Of the four passes in the sequence, the hard ones are the first and last. The middle two passes are fairly easy because the angles between the outgoing passes and the incoming passes are relatively small. But the first and last passes have extreme angles between outgoing and incoming clubs. You're passing to the person next to you on one side and catching from the person next to you on the other side.

On the first beat, each of you passes right handed to the person on your left (see beat 1 in Fig. 6). You should turn at least a little to the left so you can see where you're passing, which is to the far side of the person on your left. The pass should go about a foot outside the left shoulder, getting there at shoulder height. Make sure it gets all the way to that point on the person's left - if it gets only to the middle of body, it will force the catcher to turn towards you, which will make throwing the next pass hard. The club should of course pass far enough in front of the receiver to avoid interfering with the self throws.

Note that as soon as you've made the first pass, to the person on your left, you need to quickly look for the club coming from the person on your right. Knowing where to look is the hardest part of this pattern, so once you've learn that, you're in good shape. The only other trick is to make good passes. After each passing beat, everyone does the usual two selves of the 3-count.

On the second passing beat, you pass left handed to the second person on your left (as you progress around the circle clockwise). This pass is fairly easy. After you make it, look towards the next person to the right for the club coming in to your right hand.

The third passing beat is slightly easier yet, because you pass the club that you just received with your right hand back where it came from - to the second person on your right.

The fourth and final pass in the sequence is another tricky one along the rim of the pentagon, this time from your left hand to the far (right) side of the person on your right. This is the mirror image of the first pass, so the same suggestions apply. Make sure the pass isn't short or inside. And after. you make the pass, quickly look to your extreme left for the club coming to your right hand. Then do the requisite two selves and pass that very club back where it came from, to the person on your left, to restart the sequence.

Since this is a 3-count, each pass you catch from someone is the club that you pass next. In a two-person 3-count, you always throw the passed club back where it came from. That's true here on two of the four passing beats. In particular, the clubs that are passed on beats 2 and 4 (both passed left handed) are caught right handed and thrown back to the original left hands on the following beats (3 and 1, respectively). That is to say, if you catch a pass in your right hand, you're supposed to throw it back where it came from.

On the other hand (pun intended), if you catch a pass in your left hand, you throw it to the other person who sometimes passes to your left hand. Thus when you catch left handed from the second person, you throw the club to the fourth person and vice versa.

While you're passing to your four partners in clockwise order, you're actually catching from the same four people in exactly the opposite order, counterclockwise.

If you get the Complete 3-Count Star down really smooth, try doing the same pattern but in a 1-count, with the same four-beat cycle (just omit all the selves).

Return to Main Index

Next Page --->