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Sometimes when you wrap the string arond your diabolo, it can spin up both sides of the string and get tangled.
After the twist up, you’ll have to untangle the diabolo and start again or if the climb was fast and violent, you might have to replace a snapped string.
The uncontrolled string climb is a very common problem, because in diabolo you use wraps all the time (left side of the previous image). For example, once you learn to accelerate with a wrap, you will never go back to accelerating without because wrapped accelerations are so much more efficient.
The diabolo will climb the string for one of the three following reasons:
- Technique : don’t cross the string!
- Old String : the string needs replacing regularly
- Multiple wraps : this is a similar problem as crossing the string
Technique
TL;DR: don’t cross the string.
Because of the friction, the crossed string will act as a break and because of its speed the diabolo acts as the accelerator. Breaking and accelerating at the same time means problems.
The technique for using wraps is very important and easy to learn. If you wrapped on the right, keep your right hand slightly closer to you and if you have a left wrap, push your right hand away from you. With time, you will find a balance between having your hands perfectly aligned (so the diabolo doesn’t tip forwards -left wrap- or backwards -right wrap) and having your hands in a position that prevents the string climb.
If you have a small diabolo, the axle will be narrower than bigger ones, leaving less room for error and you will have to be subtle with your technique. The wider the axle the easier it is to keep the string from crossing. A thin string helps too, I always use 1.3mm string because it’s thin enough to make preventing the twist up easy and thick and strong enough to not snap easily.
Old String
After a while, because of the friction between the axle and the string, your string will need replacing. It’s normal wear and tear.
If you take a close look at a used string, you can see it’s not smooth anymore, it has some “hairs”.
You can remove the “hairs” by passing a lighter along the string to burn them, be careful and move the lighter fairly quickly so you don’t damage the string. This will allow your string to last a bit longer.
If you have good string (any diabolo string that is NOT Henry’s white) , you will on average change the string every other week. For Henry’s white it’s from 3 days to a week depending on how much you use it. A new string is a bit slippery and will get grippier with use.
There are two other factors that damage your string faster: humidity and dirt. This is only a problem when you train outside.
Multiple Wraps
The problem with multiple wraps is that it crosses the string. It will be the same problem as with bad technique. The crossed string will act as a break and “want” to stop the diabolo from spinning, but the momentum of the diabolo will force the spin to continue, resulting in the twist up both sides of the string.
You can get away with multiple wraps if you have a bearing axle diabolo.
If the axle gets stuck in the crossed string the axle can stop and the cups will still spin independently without pushing the axle to continue spinning and go up the string. In addition, bearing diabolos generally have a wide axles, which allow multiple wrapping without crossing the string.
Final Toughts
You can make the diabolo climb the string in a controlled way, this trick is called the elevator. It’s an easy one to learn and looks really cool.
