Straight Up

The straight-up steal is done by taking the clubs very late, just before they would have been caught by your partner. In this case, your right hand first moves below your partner's left hand and, with palm up, makes the steal just above that hand by coming straight up and taking the club's handle at the last moment. The club will be right side up in your hand. To get low enough to begin the steal, you may want to sink down a bit by bending your knees. That also makes it easier to get your palm pointing up toward the incoming club.

 

Variations for Front Steals

Instead of keeping the clubs, take one and give it right back, to the hand that would have caught it. To return the club, place the handle right into the open palm of the catching hand. In this case, your partner shouldn't reach for the club, but simply stick the hand out, palm up, to let you insert the club. You'll want to be holding the club on the bulb, upside down.

 

Another nice variation of stealing and returning a club is to use a fourth club in the straight-down or straight­in steal. Hold your club upside down ready to be placed in your partner's hand. Steal a club with your other hand, and replace it with the fourth club. This may require you to steal with the opposite hand from the instructions above.

 

Steals from Passing

The takeaways above can also be used to steal from someone who is passing. The easiest such steal is the slow steal. Start by catching an incoming pass in your left hand and continue just like in the slow solo steal, stealing the next two clubs with your left hand until you've become the passer. A fast steal of a passer is not much different from a fast steal of a solo juggler.

 

If the passers are doing a 2-ct, stealing is relatively straightforward. If they're doing a 4-ct, you just have to know when to pass the clubs you've stolen. It will depend on whether your first steal is of a pass or a self and whether you're doing a slow or fast steal - you should be able to figure it out. In a 3-ct or a 1-ct, you have to immediately pass back any pass you steal.

 

The steal and return of the stolen club is also a nice trick in a passing pattern. Steal a pass with your left hand and immediately return it to the pattern by throwing a "self' to the person you stole it from (or by passing it in a 3-ct or 1­ct). If you move to a passer's right side, you can steal a self and return it with an immediate pass in a 2-ct, or with the appropriate pass or self in a 4-ct.

 

In fact, if you steal and return from the left side, you can move quickly to the right side and re-steal your own returned club, returning it once more with a pass or self depending on the pattern. If you've got the stamina, you can follow one club around the entire pattern, stealing it and returning it every chance you get, so that you are actually the only person to touch that one club. This is particularly interesting in a 4-ct, since you get to do three selves in a row with that club (left, right, left) after each pass.

 

Another good pattern is the walkaround (described above) done with a passer, or even with a feeder. The tricky part is figuring out when to do a self in a 4-ct and which person to throw to in a feed. You'll discover the answers quickly since there are only two possibilities in each case. Actually, if the feeder is feeding three people, sweeping right then left, you'll discover an interesting pattern when you do the walkaround with the feeder. Try a walkaround with the feeder of a 3-ct feed.

 

Stealing and Returning Between Two Passers

Instead of stealing clubs from beside a passer, you can stand between two passers and steal passes immediately as they are thrown. If you're inside the pattern, face perpendicular to the passes and reach to your right with your left hand to make a straight-in steal of a pass. Or you can stand just outside the pattern, facing the middle, and reach to your left with your right hand to make a straight-in steal of a pass. In either case, you can return the club immediately to the other juggler by quickly reaching over and either placing the club in the catching hand or tossing a gentle flat or single. Or wait for the hole to come around and fill it with the stolen club.

 

If you have a fourth club, you can almost simultaneously steal one club and replace it with your extra club. Stand inside (or outside) the middle of the pattern and do a straight-in steal of a pass with your left hand (or right hand, if outside) , as above. Just as that club is being passed for you to intercept it, use your other hand to make a replacement pass under your stealing arm toward the other juggler. Since you're in the middle, your pass needs to be fairly short, but you should put enough loft on it so that it can be easily seen and caught as a single or possibly a flat. After you make this steal and replacement, hand your stolen club to the other hand and you're all set to repeat the whole move, possibly on every club passed.

 

You can also steal selves from the middle of the pattern. The straight-down steal gives you the most time to return a club, possibly using a fourth club from your other hand.

 

In Conclusion... Interesting variations come up when you try to reverse the starting side of sideways steals. For instance, from the left, reach across to the right

with your right hand for an inside first steal of a fast take away. Or from the right in a right handed passing pat­tern, reach in with your left hand to catch a pass, in either a slow or fast steal. Or if the passing has been with only the right hand, try stealing out of left-handed passing, or out of a 3-ct. Try stealing the feed in a 10-club feed, or even in a random 13-club feed. Play around to see which combinations you like.

 

(In the next issue: Kick-ups. If you have comments on stealing, kick-ups or other Workshop items, you can reach the editors at: Juggler's Workshop, Palo Alto, CA; or give one of us a call: Martin Frost or Michael Stillwell.)