This week, I’ve got a few beginner tips to share. They may seem obvious to many experienced diaboloists, but I’ve had to explain them numerous times, so I thought I’d write ‘em down here. I hope they’re useful, even if you’re not a beginner anymore!
It’s the spin
The speed a diabolo spins at is important to consider. After all, the amount of spin defines the stability and control of what you’re doing. Tricks that speed up the diabolo, should begin with little speed. A fast spinning diabolo getting sped up is harder to control. Vice versa, tricks that slow the diabolo down should begin with a lot of speed or the diabolo will lose its balance and eventually fall off or tangle.
Symmetry? Not necessarily.
The length of your string is also important to keep in mind. I don’t mean the string length from your left to right stick. I’m talking about the length of the left and right string with respect to the diabolo. The left string being the string that runs from your left stick to the diabolo. The right string being the string that runs from your right stick to the diabolo.
Now, when doing a trick, it’s important to realize that the left string and right string are almost never the same length, because most tricks cannot be mirrored. Let me explain what I’m aiming for with this. The position of the diabolo, the sticks and the string is practically never the same on the right side as it is on the left side of your body. Thus in order to learn or improve a trick, you need to be aware of the left/right string length ratio.
Example: infinite suicide
Infinite suicides speed up the diabolo, so try to keep the initial speed of the diabolo as low as possible. Secondly, (assuming you are right handed) the right string should be significantly shorter than the left string, because your right hand needs to make quick, accurately timed turns around the axle of the diabolo. Therefore, you’ll automatically try to keep the “circle” as small as possible. Starting off the trick with a long right string is not going to help you control this trick. (As an aside, the shape isn’t really a circle, but that’s another story.)
Example: integral suicides
Integral suicides add another string length factor. During the set-up for Eric’s integral suicide (or the Tomicide), before swinging like a madman, you have to deal with 3 different string lengths:
(1) The string that runs from the left stick to the diabolo.
(2) The string that runs from the diabolo to your right hand.
(3) The string that runs from your right hand to the right stick.
When going for the swing, string length (3) has to be relatively short to successfully enter an infinite suicide. I have found an extension to Eric’s integral suicide where you grab the same string with the same hand mid-air to let both sticks travel around the diabolo for one more cycle. This shortens string length (3) even more. So, if I chose my initial right string length too short, I wouldn’t be able to execute this variation. Note: my string length (3) is pretty long in the video below, but you see how I need to correct the string length to avoid dropping.
This realization allows you to tweak your tricks by exaggerating certain string lengths to create, for example, slack string suicides, which is a largely unexplored field. I put an example in the video below.
Direct download (right click, save as).
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