JUGGLER'S WORKSHOP

 

SEVEN CLUB PASSING 

Copyright 1991 by Martin Frost

 

Are you a seven-club passer? If you're not, read on for some techniques for mastering seven, and if you are, read further for some variations on the theme. There are many ways to pass seven clubs, some of which can be turned nicely into different 11-club feeds.

 

LEARNING TO PASS SEVEN DOUBLES

The common way for two people to pass seven clubs is passing every right hand club (that is, a 2-count) with double spins. Since seven is an odd number, the two jugglers are passing at different times. One person starts with four clubs and throws the first double (pass), then one count later the other juggler responds with a return double.

 

When learning something new like seven clubs, you can make it easier by practicing the parts individually before putting the whole thing together. So in this case, each partner should practice throwing doubles with the right hand. Just pass one club around with double spins.

 

When throwing a double, don't spin it faster than a single, just throw it higher - high

enough so that there's enough time for a normally spinning club to spin twice. This will help to keep your seven-club pattern relatively slow and controllable. To keep the spin slow like this, always throw the club from the knob. Your hand should be wrapped around the handle but making contact with the knob.

 

Also, learn to make the throw from just outside your right leg, not in front of it. This will make your pass go straight across to your partner, rather than slanting toward the outside, and that will make it easier to throw accurately to just outside your partner's shoulder.

 

Next add one more club and pass the two around with doubles, one right behind the other. As you get better at throwing good doubles, keep adding one more club at a time, passing doubles in a group (followed by several holes in the seven-club pattern). As you pass these clubs, you should certainly try to keep them all peaking at the same height, so that they're good doubles. But also try to glance over at your partner now and then as one of your throws lands. This gives you important feed­back on how good or bad your throws are.

 

When you finally get to passing all seven clubs, continue to try to look at your partner's catches whenever you can. You may find it tricky at first to find enough time to look over there, but it can be done and is very important, in this and in harder patterns. The more consis­tent your partner's throws are to you, the easier it is to see your throws caught, and the more you do that, the more consistent your throws will be.

 

One final thing, remember to keep your doubles high. The most common problem is low doubles that haven't had time enough to spin twice, and low doubles make the whole pattern faster and much harder to learn.