction, very close to exemplary
7. Daiki Tanaka 1A Finals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqM3zhJ6az0
Reason: One of the higest levels of amplitude in the game
6. Koji Yokoyama Demonstration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMfQAkvw-Iw
Reason: Koji Yokoyama is the reason
5. Koyo Hashimoto 4A Semi Finals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZYzCFrpf5E
Reason: 1.5 minutes of perfect 4A
4. Ryuichi Nakamura 1A Finals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EAsNb7I9W0
Reason: High level of consistency at a high density level
3. Takumi Hakamata 4A Finals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RdoOFLzeWg
Reason: Riskiest tricks in the game with a high level of success
2. Yuki Nishisako 1A Semi Finals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD-iCBGJANE
Reason: 1.5 minutes of perfect yoyoing at a high risk level.
1. Arata Imai 1A Finals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fym_4_1zp3Y
Reason: The most unique 1A at the contest, with little mistakes.
The Art of Failure
I am taking some time off of my day job to further UNPRLD in Japan. I am sitting in the airport now, waiting for my flight to take off. I realized in many things in life, the perception of success is extremely skewed. What does this mean?
Let's take someone's Instagram page for example. You see pictures of friends out in the beach, then pictures of them with some celebrity. You see all these amazing foods that you've always wanted to try. That person is living the lifestyle you want.
But it turns out, that's not their life at all! They don't just move around the city going to nice places and taking pictures of it. You are seeing their life through rose tinted glasses. It turns out, they are slaving away in a 9-5 job, and they are barely surviving life too. The pictures they take may be from years ago. Who posts pictures of their failures, saying, "I am so sad?"
So what am I talking about for failure? Let's take for example, a player on the UNPRLD team, Colin Beckford. He recently won East Coast Masters, topping the tech score with Luke Trautwein. Wow, Colin must be so successful! He deserves every single bit of prestige he receives, but it wasn't always this way. He had worked hard, and started from the very bottom. Observe this freestyle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P482kDoYCfQ
This is his very first freestyle. Through many freestyles, from then until now, he has slowly worked his way up to the top of the leaderboard.
It is so rare to see people like Takeshi Matsuura or Jake Elliot, to win a large contest in their first year of competing. Often times, you work your way from the bottom up.
As famous painter Bob Ross once said, "talent is a pursued interest." Take this interest, pursue it, and don't expect results to come. It's okay to fail.
Perception
You're at the science museum. You walk up to the newest exhibit, "Wavelength." Apparently it's the most popular exhibit at the museum yet. You look at the featured piece, and you see a canvas that is purple. It is written underneath:
"320"
Any guesses as to what 320 means?
If you said the frequency as which purple's electromagnetic radiation is at, that's correct.
Your friend walks up to the same exhibit. You two are now looking at the same canvas. He also sees 320nm. In this situation, the only constant is the purple canvas. Although both of you are looking at the same color, is the perception of the color really the same? Is his perception of 320nm the same shade of purple as yours?
Now let's look at something a bit more abstract. The winter Olympics are underway, and Chloe Kim placed 1st in the Woman's Superpipe division. If you watch her third superpipe run, you'll notice a huge display of skill. Her first trick, a flared method grab, was tweaked in style. She then does a 1080, followed by a switch 1080. The rest of her run is irrelevant in this case.
To the untrained eye, this was a perfect run. She was the first woman to land back to back 10's. So why was her coach unhappy? Why didnt' she get a 100? Although it's not 100% clear, it appears that she was attempting to actually do the 10's with a melon grab. If you don't know, melon grabs make frontside spins much easier to control. However, she missed both of them. Would you now say that this run was lesser than it was before? The judges did.
However, because we are untrained, we don't realize this. What we saw was a display of amplitude, precision, power, and style. She placed 1st, with a 98.5.
