[title subtitle=”words: Marla Cantrell
Images: courtesy Tammy Edwards”][/title]
Josiah Davis, eleven years old, wants to go to college one day. When not put on the spot, he knows exactly what he plans to study, but today, probably because he’s being interviewed, he draws a blank. He furrows his brow, then runs his fingers through his brown hair that’s buzzed on the sides, longer on top, with a wide part, courtesy of his barber’s clippers. Later he will say that his barber is one of the most creative people he’s ever known. But now he says this. “Well, I’ve always known I wanted to own a yo-yo shop.”
“Always” can mean a lot of things when you’re eleven, but for Josiah, it means that for nearly half his life his dreams have been about yo-yos. It started the year he turned six when he says his dad brought out a box of yo-yos that he’d used in school competitions when he was growing up. Josiah, mesmerized by the brightly colored orbs, wanted to make them his own. But the yo-yos were not the kind found in toy shops. These were expensive, some costing as much as one hundred dollars. Soon, Josiah had a yo-yo of his own, one that was perfect for a boy his age.
What his mother, Ashley Millican, remembers about that time is that her son was almost immediately able to work the thing. As days went by, Josiah’s fascination only increased. The first trick he learned was The Sleeper, a nifty trick that causes the yo-yo to spin at the end of its string for a few seconds before you jerk the string and cause it to come back to your hand. “Every other trick is based on The Sleeper,” Josiah says, “so you have to know that one.”
Before Josiah turned seven, he was making instructional videos for his own amusement. He titled the shows “Jo-Jo’s Yo-Yo.” He also watched experts online, seeing what they could do, amazed especially by Gentry Stein, the American, who, at eighteen years old, won the 2014 World Championship in Prague.
Gentry Stein looks like someone who could be in a boy band: spiky blond hair, ropy muscles, and enough charisma to make it hard to look away. In a video from his big win, he moves across the stage, manipulating the yo-yo in ways that seem impossible: tossing it in the air, catching it, twisting its string into triangles and other configurations that seem impossible not to get it tangled. But then the string unfurls, and Gentry, with music choreographed to his routine, jumps right into another trick.
When Josiah talks about Gentry, he says, “You have got to see him! You might think I’m good, but he’s the one who’s really good.” And then Josiah mentions that this year’s World Championship will be in Cleveland during the first week of August. Planners expect 1,000 competitors from more than thirty countries to show up.
If Josiah has his way, he’ll be in the crowd, watching. His long-term goal is to compete one day, after getting a corporate sponsor. He dreams of YoYoFactory discovering him, the same company that sponsors Gentry Stein and sells yo-yos designed by him, including one called the Shutter. It’s Josiah’s all-time favorite yo-yo. Josiah also wants to be a designer one day, but that’s a few years away. He needs some experience competing first, so he and his mom began looking for competitions that were close to their home in Fort Smith, Arkansas, but couldn’t find any. The closest they’ve uncovered was a state competition in Arizona, that took place in March.
The same thing goes for nearby yo-yo clubs. They searched but came up empty handed. And then Josiah had an idea. What if he started a club? And so he and his mom did some research, talked to those in charge at the Fort Smith Public Library, and in November of last year, Josiah held his first meeting of the River Valley Yo-Yo Club at the main branch on Rogers Avenue.
As he talks about the meetings, he is smiling. Across his chest is an army green strap that connects to a case that carries his yo-yos. He pulls out the one that’s bright pink with a green string. It is not the rounded, wooden or plastic number you likely grew up with. It is sleek metal, and looks a bit like a butterfly: slender at its center where the string wraps around, and then flaring out on each side like wings.
For an hour or two a day, Josiah practices. Sometimes he plays music while he does it, choreographing his movements to the song, adding a dance step or two. His favorite is a hip-hop number by Christian artist, TobyMac, called “Feel It.”
“When you yo-yo like that, with the music, it feels like you’re on a whole other level. Like you’re in tune with the yo-yo and nothing else. Normally, I have distractions,” Josiah says and then rolls his eyes. “It’s like, ‘Bubba, come here. Come see what’s in my room.'”
The distractions he’s talking about are two younger sisters, who are five years old and one year old. He loves being their big brother, and he thinks he’s pretty good at it. And then he laughs and tells the story of conking one of them on the head with a yo-yo while he was recording one of his tutorials when he was only six. “I hit her pretty good on the head,” Josiah says, “and she was really brave.
“My baby sister will sometimes grab the string of my yo-yo while I’m practicing and just run off with it, tugging my yo-yo behind her.”
He’s teaching the five-year-old every trick he can, and he believes she might end up being better at yo-yoing than he is. “She can throw it down and get it back up again,” Josiah says, proud of his protégé. Teaching is something he loves, and he does it whenever he can. “I’m also teaching my cousin, Isaac. He’s my age.” And then there’s the River Valley Yo-Yo Club he started.
“The first meeting I only had two people show up, but then the second meeting I had ten. We had people come all the way from Rogers, Arkansas. The ones who came to the first meeting have never missed, and we have one every month. The dad and one of his sons who came to the first meeting now help me teach.
“Everyone learns at a different level, and that’s been what I had to work out. But I really like helping people learn.”
If Josiah could do one thing, it would be to show everyone that the old yo-yo lying abandoned at the bottom of that toy chest is more than just a toy. That learning to yo-yo is a sport. “It’s more than just a toy that goes up and down,” Josiah says, with all the conviction he can muster.
And then he stands up and starts to demonstrate a few of his own tricks. The yo-yo whizzes past. It seems like it’s about to come off its string. He flips it up, makes it lay across a web of string he’s created in just a matter of seconds and unwinds it in a flourish. It is hard to keep track of the yo-yo, spinning as it is, moving fast and then faster still.
He even shows off his signature move, a trick he created himself called The Triple Triangle. He pulls it off without a hitch, and when he’s finished, he attaches the yo-yo to a strap that hangs from his belt loop.
“I never go anywhere without at least one yo-yo,” he says, and then, when asked what his happiest moment is, he says, “It’s when I’m stalking the mailman after I’ve ordered a new yo-yo. I even chased him down the street one day,” he says, and then laughs. Josiah’s collection has risen to eleven; a number he’s certain will go up.
At night, his last thoughts before sleep are about yo-yos. Every day, he practices, at least an hour, sometimes two. This summer, he plans to expand his teaching experience, by starting a second club in northwest Arkansas.
Just a few months ago, he couldn’t find even one yo-yo club in the state. By year’s end, there will be two, courtesy of Josiah Davis, who understands that life, like yo-yoing, is filled with ups and downs. Josiah plans to focus on the ups every chance he gets.
