Who we are

  See Val's Yo-Yo Freestyle !

See Val's Spin Top Freestyle !

- Vice-President of Science of Spin, Inc. 

(formerly Spintastics Skill Toys, Inc.)
- Science of Spin school program Lead Presenter since 1995
- 2015-2018 Vice-Chairman - Board of Directors -  International Top Spinner's Association (ITSA)
- 2018-2019 Vice-President - Board of Directors - International Top Spinner's Association (ITSA)

- 2018 Texas State Spin Top Champion
- 2014 2nd Place National Spin Top Champion (& 2004)
- 2004 Recipient of the Linda Sengpiel Award for excellence in yo-yoing
- 2006 4th Place Finalist and World Champion Female Top Spinner
- 1972 Minnesota State Yo-Yo Champion
- 1997-2001 Secretary of the American Yo-Yo Association
- Founder Lone Star Spinners Club, DFW, Texas

               and Twin Cities Spinners Club, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Val began yo-yoing at the age of 5 when, in the early 1960’s, she and her older brother, Forest, would follow their then Duncan yo-yo man, and now lifelong friend, Bob Rule, from store to store in the Minneapolis area. She developed her skills with the yo-yo and spinning top during those years, appearing on television, competing, and winning contests throughout the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. She deeply believes that these activities taught her important lessons in persistence and the value of practice, as well as good sportsmanship, and contributed to her positive self-esteem as a child. When yo-yoing resurfaced, she won the Minnesota State Yo-Yo Championship in 1972.

Val holds a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Business Administration from the University of Minnesota and a technical degree in computer programming. After 18 years in the computer industry, with jobs ranging from programming to management, and eventually owning her own computer consulting business, she wanted a change. Sharing her yo-yoing skills at various times during the years in her four daughters’ school classrooms (and there named “Yo-Yo Mom”), she finally realized where her heart was – with children and her yo-yo!

Since 1995, she has been presenting the Science of Spin™ school program to over 10,000 elementary and middle school students annually. Beginning in Minnesota, and now from Texas, she travels across the U.S. presenting this educational and fun program. She has developed an Interdisciplinary Yo-Yo Curriculum, using the yo-yo to teach and reinforce concepts across all educational disciplines, including Social Studies (history), Language Arts, Art, Science and Math. She has written specifications on how the 'Science of Spin' program itself addresses the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) Science Objectives.  In 1996, she wrote an article for the MAHPERD (Minnesota Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance) newsletter on the value of developing yo-yo skills in the physical education of children.  During 1997 and 1998, she was presenter for the accredited Workshop on Wheels program, teaching Physical Education teachers across the Midwest how to teach yo-yoing skills to elementary students. She has also presented her yo-yo clinic program to physical education specialists in both Texas and Oklahoma.

Summers are filled presenting her acclaimed '/Science of Spin/Whirled on a String' Show for Summer Reading programs in libraries and VBS camps throughout Texas.

Val has been an active member of the American Yo-Yo Association since 1994 and held the position of Secretary of the AYYA from 1997 through 2001. While in Minneapolis, she founded the Twin Cities Spinners Yo-Yo Club.  She organized and judged the Twin Cities Open Yo-Yo Championships in Minneapolis and the MadFest Competition in Madison, Wisconsin, in both 1996 and 1997.

Valerie attends and participates in National and World Yo-Yo Championships annually.

Her contest accomplishments include:
2006 & 2004 - 4th Place Finalist World Spin Top Championship
making her the World Champion Female Top Spinner

2018 Texas State Spin Top Champion
2014 Silver Medalist National Spin Top Championship (& 2004)
2004 Recipient of the Linda Sengpiel Award for excellence in yo-yoing. World Yo-Yo Contest, August 2004
1st Place 2002-National Spin Top Sport Division, Overall Champion
2nd Place – 1998 World Yo-Yo Championship - Recreational Division
3rd Place – 1996 National Yo-Yo Championship – Level 3
5th Place, 1996 World Yo-Yo Championship – Masters Division
4th Place – 1995 World Yo-Yo Championship – Masters Division
1972 Minnesota State Yo-Yo Champion

In 1996, Val teamed up with Dale Oliver to form Spintastics Skill Toys, Inc. to promote and distribute a full line of yo-yos, spinning tops and diabolos, as well as to market the successful 'Science of Spin' program across the country. In 1997, she relocated to Texas (Dallas/Ft. Worth area) where she founded the Lone Star Spinners which meets monthly, and has organized and judged yo-yo and spin top contests across the state of Texas.

