Written by Siya Patel
With schools shutting down during the pandemic, many students found themselves at home with the time to try out new hobbies and interests. One of these students, senior Bryan Martinez, discovered his love for playing the yo-yo during that time.
“It’s just really fun. It’s a lot of hard work but the tricks you can do and the fanbase is amazing,” says Martinez.
He first got into playing the yo-yo from Youtube. “ I saw professionals wielding these things with so much dexterity and wanted to do that as well,” says Martinez. He started by ordering his first yo-yo for a few bucks from Amazon and started playing with it everyday for an hour. After mastering easy tricks, he was able to practice complicated tricks like the chopped lettuce, which took a few months to master.
His collection of yo-yo’s grew over time to include different types, such as ones made of plastic and aluminum. He enjoys using his bimetal yo-yo’s, which is made of special alloys. These metal yo-yo’s allow Martinez to have greater control and practice complicated tricks. “You have a lot of liberties that you do not have with a typical plastic yo-yo. I’m able to do string tricks that involve a lot of movement with these,” he says.
Martinez soon started sharing his hobby with friends and found joy in teaching the people around him. He taught a past senior several tricks during track practice, leading him to become really good at playing the yo-yo. “I’ve found great success in teaching my friends,” says Martinez.
Martinez says that playing the yo-yo is not as popular as other hobbies. “Barely anyone knows about it.They’re surprised I can do a trick with it,” he says. Martinez recommends everyone to at least try it out once and says that Youtube videos would be a great way to start.
Nowadays, his busy schedule allows him to play with his yo-yo for only ten minutes or so everyday. Despite dedicating less time to it, Martinez still finds this hobby to be meaningful and is happy that he picked it up.
“Some people may think it’s just a plastic thing with string attached to it, but like the way I see it, it’s something more than that,” says Martinez.