10-Club Triangle

If we restrict ourselves to passing a 2-ct (say with the right hand), we can readily add a club to the triangle to do a 10-club triangle. Have one person start with four clubs and pass all doubles to the second person. That second person starts just slightly later and passes all singles to the third person, who starts slightly after the second and passes singles to the first. The doubles thrown by the first person provide enough extra time to fit the tenth club in without speeding things up too much. Try the pattern first with inside throws, then later with the harder outside throws.

 

You could - if you must ­slow things down by having the second person also throw doubles and start slightly earlier than before. The doubles slow the pattern down but also complicate things slightly by making it harder to make good throws and harder to see if you are making good throws. On the other hand, you could speed the pattern up by having all three throw singles (probably slow lofty singles), especially if you're good at passing seven singles.

 

If you can do the 10-club triangle both ways - inside and outside - try reversing from one to the other. Have everyone throw, say, five in­side passes and then switch to outside passes. This may seem a little strange, but it works if the person throwing doubles makes the transition first (after having started first). The trick is mainly realizing where the next club is coming from during the transition (as well as making good throws). Keep those singles and doubles high; don't rush them.

 

11-Club Triangle

Since we added one club and one spin to get the 10-club triangle, we can do that again to get an 11-club triangle, with two of the three people throwing doubles. Give a second person a fourth club to start with and have the two with four clubs each throw doubles. The person who is both throwing and receiving doubles starts first, followed a tiny bit later by the other doubles thrower, then a tiny bit after that by the singles thrower.

 

We could even add yet another club and have everyone throw doubles at the same time in a 12-club pattern. In fact, in almost any pattern where the clubs go in succession all the way around the group (in the Y, for instance) you can add an extra club and an extra spin. Of course, each time you do that it gets a bit harder, but often that's what jugglers want when the basic pattern has been mastered. 

 

Martin's Four-Person Bruno's Nightmare

Bruno's Nightmare is sort of a moving triangle feed in which the feedees are constantly changing places and everyone takes turns feeding. The basic pattern is described in the Fall 1990 juggler's World. Slightly easier than the original for three people is Martin's Four-Person Bruno's Nightmare, whose debut occurred in 1990 at the European juggling Festival in Oldenburg, Germany.

 

We start with four people in a box formation. The first two jug­glers (call them A and B) face each other; the other two (C and D) face each other across the line between the first two.

 

Juggler A always does the same thing as B, and C always does the same thing as D.  One entire cycle is depicted in beats 1 through 8 of Fig. 3

 

We start with A and B as feeders moving to their rights and C and D as feedees moving to their lefts. A feeds B and C, while B feeds A and D.

 

First, A and B exchange a pass and everyone starts moving sideways in the appropriate direction. Then A and C exchange a pass while Band D do the same. With everyone still moving, A and B exchange another pass as they go in front of Band D. After everyone has moved a littler further, there's a clear path for A and C and Band D to exchange passes. Those four passing beats comprise half of a complete cycle.

 

In the second half, everyone continues moving in the same directions as before, but C and D become the feeders. They exchange a pass on beat 5. On beat 6, D and A exchange, as do C and B. On beat 7, C and D exchange a pass as they go in front of A and B. Finally on beat 8, D and A exchange and C and B exchange, completing the cycle.

 

Note that A and B are always moving to the right and C and D to the left. But to make it more interesting, you might reverse directions after completing, say, one or two cycles. Everyone should be moving continuously, so you always need to lead the person you're passing to.

 

Also, instead of the feeders passing a 2-ct, they could slow down a bit and pass a 3-ct. Or speed up and pass a 3-ct feed (pass, pass, self with both hands).

 

10-Club Bruno's Nightmare

The 10-club Bruno's Nightmare was mentioned in the Summer 1992 issue as an exercise. You can now compare your exercise answers with the suggested method below. Try this with all the passes being doubles. If you master it, maybe try it with singles.

 

In the 10-club Bruno, the feedees move just as in the 9-club version, with the first one moving forward and in front and the second one moving behind. Start just like in a 10-club feed, with the feeder holding four clubs and passing first to the feedee on the baseline. That pass should be short, however, as the first feedee is moving forward. The feedees respond to each pass with a pass to the feeder one count later, exactly as in a 10-club feed.

 

The feeder's next pass, to the second feedee, should be long and should lead that feedee be­hind the first feedee. Since the passes are doubles, it is actually easier here to lead the rear feedee, since a long double can sort of go over the shoulder of the front feedee.

 

The pattern continues like the 9-club Bruno: feeder's third pass is short, to the first feedee in front; the fourth pass is long to the rear feedee emerging from behind.

 

Then we have a different transition to the next feeder, necessitated by the fact that in a 10-club feed the feedees pass after the feeder instead of at the same time. Because of that offset, the pattern consists of 9 counts instead of 10. The next feeder takes over on what would have been count 10 (now count 1 of the new cycle).

 

During the transition, the feeder, instead of alternating passes to the two feedees, throws both the fourth and the fifth passes to the same feedee ­ the one who just reached the baseline. In fact, the old feeder then throws the sixth pass to that same person, who has already become the feeder.