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Anyone here into yoyos, juggling, kendama, or other skill toys?
Good morning everyone,
Long time reader, first time poster here. I'm a reddit refugee. The subreddit I miss the most is r/throwers.
Anyone else into yoyoing or similar hobbies? I've been yoyoing for about 15 years and have a collection of over 100 yoyos. I own a lot of YoYoFactory, probably because I was first getting into the hobby around 2008-2012 when they were super dominant and popular.
I'm also a big fan of plastic yoyos. I find myself throwing my Recess First Base more than anything else.
Does speed cubing count as a skill toy? I’ve been cubing as a casual hobby for about 8 years, I’ve brought my average down to about 20 seconds.
I would say so.
That's pretty cool. How does your time compare to competitive level cubing?
Do you get into building your own cubes? Or the weird non-3x3x3 cubes?
The world record average of 5 solves is something like 4 seconds, so that’s a huuuuge leap from where I’m at! I’m just a casual, I started it as a way to keep my hands busy to prevent a bad skin picking habit. I’ve never gone to competitions or anything.
I’ve never built my own cubes, but I do have a 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, 6x6, and 7x7 and can solve all of them! As far as non-cubes go, I like the Megaminx (a 12-sided puzzle) and the Skewb.
I’d love to get one of the larger “minx” puzzles someday but they’re pretty expensive and significantly more time consuming to solve. It already takes me 20+ minutes to solve the Megaminx so I can’t imagine how long a Gigaminx or Petaminx would take.
I haven't been following speed cubing since Felix was at the top. And I'm shocked to hear that times have dropped from 10ish to less than 5 now!
I also like cubing to keep my hands busy, though I'm still just using the basic algorithms to solve in times measured in minutes, not seconds. I enjoy it, though.
When I first started, I had a beautiful moment after a couple of successes in solving "quickly" in which I thought, "Wow, I'm fast. I wonder what the records are." Then I saw the sub-15 second blindfolded run and was like, "Yeah, nevermind." It is nice to be humbled now and again.
I’m a very long way from putting the word “speed” into the mix, but I am a huge fan of the weird cubes.
The weird (i.e. fun) ones I’ve solved: mirror cube, puppet cube v2, Polaris cube, fisher cube, and axis cube.
The elusive ones so far: the puppet cube v1 and the Pisces cube.
If I had to suggest an order for someone to try to progress through learning them: basic 3x3, mirror cube, fisher cube, puppet cube v2, axis cube, Polaris cube.
The puppet cube v2 is arguably more difficult than the axis cube, but the axis cube pretty much requires you to learn the solves for Dedmore H and Dedmore Fish.
The puppet cube v1 is the only puzzle so far to go back in the drawer unsolved.
My tangential story to speed cubing is a buddy of mine. He isn't super into getting lower times, but he loves solving cubes, so as a gift I got him a GAN 12 and basically ruined all other cubes for him. He still messes around with cheaper ones because he doesn't want to carry the nice one on him, but it was funny just how quickly he went from "how good could it be" to "i never want to use anything else"
GAN is often referred to as the Apple of cubing. They make quality cubes, but they are definitely not cheap. I haven't personally used the GAN 12, my last GAN was a 356 XS, then I moved on to the X-Man Tornado, and now the X-Man Tornado V2.
I might get another GAN some day, but the reason I went for the Tornado was that it's the quietest cube I have ever seen, and I value how quiet it is more than if it's a little bit smoother or whatever.
I went from a 356XS to an 11m pro. It’s a much nicer cube and the ceramic coating is awesome, but I still use my 356 on occasion cos it was my first real cube and I have feels for it.
It's been years since I owned a set, but I used to be quite adept with devil sticks. There were a number of years where it wasn't uncommon to see me walking around the city just doing tricks. I kind of miss that kind of skill based hobby, to be honest. I wonder if it'd be a pain to get my hands on some, now that I think about it.
https://www.homeofpoi.com/us/ (no affiliation) sells them. I never bought devil sticks from them so can't vouch, but I bought several sets of poi from them (glowy, flags, fire), and also a diablo, all good quality. I was never super skilled at anything but I did learn a few tricks with all of those and with devil sticks too, those were gifted to me from my uncle though, I've never bought a set. I can also juggle 3 balls but I never learned 4 or 5, and I also never got past "throw 1 club and catch it" (although I spent a lot of time trying).
Hey, I learned to juggle a couple years back.
FYI the annual IJA Festival (International Juggler's Association Festival) just started, it runs July 17–23 and this year it's in South Bend, IN.
https://festival.juggle.org/
Love the First Base. I designed a couple of them myself. 😎
Sorry to potentially dox you, but I'm assuming from your username you did the Neko ones?
