A yo-yo competition normally consists of twoparts, a set of compulsory tricks and a freestyle portion. Here points are scored foreach and the winner is the yo-yoer who scores the most points. Compulsory tricks are a set of specific tricks that have beenchosen before the contest, and the competitor must successfully complete eachtrick on their first or second attempt to score points. The freestyle is when the yo-ist performs a routine to their choice of music in front of a panel of judges. Scores are based off of difficulty of the tricks, synchronization with the music and artistic performance.

Major Competitions

The World Yo-Yo Contest is held every year in Orlando, Florida and is hosted every year by YoYoGuy.com around late July to early August. This contest takes the winners from national yo-yo contests around the world to compete against eachother. This competition is considered The Olympics for yo-yoing. In recent years the Japanese have risen to the top of the yo-yo world. The eleven-time, double-handed world champion Shinji Saito is Japanese and is considered the best in the world by most. The United States, Brazil, Japan and the UK hold competitions at the national and regional levels. In addition, national yo-yo contests, without regionals, are held every year by Mexico, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, France, Germany, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Australia.Yo-yo competitions have become a global success and are continuing to grow in popularity.

The International Yo-Yo Open hosted by YoYoNation.com in New York, aims to showcase the best yo-yoers in the world. The United States is not the only country that have a competetive yo-yo program. European contests are becoming more and more competetive. While yo-yoing continues to gain popularity, the competitions will also continue to get better and better.