Right Middle Left

A simple three ball pattern that is half a bit easier than juggling Two in One Hand in columns. Right Middle Left is the three cylinder version of pistons.

 

Take three balls and imagine three columns in front of you. Start with two in the right and one in the left.

 

Start by juggling two throws of Two in One Hand (in columns) on the right, throwing right-middle...

Now juggle two throws of Two in One Hand from the left hand left-middle... Thus the pattern continues; the hands throw right-right-left­left, while the balls bob up and down right-middle-left­middle and so on.

 

This is good practice for Burke's Barrage.

 

Burke's Barrage

Burke's Barrage, Mill's Mess and Rubenstein's Revenge - these are all flashy three ball patterns with crossed hand throws, twiddly bits and attention-seeking alliterative names. Faced with patterns like these you have three choices: learn them; ignore them and work on the simple stuff; or invent something incredible and name it after yourself.

 

If you decide to learn them then you'll be pleased, I'm sure, to hear that Burke's Barrage is the easiest of the trio. When you untangle the wheeling paths of the hands in this pattern you'll discover that is is really just Right Middle left tied in a knot.

 

Knack - there's the word. Learning this pattern is a matter of getting the knack. Once learnt it's easy, much easier than the Mill's Mess or Rubenstein's Revenge.

 

The throwing order of the pattern is right­right-Ieft-Ieft... rather than the usual right-Ieft­right-left.

 

Start your practice by warming up your hands with a few minutes of Right Middle Left. This gets the throwing order and tempo of the pattern firmly imprinted on your brain.

 

After your warm-up you are ready to learn the pattern from a Cold Start.

 

Put two balls in your right hand and one in your left. Cross your left hand over the right. From this starting position you can practise just the first two throws of the pattern. Both throws are made with the right hand.

 

It goes like this: throw a ball from your right hand straight up the middle and at the same time carry the left hand ball up and over the pattern in a big rainbow sweep from right to left. When your left hand gets to the end of the rainbow you make the second throw-the right hand throws straight up on the right hand side of the pattern, and moves to catch the first ball. Thus all you have done is two throws of Two in One Hand (in columns) while your left hand has made a big sweeping arc.

 

You are halfway there! Do that last exercise twenty times and then work on the following exercise which is the exact mirror image of what you have just done.

 

Starting with two balls in your left hand and one in the right, cross your right hand over the left. Make two consecutive left hand throws while the right hand carries its ball over the top in a big rainbow sweep from left to right.

 

You are all the way there ­ almost! All you do now is to weld those two exercises together. The ball you catch at the end of the two throw exercise is the ball that makes the next sweep. Thats all there is to it!

 

Got it? Oh well, never mind - here's another route to Burke's Barrage, presented here in shorthand to save frying your brain with any more long winded instructions. Get someone to read this out loud to you while you juggle three balls.

 

Juggle a Yo-yo on one side. Change sides. Change sides on every throw. Keep going. Concentrate on the string ball (still changing sides on every throw). Stretch the string, really stretch the string, go completely mad with the string, stretching it in great mad rainbow sweeps.

 

You are now juggling Burke's Barrage!