What makes a yo-yo "built for competition"?

Its like testing an SUV on the Nurburgring and saying its track ready.

Yeah, it can do track days but you don’t see many SUV races, do you? Its all marketing.

It is often a term used for marketing, but it isn’t just exclusively for marketing. There is such a thing as a yoyo suitable for competition, at least more than others.

It’s just a way of reassuring people that the yoyo is good enough to be used in a competition.
Generally it is wide and stable, because that’s what the majority of people prefer to use competitively.
Though, I’ve never seen any pros choose a yoyo because it’s ‘competition ready’, but because it suits them the best.

(Warning; the following post contains many, many words. If you find reading long posts either boring or challenging or useless to you or you already know everything or possibly dont care to know any more than you already do or just dont like ‘me’ no matter what I have to say; then I would suggest stopping right now and just go back to level 2743 of Candy Crush or something else more meaningful in life. You have been warned.)

Some interesting ideas kicking around about the meaning of competition yoyos.

Interesting enough that I would like to put in a few cents to help clarify the Reality part of the core meaning.

…Something many people probably dont even put much thought into but you will in a minute>

When Marketing various yoyos either out or soon to be released; you often hear a similar story.

The Story is pretty much the same. The name is primarily the only thing that changes.

Example: Chris at CLYW worked very closely with Anthony Rojas to dial in his Signature yoyo just the way he wanted it for his style of play. Zack Gormleys’ new Signature yoyo was specifically designed to meet his needs. Jacob Gross worked closely with Zammy Ickler’s’ specifications before they Finalized Zammys’ Signature Wolf yoyo. < I could go on for an hour but I know how much some people Love my Long winded posts and I dont want to spoil anybody.

Most Signature yoyos are identified as Competition Ready. And no doubt they are. But they are/were specifically designed to be Competition ready for the ‘Players they were designed for’. :thinking:

Think of it this way. If your favorite Player is Zack Gormley and you are getting ready for your first yoyo Contest or your 10th; whatever; if you choose to go up on stage with nothing but a tray full of Zack Signature yoyos; that means very little unless you play the same style and have the exact needs as Zack.
His Signature yoyos can be used/purchased/whatever by anybody. But the finer details of various yoyo designs may not be as suitable for people other than the exact person the yoyos were/are designed for.

You will see these posts now and again about how a certain yoyo was used to win a Major Yoyo Contest. And no doubt it was most likely a very well designed and produced yoyo. But without a Masterful yoyo player providing the ‘moves’ the yoyo would be nothing but a paperweight holding down a tray on a stage floor.

I have zero problems with the term, ‘Competition Ready Yoyo’. But that does not mean a single yoyo in the ever changing top 10 Competition yoyos will be the correct yoyo for you to use in a Yoyo Contest.

Less than 10 percent of All people that EVER tie a string to their finger and throw yoyos; will ever enter a Yoyo Contest at Any Level.

So if anything; only a maximum of 10 percent will even find Reality useful.

Specifically; Competition yoyos are yoyos that have proven to be functional at a Competition level by at least the person they were designed for. < Your success with these same yoyos may vary somewhat or dramatically.

… You ever watch and wait patiently for your yoyo heros’ signature yoyo to finally be up for sale? And when it drops/the minute it drops; you buy one! And 3 days later; when you get it in the mail; within an hour you are figuring out how to put it up on the BST for how much?

Think of yoyos kinda like shoes… You ever want a certain kind of shoe because 6 of your friends have the same exact model? Or your favorite Celebrity wears them? Or you simply heard they were the best fitting shoes in the World? Maybe 4 different people use the same shoe to win some marathon or whatever?

And an hour after you get yours; your feet Officially Hate You? Because the shoes weren’t specifically made for your feet. Happens all year long.

Sometimes you will hear a story about how a Company went through 6 or more protos before arriving and finalizing a design for a Signature yoyo.

The odds of any yoyo specifically meeting your exact needs are about the same as using your car key to start every other car in your neighborhood.

