How to Celebrate National Yo-Yo Day
Show some appreciation for this classic and simple toy by sharing in the fun of celebrating National Yo-Yo Day! Come up with some interesting plans of your own for the day, or participate with some of these ideas to play off of:
A great celebration does not require fancy equipment, but it does benefit from a little setup. A smooth practice area helps, and so does checking the string. A frayed string can snag or snap, and an overly long one can turn a simple throw into a slapstick routine.
Many players use a quick rule of thumb: the yo-yo should hang to around belly-button height when the string is looped around a finger. That small adjustment can make learning easier and reduce the risk of the yo-yo bouncing off the floor.
It can also be fun to treat National Yo-Yo Day like a “try it again” day. Plenty of people remember owning a yo-yo once, struggling with tangles, and then leaving it in a drawer for years. This is a perfect excuse to take it out, rewind the string properly, and see how much smoother it feels with a little patience.
Throw a Yo-Yo Themed Party
Celebrating National Yo-Yo Day may involve throwing a Yo-Yo-based party, whereby all those attending must bring a completely unique yo-yo.
Decorate using yo-yo themed decor, cutting out colored circles, attaching them with string and hanging them about the room. And, of course, cookies, cupcakes and other snacks can certainly be creatively made into yo-yo themes!
During the party, it might be fun to have a competition, a sort of Yo-Yo Olympics, where designated events have specific yo-yo-based prizes.
To keep the party lively for all skill levels, consider building a few “stations” instead of expecting everyone to do advanced tricks. One station can be a rewind-and-throw basics area where beginners learn how to wind a yo-yo neatly and get a clean, straight throw. Another can be a trick showcase corner where experienced players demonstrate a few favorites, then teach one accessible trick step-by-step.
A party can also include a small yo-yo “fashion show,” because yo-yos are surprisingly personal objects. Some are translucent and candy-colored, some are matte and minimalist, and some come with bold graphic designs. Guests can vote for categories like “most retro,” “most futuristic,” or “best DIY makeover.”
If the party includes a competition, keeping it friendly and varied helps everyone participate. Ideas include:
- Longest sleeper (how long it spins at the end of the string)
- Straightest throw (a simple but surprisingly tricky skill)
- Best recovery (for the person who tangles the most but keeps going)
- Cleanest “Walk the Dog” (distance and control)
- Most creative trick name (for an invented move, even if it is a little chaotic)
Safety is part of the fun, too. A yo-yo is small, but it is still a spinning object on a string, and it can bop knuckles or collide with furniture. Give players a little room, make sure breakables are out of the way, and consider soft flooring or a practice mat for beginners who are still learning how not to “rocket” the yo-yo into the ground.
Learn Some New Yo-Yo Tricks
One of the best ways to celebrate National Yo-Yo Day might be to pick up that old yo-yo and learn some new tricks.
While a book from the library used to be the way to learn, today’s access to YouTube, TikTok and other video sources on the internet mean that it’s even easier to watch someone else teaching tricks with a video tutorial.
Have tons of fun learning a new trick or two from a tutorial. Or, even better, grab one of your kids and teach them how to do some different activities and tricks using a yo-yo. Try Walk the Dog, Split the Atom, Barrel Rolls, Halley’s Comet and so many others!
Learning tricks is also a great way to understand the different “styles” of yo-yo play. Many people start with basic up-and-down throwing, then move into one of two broad categories:
- Looping and return tricks, where the yo-yo comes back to the hand easily and can circle around in repeated loops.
- String tricks, where the yo-yo lands on the string and “sleeps” long enough to create formations.
A helpful tip before learning anything new: make sure the yo-yo is behaving the way the trick expects. Some yo-yos are responsive, meaning they return to the hand with a gentle tug. Others are unresponsive, meaning they do not return without a specific technique. Beginners often have the best experience with a responsive yo-yo because it keeps the focus on timing and control rather than troubleshooting.
It also helps to practice in a sensible order. Tricks build on each other the way songs build on basic chords. A progression that tends to keep frustration low might look like this:
- The sleeper: the foundation of many tricks, teaching a clean throw and spin control.
- Walk the Dog: more about feel than precision, and a confidence booster.
- Rock the Baby: introduces a simple string mount and the idea of “forming” the string.
