The whip
Fixing a diabolo that has started to lean. The correction nobody teaches first and everybody needs within ten minutes.
A diabolo that leans will keep leaning, and then it will run off the end of the string. This happens to everyone, constantly, and the reason beginners find diabolo frustrating is usually that nobody showed them the fix.
The fix takes about a second and you will use it thousands of times.
Reading the lean
Look along the string from behind the diabolo. One cup is closer to you than the other. The diabolo will travel toward whichever side is leading, and the lean gets worse on its own because the string is now pulling unevenly.
Name the direction before you correct. Correcting the wrong way doubles the problem, and at speed you will not get a second look.
The correction
- Move the stick on the side the diabolo is leaning AWAY from, forward, so the string wraps slightly around the axle on that side.
- Give one short pull with that stick. Short. A long one over-corrects and you will be fixing the other direction next.
- Bring the hands back level and check.
Repeat with smaller pulls until it runs true. Two small corrections beat one big one every time.
The other version
There is a lazier fix that works while the lean is still small: lift the stick on the side the diabolo is leaning toward, so the string runs a little downhill and the diabolo walks back to level on its own. It is slower, but it costs no spin, and it is what experienced players do most of the time without thinking about it.
What goes wrong
The correction makes it worse. You read the lean backwards. Stop, let it settle, look again from behind.
It corrects then immediately leans the other way. Too much pull. Halve it.
It corrects but slows right down. The wrap was too deep and the string is now braking the axle. A quarter turn of wrap is plenty.
It leans again ten seconds later. That is normal. A diabolo is not self-correcting, and correcting is part of playing rather than a sign that something is wrong.
When it is working
You can keep a diabolo running true for a minute without it wandering off the end of the string, and you stop noticing that you are doing it. That is the point at which the rest of this library becomes learnable, because every trick below assumes a diabolo that stays where you put it.