I have the sparkle blue one and it's my favorite of four I own.
Yep, that’s me. Happy to hear you picked one up. Appreciate the support!
Also tangential, but I've been practicing Cardistry on and off for the past 6 years. It's quite nice having a skill I can show off whenever someone brings a deck of playing cards to a party/game night. That said, I'm not skilled enough yet to actually create my own moves or to upload videos of me performing it.
I may or may not also have an addiction with collecting playing cards now.
This is another item on my list of hobbies to pick up. I'd really like to learn some simple flourishes, one hand cuts, and maybe even some basic card tricks. It's very impressive when someone's good at it.
In my opinion, one of the most impressive one hand cuts that also helps you train your hand reach is the judo flip: https://youtu.be/XERJh5xlBps
If you're an absolute beginner though, can't go wrong with the classics:
charlier cut and the 5 faces of sybil.
I juggle, and love it. I'm not super serious at all. The one trick I know well I think is called "waterfall" with three objects. Basically just what you think of when you hear juggling.
I learned it one summer when I was 19 years old, spending a summer with my grandparents. It was before smartphones and endless stream able entertainment. All I really had to do was watch television and work out, both of which got really boring really fast. My grandparents both played tennis back in the day, so there were lots of tennis balls around and I looked up a brief guide on some geocities website or another and just tried it until I got it. Took about two days.
Now I can entertain anyone for a few seconds by juggling random objects. Big hit with children and at music festivals. I think it's a cool hobby. Any time I meet someone else who juggles we have something to chat about. I'm interested in learning more tricks, but haven't had any big stretches of boredom since then (in my mid 30s now).
Other skill hobbies: flying rc helicopters. There are really simple to fly models out there now with gyroscopic stabilization, but the whole hog collective pitch, only tail stabilized versions are most akin to flying real helis and I love that I can do it. Like balancing an inverted pendulum basically. This was much harder to learn than juggling and took years of practice
Also into disc golf, but I wouldn't say I'm good. Basically I'm thrilled if my drives go anywhere near where I want them to go.
All of these took a back seat when my wife and I had kids, but once he's old enough, I want to reintroduce them as activities we can do together
Juggling is on my list. I know the basics of the 3 ball waterfall, but I've just never spent the time practicing to get it consistent. One of these days I will.
Disc golf is a hobby I was very into right out of high school but I haven't gone in years. I also wouldn't consider myself 'good' but I had at least gotten to the point of scoring a stroke or two under par at the local course I used to play at.
Super late to reply here, but if you're under par then that is super impressive to me. I average +1 on each hole on a good day.
does knife and axe throwing count? built a target a few weeks ago, and i can no-spin, half, full, 1.5, and 2-spin the knives now. sometimes from the same footing. pretty satisfying.
I have a kendama and can land the ball on all three cups and the spike. I’ve practiced with both hands but am better with my right even though I’m left hand dominant. When I was actively using it I was working on going from various stalls to cups quickly but eventually put it on the shelf where it remains to this day. I have a small baby, a wife that came with all sorts fragile things, a cat, and two dogs so a solid wooden ball flying around the house doesn’t really work for me these days.
Maybe related, but I spin poi, though I haven't been spinning much since I got my frozen shoulder earlier this year. Poi was hard for me to get into because messing up felt pretty bad with tangled cords and sometimes knocking the glasses off my face 🤣. But eventually it starts to feel graceful until it's just being in the flow. It was also a lot of fun at music festivals.
I tried yoyos for a little bit and it reminded me of learning poi. The potential for pain seemed a bit higher though as I whacked a knuckle a few times with my bony hands and man did that hurt. I didn't get too deep into it but I did develop a lot of respect for throwers.
I've never tried spinning poi but I do know there is some crossover!
Especially in the 2A (two handed looping) and 5A (counterweight) styles. I love the 5A trick tangler, which I think is based off of poi trick.
https://youtu.be/1ls56zq5J6Y
I wanted to teach some elementary kids how to make their own poi for cultural night, but my American wife thought it was too risky having a bunch of elementary school kids heavily armed.
I pointed out all the kids parents would be there, but I somehow let myself get over ruled.
Sigh.
Have you ever thought about fire spinning?
Heh I can understand where you're wife is coming from, as I'm American as well.
I used to spin fire with the local fire spinning/flow community now and then. Also went to Pacific Fire Gathering a few times. But I haven't been going out much since the COVID lockdowns. Seems my habits and routine has changed. Spinning fire was always an amazing experience though. Being able to hear the firey woosh of each poi was like having another set of eyes to see where each poi is instead of just feeling it when it's not in my view. I really loved that.
I take it you're a spinner as well?
Not a spinner, just a kiwi (where poi's are from) who dabbled in fire spinning for a year or so.
