Why a year of fixed axle?

I’ve had a number people ask me why I decided to do this. The most straightforward answer is that I want to live intentionally, and this decision is a part of a broader effort I’ve been making over the past couple of years to simplify my life.

<<Some of these are yoyos I wont be playing for a year.

 

As I understand it, living intentionally is about spending my time and energy on things that I have decided are worthwhile. This requires that I make decisions about and set limits on what I will and wont spend my time on, and that I be conscious about the way that I live. But my experience has been that much of how we spend our time isn’t decided through a process of thoughtful deliberation, but by the ebb and flow of cultural normality – that is, much of what we do is a product of expectations for what a “normal” person will do.

When I think back on the moments that define who I am, I think back to things like my decision in 2001 to give up television. I did this as an experiment to help me decide whether or not television added value to my life. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with television, but like most people my age, I didn’t decide after a process of deliberation that I would become a television viewer. It was just something that I picked up through coming of age in a household where television was a normal part of everyday life. A lot of our life is like that. But it’s been my experience that experimenting with whether such things actually enhance our lives can have some eye opening results. I’ve never had the urge to own a television since.

<<I love playing Freehands and these are some of my favorites that I wont be playing as of November 1.

 

So how does this relate to yo-yoing and my decision to do this year of fixed axle yo-yoing? Like a lot of kids who came of age when I did, I had a yoyo when I was 5 or 6 years old. I actually had two – a Duncan Butterfly and a Duncan Imperial. And like most kids, I didn’t stick with it. I got interested again at about the age of 11, when Dale and Val Oliver came to one of the elementary schools I attended in Texas to present their Science of Spin program. I learned a decent number of tricks through that program, but my interest waned after they left, as was the case with the rest of my classmates.

Then came the boom of the late 1990s. I had just started college, and like a lot of folks my age, I got swept up in the craze. But by 1999 I had set it down again. And I didn’t pick it up again seriously until 2007. Since then, I’ve found time to yoyo every day, and my guess is that it’ll remain something I do for the rest of my life. Though passersby are amazed at my yo-yoing when I yoyo in public, I’m not a particularly great yoyoer. Nonetheless, I’ve gotten to a point where I can do a lot of tricks on a bearing yoyo without much thought or effort. And there’s the rub. It’s become something I can do without my full attention, without being fully engaged. And that’s not how I want to live.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying that one of my goals for this year of fixed axle yo-yoing is to enact a limit that will help me to spend more of my time in a state of present mindedness. And my hope is that my experience of this with my yo-yoing will bleed into the rest of my life.

Here we go!

Starting on November 1 I’ll be playing only fixed axle for a year. If you’re interested in my experience with this, I’ll be writing occasionally about it here.

This is something I’ve been wanting to do since Ed Haponik (http://kinopah.blogspot.com/) began his yearlong adventure with the “eh” yoyo – I found his experiment with simplicity and self-discovery inspiring and have imagined that I’d grow a fair bit by imposing this limit on myself. Thanks for the inspiration, Ed! One of the most profound realizations I’ve had as an adult is that, despite the commonsense view that they’re a bad thing, limits are actually a crucial element of creativity and growth – in fact, I’d go so far as to say that they make creativity and effectiveness possible.

Whether anyone actually reads this or not, the main reason for my starting this blog is that I tend to do much better holding myself to commitments when I declare them publicly. I’ll also be getting a halfway decent camera so that I can share tidbits of my experience and any interesting tricks I happen upon, which I imagine will also help me stick with this.

A few caveats.

1. I’ll not be limiting myself to just one yoyo. I really dig the minimalism of sticking with just one yoyo, but I want to work on my very weak looping skills through the process, and settling on a single yoyo is part of what’s kept me from committing to do this – so, obstacle removed.

If anyone is interested, I’ll mostly be using stuff I already own – Tom Kuhn No Jives (in butterfly setup) and TMBR Sullivans and Lovejoys made by Colin Leland for the 1a stuff, and Tom Kuhn No Jives (in imperial setup) for the bit of looping I’ll do.

2. There are a few exceptions when I’ll use bearing yoyos. They include:

a. When someone sends me a yoyo to modify. I’d feel wrong about not testing a yoyo I’ve cut up for someone before sending it back to them. But I’ll play it just enough to make sure it’s good to go – probably just a couple of throws.

b. Sometimes at the clubs I’ve run I’ve been asked to help someone fix her or his yoyo. So, same as the first exception – I’ll throw their yoyo just long enough to make sure it’s fixed.

c. When someone asks me to try out a yoyo they’ve designed or modified or somesuch. Again, just enough to check it out. Honestly, this is mostly so that I don’t have to deal with the awkwardness of telling someone that I’m not able to try their yoyo. Which relates to the next issue:

3. I’ll update this as other caveats/exceptions occur to me. A big part of what I dig about yo-yoing is that it’s fun and social, and I’d prefer not to be rigid about this in a way that impedes the joy I get out of this delightful toy.

That’s all for now. I’m excited to finally get started on this!