<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Gibberish*:
Don, you're into yoyos as well? Only other guy i know that is really into knives and yoyos is Bandit (not into balis really though...and the bali and yoyo aren't really *that* similar, other than the aspect that they are both skill toys involving lots of finger dexterity... And the aerials are a lot like juggling, where the throw motions have to be the same every time.-
-Gibberish*</font>
Gibberish,
Yeah, I never really got into them as a kid like some people do. I had a few of them but never really focused on them. I've been working Butterfly Knives off and on since I was about 15. But most of that was circular, vertical and horizontal manipulations and have had to go back with the help of Clay and learn the latch drop opening, now that I have had some training in how to actually use a knife. I'm an old dog learning new tricks.
Although alot of Cultures apparently had yo-yos or YoYo-like toys, the introduction and popularity of the yo-yo has a distinct Filipino flavor to it, in that Pedro Flores brought it here.
That goes along with the BaliSong Knife. Charles Billings patented a Butterfly-type knife in 1908 in The United States and the actual origin of the BaliSong is up for grabs currently, or is it?
In the Martial Arts, Western people often get into debates with Eastern people over the history of their Arts/Techniques/Movements, sometimes egos get involved without fully realizing it is quite possible for two entirely different cultures to come up with very similar things without influencing each other. Ideas and "Universal Truths" are something that no culture has an intellectual patent on.
As an example, I believe it was the Hopi Indians who had throwing sticks, for weapons. As did the Aborigine Peoples of Australia, boomerangs. They were for hunting or war. Martial application. Now it is a toy.
Blowguns and Bows and Arrows likewise developed in many different cultures.
Spinning Tops! Lots of different cultures have them, etc.
I was watching a video on some of John LaCoste's Filipino Arts, and was amazed a few years ago to see the yo-yo listed in the flexible weapons subcategory, and that sparked an interest.
I have heard that Dan Inosanto knows how to do some of that stuff as well. That is not "splitting the atom," but more of a martial application.
So, the lines begin to blur in my own personal search for various things.
There are similarities between the yo-yo and the BaliSong, and as you pointed out, juggling comes into the fray as well.
What I was referring to, specifically, with regard to Sage and the yo-yo and BaliSong being similar is the wrist movement. If you watch Sage working the BaliSong and then watch people doing something like Looping, you begin to have a lightbulb lit above your head. Look for yourself.
Watch the wrist rotation and the subtle guidance of the fingers in the various movements.
It might not be "popular" to categorize the yo-yo as a weapon, as it does not have to be. But to deny that it once was some form of weapon in the Philippines to some people would not be fair. Sort of like denying that the Boomerang is a rather neat toy from Whamm-O, and never wacked people in the head at a couple hundred yards in Australia.
So, I started on this search from that, and, I just like yo-yos too.
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"You are no more armed because you are wearing a pistol than you are a musician because you own a guitar." ~Jeff Cooper
And the same goes for a knife...
And, I'm a Usual Suspect.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline. It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine. ~Stipe
[This message has been edited by Don Rearic (edited 04-22-2001).]
