PASSER'S CORNER

BY JEFF NAPIER

For Beginning Passers

The Jim Catch

The Jim Catch is named after Jim Dorman. When Jim had been passing only one year, he was catching as well as a passer with three years experience. His trick: when you cannot catch an incoming pass normally because its spin is wrong, its timing is wrong or other clubs are out of place, just hold onto the clubs you have and bear hug the incoming pass. Just wrap yourself around it!

Continue passing by throwing whichever club you can get rid of best, properly regrip the others you are holding, then resume.

Multiplex Catching

You can buy time to do fancy things by momentarily holding two clubs together in your left hand. After any pass, hold your left-hand club and don't throw it to your right as you normally would. Keep it in your left hand while you catch the incoming pass so you have two in your left hand. At this time, you have a moment to do anything you want because you do not have to juggle.

You can swing the right hand club around in a big circle, you can do a pirouette or just stand there and make silly faces. When your partner throws the next pass to you, you must pass the club in your right hand. Then hand over the two clubs in your left hand to your right hand; During the next pass, you pass one of the clubs and resume juggling.

Some people have trouble catching a second club in the left hand. I recommend tilting the fat part of the first club about 15 degrees toward your face and holding it loosely. As the second club arrives, open your fingers so that the first club just hangs there. The handle of the incoming club will hit the handle of the first club and you close your fingers around both. If you do it right, the handles will make a resounding snap when they hit. Be careful that none of your fingers are in between the handles as they hit.

For Intermediate Passers

Big Arm Circles

Just before you start a multiplex catch, move your right hand club around in a big circle. Extend your arm fully and hold the club by the knob so that the circle looks as big as possible. Make the circle as slowly as you can. Then pass the club and resume normally. This circle can go either way, but if you make the big arm circle clockwise as seen by someone standing to your right, you can blend the circle into a shoulder throw. Bend your elbow and release the club from behind your back as your big arm circle ends.

Bunches

In showers you can gather up two, three, four or even more clubs and throw them as a bunch to your partner. Try to hold them gently as you throw so that the bunch stays together. If you squeeze, they will fly apart. Your partner will bear hug the whole bunch and continue by sorting them out and passing the clubs back one at a time. Or your partner may keep them as a bunch and throw the whole works back to you!

For Advanced Passers

Renegade Catch

Tom, one of the guys who make Renegade clubs, likes to catch unusual combinations. Sometimes two clubs arrive simultaneously at the same hand, such as when a passer throws a triple spin pass immediately followed by a single spin pass. When this happens, Tom catches one of the clubs in his hand and the other one between his arm and body. He then throws the next pass, takes the club from under his arm, passes it and resumes. He can do the Renegade catch on either side of his body.

Kicking

Hold a club low and in front of your body using either hand. Instead of a regular pass, kick this club to your partner. The top of your foot should contact the club in about the middle. If the kicked club spins, you can adjust where your foot contacts the club in order to get flat passes. Avoid dropping the club, hold it until the exact moment of the kick. The kick should be a gradually accelerating arc, which will make a gentler, more accurate pass.

Juggling Bowling by Bill Giduz

Do you like bowling? Here's a way to combine it with your juggling to make a great game for an unlimited number of players.

Use six or ten of your juggling clubs for "bowling pins." Set them up standing on their fat ends on one side of the room in the traditional bowling triangular fashion -­ one in the front row, two in the next, then three and four in the back row. The contest­ants have three bean bags that they juggle at the other end of the room (choose your own distance).

The juggler throws one of the bean bags at the clubs. The juggler must catch and hold the other two bean bags after the throw. Anyone who drops a bag scratches on that throw. The scoring is exactly like bowling, complete with strikes, spares and open frames. Try it!