Thus the throws in one cycle are thrown at eight different times, with each throw very soon after the previous one. Those eight throws are numbers 1 to 4 in each of Figs. 2 and 3; note that each numbered feeder's pass comes slightly after the correspondingly numbered feedee pass.

 

To help avoid collisions, the feedees should make their outside diagonal throws (2 and 3 in Fig. 3) from in front of the body. And these same two throws should arrive at the feeder a little wide.

 

Now to make the pattern even more exciting, the feeder can throw at random to individual hands of each feedee! That is, the feeder can throw to the "wrong" hand of the correct feedee. The feedee can respond either by passing from that "wrong" hand or by reaching across and catching with the "correct" hand (after passing from it). And of course, the feedees are free to reach across and catch with the "wrong" hand at any time, as in the normal Slow-Fast. You may even find that the feeder occasionally throws to the wrong hand by mistake, so it's good to be able to handle such throws (e.g., practice them in a plain Slow-Fast).

 

Finally, we can reverse this pattern so that, instead of having the feedees' passes cross in front of the feeder, the feeder's passes all cross to the opposite feedee (still feeding one feedee's two hands from each of the feeder's hands). To see where each hand passes, just reverse the arrows in Figs. 2 and 3. This maybe safer for the feedee, but you'll want to try both versions.

 

14-Club Box

In the Winter issue, we described the box, a formation made up of two independent pairs of passers arranged so that the two sets of passes cross at right angles (see Fig. 4). Although the most common box involves only 12 clubs, a very pretty version is the 14-club box, in which each of the two pairs passes seven clubs in a normal 2-count, throwing doubles.

 

To simplify the start, select one person to always start first, with four clubs. The next person clockwise should also have four clubs and start next. The one critical thing here is the timing of that second person's start. It should be half a count after the pass from the first person. That half count is half the time that the three-club holder waits after the four-club holder starts in a seven club passing pattern. In other words, the second starter in the 14-club box starts exactly halfway between the starts of the two people in the other pair.

 

The third and fourth people in this box just start normally with their partners, passing seven with doubles. So the one person who controls the timing is the second starter. With a good start as described, clubs from the four passers should go through the middle of the box in an even sequence-l ,2,3,4-with each pair a half-count apart.

 

Once you've gotten started, it's important for everyone to keep juggling at the same speed, or that half-count spacing will deteriorate and you'll have collisions. To keep the two independent passing pairs in sync, each of you should try to throw each pass just after a pass done by the person on your right (one-half count after, to be precise, but the important thing is that it is definitely after). With each of the four jugglers trying to pay attention to the right-hand corner person this way, slight variations in the tim­ing are corrected and it is relatively easy to keep a reasonable spacing between crossing clubs. Just a slight glance toward your cor­ner is all you need in order to see when that pass is made.

 

It is possible, but somewhat harder, to do a 14-club box in which two adjacent people pass simultaneously, followed by the other two people passing simultaneously. In this case, the start is easier since any two adjacent people can start together, but the timing must be more precise. It's very important here, as with a simultaneous 12-club box, to make all the throws wide-both at the throw and at the catch-since this provides more slack in avoiding collisions. Really try to throw from well outside your leg, say a foot or more, to a point similarly outside your partner's shoulder.

 

Either version of the 14-club box can also be done with singles, but the timing will need to be quite precise, so be sure both pairs can pass seven singles at the same speed. To practice matching the speeds, arrange the two pairs parallel instead of crossing and try staying exactly in sync while passing seven clubs each (with no risk of collisions). Then try the box and watch your corner as de­scribed above to keep the timing right.

 

Beyond Bruno's Nightmare: The Turbo and More

For you experts at Bruno's Nightmare (see the Summer 1990 issue), here are some addi­tional challenges. The basic one, which is not all that difficult, is the Turbo version.

 

In the original version, one of three jugglers feeds the other two for five passes while those two feedees change places, and then you start over with the feedee who went be­hind being the new feeder. In the Turbo ver­sion, nothing changes except that the number of passes for each feeder is reduced from five to three. You do have to move a little faster in getting from one side of the feed to the other though. And the feeder must be sure to lead the two feedees, since they can't afford to wait for a club to arrive before moving. Mastering this pattern will really help you to solidify your techniques for juggling while on the move.

 

Another speeded up Nightmare can be achieved by having everyone add a left-hand pass after each normal right-hand pass (in the regular five-pass Nightmare, or if you want to try it, in the Turbo version). Now you learn to lead a moving juggler with two clubs, one from each hand. While feeding, you thus make ten consecutive passes (five from each hand, with no selves). The feedees' pattern is (count­ing both hands); pass-pass self-self.

 

Finally, it's possible to do Bruno's Nightmare with 10 clubs (based on a 10-club feed) or even 11-clubs (an 11-club feed, passing triples),although the 11-club version is really a killer. The workings of these patterns are left as an exercise to the reader.