After you've gotten twelve throws working, try building up the second half of the pattern by itself, just like you did the first. To start with the second half, everyone will have to start left handed and the feeder will do LRL, RRL. See the second half of the causal diagram in Fig. 11. Master six throws, then nine, then twelve. Then remaster the first half and finally put the two halves together.

Each person has six hurries in the 24-count cycle. Naturally all of the feeder's hurries come before passes, and again those are the sticky parts - the places where the feeder makes two passes in a row from the same hand. Note that those six hurries alternate between the feeder's right and I~ft hands and are evenly spaced, with one every four counts. Consequently they occur on passes from the feeder to the three feedees' hands in the order A(R), B(L), C(R), A(L), B(R), C(L), with one hurried pass going to each of the feedees' six hands.

 

Ah, symmetry! And by the way, the feeder's sequence of 24 rights and lefts is the same whether read forward or backward.

 

Mob Madness

Mob Madness extends Martin's Madness to four people, just as Mob Psychosis extends Martin's Psychosis to four people. In each case, the feeder passes diagonally to three feedees in typewriter fashion, and each feedee does a 3-count of straight passes with occasional hurries.

 

As in Martin's Madness, the feeder in Mob Madness has handacrosses periodically. As it turns out, they come in a fairly simple rhythm and are all L-R handacrosses. The feeder's ptecise rhythm is five typewriter diagonal passes (R,L,R,L,R) then a quick L-R handacross. The club handed across then becomes the first club thrown (from the R) in the next repetition of the five-count rhythm; aftet three repetitions (each starting with a different feedee), the whole pattern starts over. That makes a IS-count cycle overall, or five typewriter sweeps across the feedees (see Fig. 12).

If you're a feedee in this pattern, you can easily just go with the flow, without knowing what your sequence of R's and L's is. Just pass sttaight back each club you get from the feeder. Fot the record, though, the long term passing pattern for each feedee is RRRLL, though of course each feedee starts at a different place. There are three hurries in that cycle of five passes (just as the feeder has three handacrosses per cycle).

 

This pattern is much easier than Mob Psychosis but great fun. The 15-count cycle here is shorter, but more importantly, the feeder's repeating five-count pattern (six throws, including the handacross) that's described above is easily remembered - no need to memorize even 15 passes. Note that the five-count pattern always starts with the same hand - the R here.

 

That last observation leads me to point out that there are actually two distinct Mob Madnesses - the right handed version described above and Sinister Mob Madness obtained by switching all the R's and L's above (including having everyone start with two clubs in the left hand). We'll still feed the typewriter from left to right, though. (Yes, you could feed from right to left, but it's not a significant change and l'd like to standardize in typewriter direction.) If you insist on trying to combine Mob Madness and Sinister Mob Madness, you have to add an extra count between them; you can simply have everyone do a R-L self on count 16, then start the Sinister version, and later add a L-R self on count 16 before going back to the right­handed version.

 

Finally, you can do Mob Mildness and Mob Neurosis, which are just like Mob Madness and Mob Psychosis, respectively, but with the feeder throwing straight and the feedees diagonally.

 

Jim's 1-Count

Jim Brennan explained that his 3 count was inspired by a pattern in the Spring 1996 Juggler's Workshop called Brendan's Folly, a surprisingly doable 1-count. In that pattern, each person throws all four of the possible diagonal and straight passes (two from each hand), in a sequence four counts long. One person is doing RLRL and has no hurries, but the other person is doing RRLL and thus has two hurries.

 

On the other hand, if we take Jim's 3 Count and eliminate all the selves to make a 1-count pattern, we find that each person does RRLL, with two hurries, just as in the 3-Count version (see Fig. 13). This 1-count is harder than Jim's 3-Count simply because you don't have the two selves to recover from the hurries. But if you don't rush the throws here, it isn't too hard to do.

 

This 1-count starts just like the 3-count version, with one person passing a R-R and the other a R-L. The straight passer starts RRLL and the diagonal passer starts RLLR (same passes as in Jim's 3-Count), as Fig. 13 shows.

One nice thing about this pattern is that, unlike Brendan's Folly, Jim's 1-Count has no collision problems because you never have both jugglers passing straight or both diagonally. (For another collision-safe 1-count with hurries, see my RRLL pattern in the Summer 1992 Juggler's Workshop.) If you want to go the other direction, however, try the next pattern.

 

All Collisions

This pattern, also suggested by Jim Brennan, seems to be the ultimate non­random 1-count pattern you can do. That's because All Collisions is made up of exactly the four possible pairs of throws that you and your partner can make that are highly susceptible to collisions.

 

Since collision-likely passes come from passing from opposite hands, in this pattern you and your partner pass mirror image sequences. One of you starts with two in the R and the other with two in the L. Then you just alternate straight and diagonal passes (both throwing straight, then both diagonally, and so forth, with no selves). One will start passing RRLL while the other starts LLRR (see Fig. 14).

To avoid collisions, use the techniques discussed above under the Random 3-Count. Actually, I find that only one person - the "avoider" - needs to do anything unusual; the other person can throw normal passes in the straight, diagonal, straight, diagonal 4-throw cycle. The avoider creates a separate lane by passing from outside to outside for straight passes, while passing behind (outside to inside) for the diagonals.

You could, if you wanted, add two selves after each pass here to make the All Collisions 3-Count. Over 20 years ago, my original passing partner Tom Davis and I came up with and mastered what I would now call the All Collisions 2-Count, with one person passing all diagonal lefts and the other all diagonal rights. The trick to avoiding collisions is the same in each of these patterns.

 

Random 1-Count

 This pattern is easy to describe but much harder to do. Here you throw no selves and

R, L-L, R-L and L-R. As explained in earlier patterns, collisions are likely when the two of you are throwing from opposite hands with the same type of throw (straight or diagonal). See the All Collisions and Random 3-Count patterns above for some collision-avoidance techniques.

 

Since this is a random pattern, you generally don't know if your partner is throwing straight or diagonally, so you don't necessarily know if you need to avoid a collision. In fact, you'll probably find that sometimes when you are trying to avoid a collision, you actually cause one because your partner wasn't throwing a collision-likely pass after all. I try to watch my partner to predict what type of pass will ensue, so that I can adjust accordingly. Delaying a throw can also be helpful sometimes but disastrous at other times. Probably it's best if only one of you actively can pass to either of your partner's hands at any time. In fact, you can start with two in either hand (and one in the other). You throw from the hand that the current club from your partner is headed for. You both always throw at the same time, but each of you decides separately at each count whether to throw straight or diagonally from the given hand. But one of you also needs to be looking for, and trying to avoid, possible collisions.

 

Each of you has four throws that you can make in the pattern (not counting tricks): R­

tries to avoid collisions, unless you are using opposite (and thus compatible) strategies, but you can always take turns being the avoider.

 

A variation you can add is the handacross from Martin's Madness. In this case, if your partner has passed to your R hand, say, then instead of passing next from your R, you can pass from your L and then immediately hand the club in your R to your L (so that you can catch the incoming pass in your R). Similarly for the L. Is that enough madness for now?

 (If you have any comments or suggestions for Juggler's Workshop, write to: Juggler's Workshop, Palo Alto, CA or call Martin Frost) .