At the 1998 World Yo-Yo Championship in Primm, Nevada, Valerie was a shadow judge and continues to judge Sport divisions at both World and National competitions annually. 

Val's picture was seen and she was quoted in Wall Street Journal in its front page article about yo-yos on July 17, 2009.

Val and her husband, 1992 World Yo-Yo Champion, Dale Oliver, are exploring the increasingly obvious benefits of yo-yoing for ADD and ADHD students.

In 2016, Spintastics Skill Toys, Inc. changed its name to

Science of Spin, Inc.

Email Val at valerieyo7@gmail.com or Click Here 

- President, Spintastics Skill Toys, Inc. / Science of Spin
- Developer of the Science of Spin school program.
- 1992 World Yo-Yo Champion
- One of only four  "National Yo-Yo Grand Masters."
- Founder and Former President of the American Yo-Yo Assn.
- Founder of the World Yo-Yo Contest
- 2006 Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award,
      World Yo-Yo Contest

Dale Oliver entered his first yo-yo contest in his hometown of Kansas City at the age of 12. He became a part time “yo-yo pro” at 15 and began traveling full time for the Duncan Yo-Yo Company two years later in 1957. For the next 17 years, Oliver’s yo-yo vocation took him throughout North America for a series of personal appearances. He starred in many TV commercials for two different yo-yo brands. He set up the Mexico division of Duncan Yo-Yo in 1973 and has done work as a consultant on design and promotion for various yo-yo and string manufacturers from 1974 to the present.

In 1989, he founded Oliver’s Toys and developed the Yo-Yo Fun and the Science of Spin® school program, marketing yo-yos throughout the U.S. In 1995, he began manufacturing his own yo-yo, the Technic. In 1996, he went into partnership with Valerie Krantz (now Oliver) and formed Spintastics Skill Toys, Inc. and developed additional yo-yos, i.e. the Tornado (ball-bearing), the Torch (LED lighted) and the TigerShark (butterfly ball bearing).

Oliver has invented numerous yo-yo tricks during his career, some of which have become standards, performed by yo-yo enthusiasts worldwide. With a repertoire of more than 200 tricks, he may be the world’s most versatile yo-yo performer. He set his first world record in 1976 with a 45 second spin with a fixed axle yo-yo. In 1978, he broke his own record with a spin of 51 seconds. During the California State Championship in October of 1991, a professor from the University of California, using a digital tachometer, timed Dale’s spin in excess of 14,300 r.p.m. – almost 100 miles per hour. Dale is considered the father of the modern freestyle yo-yoing technique, having promoted and introduced it into major competition beginning in 1990. Dale also introduced the “off-string” technique to the yo-yo world, having first done it in 1958.

Oliver has traveled extensively to over 17 countries promoting the sport of yo-yoing and doing demonstrations.  Today, Oliver is still designing spinning toys and teaches his well-known Science of Spin school program, now presented by several demonstrators across the U.S. teaching students not only how to yo-yo, but the science behind the toy.  An hour-long school assembly is followed by P.E. clinics, teaching the art of yo-yoing.  Oliver, himself spent over 20 years teaching more than 40,000 children in schools how to yo-yo each year.  He was the first yo-yo pro to make an instructional video and is considered to be the premier yo-yo coach in the world. His video is used by schools and libraries in several states as an educational aid for the development of eye-hand coordination. His 'spintastic' performances include yo-yos, spinning tops and diabolos. He effortlessly removes coins from the ears of amazed volunteers with whirling yo-yos, yo-yos while being totally blindfolded, and, for a finale, launches the yo-yo over 40 feet into the air only to come down for a soft landing into his pocket.

Dale Oliver and his Yo-Yo Fun and Science of Spin® program hit the front page of the Wall Street Journal on December 21, 1998. He was consultant and editor of The Klutz Yo-Yo Book published by Klutz Press, selling over 400,000 copies in 1998, as well as You Can Yo-Yo published by Scholastic Books, which sold over 900,000 copies in 1998. He has also co-authored and edited the second yo-yo book in this Scholastic series.

Dale has been active with judging both National and World Yo-Yo and Spin Top competitions, hoping that someday yo-yoing will become an Olympic event.

Email: yoprodale@gmail.com