Thanks to Chris Allen from YoYoSkills for informing this to me!
SY Rep X YYR Team member Christopher Chia featured on CNNGO.com!
just in case the link expires for ANY reason at all, i copied and paste the entire interview from the site to here.
You'd think yo-yo king Christopher Chia would need glasses, or at least contact lenses.
But the 16-year-old doesn't, despite having been obsessed with his yo-yo for the past five years.
Inspired by a television advertisement at the age of 11, Chia started yo-yo spinning, increasing his skill from a simple "rock the baby" to gravity-defying tricks of his own creation.
Ranked 12th at the 2010 Asia Pacific Yo-Yo Championships, this year he pulled out a series of show-stopping moves to beat competition favorite Hiroyuki Suzuki -- the top spinner for the past six years -- with his mesmerizing "Take That" performance.
Chai tells us how he unseated the longtime champ and what goes into the makings of a yo-yo king.
CNNGo: When did you realize that you were actually good at yo-yo spinning?
Christopher Chia: It was at a local competition in 2007. I wasn’t aiming high, all I wanted was to gain stage exposure. I was quite surprised when I got into the finals because I didn’t expect myself to go that far.
CNNGo: How does one train to become a yo-yo champion?
Chia: It's not about how much you practice but the creativity of the tricks. The newer the tricks, the better you will score. It is important to practice smart instead of practicing hard.
CNNGo: How many hours a day do you practice?
Chia: Two months before a competition, I will practice for three hours a day. On normal days, I will practice for two hours.
CNNGo: What's the story behind your routine?
Chia: I come up with it on my own but I seek advice from my seniors to improve it. They also advise me on the music as it provides the rhythm and tempo to the whole performance.
Yo-yo spinning, it's backbreaking work if you've got the fingers for it.
Chia: I've not given a name to the tricks I come up with but yo-yos are normally played vertically, in this case, mine is played horizontally. It defies the gravity and that makes it special.
CNNGo: Which gets more tired, the arms or the eyes?
Chia: The arms. I don’t really need to use much arm strength as long as I get the technique right. During training, I will take a 15 to 20 minute break for every 40 minutes that I train.
CNNGo: Do you stretch before you go up on stage?
Chia: I will do some butt kicks to relax myself so that I won’t feel so stressed and do some arm stretching to loosen my muscles.
CNNGo: Teach us to nail one simple trick.
Chia: Try “rock the baby," it's a beginner trick. Just form a triangle with the string and move your wrist gently in order to make the yo-yo oscillate.
CNNGo: How did it feel to beat long-reigning champion Hiroyuki Suzuki?
Chia: I am a fan so it felt like it was a dream come true for me to be able to defeat my idol on stage.
Give this man a yo-yo and he'll give you a show.
Chia: The judging criteria were based on tricks (70 percent) and performance (30 percent). The main reason why I was able to clinch the title was due to the number of big tricks that I used during the competition which I'd been exploring since last year.
CNNGo: What’s next for you, where do you hope your yo-yo skills will take you?
Chia: I hope to perform more around the world and to be able to compete professionally. It will be even better if I can appear on television one day.
The Asia Pacific Yo-Yo Championships was organized by Spinworkx, one of the interest groups under the People’s Association Youth Movement (PAYM), and held last March.
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