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Teenagers put a new spin on an old toy

Once a month, a club in Brandon gives the Sultans of Spin a place to hang out and practice their amazing tricks.

By LATEEFA MOREHOUSE
Published December 16, 2005

[Times photo: Brian Cassella]

David Albert, 13, does a yo-yo trick along his arm during the Sultans of Spin meeting this month at the Brandon Recreation Center. Justin Roy, 13, is behind him. The group meets to practice new tricks, trade tricks and perform to music.

With their baby faces, 13-year-old David Albert and 16-year-old Alex Roy look like regular teenagers.

But when they take out their yo-yos, they transform into something else: Sultans of Spin.

Albert, an eighth-grader at Wilson Middle School, and Roy, a sophomore at Plant High School, can swing and loop their yo-yos around like ninjas with numchucks.

The two members of the Sultans of Spin Yo-Yo Club in Brandon are not your average yo-yoers. They can perform to techno music and make the yo-yo do all sorts of swanky tricks like the suicide, trapeze, barrels roll and hand grind.

"You can show off, and the girls like it," Alex said.

The Sultans of Spin meet the first Friday of each month at the Brandon Recreation Center. They practice new tricks, trade tricks, and perform to music.

Alex has been yo-yoing for four years, and David for a year and half. The two friends, who both live on Davis Islands in Tampa, have participated in the Southeast Regional Yo-Yo Contest in Tallahassee and the World Yo-Yo Contest in Orlando, one of the largest and oldest contests worldwide.

Competitors like Alex and David have to work their way through a sport ladder of tricks before they can compete in the six top-level categories of yo-yoing, such as single-handed tricks, two-handed looping and off-string tricks.

David and Alex own traditional yo-yos, yo-yos with ball bearings and counterweight yo-yos that all have different names, colors and sizes. They carry yo-yo backpacks that can hold up to 24 different yo-yos.

Both of them can do picture tricks where they use the string intertwined with their fingers to make images of the Eiffel Tower, scissors and the Jamaican Flag.

The most basic trick, called walk the dog, "to them is a joke," said David's mother, Debbie Albert. "They really know a lot of tricks to move that yo-yo."

Knowing cool tricks has its perks, Alex said.

"I have done it at school because some girls wanted to see it," he said.

David remembers what he calls the "yo-yo craze" when fast food restaurants were giving them away with kiddie meals. That was before video games and electronic gadgets.

"I hope there's a yo-yo boom again," he said.

Both of their mothers agree that yo-yoing increased their sons' self-esteem.

"He spent less time playing video games," Alex's mother said of her son. "He felt better about himself. He advanced quickly - and he could do things that other kids couldn't do," she said.

Her other son, Justin, 13, also attends the Sultans' sessions to practice his juggling.

The parents also explained that yo-yoing teaches patience, creativity and coordination.

David can attest to this, comparing yo-yoing to skateboarding.

The goal is to get the best at it and make up new tricks while being as original and creative as possible, he said.

"It's like a challenge. You learn different tricks, and each trick gets harder," he said. "Once you get the hold of it, it's all muscle memorization."

The Sultans of Spin Yo-Yo Club meets the first Friday of every month from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Brandon Recreation Center, 502 E Sadie St. Contact Marcia Roy at 254-4642 or Debbie Albert at 254-2214.

[Last modified December 15, 2005, 10:04:04]