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Swingers discover excitement in two-club twirl

By Bill Giduz, Newsletter Editor Davidson, NC

Before people juggled clubs, they swung them. The manipulation of three clubs has roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when club swinging, twirling one club simultaneosIy in each hand, was a popular gymnastic exercise and competitive sport.

Largely forgotten since the 1932 Olympics, when it was a part of the gymnastics competition for the last time, several IJA members are now resurrecting club swinging in their public performances.

Arthur Furst, a former champion club swinger for Los Angeles City College, said the stress of the exercise led to its downfall in the '30s. College gymnasts who performed the required four minute club swinging routine could rarely recover to effectively compete in the events that followed, said the Palo Alto, CA, consultant to the World Health Organization. Gymnastics competition, which also included rope climbing then, was changed and club swinging was dropped altogether.

Club swinging uses two or three fingers on each hand (depending on the grip employed) to anchor the round knob of a rapidly spinning club. With the 2 1/2 pound club of Furst's competitive days spinning like a propeller, great effort was required to control and direct its centrifugal force. Furst, who still swings daily for exercise, has built up 1/2 inch

muscles between his thumbs and forefingers from the years he has put into it.

The 2 1/2 pound club has largely been abandoned for lighter models by current IJA club swingers. Other things have changed also. Today's performers, like Allan Jacobs, Tim Furst (Arthur's son), Michael Moschen and the Amazing Fantasy Jugglers, use club swinging as a stage dance rather than rigid gymnastic exercise. During competition in days of yore, club swingers were not allowed to move their bodies, only their arms and hands. Today's enthusiasts are all over the stage, using body motion to enhance the club motion.

Jacobs, a member of the Boston-based group Slap Happy, explained that club swingers grip the spherical knob of a club with either the first three fingers (ball and socket grip) or the first two fingers (ring grip) of each hand. The grips change as needed during the workout. Rotating the wrists twirls the clubs. Talented club swingers also use their arms, shoulders and bodies to cause the clubs to dip and dive, soar and streak through the air around them. However, the two clubs never touch each other, stop moving or reverse their direction of twirl. Jacobs feels that audiences respond to his club swinging as well as to any other part of the Slap Happy performance.

The mechanics of club swinging are difficult to communicate here. However, several old books on the subject explain the techniques in detail. The best are Club Swinging by William Schatz (1908), Manual of Instruction in the Use of Dumb Bells, Indian Clubs and Other Exercises by M. Bomstein (1880) and Indian Club Exercises and Drills by A.K. Jones (1901).

Don and Lana Reed and Rawd Holbrook, the Amazing Fantasy Jugglers, worked eight months on a three-minute club swinging routine for their shows all over New England.

With all three on stage, they swing clubs in synchronized or staggered unison to music. Six clubs going at once, Don reasoned, are more dynamic and exciting than two.

Tim Furst, one of the Flying Karamazov Brothers, swings clubs in his act, too, but the audience might not be sure how he's creating the effect seen. That's because Furst cuts out the house lights and swings two light-emitting clubs that he built. People see only dancing green circles, not the man spinning them.

Michael Moschen reportedly swings fire clubs, creating a visual effect similar to Furst's. However, the fire obviously eliminates many of the body-wrapping arm moves possible in the sport.

Zeithen writes juggling history

Karl-Heinz Zeithen has written a two-volume history of juggling to be published in German, French and English. The first volume should be published in March. Each book is about 300 pages long, including 250 photos. There will also be information on specific juggling tricks. For information, write Ziethen at Berlin, Germany.