Juggling is the One True Way of sport and art. Everything else is a pale imitation. As a Libertarian,I firmly believe that you have every right to ruin your life in any way you see fit. But I hate to see real talent wasted on trivialities, when that One True Way beckons so clearly. The word "juggling" here means what the average guy in the street understands as juggling -- sequentially tossing three or more objects into the air and then catching them.

1. Yo-yos are the Wrong Way. When you juggle, you are looking up and out with your arms outstretched, not hunched over a desk or a computer. When you yo-yo, you are looking down and in, with your arms close to your body. That's not play, it's work.
2. Yo-yos are the Geek Fringe of juggling. Jugglers are the Geek Fringe of the rest of the world. Who wants to be on the edge of that ?
3. Yo-yos don't help you get strong. Many people can work up a sweat juggling. An experienced juggler can do it reliably. All a yo-yo develops is your wrist. Even a geek can be the quickest one at the bus stop if (s)he practices juggling.
4. You can't pass a yo-yo. A few really hot-shot cutting-edge yo-yoists can perform "off-string" tricks. But a beginning juggler can learn to pass clubs after only a few months of practice; your average yo-yoist is trapped playing with himself even after years of work.
5. Yo-yos have continuing expenses. A hard-core yo-yoist can wear a yo-yo string out in an hour and a half. A juggler can easily make his entire initial investment last for years, and in a pinch he can make his own props out of almost anything. A yo-yo costs a minimum of four dollars, and if you can't find a store, you'll have a tough time making one.
6. Yo-yos are modern. Juggling is older than the pyramids. Standing on the earth in the sun juggling, I have felt my ancestors throwing things in the air back through the millenia to the days when fire was high technology. Yo-yos are a peculiar 20th century innovation, created by toy companies for the entertainment of children.
7. You can't make money with a yo-yo. A few of the most advanced,high-tech yo-yo guys in the country are full-time professionals. Most jugglers beyond the 5-ball stage have done at least the occasional gig for money, and every city in America has one or two full-time professional throwers of objects.
8. Yo-yos are trivial. Juggling is both accessible and deep; even a juggler with only a couple of years experience has often independently discovered tricks which have no names. There are less than a thousand moves in the entire yo-yo repertoire, and none of them are intellectually challenging, yet physically simple in the way that such juggling tricks as Mills Mess or the inverse tennis trick are, to cite only two relatively simple 3-ball tricks.
9. Yo-yos are prop-dependent. You can free juggling tricks from the machinery required to do them. After all, a juggling prop is merely a marker in space to make sure that you are moving right. A secure and powerful juggler should be able to work with sticks and rocks as well as the finest fiberglass clubs and the most expensive silicon balls. But yo-yoists can spend hours messing with lubrication, string gaps, bearings, and axles. This is mere dependence on machinery, not skill or new understanding.
10. I can't do much with a yo-yo.

-- WikiGuest - 28 Sep 2001