In another practice, in 2001, Bucky Lasek pulled off one of the cleanest vert skating runs in history. With everyone's eyes now on Bob Burnquist, he skates the near perfect run, with so many tricks that no one had seen him do before. He won with a score of 98. Looking forward, Bob is now doing Lean 720's over the big gap in the Big Air division, and placing 2nd to Elliot Sloan.
So what am I trying to say here? All I talked about was colors and some boards on wheels or snow. Let's look back at the common factor in all three scenarios.
In the colors, we talked about how two people's perception of the same thing, in the same untrained eye, could be different. In snowboarding, we talked about how trained eyes can spot mistakes in an otherwise flawless display. Finally, we talked about how someone with great skill can be overcome by others within time.
Watching other people yoyo could be mesmerizing. The amount of intricate tricks that someone else has can be exhilarating to watch. Watch someone you like a lot. A recent favorite of mine has been Arata Imai. Watching the strings fly around, and his jerky movement that is also apparent in his 2A, is there. However, to his eyes, I'm sure, every single movement is extremely precise, and he understands everything that's going on.
Watch your own tricks. It may be really easy to you, but for someone else, it could seem really impressive and really hard to them. It's the same trick, technically, but to each person's perception, it is different. It is easier to you, because all the concepts in the trick you do is considered learned to you. However, to another person, who doesn't understand those elements, it would be considered hard.
Now, lets apply this to yoyo preferences. One of my favorite yoyos, the sOMEThING Jetset EG, was released in 2014. Even now it is still being used in contests. However, to some people, they prefer another yoyo. Although the qualities of the yoyo are the same due to the physical characteristics, each person's perception of the yoyo is different. Some people may find it good, and some people may find it bad. Are all the opinions presented by people valid?
No.
Many times, I see people recommend a yoyo for someone else, when they have no fundamental understanding of why that yoyo should be recommended. Many people suggest something, and then give no reason, or a reason like, "I just started, and this yoyo is great for me. I haven't tried anything else though." But is it really great for you? Or do you just not know that the yoyo isn't good for you yet?
Lets tie this back now. Recommending a yoyo to someone when you don't understand why the yoyo is good, is like me doing commentary on skateboarding. Sure, I like it, and I think its cool, and have a little bit of an understanding, but I am nowhere near qualified to be able to tell anyone anything. I can say I like Almost decks more than Element or Darkstar, but what do I really know? I just like Daewon.
The Fetish of the Past
Whatever happened to this player? Oh man, he was so good.
Remember the old days when this yoyo was the best? Man all these new yoyos have no personality now.
Sounds familiar? We all like to live in the past. But was the past really better? Let's view this from a different perspective.
You're back in high school. Your biggest problem was the SAT's and getting good grades, maybe you're scared because you're going to ask Jane Doe to the dance, and she might say no. You feel like these problems are the biggest burdens you've ever carried.
You get a 2300 on the SAT, and graduate 3.8. Jane Doe says yes, and you go out with Jane for a year. Everything goes well, and you attend UC Berkeley for Undergrad.
OR
You get a 1800 on the SAT, and graduate 3.4. Jane Doe says no, and you go to the dance stag. You attend UC San Diego after spending 2 years in community college.
You end up with a degree from a reputable university anyways, and end up jobless in either situation.
The job market is hard, and now you're worried about the problems that you face due to a lack of money. You're working at a milk tea store, making just above minimum wage, and you're struggling to pay rent. Now, your problems aren't getting rejected by a girl, or getting a worse grade, they're keeping a roof above your head, and keeping food on the table. You reminisce about the old days when the problems seem like nothing to what they are now.
Let's bring this back to yoyo. In reality, yoyos are way better than they ever were. Remember back in 2008, when some yoyos actually didn't work unless you added corn starch into it? They would spin decently, and then you would have to maintain them constantly. What about yoyo bodies cracking? That would happen really quickly as well. Nowadays, we have such great quality control, and manufacturing standards, that this type of situation is not really a common occurrence, but rather, anodization defects and vibe are the most common source of "b grade" returns.
