Photo by Flickr user sorais
Bill Brooks is a grant-writing consultant. He’s also a yo-yo dad.
A couple years ago, his son Tyler, now 11, came upon a Duncan yo-yo at summer camp. He was soon obsessed. Dad was there to nurture the interest and has since become conversant in the ways of yo-yo.
“I can’t believe I know as much as I do,” he says.
Last summer, the Brookses moved from Chicago to Memphis, and Bill looked around for a yo-yo club to help integrate Tyler into his new setting.
He found a club, but it was one he calls fledgling without a permanent meeting place.
Bill has been working to bring order to the Memphis Yo-Yo Club. The 17 or so members, mostly dudes ranging in age from 11 to 56, meet monthly at the Germantown Community Library. Bill says the members are generally “way beyond walk the dog,” but some are novices. They trade yo-yos, share tricks. All ages and skill levels are welcome.
Tyler has been competing for about year and recently came in 2nd in the Open division at the Georgia Yo-Yo Contest.
Yo-yo competitions work around a trick ladder, with 50 tricks from easy to pretty much impossible. There’s the combo throw and black hops. You’ve got your freestylers and responsive and unresponsive yo-yos. Some call them players, others prefer throwers.
There is a yo-yo university and the “Michael Jordan of Yo-Yo” (Gentry Stein). The Japanese are known as fierce competitors, though Bill says the whole community is pretty inclusive. And, yes, yo-yos can get pretty pricey. (“Man alive, they do!,” says Bill. “Tyler has caused me much consternation.”) We’re talking upwards of $1,000 for a titanium number.
As for the Memphis Yo-Yo Club, they’ve been invited to the How-To Festival held each spring at the library. ‘’We’re going to spread the word of yo-yo,” Bill says.
The next Memphis Yo-Yo Club is Saturday, December 17th, 1-3 p.m. at the Germantown Community Library.
Check out Tyler in action below.
