Many TikTok stars stick to dancing and lip-syncing, but freshman Gavin Hubner has found his niche on the platform: yo-yoing. 

Hubner has more than 80,000 followers on TikTok, where he regularly posts short videos performing yo-yo tricks to the beats of different songs. 

“I started the account in April, but I only really started making good videos around June,” Hubner said. 

Followers often request that Hubner yo-yo to their favorite tunesshare their delight at his displays of talent. 

“Can you yo-yo to ‘Enemy’ by Imagine Dragons?” one commenter asked. Another simply wrote, “WOW.”

Hubner started yo-yoing in 5th grade, after a friend brought a yo-yo to school.

“I hadn’t seen yo-yoing before, so that night I went to the toy store and got one, and I haven’t put it down since,” Hubner said. 

Right away, Hubner began entering yo-yo competitions.

“I started competing the first year I got into it, at the 2016 Mideast Regional Contest in Detroit,” Hubner said. “At the time, I thought I was super good, but I went to that contest and got second-to-last.” 

Even though he didn’t come out on top, his first taste of competition left him wanting more.

“The contest opened my eyes to see that there’s so much more you can do with a yo-yo that I hadn’t seen yet,” Hubner said. “That inspired me to compete more, and I’ve competed in contests across the country since then.” 

At his most recent competition, the U.S. National Yo-Yo Contest, Hubner placed fourth in the single-hand string trick category.

“Nationals was crazy, because it was the first time in my life that all these people I had seen growing up were in one place,” Hubner said. “Between now and the time I graduate from college, I would like to win nationals.” 

For Hubner, making friends at competitions is one of the best parts of yo-yoing. He regularly reunites with his fellow yo-yoers. 

“I had an epiphany after watching a bunch of guys who could yo-yo do really well online, and I met a lot of these guys at the contest,” Hubner said. “So I asked, ‘Can you help me out?’” 

Some of those friends helped Hubner with his TikTok account.

“That was my project over the summer,” Hubner said. “I developed my own style of video using their advice.” 

Hubner’s roommate, freshman Owen Johnson, gets all his yo-yo know-how from Hubner. 

“I’ve had a lot of fun learning about the whole culture around yo-yoing,” Johnson said. “It’s a whole world I didn’t know anything about. Gavin even taught us yo-yo tricks.” 

Johnson has also watched some of Hubner’s TikTok videos. 

“I think it’s crazy that he has that kind of following from it. It’s awesome,” Johnson said. 

Hubner found that there’s more to yo-yoing on TikTok than he initially thought.

“It’s not just getting up in front of a camera and doing tricks,” Hubner said. “You have to introduce to people why the tricks are hard and why you’re doing them, and explain it concisely enough that they’ll want to watch the video instead of swipe past it.” 

But Hubner’s favorite part of yo-yoing is not performing or competing, but teaching. 

“I street-perform back in Grand Haven, and seeing kids come up to me with a yo-yo from the toy store asking me to teach them a trick is the best thing ever,” Hubner said. “I worked at that toy store this summer and all I did was teach kids how to yo-yo. That was the best.” 

Hubner tries to use his TikTok account to teach as well.

“I am trying to make tutorials online now with my TikTok account, and honestly, just sharing it is the best part,” Hubner said. “Competing is great, but it isn’t everything.” 

As a student at Hillsdale, Hubner appreciates the opportunity to be more than a yo-yoer.

“In high school, yo-yoing was my personality, and I really didn’t like that,” Hubner said. “Part of what attracted me to Hillsdale is that you’re looking at somebody as a person, not just their occupation or some skillset they have.” 

When Hubner was looking at different schools, that focus on the person stood out to him.

“University of Michigan was my other choice. The small Christian private school did not really fit my personality at the time,” Hubner said. “But you walk on campus and there’s something different about this place, I had to ask myself, ‘What kind of person do you want to be at the end of college?’” 

During homecoming week, Hubner put his yo-yo skills to use in the Simpson mock rock.

“I was more nervous to do mock rock than I was to compete at nationals,” Hubner said.