Back then, many yoyos did not have bearing posts built into the yoyo, but rather used the axle as the bearing post. This would yield vibe, and would have yoyos be of a lower quality in terms of durability as well. Now with the more common built in bearing post (Thank you HSPIN) our yoyos are better performing, more consistent, and higher quality than ever.
What about yoyo competitions? People often complain that yoyo competitions are now boring. Everything is so formulaic, with everyone doing abs and not having any personality. X person didn't pass wildcard? Blame the system.
Let's look into the past. In 2006 Worlds, Mickey scored 99.2, 20 points ahead of Paul Han. Why? There used to be a sport ladder aspect in the freestyles. Source from 2006 World Yoyo contest rules page:
"Top contestants from compulsories go to the freestyle finals. Please see freestyle rules for the number of contestants that progress to freestyles and for freestyle rules."
By practicing the sport ladder a lot, you would be guaranteed a spot in the finals. What do you think would limit yoyoing more, literally having people do the same trick with a pass/no pass style grading, or having people do a preliminary freestyle, with elements graded? I would argue that this current system is much better than previously.
What about noise in yoyo contests? Actually, a lot of this could be brought down to one person. Back when this person was first starting to compete, no one would cheer for him. Because of knowing how this felt, he would make a huge effort to cheer on other players based on skill, not on prestige. His name is Iori Yamaki. With him not competing anymore, you can notice a reduction on noise in contests.
What am I trying to say here? We don't have it bad right now. It wasn't better in the past. We've just forgotten about the bad aspects. Remember the 2007 Yomega controversy? I know you don't. The bad memories get masked by the good memories, and with larger issues we deal with now (due to age) we end up having a fetish of the past.
That's not to say that it's a bad thing, but it's important to remember to cherish the present, and look forward to the future.
We don't have it bad now at all.
The Benefit of Playing Multiple Styles
If you say "yoyo" to the majority of the American yoyo community, chances are the image of 1A will pop up into their head. Back in the Hyper Yoyo boom, we didn't have the 5 division standard. In fact, I would say that yoyoing has just left it's infancy. Is this really deserved for people to think this way?
Let's think about it like this. Let's look at the current world champions:
1A: Shion Araya
2A: Shu Takada
3A: Hajime Miura
4A: Rei Iwakura
5A: Takuma Inoue
Shion is an established 1A player. Having won his second world title, and winning his first ever national title this year, there is no reason to doubt his ability in 1A. However, did you know that he also plays 5A?
Shu Takada is a 3 time 2A world champion. He approaches yoyo with an "athletic" style. He incorporates significantly more body movements than other players. He also has two signature 1a yoyos: Shuta and Shuta 2. He is an insane 1A player too.
Hajime Miura is a 4 time 3A world champion. He has a clean style, and also has extremely great control. He also is a top contender at contests in 4A, and has proficiency in 1A and 5A as well.
Rei Iwakura is a multiple time 4A world champion. He is the most consistent 4A player on the planet, having performed 6 minutes worth of worlds freestyles without a mistake. He also is proficient at 2A and 5A.
Takuma Inoue is a two time 5A world champion. He is known for tricks in 5A with high amplitude, with high consistency. He was also a finalist in 2017 WYYC in the 4A division.
Do you notice a pattern here? Every single world champion has proficiency in more than 1 style. Is this purely a coincidence, or is there actually some sort of causation?
I believe that playing multiple styles allows for a different vantage point on yoyoing. Let's view some examples.
Arata Imai was an up and coming player in 2015. He won the "extreme trick" award in 2015JN, with his double cross clione. A year later, he competed in 1A, and became one of the most innovative yoyo players out there. Why is this?
Because Arata is a 2A player, he has a 2A mentality. Their viewpoint of the strings would be significantly different from that of a strict 1A player. The types of thinking would be different because of the weaving motions that are involved in 2A. In addition, body stance is extremely important in 2A as well. This will translate over to 1A play, and although body stance plays less of a factor in 1A, it still has an impact.