- Around the World: teaches direction and wrist control.
- Split the Atom: often learned after getting comfortable with mounts and consistent sleepers.
Even short practice sessions can improve results dramatically. Ten minutes of focused attempts, with breaks to reset the string and the hands, can do more than an hour of frustrated flinging. And for people who enjoy a challenge, recording a few attempts on a phone can reveal small timing issues that are hard to notice in the moment.
For extra fun, a player can create a “trick playlist” for the day: pick three tricks to review, one trick to learn, and one trick to perform for someone else. Yo-yoing is strangely infectious. Seeing a clean, smooth trick often makes observers want to try immediately.
Attend a National Yo-Yo Competition
Those who are serious fans of the yo-yo might want to consider making plans to gather with a bunch of other talented yo-yo artists at the National Yo-Yo Contest.
This annual competition of the National Yo-Yo League (NYYL) is typically held toward the end of June or in early July, so there’s still time to plan.
The location for this event changes, but sometimes it is held in Chico, California, which is convenient because that’s also where the National Yo-Yo Museum happens to be located. Another fun activity to attend in celebration of National Yo-Yo Day!
Even for someone who does not compete, a yo-yo contest can feel like stepping into a completely different world. It is part sport, part performance art, and part friendly workshop. Competitors often run choreographed routines set to music, combining speed, balance, and precision.
There are also usually casual areas where players trade tips, test different yo-yo shapes, and compare strings the way musicians compare picks.
Attending as a spectator can be surprisingly educational. It becomes clear that yo-yos are not one-size-fits-all. The width of the gap, the weight distribution, and the shape of the halves influence what comes easily.
A wider, butterfly-shaped yo-yo often makes string tricks easier because it provides a bigger target for landing on the string. Other shapes feel better for looping, quick returns, or fast directional changes.
A contest environment is also a good reminder that the yo-yo community tends to be welcoming. Beginners are usually treated like future experts rather than interruptions.
Watching skilled players can inspire new goals, but it can also make the basics feel more impressive. After seeing what is possible, a clean sleeper and a neat rewind suddenly look like the beginning of a bigger craft.
For those who want to participate without the pressure of a judged routine, many events include informal gatherings where players share moves, ask questions, and learn from each other. That can be the perfect middle ground between practicing alone and entering a full competition.
National Yo-Yo Day Timeline
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Terracotta Yo-Yos in Classical Greece
Archaeologists identify small painted terracotta discs from Athens, dated to the late 5th century BCE, as some of the earliest known yo-yo–like toys used by Greek children and in coming-of‑age rituals.
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“Yo-yo” Enters the Written Record in the Philippines
Spanish–Tagalog dictionaries compiled in Manila in the mid‑19th century, such as one published in 1860 by Juan de Noceda and Pedro de Sanlúcar, include “yo-yo” (or “yóyo”) as a local term, marking one of the earliest known written attestations of the word.
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Pedro Flores Launches the Flores Yo-Yo Company
Filipino immigrant Pedro Flores began manufacturing his version of the yo-yo in Santa Barbara, California, in 1928, setting up the Flores Yo-Yo Company and popularizing the toy in the United States through demonstrations and contests.
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Donald F. Duncan Acquires Flores’s Business
Donald F. Duncan Sr. purchased Pedro Flores’s yo-yo company in 1932, gaining rights to the “Flores Yo-Yo” and expanding nationwide promotions that firmly established the yo-yo as a staple American toy.
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Duncan Registers the “Yo-Yo” Trademark
The Duncan Company secured federal registration of “Yo-Yo” as a trademark in 1946, reflecting its commercial dominance of the toy in the mid‑20th century, a status later challenged in U.S. courts.
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U.S. Court Rules “Yo-Yo” Is a Generic Term
In 1965, the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals ruled in Donald F. Duncan, Inc. v. Royal Tops Mfg. Co. that “yo-yo” is a generic name for the toy rather than a protectable trademark, opening the market to many competing manufacturers.
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First Ball-Bearing Yo-Yo Patent Filed
San Francisco dentist and yo-yo designer Tom Kuhn filed a U.S. patent in 1978 for a “take-apart” yo-yo using a ball-bearing axle system, a technological advance that dramatically increases spin times and paves the way for modern high-performance yo-yos.