Types of Yo-Yos

Video Transcript

"ANDRE BOULAY: So in yo-yoing today, you basically got two different shapes and three different types of yo-yo's. The two shapes, which we've touched on before, is imperial shaped, where it's kind of rounded. And then there's butterfly shape, where if you put two butterflies together, these are obviously two different yo-yo's. But if you, they were the same, it opens up on the inside rather than curving up towards a rounded spot. So two different shapes. You got butterfly and imperial. Then you have three basic types of yo-yo's. The first type is a fixed-axle. This is what most of your grandfathers have played with. When they say it's not like the yo-yo I used to use, that's because this is what they were using. It's basically-- this one even has a metal axle. A lot of the older ones were wood. An axle is the post that comes up through the center of the yo-yo. A yo-yo string goes around this. And so basically, it was spinning right around that. The second type is a transaxle. You've got a little plastic piece. It goes over the metal there. The string goes on that and makes it spin. You've got a ball bearing axle. This one, the string goes around the bearing. And this helps keep that yo-yo spinning ten times longer than the transaxle and way longer than a fixed axle would ever allow. There's lots of improvements in yo-yoing. And this is mainly why all the tricks you see today are because of ball bearings. That's the three basic types. We're going to get into the more specifics about them next."