Next, let's analyze Takeshi Matsuura. Let's view his peak performances in each style at the world yoyo contest.
1A: 2nd, 2014
3A: 3rd, 2010
5A: 1st, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016
Takeshi entered 1A in 2012 and placed 9th. When he competed again in a properly sanctioned contest, (2014NJ) he performed a 3 minute freestyle with almost completely new tricks. (As far as I can remember, the only trick he repeated was his finger spin trick, which he combined with his horizontal bind.)
At that time, I had thought that he limitations of the Yoyojam yoyo he was using was lifted, so his full "potential" was harnessed. In retrospect, although this might be a factor, I have another interpretation on it.
Perhaps, he changed his approach to 1A. His style change was so significant that it's hardly due to chance. However, how could someone make such a large change? Keep in mind, in 2013, he was working on the tricks that he presented in 2014.
I believe it is because of his flexibility in styles. Because each style he does is so different, (actually, he can do all 5 styles) it is easy for him to be flexible in each division. This type of mental flexibility is crucial to be able to adapt to the meta. (Although, I would argue he sits outside of the meta, but is so good he can make it work.
In teaching theory, cognitive overload is a significant aspect of teaching young kids. Since all of the players mentioned above are young, (with the exception of Rei Iwakura, but he's also been in the game for a significantly longer amount of time) perhaps their young age is key. It is known that the younger mind is more flexible. Maybe their minds aren't hard wired yet to recognize the innate differences between each style, leading them to find associations that older players can not see.
Although I listed out examples of the correlation between high level players and their flexibility in styles, we must remember that correlation does not equal causation. It could simply be a coincidence, or maybe one characteristic of each of these players leads them to be successful at multiple styles. However, what can't be ignored, is that proficiency in multiple styles does yield more success in innovation and in prestige.
Oversaturation in the Yoyo Market
I started making yoyos around 2013. I believed that the yoyo market was lacking then, in terms of homebrew material. Fastforward to 2017, December. There is an oversaturation of yoyo "companies." What is a company?
noun, plural companies:
a number of persons united or incorporated for joint action, especially for business:
It is easy to start a company by this definition. However, let's look closer at what separates a homebrew company from a "garage band" yoyo brand.
Let's compare these two:
SF yoyos.
Following after a RiHara esque design, they created an aesthetically pleasing yoyo that was also very easy to use. Their brand, because of their great leadership, marketing, and management, became successful. They sponsor a plethora of great players. Design is done in house.
XXXXXXXXXX
Following after a delusional concept, they created a yoyo based off of another yoyo someone else had made, paid someone to make the design, has no real vision or goal. Promotion is done with trick circles, videos don't make any sense.
Which product are you more likely to buy?
Historically, only the rich had the means to communicate, but now with the mass spread of the internet, anyone can open forms of communication. Fortunately for us, this means that we hear more of the mass.
Unfortunately, this leads to the delusional feeding off on other delusional groups. Take for example, the Wakefield paper. The Wakefield paper was a paper describing how autism is caused by vaccines. Despite the immediate withdrawal of the paper, parents stopped vaccinating their kids. This was during 1998. However, in the mind of the delusional, this idea lives on, and is spread on the internet.
Other examples of this are the flat earth theorists. Despite there being photographic evidence of Earth being round, they refuse to believe it. The moon landing being faked is a popular conspiracy theory as well, despite it being harder to fake both financially and technologically during that time.
Why am I writing about these types of delusions? Because people are able to feed on these types of delusions, there is a community that encourages this to go on. The delusional feed upon the delusional.
Let's bring this back to yoyo. It was easy to start something, as there wasn't as large of a vision spectrum even back 4 years ago. I started making yoyos around then, and back then, I was doing one off's in the basement of my university. I never thought I would make more than 10 yoyos at once. Now I'm doing runs of 400.
