Juggler's Workshop

Passing Fun

 

This time I'll describe a very simple random pattern that nevertheless requires you to pay close attention, plus some more challenging triangle variations.

 

Random Two-Club Feed

I learned this straightforward but interesting pattern from Rick Rubenstein, who attributes it to Baltimore juggler Bryan Olson. It has two rows of jugglers facing each other. For the best effect, each row should have about two or three jugglers in it (e.g., as in Fig. 1), although other numbers of jugglers are possible.

Give one juggler in each row three clubs. Everyone else gets only two. Thus if there are N people, there are 2N+2 clubs in the pattern. It doesn't matter which two people have the complete three clubs, as long as it is one person in each row and they both start with the two clubs in the same hand (say the right).

 

The pattern works very simply. Whoever has a third club passes to someone - anyone - on the opposite row on the next passing beat. Each juggler with just two clubs doesn't juggle but waits until someone passes him or her a third club.

 

For starters, try this Random Two-Club Feed in a two-count or perhaps a four count, whichever is more comfortable for your group. But of course I recommend moving on to a three-count for balance after you're familiar with the feel of the pattern. Maybe even try a one-count if you've got a solid bunch of passers.

 

Actually, the one-count shouldn't be all that hard, since you generally only have to make one pass at a time - hence only one throw (no selves in a one-count!). Whenever a club is coming to you, the hand to which it is coming passes a club back to the other row. But a very important idea to remember in this pattern, as well as in a normal six-club one­count with two people, is to keep your passes high. They should land at normal shoulder level so that the receiver can throw a pass back under the incoming pass. Low passes are bad in that regard, and they also tend to be very fast, surprising the unsuspecting receiver even more than normal in this random pattern.

 

No matter what count you are passing on (hey, you can even try pass-pass-self), since the pattern starts with only one extra club in each row, and since on each beat one club is passed from each row to the other, there is always exactly one person in each row with three clubs. So although the passes can be thrown randomly to the other row, no one ever ends up having to catch two passes at the same time. Whatever the count, the two passers always both pass with the same hand (both with the right or both with the left), unless someone has made a mistake (see below).

 

Theoretically, then, the pattern could go on forever. After all, only two people are juggling at a time, and they're only doing three clubs each, so what could go wrong? Well, the first thing is that you have to pay attention and watch carefully to keep track of who in the opposite row has the extra club and thus might be passing to you. It's easy to be distracted and follow a club that could have come to you but didn't. After someone doesn't pass to you, you have to locate the next club that might be passed to you - don't keep following the previous extra club (which is now in your row!). Trying to follow the action is where a lot of the fun is in this random feed.

 

Something you can try to avoid, but with never a guarantee of success, is the collision. Since each passer can throw across to anyone, it often happens that two passes cross paths. If the paths are relatively symmetric, then a collision is likely. When you're about to make a pass, you don't know where your opposite passer is going to throw, so it is hard to know where to throw to avoid a possible collision. But you can experiment with making certain throws of yours a bit inside or outside to avoid the common collision points. You can also watch to see where the other current passer is looking and thus likely to throw.

 

A not uncommon mistake in this feed, especially if you're doing an odd count (such as a three-count) is to throw to someone's wrong hand. Although you can throw to any person in the opposite row, you're normally supposed to throw only straight passes, that is, right to left or left to right. But sometimes in the haste of deciding whom to pass to, someone may end up throwing to the wrong hand by making a diagonal throw. Or, occasionally someone will reach out and steal a pass intended for someone else, no doubt catching it with what is really the wrong hand for that beat. In fact, sometimes you may deliberately throw to the wrong hand via a diagonal just to make things interesting, especially in a three-count.

 

In any of these cases, correcting the situation is simple enough - you just throw the next pass as another diagonal (at the right time). In fact, either of the two passers on a given beat can correct this situation. Of course, if both of them try to correct it (by passing a diagonal), then it actually stays uncorrected. But in this situation, there is about a 50-50 chance on every pass that it will be successfully corrected, so it is generally fixed within a few passing beats (provided a collision doesn't crop up first). On the other hand, perhaps you don't even need to correct this situation! Its main drawback is that two people may end up passing to each other's passing hands at the same moment, making a collision highly likely; but play around with even those passes to see if you can keep things going even then.

 

A good number of people to do this random feed with is four or five. With more than three people in a row the long diagonal throws from comer to corner get a little harder to control (in time) and you may find you get more collisions. But you could possibly try with up to eight jugglers, four in each row. Of course, the more people in your row, the less often you'll actually get to juggle, on the average.

 

Once you have the pattern under control, besides trying different counts, such as a three­count, you can do things like throw early or late doubles. Or you can add in trick throws like chops or flats easily enough. Have fun!