Does that mean that Yoyo Makers should not describe yoyos as Competition Ready? No; not at all.

Does that mean people shouldn’t even describe yoyos as Competition Ready? No; not at all.

Should a person shy away from buying Competition Ready yoyos or be afraid to use one in a Yoyo Contest? Nope; it doesnt.

Most Competition yoyos are/were the result of extensive testing and tweaking and are without a doubt ready to tear up the stage.

But because they were built from a recipe for a very specific player; just dont expect any particular yoyo to fit you like a glove.

Bottom line. ‘What makes a Yo-yo built for Competition’?

A yoyo built for Competition was/is built to address the specific performance needs of the individual it is being designed for.

Your results may vary.

And thats one reason they invented the BST.

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In my opinion, a competition yo-yo is one that gives you the most consistent results on stage while you are nervous. A throw that fits you best on the stage is the one that you can use in front of a audience which you are trying to impress without losing control. Test this out with different yoyos by performing the same tricks and you’ll see what I mean.

Yoyodoc nailed what I was too lazy to say :joy:

I feel yoyodoc confused “competition model” with “signature model”. While he made many great points, not all competition model yoyos are signature model yoyos, and not all signature model yoyos are competition model yoyos.

There are many yoyos designed as competition models that are more general in their performance characteristics, than those designed as a “signature competition model”.

I get what yoyodoc, and everyone, for that matter, is talking about. To this day my Spyders are still my most comfortable throws, and if i ever felt i was good enough to compete, I’d use them.

Actually; more likely that you were slightly confused by my using the two descriptions in the same explanation.

Possibly if you knew more about recent(last 20 years or less) you would know I would/could be the/a person to be least confused by the similarities or differences between the two words: Competition and signature.

I fully understand that the are far more Competition yoyos than Signature yoyos. But that being realized; there ‘are’ a good number of Competition yoyos that ‘are’ Signature yoyos.

My ‘lack of confusion’ is simple to explain.

During the years I spent with Yoyojam; I had several ‘Signature’ yoyos: Mini-Motrix, Mini-Motu, Micro-Mo.
Basically experiments in helping develop a view that higher performance could be realized in various sizes and shapes of yoyos.

…Yet, I have not only never competed in a Yoyo Contest; I have never even been in any kinda talent show or throwdown or anything of any nature yoyo skills related, lolol.

Yet I have several signature yoyos.:nerd_face: Go figure…

Sorry about your misunderstanding, Myk Myk

PS… towards the bottom of the details to the right; notice the date used to timeline the yoyo. (2003)

The Mini-Motrix was considered to tear up tricks pretty handily at the time, hahaha.

And at least a few Japanese players competed on stage with the Mini-Motrix.

Even my next Signature yoyo; the Mini-Motu; was used by Takayuki Tanaka to win a Japanese Yoyo Contest I 2005. Here is a link to an old listing and a link to an Amazing example of a very good yoyo in the right hands>>

Yoyo(please read description) > YoYoJam Mini Motu!!! New in Box!!! Lime Green!!! | #39832380

Takayusa wins 2005 Japanese Nationals with little yoyo > https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FLPEU2QeDBY

My Signature yoyo used by a Pro to Compete and Win… and I was on the other side of the planet Earth at the time🤓

Zero confusion here.

My long winded post must have just clouded your understanding, lol

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Well, you just answered something I was typing while you posted this Mo.  I was wondering how many signature yoyos weren’t designed as that persons competition yoyo?

I can’t think of many (but now my count is up to 5) yoyos that were designed as signature models that were not also designed as a competition yoyo as well.

OK yoydoc. I can clearly see that you are not confused on that issue, and perhaps that wasn’t the right use of that word. After reading the post again, I still believe your post confuses the two.

I think I found where ‘your confusion’ began> I stated, “Most Signature yoyos are identified as Competition Ready”. Which is very accurate.

But… I never stated that All Competition ready yoyos were/are Signature yoyos.

