Trapeze

Trapeze is where diabolo stops being throwing and starts being string. The diabolo ends up resting in a loop that hangs from one stick, and from that one shape you can reach the climbs, the grinds and most of what people recognise as diabolo.

It is worth learning slowly. A sloppy trapeze holds for a second; a clean one holds for as long as the diabolo spins.

The shape

Hold the diabolo on the string as normal. Now pass your right stick over and around the string on the left, so the string wraps once and forms a loop hanging beneath your left stick. Lower the loop under the diabolo and let it settle in.

The diabolo should sit in the bottom of that loop, level, with both sides of the string running up to the same stick.

Getting into it

1. Accelerate until the diabolo is fast. A trapeze eats spin, and a slow diabolo will tilt out of the loop.
2. Throw low, no higher than your waist.
3. As the diabolo rises, swing your right stick over the string and under, drawing the loop.
4. Catch the diabolo into the loop rather than onto the flat string. Let the hand drop as it lands, the same as any catch.

Holding it

Once the diabolo is in the loop, keep the loop open. A loop that closes pinches the axle and stops the spin dead. Small movements only, and keep both strands of the string apart with the stick that is not carrying the loop.

If the diabolo starts to tilt, tip the whole loop slightly the other way rather than trying to correct with the sticks the way you would on flat string. In a trapeze the loop steers, not the hands.

Getting out

Lift the loop off. Raise the carrying stick and let the diabolo drop out of the bottom of the loop onto the flat string, then catch normally. Do not unwrap it in mid-air: unwrapping and catching at the same time is two things going wrong at once.

What goes wrong

The diabolo will not stay in the loop. The loop is too small. Draw it wider than looks necessary.

It stops spinning as soon as it lands. The loop closed on the axle. Keep the strands apart.

You get a knot instead of a loop. The stick went around the string twice. It is one pass, over and under.

It tilts immediately. Speed again. Trapeze costs more spin than flat string does, so start faster than you think you need to.

When it is working

You can mount into a trapeze from a low throw, hold it for five seconds without correcting, and drop out onto flat string. That is the base the string climb is built on.