The 10 following tricks are in my opinion the first ones you need to master:
- Throw and catch
- Sun
- Half-Spaghetti
- Elevator
- Trapeze (also called stopover)
- Darkside
- Leg Orbit
- Arm Orbit
- Suicide
- Grind
1. Throw and catch
Tossing the diabolo in the air ans catching it is the number 1 trick to learn, because it’s the easiest and you will use it all the time.
You don’t need to know any other trick to learn the throw and catch and you don’t need a lot of spin to perform it. So you can learn this trick even before having mastered the acceleration fully.
2. Sun
It is called a sun because the diabolo is spun in a big circle, “drawing” a sun.
The sun is a very useful trick to learn because you will encounter the string position after the trick a lot. A large number of tricks come from this one and you can create variations of existing tricks by using a sun in the middle of them.
3. Half-Spaghetti
This is a magic knot, a trick where you tangle the string around the diabolo and sticks, and when you throw the diabolo, the knot “magically” disappear, releasing the diabolo.
This trick is easy to learn and the only prerequisite is that you know how to throw and catch the diabolo. You will also need a moderate amount of speed as it takes time at first to “knit” the string.
This specific magic knot has a lot of variations and is the foundation of plenty more complex knots.
4. Elevator
The string is wrapped around the diabolo and pulled downwards which makes the diabolo climb the string.
The elevator is an easy trick if you know how to give a lot of speed to your diabolo. It looks really impressive to non jugglers and is quick to learn.
It is not one of the building blocks of diabolo because it doesn’t help with other tricks and there is only a small number of variations.
But you will learn how to wrap and unwrap (the string around the diabolo) without losing speed while keeping the diabolo straight. Wrapping and unwrapping are very important skills to master. They are, like the diabolo toss, used all the time.
5. Trapeze
The trapeze involves making the diabolo swing over one stick and land on the string in the middle. This is basically a sun stopped in the middle.
You will need to know how to accelerate well and how to do a sun before trying this trick..
This trick leads to so many others, it is a must-know.
6. Darkside
This trick consists of a diabolo toss caught over the diabolo. The diabolo end up on the “wrong” side of the string.
It probably should be called mirror side because the acceleration and correction of the diabolo are mirrored when the diabolo is in this string position. But darkside sounds cooler and leads to some tricks that are called genocides, so I guess it makes sense.
I didn’t choose those names, there were several attempts to change them, but it never stuck. However, every diabolo player will understand you if you call genocides genos.
7. Leg Orbit
The leg orbit is a series of diabolo tosses over the leg. The diabolo orbits around the leg, hence the name.
You will need to know how to throw and catch the diabolo, before learning this trick. You don’t need a lot of speed as this trick accelerates the diabolo, so full mastery of the acceleration is optional.
This is a very useful trick to learn as the wrist movement is the same you use for the circular acceleration and 2 diabolo low and you will need to have mastered the orbit to learn countless other tricks.
8. Arm Orbit
It is almost the same as the leg orbit except it’s around the arm.
The position of your strong arm will feel akward at first and you will have to get used to catching the diabolo with the stick pointing towards you.
9. Suicide
This will be your first stick release trick and the building block for almost every stick release tricks. You need to know how to do the sun first but don’t need much spin.
This is a must-know because you will learn how to release a stick, how to catch a stick and you will learn not to freak out when sticks are flying towards your face.
10. Grind
With the grind, you throw and catch the spinning diabolo on a handstick.
To perform this trick, you will need a lot of speed, about the same as for the elevator, so make sure you have mastered the acceleration. You will also need to know how to throw and catch the diabolo.
This trick is only a prerequisite for other types of grind, but it will help you understand and master corrections as any movement of the stick will affect the diabolo significantly.
Final Thoughts
Learning all these tricks will open the doors to most tricks with 1 diabolo, so try to master them all!
When you’re ready to move on from the basics, here is a list of tricks you may want to learn. And if you want to dive deeper in the topic of diabolo improvement, there is a complete article here.
