"He was really good - he did five club back crosses!" We jugglers frequently assess the proficiency of a colleague by his or her mastery of certain difficult tricks. Seven objects, continuous three-club Albert throws, multiple diabolos and pirouettes, or tricks which cap off flashy circus or show routines, are used as yardsticks in the festival gym and on judges' notepads during championships. During the past few years, it seems no single trick has been at once so practiced and so elusive for jugglers as continuous, both­hand backcrosses with five clubs.

At first recollection, most jugglers I talk to feel like they have seen many performances that include five clubs behind the back. Many of us have seen Sergei Ignatov, either live or on film, or maybe Anthony Gatto, one of the few to use double spins instead of triples.

Benji Hill, 1987 Nationals Winner, used to amaze festival goers by running five club backcrosses for hundreds of throws, as later did Jason Garfield, 1988 Juniors champ. But these two were very conservative in their competition routines, often limiting their five club BCs to a flash. Even Gregory Popovich stopped at five throws in his ladder act. The fact is that in the past ten yers, long runs of five club backcrosses have been largely absent from the IJA championships.

Many excellent club  jugglers have dabbled in five club BC s, some only with flashes or single throws, others to the point of performing qualifying The frick is like the brass ring on the merry-go-round of practice and performance.  Some of us miss it, and some hold it but only briefly.  Peter Davison, Daniel Rosen, Steve Mills, Barrett Felker and other performers learned the trick and then stopped using it for one reason or another. As jugglers graduate from competing with each other to constructing shows and making a living, five club BCs (and even the five club cascade) are often unnecessary. Success is both the friend and the enemy of technical progress. It facilitates consistent practice but negates the need for new tricks.

Complacency isn't the only factor limiting the spread of five club backcrosses. In his first-place 1993 Juniors act, Jay Gilligan amazed the audience and judges with an original and very technical five-club routine that didn't bother with backcrosses. Many jugglers feel that no matter how aesthetic it is, it has been seen before and doesn't merit the investment of time to learn.

And what an investment it is! The difficulty of the trick is a combination of stubborn and subtle factors like rotation, angle and transition from the cascade. I have practiced triple­five club backcrosses since 1990, but the 50-throw mark still eludes me.  My last three sets of Renegades were beaen to death as I tried to learn.  I even broke a front tooth in 1993 by failing to avoid one of two clubs that collided in my wobbly backcross pattern.

I must confess that accident took away my nerve for awhile, but I'm still plugging away.  I hope to someday perform five clubs behind the back in an IJA event, or at least to discover tips to help other jugglers learn it.

Why the die-hard spirit? What's so great about that trick? I think it is best summed up in the words of Andrew Briton, a street performer I met in Munich in 1992:  "It just seems like it would feel good to run five behind the back.  You know what I mean?" 

I think someday I will.

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