Difficulty: Easy

Safety Warning: Make sure you have plenty of room, especially when throwing and catching the diabolo!

Alan shows you how to do diabolo stick grinds, moving the diabolo from the string to one of your sticks and keeping it spinning so it stays in place!

This is a great basic trick for students starting to move beyond just keeping the diabolo spinning on the string. You can practice at your own pace, and when you’re confident you can make the trick more complex!

First, Alan shows you how to move the diabolo from your string to the stick in your off hand. Once you have the diabolo spinning smoothly on the stick, hold your sticks at a right angle to one another, as Alan demonstrates. Raise your main hand up above your other hand so the diabolo rolls onto one stick and angle this stick slightly downwards so that the diabolo stays on it.

Alan then shows you some variations to make your diabolo stick grinds more complex, such as hopping the diabolo from one stick to another, or catching the grind from a throw.

Remember, it takes practice, and you’ll have to experiment to see what works for you!

Alan demonstrates with a solid-axle diabolo, but you can also use a triple-bearing axle diabolo.

If you need to brush up on the basics before mastering this trick, check out our Diabolo Basics tutorial.

You can view all our tutorials here.