People are starting off with an unrealistic mindset, of attempting to sell out 100 immediately. They sponsor contests, and sink thousands of dollars onto the project. Once they go to the contest, they find out that all the people that had been supporting them online, didn't actually back up their claim. They were doing it to be supportive of the delusion. This brand sold zero at the contest, despite putting in 200 USD for the sponsor table.
I've been blessed to work with some of the best minds in the game. I've worked with world champions, national champions, store owners, and have done countless amounts of freelance work. Throughout all of this, I have picked up how easy it is to find someone who is delusional. Picture this:
I'm doing work, like usual, and then I receive a message. The message says: I've been planning this for a while, and have over 10 years worth of notes for what I want to do. How can I make this happen? As for the yoyo, I know exactly what I want." (Paraphrased, but a true story.)
Now you get this message:
"Hey, so I want to start a yoyo company. As for the yoyo can you help me? I know you charge x, but can you charge me less? And if I use you again I'll ask you to do it again for even cheaper. I kinda want a hybrid between x and y yoyo. Oh, that reminds me, here's a drawing I did on scratch paper."
Which do you think has a clear vision in their mind? If what you want is something that even yourself can not understand, how can anyone understand it at all?
If you want to make yoyos for fun, and sell them, that's great. I'm extremely happy that people are out doing that, and I highly encourage it. If you want to make yoyos for the sake of profit, I urge you to reconsider. I was never in it for the money, and as soon as it becomes about the money, you lose a clear sense of mind, and you become delusional. Less people will buy your product than you think.
Is Talent Real?
The professor of flute invited the Jerusalem Academy's dean, a clarinet player, in for a masterclass. Usually, he is really insightful, but this time, he tore apart the entire class. I had the blessing (or was it a curse?) to play for this man.
Let me talk about the guy who went before me. His name was Cheng Hsuan, a bassoon player. He played some piece I am unfamiliar with, but he couldn't get past the first 3 seconds of him playing without the guy yelling at him. The dean even at one point yelled, "PLAY THE FUCKING NOTES RIGHT!!!!"
I had to play next, and because of what happened right before me, naturally I was pretty frightened. However, I managed to get through my whole piece without him saying much. He then did some other work with me that had nothing to do with anything. (He ended up just trying to sell me some holy water to tape onto my instrument, claiming it would make me sound better. Who knew that the dean of a respected school could also be involved with MLM schemes...)
Afterwards, he told me, "keep playing, you are talented so you will make it." Normally, one would be happy, but I was kind of insulted. Let's go back about a month before this whole incident.
It was the beginning of September, and I decided to start practicing for an audition. I woke up early every day, practiced for a minimum of 5 hours a day, and dedicated my entire life to perfecting my music. I did this for a month and a half, and I continue to do this now. I worked on every single passage slowly, and brought it up to tempo to make sure everything was perfect.
For all my hard work to be undermined by the comment of, "you're talented" felt insulting. Am I practicing this hard on my instrument, literally only stopping when I bleed, just to have someone tell me that I did something that I could have been born with?
I am not talented. I am hard working.
Why am I talking about music in this? I would say that my ventures in yoyo have gone very well. I would also say, that for someone who started my instrument a lot later than everyone else in the business, that I am doing very well as well (the audition I took, I ended up being runner up, only losing to someone who is well into his career, and hasn't been in school for decades.) I was good at skateboarding when I did that, and I graduated with a 3.77, starting as a triple major, ending up double from UCLA.
Am I trying to brag? No. I am using my own life's examples to bring the concept of talent to question. I believe this:
Talent is not real.
How come most people who are "talented" at one thing, are hardly ever only talented at that one thing? Here are some examples of this, yoyo or not.
John Chow: National yoyo contest, 3rd place 1A. I went to high school with him. He was also good at breakdancing, and went to MIT.
Mark Mangarin: Bioinformatician. I believe that he has the highest skill cap in the United States at yoyoing. At the bare minimum, he is a very good yoyoer.
Isaac Schultz: Unknown yoyoer, but has a solid understanding of yoyo. Was featured in From the Top as a high schooler, and now attends Rice University for bassoon performance (the Harvard of music.)
