KAE’S GUIDE TO CONTACT JUGGLING by Kae Verens [email protected] Thanks to the others of the “Four Horsemen”
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KAE’S GUIDE TO CONTACT JUGGLING
by Kae Verens
[email protected] Thanks to the others of the “Four Horsemen” - Ferret, Rich, and Marco – for providing the shoves I needed to finish this.
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Thanks to Ferret in particular for hosting the first ever contact juggling convention. Also, thanks to Rich in particular for www.contactjuggling.com, without which I wouldn’t have felt the need to constantly improve .org (competition is great…) Also, thanks in particular to Marco for providing lifesaving assistance when the website was in threat of disappearing. Thanks to the many wonderful people in the contact juggling community, for pushing us to keep refining and creating moves. I can’t name them all, but a few might be Shifty, Lance, the various Matt[e]s, Klas, Chico, Ian (the Four Horsemen’s Stableboy), and all the other people. Sorry if I haven’t mentioned your name – the Contact Juggling community is immense, and I have a book to write! Thanks to all the people who contributed their experience and videos to the www.contactjuggling.org website. This book is an almost direct consequence of your creativity. Thanks to Bronwyn, for sometimes letting me sit at my computer so I could produce this. Thanks to Michael Moschen for his video, and James Ernest for his book. Thanks to Terry Pratchett – I like his books.
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Basic Contents Palm Hold.................................................................................................24 Cradle........................................................................................................24 Tripod Hold..............................................................................................25 Thumb Hold.............................................................................................26 Cradle Hold w/ Thumb Hold..................................................................26 Knuckle Hold............................................................................................26 Fist Hold....................................................................................................27 Open Fist Hold.........................................................................................27 3-Finger Hold...........................................................................................27 Elbow Hold...............................................................................................28 Outside Elbow Hold.................................................................................28 Forehead Hold..........................................................................................29 Neck Hold.................................................................................................29 Temple Hold.............................................................................................30 Windshieldwiper......................................................................................32 Wristhold Windshieldwiper....................................................................34 Elbowhold Windshieldwiper...................................................................35 Butterfly....................................................................................................35 Twirling Butterfly....................................................................................36 Spined Butterfly.......................................................................................37 Planebreaking Butterfly..........................................................................38 Palm-Palm Pass........................................................................................38 Back-Palm Pass........................................................................................39 Palm-Back Pass........................................................................................40 Back-Back Pass........................................................................................41 Back-Back Walkaway..............................................................................42 3
Palm-Palm Walkaway.............................................................................43 Thumb-Thumb Pass................................................................................43 Forearm Roll............................................................................................45 Backarm Roll............................................................................................46 Backarm-Forearm Roll...........................................................................48 Forearm-Backarm Roll...........................................................................49 Chop Roll..................................................................................................49 Armroll to Shoulder Hold.......................................................................49 Spiral.........................................................................................................50 Helicopter.................................................................................................50 Forearm Chestroll....................................................................................51 Backarm Chestroll...................................................................................52 Neck Roll...................................................................................................53 Neck Loop.................................................................................................54 Pirouette Neck Roll..................................................................................55 Back Roll...................................................................................................55 Elbow Catch.............................................................................................58 Outside Elbow Catch...............................................................................59 Shoulder Catch.........................................................................................59 Foot Catch................................................................................................60 Head Catch...............................................................................................60 Neck Catch................................................................................................62 Elevator.....................................................................................................64 Back-Back Butterflies..............................................................................65 Palm-Palm Butterfly................................................................................66 Palm-Palm Twisting Butterfly................................................................66 Flytrap.......................................................................................................67 Circle.........................................................................................................67 4
Walking Halfpipe.....................................................................................67 Horizontal Circle......................................................................................68 2b Palmspin..............................................................................................71 2b Palmspin Transfer..............................................................................72 3b Palmspin..............................................................................................73 3b Cascade................................................................................................75 3b Palmspin Transfer..............................................................................75 3b Chasing Transfer................................................................................76 3b Pinkylift...............................................................................................76 3b Thumblift.............................................................................................76 4b Stack.....................................................................................................77 4b Stack Pinkylift.....................................................................................78 4b Stack Thumblift..................................................................................78 1b Palmspin..............................................................................................79 4b Flat Diamond Palmspin......................................................................79 4b Flat Spin...............................................................................................80 2b Orbital Isolation..................................................................................81 2b Ratchet.................................................................................................81 2b Curl......................................................................................................82 2b Isolated Curl........................................................................................83 2b Magnetic Palmspin.............................................................................83 3b Ratchet.................................................................................................84 3b Orbital Isolation..................................................................................84 4b Stack Tumble......................................................................................84 1b Isolation...............................................................................................85 4b Curl......................................................................................................85 5b Linespin...............................................................................................87 5b 2h Palmspin.........................................................................................88 5
