Learn to diabolo

Getting the diabolo fast and keeping it there. It is not a trick, it is the thing every trick runs on, and it is the reason most tricks fail.

Fixing a diabolo that has started to lean. The correction nobody teaches first and everybody needs within ten minutes.

The first trick, and the one every other trick is built on. Get the diabolo off the string, keep it straight, and put it back.

Swinging the diabolo in a full vertical circle on the string. The first trick that looks like a trick, and the cheapest one to learn.

A small fast circle of the diabolo around one stick, wrapped and released each time round. Where the whip-and-release feel of diabolo starts.

The diabolo sits in a loop of string hung off one stick. The first trick that is a shape rather than a throw, and the doorway to most of the string tricks.

A triangle of string with the diabolo resting inside it, built with the sticks and a finger. The first figure, and the one that teaches you to see the string as shapes.

Balancing the spinning diabolo on the tip of a stick, held there by the bearing. A bearing axle can do it and a fixed axle cannot, which makes it the mirror of the string climb.

The diabolo walks up the string on its own, driven by the friction of its own axle. A fixed axle can do it and a bearing axle cannot, which makes this the trick that decides which diabolo you want.

Letting go of one stick and letting it swing all the way round the diabolo before you catch it again. The trick everyone wants, and the one that costs the most sticks.

Two diabolos on one string, passing each other back and forth. The doorway into multiple diabolos, and a fixed axle makes it far easier.