There are dozens of Competition ready yoyos that are not the Signature yoyos of anybody.

Once you can process that; I think your contention will vanish like vape exhaust.

You gave your personal definition of what a competition was just below that.

If you didn’t intend for people to read that as “all competition ready yoyos were/are Signature yoyos” then you worded your response poorly. The fault for you poorly expressing yourself does not fall on Myk_Myk, I’d say his take away and response to your original post was perfectly reasonable and there was no need for your condescension.

In regards to the OP, when I see a yoyo described as “built for competition” it usually tells me a few general things to expect. The yoyo is most likely a V, H or W-shap (or some hybrid of them), will have low walls and an at least slightly larger gap width. The yoyo will likely be full sized (~55-57mm diameter 42-44mm width) and likely won’t have any crazy design features (e.g. the X Steamroller and Stampede or the YYF Turntable), usually opting for a sleek design. The term usually applies to yoyos designed for 1a use (which is often transferable to 3a and 5a). It will also use a C Bearing (though most yoyos do now), be rather rim-weighted and it is unlikely to have an IGR.

None of those are rock hard rules or anything, a yoyo can be “built for competition” and meet barely any of those criteria. Those are just general characteristics that I associate with modern competition oriented yoyos. In the end, it is just a marketing tool, meant to attract buyers looking for a certain type of yoyo (or just an insight into the original goal of the designer). I wouldn’t put a huge amount of stock into it, it is more useful to examine the yoyo itself and what people say about it if you want an idea of how it plays.

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… Your inability or refusal to comprehend what I say does not constitute any sound basis to conclude I poorly expressed myself.

Since you went to the trouble of quoting me; I would point out that I specifically stated, ‘A yoyo built for competition…’. I never said that ‘every yoyo’ designed for competition ended up being someones’ Signature.

So you concluded that when I stated ‘A yoyo built for competition …’ ;could be read as 'all yoyos or every yoyo built for competition?

I was making an observation and didn’t mention I was giving my personal definition extracted from a Yoyo Bible.

yoyodoc, it is possible to have a discussion without making a snide comment anytime anyone disagrees with you. Instead of insulting anyone who read your original comment and came away with a different impression than you meant, you can just say “No, that isn’t what I meant, sorry for the confusion”.

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yoyodoc, pretty much your entire post related to how specific competition yoyo designs are. Because they are signature models, and are therefore tweaked to the point of near exclusivity. Personally, I find even that argument as applied to signature competition yoyos to be a bit hyperbolic.

Regardless, either I’m not very bright, or you didn’t express yourself very clearly. My apologies if it’s the former.

No. It’s not possible.

Look who is talking.

You come in talking smack and instructing me how to speak?

Wha do you offer other than criticism?

Nothing. Nuff said…

I’m sorry, you’re right; I truly have not contributed at all to the actual topic of this post. (This shall be my last post on this, sorry everyone for having contributed to derailing the thread).

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For my part, I realize that I could have been more tactful in my first response to yoyodoc’s post. For that, I apologize. :slight_smile:

Well, I reread my original post a few times. I have decided that I could have made a few word changes that may have avoided brains colliding😳

The quote Lex noted. I could have said ‘Some Competition yoyos…’. Instead I used, ‘A Competition yoyo…’.

I can see how ‘A’ might be misinterpreted as ‘All or Every Competition yoyo…’.

I feel I may have blended too many thoughts on the subject and obviously made it easier to find a few statements that didn’t align as well as they could have.

Thinking and speaking/typing is much more spontaneous and open range than scripted dialogue.

I don’t rehearse what I say/post.

From now on; I will read my posts a few times before I press enter🤓 To avoid being misunderstood for the most part.

So I also apologize for unintentionally creating any confusion.

Realize that in the past several years on this Forum; I have accumulated over 1000 Thank You’s.

And I am pretty sure folks didn’t thank me for intentionally confusing them. Lolol

But then Again… ?

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