I really wanted to juggle fire, but never got to a level of consistency where I felt like it was safe.
I have mad respect for jugglers.
Poi was hard enough for me to learn but juggling made poi seem easy in comparison. No string to keep the ball close 🤣.
Fire juggling blows my mind every time I see it.
I'm trying to learn how to juggle right now! I read an article about the best ways to take a "brain break" as someone who sits at a computer all day, and it mentioned juggling was a good way to learn to relax your eyes/use your peripheral vision more, with the added bonus of increasing reading speed.
I'm still in the very early stages, but can do 3 tosses with 3 balls without dropping any fairly regularly, and am getting more consistent with my throw targets each day. This video was the most helpful for me getting started.
Yoyos, juggling, kendama, and Rubik's cubes here. I'm focusing on 3-ball juggling, element-based improv with yoyos, and a lot of fixed axle/responsive, and mostly good around occasionally with the kendama.
I built a horde of yoyos over three years and forced myself to not buy anymore as I have every style, shape, and type I could want.
Always glad to see more throwers! I was super into it a couple years ago but it's been sidelined along with most of my hobbies while grad school continues sucking the joy out of my life (almost done though!). I have way too many yoyos but I couldn't resist picking up one of those plastic fulvias when they released. It plays great and it was nice to shake off some of the rust by re-learning some tricks
Technically not a hobby but I used to do circus work professionally. I ran away from my first office job to join the circus and sometimes I think I should have never run back. Best paid job, by the hour, that I've ever had. Certainly the most fun. My boss only worked for three months a year and lived a life of relative luxury the rest of the time, and he didn't run a particularly big outfit.
Did a lot of walk-round juggling/clowning/magic, and a LOT of workshops. A LOT. Man, the number of people I've taught to juggle, throw a diablo or spin a plate. Not to mention the number of people I've basically carried around on a unicycle.
Perhaps surprisingly, I'm not that good a juggler. I can do most of the 'big' three ball patterns, can just about do basic four and five balls, three clubs with pretty solid passing skills (we did knife passing in our usual show) but that's about it. I have friends who do it for fun who are far better jugglers than me. Hobbyists put way more time into it than professionals! Muggles don't care how smooth your seven ball Mill's Mess is, they want to see you juggling three knives or something on fire. My greatest juggling achievement is probably coming third in the British Juggling Convention 3-ball Gladiators some time in the late 90s, and I did that mostly by cheating (can't knock my pattern apart if I'm sitting up a tree!).
Tightrope was always my favourite anyway, but I can't walk a slackrope at all. Contact juggling was the only thing I really kept up with over the years and I'm still terrible at that and always have been.
I enjoy a variety of these things, but the one I'm probably worst with is the yo yo.
I am a good juggler, good enough to have performed live before and received money. I've been juggling for 30+ years, and when I was practicing I could do a variety of 3-ball patterns and tricks, and 4 and 5 ball simple patterns, as well as some alternative items, like pins, knives, etc. I'll share the classic Michael Davis sketch which was something that inspired me.
I used to be pretty good with a diabolo, and have a variety of them. I've got devil sticks and kendama as well. I have a few yo yos, and my middle daughter is actually pretty good with them, and getting into doing some of the tricks. She is much better than me; my tricks were impressive in the 80s when I was a child, but I have not progressed from that point.
Not sure if you would think of them as the same, but I also have a pretty large collection of speedcubes in various sizes and shapes. I'm also fair at speedcubes; fast enough that anyone who doesn't know much about speedcubing is impressed, but slow enough that anyone who is into speedcubing in a serious way is probably faster. My personal best for the 3x3 is about 19 seconds.
That's a very fun sketch..
It's also funny, but the way you describe your cubing abilities is exactly how I describe my skill with a yoyo. To normies I'm amazing.. But when it comes to people entrenched in the hobby, I'm average at best.
Thank you for sharing.
Great question, happy to take part. I hope that we'll be able to sustain conversation about lots of these topics in ~hobbies moving forward.
I wonder what the phenomenon is called of being good enough to dazzle someone who knows nothing, but not good enough to be remarkable to anyone in the hobby. I also wonder if that is a vanishing experience, given how easy it is to consume on any topic.
I sometimes also wonder if I missed my calling as a carnival worker.
I’ve got a Kendama somewhere in the house. It usually gets packed away somewhere but whenever I dig deep I find it and think “I’d like to play Kendama” and I do.
As a weeaboo, I was playing Tales of Symphonia years ago on the Gamecube and there was this strange object wielded by Genius Sage which got me thinking “What the heck is a Kendama?” so I bought one off Ebay. It’s a lot of fun and you can have a lot of fun with it with very little skill (not give up in frustration) but there is a ways to improve with it.