Super Yoyo Fever
Working as a teacher means I meet children more than adult. Actually I enjoyed it very much. Working with kids requires different technique than working with adult. There are also lots of benefits as well. Besides getting lots of goodies during birthday, hari raya and Teacher's day, another thing that I enjoyed working with kids is because I get to know the latest trend in the toy market. From Game Boy Advance to Super Yoyo, my students love to bring their stuff to the learning centre to show it to me. One of the key to capture their attention is to know what they likes. Most of it, knowing what they play. That's why I have to keep myself aware of the latest toy trend in the market. But, the latest crazy that hitted the local market recently is definitely the Super Yoyo.
Yoyo is not a new toy. In fact, yoyo is actually the second oldest toy in the world after doll. I've read in websites saying that Greeks were the first to invent yoyo, right after they invent the wheel. Even the oldest yoyo is now well kept in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Centuries later, yoyo was very popular in Phillipine. A man name Pedro Flores migrated to US and started his own small yoyo manufacturing in California. An American called DF Duncan saw the toy and decided to bought the rights from Flores in 1929 and then trademarked the name Yo-Yo ®. Duncan's contribution to yo-yo technology was the slip string, consisting of a sliding loop around the axle instead of a knot. Since then, yoyo becomes among the famous toy in the world. It's a cheap way to release stress and almost anybody can learn on how to play it. From time to time, the skills and tricks grows from the simple sleeper trick up to the advance tricks. Yoyo hitted almost every street in the world and reached its highest sale in 1962. 45 million units were sold.
My students started to brought their yoyo to class few weeks ago. I was told the fever hitted Malaysia when NTV7 aired the Super Yoyo cartoon. I watched them spin and throw, makes some tricks. I even tried and it was fun. But today's yoyo is different compared to my childhood time. I used to had a cheap, plastic yoyo which you need to practice a lot to be able to play with it. But today's Super Yoyo comes in better quality. It has automatic with ball berring and stuff in it which requires a slight throw and catch, you'll be able to make several simple tricks. There were many Super Yoyo names in the market. From Super Dragon to Super Fire Dragon, the price ranged from as cheap as RM 1.90 (fake I think) up to the most expensive yoyo I've seen in Toycity, KLCC cost about RM 89 (solid steel). I even bought a cheap Super Yoyo (less than RM 10) for myself from Toycity. Even as an adult, it doesn't prohibit me to play the game. In fact my students were so thrilled seeing me with my yoyo and they started to teach me lots of tricks. It helps us to get closer and know each other more. They were very patience. They teach me fron Long sleeper to Shoot The Moon. But I can only do Forward Pass at the moment. There are still plenty of practices to do before mastering the basic level. Now this is what I call a knowledge exchange. I teached them computer and they taught me yoyo tricks.
Here's some photos of my students showing their own yoyo skills:
Long sleeper
A special yoyo case
So, if you are interested to learn more of the yoyo tricks, there are plenty of websites that offers tutorials,videos, tips, tricks and even 3D image on how to these tricks. Okay, I'm off now to practice on how to do long sleeper. Till then, have a nice weekend.....
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