How’d you like to deploy 50 feet of coax with just a flick of the wrist. Watch the video below and I’ll show you how.

Has this ever happened to you? You grab a cable, be it an extension cord or piece of coax and start to unwind it. Suddenly you have a snarled mess of knots and loops. Now you’ve got to untangle this thing and it takes forever.

The reason this happens is because the person that put the cable away did not wind it up correctly. Often when we go to wind up a cord, we do the elbow thing, winding it up on our arm, or try to wind it up in coils in our hand.

But did you know that when cables are made they are wound on a spool. This process introduces a natural loop into the cable. So if you don’t account for this tendency to loop when you wind them, they will naturally want to coil and twist.

Fortunately there is a better method for coiling cables, cords, and even coax. Called the ‘over-under’ method, this way of coiling up cables is used by professionals that have to deal with cables on a daily basis. In fact I learned this method early on in film school in the studio production class. When you coil your cable with the over under method, it will never twist and with always play out completely with a simple toss.

So how does this method work. First grab the end of your cable and make a simple loop. Next take your free hand, move down the cable and grip. Now twist the cable in the opposite direction while you make the second loop. Then repeat this process, grab the cable, make a simple loop. Then grab again, twist and loop. See how you are making these figure eight motions as you loop the cable. continue until the cable is coiled up. You can then secure it with velcro or some other type of tie.

With the over under method you can just let the cable drop and and it will uncoil freely. Or you can hold onto an end and give it a toss. No snags or snarls.

The over under method works for light cables, heavy cable, both short or long. You can even use it to coil up your garden hose.

Practice this method and in not time it will become second nature.