Sid Seed: Yoyo innovator, hiding from the rest of the community. Now a high profile collaborator, making videos for high profile clients.
Peter Peng: Better known as Doublelift, is considered the best AD player in western League of Legends, salary estimated at 1 million USD. Was also a top student at his high school.
Andy Dinh: Better known as Reginald, was the team captain of the eSports team Team Solo Mid. Became the head, and is now the CEO of the largest League of Legends, and other teams, Team Solo Mid. His estimated net worth is 1.5 million.
I could go on and on, and I skipped over many very obvious people, I know. But the point is, most "talented" people are hardly ever only good at one thing. So what is it that makes them better at most things than average people?
I believe that it is the mindset difference.
These people are hard wired to only succeed, and will not stop until they reach their goal. Their drive, mindset, and hard work lead them to better, and faster results.
My pianist for that masterclass started arguing with me because I told her this, after the teacher called me "talented." A week later, my pianist's roommate also confronted me about not believing in talent, and asked "If a teacher has 10 students, and they all practice the same amount, how come some are better than the other ones?"
- No one will ever practice the same amount as someone else, ever.
- Their mindset, approach, and thinking will always be different
That is where the talented people are separated from the "untalented." They work their asses of behind the scenes, think differently, and aim to be the best that they can be.
My name is Tyler Hsieh, and I don't have talent.
The Concept of the Dunning Kruger Effect
I see the Dunning Kruger effect around my life often. As a musician, I often hear people talking up themselves, or talking down on others, when in reality they are not that good. This could be due to two reasons mainly:
- They are aware of it, but they do it to make themselves feel better.
- They are delusional.
The first one is self explanatory, so I'd like to dwell on the second one. What exactly is this delusion that they're under?
This is where the Dunning Kruger effect comes into place.
Two social psychologists, David Dunning and Justin Kruger, noticed that there was a cognitive bias in people who can not identify their own competence leads to inflated self assessments." Simply put, there are people who are unable to see why they are not skilled. Because they are unable to see what makes themselves skilled (or rather, what makes them unskilled,) they are also unable to see why others may be more skilled than they are.
Lets apply this back to yoyo.
Many players suffer the Dunning Kruger effect. They are so set on attempting to be a certain playstyle, and they rush to it, that they the necessary foundations of yoyo. This is extremely visible on stage.
Remember the Phantom Menace? After seeing Darth Maul slay his own master, Obi Wan Kenobi is overwhelmed with anger, and decides to go on an all out offense. Obi Wan is a form III fighter, meaning that he is a defensive fighter. Although he is fighting out of style, and overwhelmed with emotion, he is able to hold his ground for a while (he loses the saber fight.)
What about Anakin Skywalker? Under the delusion that Obi Wan is trying to take away Padame from him, he is controlled by his anger, and he fights. However, he loses the fight when Obi Wan gains the high ground. Anakin then says "You underestimate my power," and is subsequently cut.
Note Anakin's exact words. "You underestimate my power." Obi Wan was his master, and personally saw to it that he became a Jedi master. How could the person that trained him underestimate his power? Why did Anakin lose so bad, but Obi Wan survive, and kill Darth Maul?
Remember that Anakin started his Jedi training much later than Obi Wan. He had less time to learn everything that he had to learn. Obi Wan had learned everything earlier, and had time for his fundamental skills to be locked in. This is not to say that Anakin did not have fundamentals, but that Obi Wan had a much stronger grasp of them.
So why am I talking about Star Wars? Actually, the difference between these two saber fights are the exact same as the difference between two players on stage. Once on stage, there are multiple elements around you that change. Instead of practicing in a room or a hall, you are now on a stage. There are multiple cameras pointed at you. There large speakers pointed outwards, and two monitors for your reference. There are 3+ judges, and a crowd. The only factor that is the same is you.
