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[MarkHayward]

AKA Kongzhu or Spin-Top

[Ketzaltlipoka]

Guauuuuu!!!! Some of you knows what brand is the one that fabricates those superb monobolos? I really will appreciate and wil thank if some among you can give me this information....thanks.....and thanks by post this video....
Mark....

[ta0]

Wow!
I just saw the video 6 or 7 times. I have had a monobolo from Taiwan that looks just like that (so I guess it is a Kongzhu) for many years and I cannot do those tricks (haven't used much, though).

They are wrapping the monobolo like a top not a diabolo. By that I mean that a right handed player will make it spin counter-clockwise. I had always done it the reverse, so with the string untwisted the "head" pointed away from me. But in the other way it can be played like a top.  Bam! (that's me hitting my forehead).

The main trick they do with the smaller one are half-orbits. When the guy throws it in the air he is doing lasso catches. Ok, I NEED to learn this before the end of the year!

The bigger one doesn't seem to tilt when it is not spinning, so I guess it is counter-weighted enough to be a diabolo in disguise.

How loud they are! Much louder than mine.

[Pulpowsky]

And what's about the sound.... it destroy all of sunday morning peace... :-D

Now I understand all that UFO's films from Hollywood.... 

[Zeemo]

Many years ago I modified a kongzhu I got from Dave Finnigans's Juggle Bug table at the Fargo IJA convention.  I put some nickels in the tip to act as a counter weight and it worked pretty well.  I bought one ($20) from Renegade Juggling (http://www.renegadejuggling.com/Web_store/rev3k/index.html) last year and tried it a month ago and could not get it started.  I concluded that my string was too thin and am open to any suggestions from the group.  Newbies can consult Alan Jacob's "Diabolo Book" for some pointers.

Here is another video of a really good player.  You may want to turn your sound down before viewing.

[Pulpowsky]

Very good player and very good salesman. Tanks zeemo for the video selection.

[ta0]

Thanks for the video link Zeemo, he is very good.

I have that one from Renegade and I use normal diabolo string (and sticks) to spin it.  Zeemo, you probably have Finnigan's The Complete Juggler. In the diabolo section there are three pages on what he calls "one-wheeled diabolo". I first learned to spin mine with the method #1, wrapping the kongzhu on the ground. However, a year ago I started to use method #2 after I saw somebody else doing it and it is much easier. But on the book drawing of this method they show the snap start from the tip while I do it from the wheel. What the book lacks is any explanation of precession and in which direction to wrap and twist the string. That may have misslead me all these years . . .

Actually, there is a third method of starting it that is the equivalent to a top trapeze. You wrap the (double) string around the shaft, let the monobolo fall while pulling up with both sticks in one hand, throwing it high in the air. At the beginning it is a little dangerous but with practice it works well.