Yo-Yo?

Discussion in 'Filipino Martial Arts' started by Crucible, Aug 14, 2004.

  1. Crucible

    Crucible Valued Member

    This may seem like a ridiculous question, but does anybody have any experiance with a yo-yo, know how it was used either defensively or for hunting or even if looked anything like the yo-yos we see today? I'm also curious what groups or regions used the yo-yo.
     
  2. Ad McG

    Ad McG Troll-killer Supporter

    I hit my brother in the knee once. Worked pretty good! As far as an effective weapon goes, I would rather use a pen.
     
  3. OBCT

    OBCT New Member

    I heard it was used as a weapon once aswell, no idea who, where or how though.

    I'd guess they would have been a lot heavier, and that the string would strange or tangle.
     
  4. Crucible

    Crucible Valued Member

    found this......
    The word yo-yo is a Tagalog word, the native language of the Philippines, and means 'come back.' In the Philippines, the yo-yo was a weapon for over 400 hundred years. Their version was large with sharp edges and studs and attached to thick twenty-foot ropes for flinging at enemies or prey. People in the United States started playing with the British bandalore or yo-yo in the 1860s.
    It was not until the 1920s that Americans first heard the word yo-yo. Pedro Flores, a Philippine immigrant, began manufacturing a toy labeled with that name. Flores became the first person to mass-produce yo-yos, at his small toy factory located in California.

    Duncan saw the toy, liked it, bought the rights from Flores in 1929 and then trademarked the name Yo-Yo.

    Biography of Pedro Flores
    Pedro Flores was born in Vintarilocos Norte, Philippines. In 1915, Pedro Flores immigrated to the United State and later studied of law at the University of California Berkeley and the Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.
    Pedro Flores never completed his law degree and began his yo-yo business while working as a bellboy. In 1928, Flores started his Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara. James and Daniel Stone of Los Angeles financed machinery for the mass production of yo-yos.

    On July 22, 1930, Pedro Flores trademark registered the name Flores Yo-Yo. Both his yo-yo factories and the trademark were later acquired by the Donald Duncan Yo-yo Company.

    Longer yo-yo history
    http://www.spintastics.com/HistoryOfYoYo.asp
    more indepth Pedro Flores biography
    http://www.nationalyoyo.org/museum/pedroflores.htm
     
  5. OBCT

    OBCT New Member

    Can you tell us about the hula hoop aswell.lol only joking.
     
  6. Crucible

    Crucible Valued Member

    :D
    Nah, my only intrest is that I knew it was used as a weapon in the Philipines but I couldn't find anybody who could tell what it looked like. I'd be interested in finding out if there are still tribes today who hunt with it and what it looks like in application, but that's about it.
     
  7. Pat OMalley

    Pat OMalley Valued Member

    I am sure the word yo-yo is a Tagalog word and I am certain that it was a toy developed for mass manufacture by a Filipino but, is the Yo-Yo / Bandalore British or Filipino as they seem to be the same thing or is this another of those instances where two island cultures who fought the invadors ended up comming up with similar weapons and / or fighting techinqies :confused: or is it as I may suspect just a toy that has been around for hundreds of years and one guy had the inteligence to manufacture and market the product to a mass market.

    Not joking here, interested because I heard it was the JKD guys who started off the Yo Yo thing and no offences guys but they can at times get things a little off track and start things off stating that this is the ancient this and the ancient that and everyone else is wrong, even those Masters that are not suposed to exist in the country of the ancient this and the ancient that and call the ancient this and that by a different name are sometimes bemused by these new ancient things that keep popping up.

    In my 20+ years training in the FMA I have not come across the Yo-Yo or anyone teaching it apart from JKD guys (by the way before you have a go at me I started my training in JKD in the eighties and train in JKD for well over 11 years before going solo FMA), but I could be wrong and please correct me if I am. :)
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2004
  8. Crucible

    Crucible Valued Member

    Its a probably an instance of two cultures coming up with similar things. Something a yo-yo expert(toy expert, not weapon) just told me is that the diffrence between the yo-yo in the Philipines and in other parts of the world is that other cultures tied the string to the yo-yo, so it could only come straight up and down. While in the the Philipines they discovered looping it, so they were able to sustain the spin at the end of the string and develop tricks.
     
