By LEE HINNANT

While most 10-year-olds play with yo-yos, Elliot Duncan performs with them. Young Duncan has placed in serious competitions and will perform at a national contest later this year.

Duncan tosses, turns and snaps a yo-yo as if it were a special, secret finger. With a single throw, he coaxes four or five elaborate tricks, winding and weaving the string like a free-form frame around his spinning subject.

Fluid, seamless moves turn the yo-yo and string from one shape to another. The disc keeps spinning and following Duncan’s lead, at once gripping and oddly mesmerizing.

His tosses and loops are fast and furious but also elegant.

Duncan’s father gave him his first yo-yo, a gift from a stop on Jeff’s route as a truck driver. Since that day in 2004, the younger Duncan has honed his skill and built a collection of yo-yos. He has studied instructional DVDs but is mostly self-taught.

Duncan’s speed and skill requires him to use a glove to avoid string burns. His arsenal of yo-yos now numbers nearly 50.

“It gets you pumped up,” said Duncan, a fifth-grader at Edgewood Elementary School. “It takes a lot of learning – that’s what’s fun about it.”

Duncan said he prefers string and looping tricks and freehand styles. Some of his favorites are trapeze, gunslinger, split the atom and British flag.

He can also do “off the string” tricks, a relatively new category of yo-yo style. He plans to compete at a meet in Tallahassee, Fla. on April 1 and at a national competition at Disney World in August.

“He practices a lot,” said father Jeff Duncan. “We’re real proud of him.”

Whiteville Parks and Recreation Department will host Duncan for a yo-yo demonstration Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the new recreation center. Director Tim Collier said he will give away yo-yos as door prizes.