history of the yoyo as a weapon

[zamboanga]

hi forum members,

i have read and heard stories about the yoyo as a weapon in older times. most sources in the net attribute its martial origin to the philippines. i even read once (ripley's?) that it used to be 1 foot in diameter in size with a 20 feet long cord. the wielder supposedly waited in a tree and flung the weapon on unsuspecting prey or enemy passing below. has anyone seen or have in possession this unique weapon? what tribes could have used it?

[BluErf]

Hmmm... that's interesting. The target will have to walk precisely underneath the person with his yoyo... and what if the yoyo guy misses? I bet he can't just jump off and run... His chosen victim could have a bow or blowpipe to shoot him with and I think he'll have a hard time dodging while on the tree. Worse... the target calls for help and a whole bunch of angry men surrounds the tree and shoot the yoyo guy.

Hey, doesn't that sound like paintball -- someone climbs up a tree to snipe on the opponent team and gets discovered. *splat splat splat splat splat*

[ariel]

For a demonstration of this technique, please rent James Bond's "Octopussy"
Seeing Maude Adams is a bonus......

[fearn]

Argh, somewhere I read a demolition of the idea of a yoyo weapon--I wish I could remember where it was! Oh well, one of these days....

Anyway, the central thesis of the demolition was that there's a big problem with a yoyo as a weapon. That problem is that it slows as it reaches the end of its string, which is precisely the opposite of what you want a good weapon to do (i.e. hit maximum velocity at the end).

The other thing is that if you bounce a yoyo off of someone, it's hard to recover, which negates the utility of having that well-balanced spinning thing on the end of a line.

It is quite possible to use a weighted rope or chain--witness the manriki-kusari, the suruchin, bolos, and all their relatives. You can also use faster recovery weapon such as a meteor hammer, which is basically a weight at the end of a 3-4 m line. But if you want to swat someone with a yoyo, I think generally you let it run out and swing it.

Oh well, I'm sure the next person on will have a sample of a filipino combat yoyo from the mountain tribes , but that's my take

F

[moose]

Here's a reference. Nothing really new.
http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/u...ML/002180.html

The twisted cord was I believe so that it did not slow down but actually increased at the end. Kind of a crack the whip motion.
I've also heard of the large ones. I believe they even had spikes on them.

Here's a link to a book about the more obscure Philippine Martial weapons. It doesn't mention the yo-yo, but if anyone knew more about it, A. Pat Marinas would be a good candidate.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...034519-6521728

I could swear I read something about it that he had wrote but a 1/2 hour search of my favorites and the web came up empty. I'll try again later.

I would also like to hear from any fellow forumites if they have information on this topic.

moose

[moose]

did a little more searching.

If you punch Pedro Flores into google you'll bring up more stuff.
Here's one which references it as a weapon.

http://inventors.about.com/od/hispan...dro_Flores.htm

moose

[Bill M]

Evidence of yoy-yo as a weapon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP0tUvi7NpE

[mross]

This type of thing seems to be popular. In a non-returning sort of way. Check out slung shot and monkey fist (knot).

Here's a link for a quick description;

http://upsurvival.tripod.com/id24.html