  9. Bayani

    Bayani Valued Member

    Pat hit it right on the mark. You can only fool people for so long. But fooled they will be at the start. Too many foreigners have been fooled because of their "off track" belief in the mysticism of Martial Arts in ancient this and that while behind their backs these Instrucors laugh att heir expense. FMA is weapons training. it has the formula to take anything and make it a weapon and even create an effective fighting weapons system on the spot, to add credibility to this we add ancient historical facts. the only ancient thing is the ability to create an effective fighting system based on anything you put in our hands. Yes even yo-yos. I have used them and showed how effective of a weapon it can be to amused people, but there was no ancient training, Just adaptability to a flexible weapon with an impact end.
     
  10. Pat OMalley

    Pat OMalley Valued Member

    Well put, You put it over better than I ever could. Dam you :bang: :D

    As it goes I must try the yo yo thing sound like I could get a good belly laugh out of it. :)
     
  11. Pat OMalley

    Pat OMalley Valued Member

    Hey :D I just discoverd a few new idea's for your classes guys. The ancient FMA art of Dental Floss fighting. Jumping Jacks - be carefull though the bouncing ball could take your eye out and the jacks hurt like hell when you step on them. And of course the ancient footwork training of hop scotch. ;)
     
  12. Crucible

    Crucible Valued Member

    Hey! your stealing my seminar material! :D
     
  13. Pat OMalley

    Pat OMalley Valued Member

    OK. I'll give you the Floss and the jumping jacks but I keep the hop scotch, being a Scotsman I think that's only fair ;)
     
  14. Straight Path

    Straight Path New Member

    I had a chance several years ago to ask Guro Dan Inosanto about the yo-yo and what he's learned about its uses as a weapon. Guro Dan proceeded to show me a fascinating methodology for the use of the yo-yo as a weapon.

    It involved using the yo-yo to support the use of a single knife (in "pakal" or an ice-pick grip). The finger loop of the yo-yo was slipped over the knife handle, and the string would come out between your middle and ring fingers. The string was fully unwound and the yo-yo itself was held in the left (or supporting) hand with the string coming out between the middle and ring fingers of that hand too. The knife could be freely used to jab, slash, etc. (because there was so much slack in the string). The string could be used as a garrote or to bind/tied up the opponent’s limbs.

    The interesting part was that the yo-yo could be released and rapidly swung around in circles like a lasso (overhead, vertically, diagonally etc.). It could be used to strike the opponent (like a rock on the end of a stick) or to wrap around a limb or neck and bind the opponent. What’s unique about the yo-yo is that when you pull on the knife handle (like a T-handle), the yo-yo will begin to unwrap from the opponent and – 9 times out of 10 – the yo-yo will catch the string and act like a lasso immediately tightening! This is very cool and is the reason for the design of the yo-yo itself. Any other weight shape won’t consistently catch its own string while being rapidly unwound.

    At anytime, the knife can be used to cut the string and release the yo-yo (in case the opponent tried to pull the knife out of your hand).

    Simple, brutal, effective.
     
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2004
  15. Crucible

    Crucible Valued Member

    Straight path,
    Do you know if guru Dan Inosonto developed that methodology himself, or if it was passed down from another person?
     
  16. Straight Path

    Straight Path New Member

    Crucible,

    I don't know for sure if Guro Dan invented this approach or if it was learned. I think it may have come from LaCoste, but I'm not positive. I've noticed a great deal of Guro Dan's most interesting FMA material comes from LaCoste. I'm not sure if that's always true. Guro Dan is a very humble guy and may not feel comfortable saying "I invented this", so he may attribute it to his favorite teacher. Only Guro Dan knows for sure! :)
     
  17. Pat OMalley

    Pat OMalley Valued Member

    It is nice to have a human reply from a JKD guy. (Hey I'm a poet, and I don't know it)

    This is the first time I have heard a JKD student that has not taken Dan's work as gospel. It is great to know that you must have your own mind.

    You may be right in the fact that Dan may have invented the Yo-Yo thing and you may be right that it may well have been passed on to him. The fact that you point out that you are not sure is like a breath of fresh air to the FMA world.

    At the end of the day, you have to find out the truth for your self as oppesed to relying on somebody else's opinion.

    As with techinques, what works for me will not nessisarily work for you.

    As an old Grand Master said to me in Manila back in 1992 "If it works, it's Arnis. If it doesn't, It's Karate". :D
     
  18. Ad McG

    Ad McG Troll-killer Supporter


    hahaha, best quote ever!

    *Eagerly anticipates controversy* :D
     

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