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Juggling Lessons

When throwing the diabolo out of the Cat's Cradle, tilt the tips of the hand stick in, so the diabolo misses the strings above it.

Start with the diabolo spinning quickly, and make sure that it is level. Catch the diabolo on the back of the string. Uncross your arms. Notice that this causes the string to cross just above the axle. Hook the tip of the right hand stick behind the string under the left hand stick. Hook the tip of the left hand stick behind the string under the right hand stick. Gently separate your hands, and point your hand sticks straight up. The cross that was just above the axle now forms a big X above the diabolo. When you throw the diabolo out of the trick, make sure to point both hand sticks towards your body, so the diabolo misses the X above it. Before the diabolo lands, allow the strings which are resting on the hand sticks to slip off the tops of the sticks. Instead of dropping the X when you throw the diabolo, you can also catch the diabolo on top of the X. If you choose this finish, just rotate the tips of the hand sticks towards one another, until the diabolo and strings just slip off of the hand sticks.

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