This is where your fundamentals come in. If you do not have the fundamental control of your yoyo, how do you expect to be able to control your yoyo under all this pressure? It's borderline impossible.
It's terribly boring to do elements over and over again. People would rather work on their freestyle, constantly practicing with their music over and over again. I believe that this is wrong. I think that it is important to practice each trick alone. More importantly than that, it is important to understand why a trick works, so that your understand the reasoning behind the motion.
Let's go back to the main topic: Dunning Kruger. One can say to themselves that they understand it, but do they truly? Would you really be able to explain why something happens? I understand that there are some motions that can not be explained, but there must be a fundamental understanding. The self imposing ignorance is the key detriment here. Instead of pursuing the key to making the trick consistent, people who suffer from the Dunning Kruger effect will mindlessly practice their freestyle over and over again. This comes down to the idea that quality of practice is much more important than the quantity of practice.
Next, lets bring the concept of Dunning Kruger to a higher level: the stage.
Lets talk freestyles. Yoyo player X has been yoyoing for Y amount of years. However, instead of learning and adapting their tricks to the meta(most efficient tactic available,) they choose to keep their "style." Because of their unwillingness to adapt, they do not do as well on contests. This is fine, but since they haven't placed in Z amount of years, they start blaming the ever evolving metagame. They say "This is because the judges are bad" or "I hate pointwhores." Out of respect, I will not name any players like this.
Yoyo player A has been yoyoing for B amount of years. They learn and adapt to the current meta, while keeping their style. Their willingness to adapt, as well as their established style, will help them place high at contests. Their fundamentals, despite how nervous they may be, will keep them from absolutely failing at a contest. Players with the yoyo player A mentality will be relevant as long as they choose to. Players like these are(but not limited to):
1A: Andrew Bergen, Yamato Murata, Matthew Poon, Ryota Ogi, Takeshi Matsuura
2A: Shinji Saito, Hiraku Fujii, Takuma Yamamoto, Tomoyuki Kaneko
3A: Hajime Miura, Elliot Ogawa, Tomoya Kurita
4A: Takumi Hakamata, Takumi Yasumoto, Michael Nakamura
5A: Takeshi Matsuura, Takuma Inoue
One pervasive quality that these players have are that they have all lasted the test of time. Because of their ability to adapt, and their strong fundamentals, they are able to stay at the top, as a recognizable name even after all this time. However, this strong sense of fundamentals is not an innate thing. They had the ability to identify that fundamentals were they key to maintaining a strong presence in all of yoyoing.
Their key of ever evolving is very important. They are able to realize what tricks work on stage, and what don't. They do not do the same freestyle for 3 years, nor do they waste time on stage. Every single player has high CPM (clicks per minute) in some way or another, whether it be through large amounts of multi-clicks, or a constant stream of single clicks.
The ability to identify one's detriments is what holds many aspiring competitors back. Should one take a serious consideration about the Dunning Kruger effect, I believe that their yoyo skill will spike upwards.
The Effect of Direct Orders
The result of square and other e-commerce platforms have largely affected yoyo brands. It has become significantly easier to start a "yoyo company" than ever before. All that's needed now is a couple hundred bucks for the design, and to pay someone local or outsource the machining, and you have a nearly finished product. However, most retailers can see past this type of almost laze, and will refuse to carry the product.
What do these people do? They sell direct. They will create a page online, using the same platform as a larger scale established company (think Yoyofactory, Recess, etc.) and sell through their website. See the following expenses and how selling direct would impact your net profit, using the reference of a single metal yoyo.
6061 aluminum yoyo:
Design costs: 500
Prototype: 300
Run of 100: 2000 (20 per yoyo, inclusive of shipping and surface treatment)
Boxes: 30
Stickers: 30
=2860 (28.60 per yoyo, all prices rough estimate)
To break exactly even, one would need to sell to a store at exactly 28.60, assuming one does not keep a single yoyo for themselves. This yields a rough retail price of 57.20.
