How to Do the Over-the-Opposite-Arm Trick in Diabolo Juggling

After learning to juggle the diabolo over your dominant arm, you should learn to juggle the diabolo over the other arm. Both tricks have similar steps. Because the diabolo spins counter to the direction you toss it in the air, causing it to slow down, you must spin the diabolo very fast to complete the over-the-opposite-arm trick. When you can juggle both tricks consistently, you can move on to many advanced tricks.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Begin with a rolling start. Juggle the diabolo at high speed. You may want to whip the diabolo to get it spinning as fast as possible.

2. Turn your opposite arm inside the string so the end of the stick not attached to the string is facing your audience. Rest the string against your bicep.

3. Flick your dominant wrist to toss the diabolo into the air. Catch the diabolo outside of your opposite arm. Its motion will cause it to return to the middle of the string. From this position, you can juggle nearly any trick. Whip the diabolo again to add speed, or do another trick that adds speed, before doing another over-the-opposite-arm trick.

4. Learn another trick. Now that you can complete the over-the-arm and over-the-opposite-arm tricks, try the figure 8.

Tips & Warnings

• Because tosses over the opposite arm go the opposite direction from the one in which the diabolo is spinning, the diabolo loses spin on each toss. Either add speed or do another trick before attempting to do again.

Resources

• View these Expert Village videos to learn diabolo juggling tricks.