Steve's Chocolate Bar 3-Count Feed

This pattern comes from Steve Otteson of Wisconsin via the recent Vegas festival. It is closely related to the 1-Count Typewriter Feed described in the Fall 1988 Juggler's World. In the Typewriter Feed, one person is feeding three jugglers, each of whom is doing a 3­count. In the Chocolate Bar 3-Count Feed, the Typewriter feeder is split into two people, each of whom is doing half of the feeder's passes.

 

The formation has the two feeders facing three feedees, as shown in Fig. 5, where the feeders are A and B and the feedees are 1, 2 and 3.

 

Each feeder's sequence, counting both hands, is: pass, pass, self, self (PPSS, which Steve calls a chocolate bar). We'll have the feeder who's on the right (A in the figure) pass first with two passes (right, left) to feedees 1 and 2 respectively. So the feeder on the left (B) starts with two selves (right, left). Then B makes two passes (right, left) to feedees 3 and 1, while A does two selves, and so on. The feed continues to sweep to the right, moving to a new person on each count, but after hitting the right end it jumps back to the left end like a typewriter.

 

The two feeders together thus pass to the feedees in typewriter order (left to right):

123123...... But each feeder's actual feedee­passing sequence is: 12ss23ss31ss where each ss represents two selves (right, left). Note that the first pass of each pair of consecutive passes by one feeder is always with the right hand. Same for the two selves, of course. Another useful fact for the feeders to remember is this: you go down the line of feedees passing twice in a row to each one (except at the very start), with but two selves in between. That is, another way to look at the feeders' pattern is as: 1ss1 2ss2 3ss3 (where the spaces are just for easy reading and don't represent any time or throw). The first of the two passes to each feedee is with the left hand, then two selves, and then a right pass to the same feeder.

 

As in the Typewriter Feed, each feedee here does a 3-count. Once you get going, each feedee's sequence is L ( A ) 55 R ( A ) 5 5 L (B) 5 5R (B) 55 where the parenthesized letters indicate the destination of the pass from the given hand and ss represents two selves (right-left or left-right). So remember that after you pass L handed to a feeder, your next pass is a R to the same feeder. Then you switch to the other feeder while continuing to do a 3-count.

 

Feeder A starts with 12ss23 ..., and feeder B starts with the ss31ss........ Feedee 1 starts with a fast start pass (to A); feedee 2 does one self and then a left hand pass (to A); and feedee 3 does two selves (right, left) and then a right hand pass (to B).

 

For an easy variation to this pattern, we can switch the feeders so that they're each doing a 2-count instead of PPSS. In this case, feeder A passes R handed only and does: 1 s 3 s 2 s (where s is a self), thus effectively doing a 2­count reverse typewriter (right to left). Feeder B passes only L handed and does: s 2 s 1 s 3 which is also a 2-count reverse typewriter, but L handed.

 

The feedees still do a 3-count with the same start as before, but all R hand passes go to A and all L hand passes go to B. This is somewhat simpler than the PPSS version, for both the feeders and the feedees. Note that in both versions, all the R hands throw at the same time.

 

Another 8-Club 1-Count Pass-Pass-Self

In the Spring 1993 Juggler's Workshop, I described a 1-Count Pass-Pass-Self pattern for eight clubs. Thanks to causal diagrams, here's another such pattern which feels quite differ­ent and is probably a little easier except that it requires one person to throw some left hand triples. In fact, this is a good pattern for practicing those left hand triples (as well as right hand triples).                          .

 

The causal diagram is shown in Fig. 6. In the previous 8cPPS pattern, the two jugglers throw 1/2 count out of phase. One interesting fact about this version is that the jugglers are exactly in phase, with both R hands throwing at the same time, as is clear from the diagram.

 

In this version, however, the two jugglers are not making the same types of passes. Here, one juggler passes only doubles and the other passes only triples. The doubles are all diago­nals (right to right, or left to left), and the triples are all straight. The directions of the passes are again those in Fig. 1, though there are now some selves.

 

Start with each juggler having two clubs in each hand. The juggler who is to throw straight triples starts with: RL5 then LRs (R and L are passes from the corresponding hand, and s is a self). The juggler who throws diagonal doubles starts at exactly the same time with: R 5 R then L 5 L.

 

The straight triples should be thrown from outside the leg to just outside the shoulder. The diagonal doubles can be thrown from in front of the leg to just out­side the shoulder. Keep those triples high.

 

If you have any comments or suggestions for Jugglers Workshop, write to: Juggler's Workshop call Marlin Frost.