But established brands are making yoyos for 45 dollars on the market. By increasing production runs, one can cut down on the cost, and lower the pricing on the individual unit to the single dollars. However, if the yoyo is launched through an unestablished brand, it becomes increasingly difficult to sell out. Keep in mind, the 57.20 retail price yields no return on investment (in time and product.)
By eliminating the retailer, and using e-commerce, every single dollar above 28.60 will now go to the seller, sans the credit card/paypal fees. This is extremely beneficial to the brand, but detrimental to the retailer. Because retailers rely on these types of wholesaling for a living, it because increasingly difficult to compete with the direct stores. In addition, direct stores have a larger incentive to provide complimentary shipping, because their net profit is higher.
So why sell to the retailer? Not only is it good to maintain a healthy relationship with the retailer, as most of them also help run established contests, but it is also a vital marketing tool. It is not often that people browse a direct and run across something that they didn't know about. Chances are you were already on that website looking for something that had been advertised before. It is however, really likely that one is to browse yoyoexpert or rewind and find something in the new release or upcoming sections that they did not know about. This is the type of marketing that I am referring to.
Another method is to use direct sales to market. A certain theoretical Japanese company will launch direct orders weeks in advance compared to retailers to compromise the retailer's orders. Since the direct store has free shipping at 100 dollars, and often times has a cheaper retail price point(justified with the fluctuating yen,) consumers are more inclined to purchase direct, as it would provide them with product faster, and cheaper. However, if it weren't for the brand's popularity, it wouldn't sell out.
All in all, I think that direct sales have been great for start up yoyo companies, having done that myself. However, once presented with the opportunity, I believe that a healthy split between the two should be the answer if at all possible. I believe that releasing the product at the same time, or having direct sales be later than retail sales is the right choice, as it allows consumers a choice as to whether or not to support the business directly, allowing a healthier profit, or providing a profit to the retailers.
Want to read about something specific? Let us know!
Unnecessary Sponsorships
I get requests all the time for people asking to join my team.
I also get people asking me whether or not they should take an offer they received from x or y company.
The answer 95% of the time to both hypotheses: no.
Sponsorships are extremely glorified, as people see it as a recognition of achievement. Although I don't think sponsorships are bad at all, I think that people often times rush into a sponsorship. A good sponsorship will provide(in the perspective of a player):
- Yoyos for you to use comfortably.
- A label for you to be under.
- An environment to be fostered under.
Let's dwell on these points.
It doesn't take much to make a yoyo nowadays, pay x amount of money to design for y specs, and have it machined at z shop. However, really understanding what separates a good yoyo from an excellent yoyo is critical. On stage, no one wants to be worrying about equipment. A yoyo that you settle with is never something you should be using. Because of such, I don't think that joining a company whose yoyos you haven't been using is a good idea.
Once you join a team, you become associated with the team name. Regardless of who you are as a person, the "stereotype" of the brand you are under will undoubtedly be casted onto you. Ask yourself then, is this brand the right image for me? Or is it something that I'll walk away from and regret?
Finally, an environment to be fostered under is something that people often overlook. You could join a solid team, with established players, and learn from them, or you could be the head honcho of the team. I believe personally that a solid core of players, with an "academy team" would theoretically be the best method for fostering talent. My point is, everyone wants to be the best, but only one can.
What do I think is the most important thing from a sponsor perspective?
- Someone that is reliable on all terms.
- Someone that makes me want the yoyo they are using.
I think that communication is so key to maintaining a healthy relationship. Being able to communicate in their native language is something very important. If you are sponsoring a foreign player, keeping them happy is much harder because not only are they further away, but you must also account that they might not understand everything you're saying.
At the end of the day, sponsorships for a sponsor perspective are purely for advertising. No matter how good someone is, I always ask myself, "do I want that yoyo that he is using?" If I do not, they are not a candidate.
I hope this first post was insightful about how I view sponsorships, as someone who has made the mistake of taking a sponsorship as soon as I was offered it, and as someone who has sponsored people.