6b Linespin...............................................................................................88 6b 2h Stack...............................................................................................89 6b 2h Triangle Palmspin.........................................................................89 7b Linespin...............................................................................................90 7b Stack Linespin.....................................................................................90 7b 2h Flower Propellor............................................................................91 7b 2h “Cheater” Flower Palmspin.........................................................91 8b Stack Linespin.....................................................................................91 8b Linespin...............................................................................................92 9b Stack Linespin.....................................................................................92 10b 2h Pyramid Stack..............................................................................92 11b 2h “Cheater” Flower Stack..............................................................92 2b Folding Butterfly.................................................................................93 2b Asymmetric Butterfly.........................................................................94 2b Symmetric Butterfly...........................................................................94 2b Back-Back Butterfly...........................................................................94 2b Twirling Butterfly...............................................................................95 2b Circle....................................................................................................95 2b Back-Palm Shower.............................................................................96 2b Forearm Roll.......................................................................................96 2b Train....................................................................................................97 2b Backarm Roll Transfer......................................................................97 2b Simultaneous Back-Forearm and Fore-Backarm Rolling..............98 3b Forearm Roll Cascade........................................................................98 3b Backarm Roll Transfer......................................................................99 3b Folding Cascade................................................................................100 3b Backarm Cascade.............................................................................100 4b Circle..................................................................................................101 6
4b Backarm Cascade.............................................................................102 2b Palmspin Escape...............................................................................103 3b Palmspin Escape...............................................................................104 4b Stack Escape......................................................................................105 4b Flat Spin Escape................................................................................105 Combining Chest Rolls with Hand-Hand Passes................................106 2b Square................................................................................................107 2b Elbow Catch......................................................................................108 2b Elbow Catch Shower........................................................................108 2b Elbow Toss Shower...........................................................................108 3b Mill's Mess with Cradle...................................................................109 3b Back-Palm Mill’s Mess.....................................................................110 3b Mesh...................................................................................................110 3b Forearm Shower...............................................................................111 3b Baby Pass Shower.............................................................................111 Butterfly W/ Head Butterfly.................................................................113 Neck Butterfly........................................................................................114 Neck to Chest Circle..............................................................................114 Head Butterfly........................................................................................115 Arm Roll to Forehead Hold..................................................................116 Head Circle.............................................................................................117 Through the Body..................................................................................118 Colour Change.......................................................................................119 Scarf Balance..........................................................................................120 Sleight Of Hand......................................................................................121 Videos......................................................................................................131 Books/Magazines....................................................................................131 Websites..................................................................................................132 7
Finger Flip..............................................................................................133 Finger Roll..............................................................................................133 Pilf Regnif...............................................................................................133 Finger Flurry..........................................................................................133 Tripod Pickup........................................................................................133 Caterpillar..............................................................................................133 Outside Elbow Flyaway.........................................................................133 2b Stairstep.............................................................................................133 2b Tandem Spined Butterfly.................................................................133 2b Mineshaft roll....................................................................................133 2b Blackstone’s Balls.............................................................................133 The Train................................................................................................133 2b Back-Back Pass w/ Thumb Hold.....................................................133 2b Upsidedown Palmspin......................................................................133 2b Toss and Catch..................................................................................133 2b Palm-Palm Pass w/ Cage..................................................................133 3b Propeller Isolation............................................................................133 3b Mesh w/ Arm Catch..........................................................................133 3b Mesh Cascade....................................................................................133 3b Mesh...................................................................................................133 3b Thumblift Isolation...........................................................................133 3b Rockabye...........................................................................................133 4b Isolation.............................................................................................133 4b Vertical Isolation...............................................................................133 Floating 4 Stack (aka Half Diamond)..................................................133 4b Twist...................................................................................................133 4b Snake..................................................................................................133 4b Rotating Columns.............................................................................133 8
4b Propeller............................................................................................133 4b Collapse and Rebuild........................................................................133 4b Pinky Lift...........................................................................................133 4b Asymmetrical Orbital.......................................................................133 5b Propeller............................................................................................133 Blossom (5 Stack)...................................................................................133 5b Pyramid.............................................................................................133
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Detailed Contents Palm Hold.................................................................................................24 Cradle........................................................................................................24 Tripod Hold..............................................................................................25 Thumb Hold.............................................................................................26 Cradle Hold w/ Thumb Hold..................................................................26 Knuckle Hold............................................................................................26 Fist Hold....................................................................................................27 Open Fist Hold.........................................................................................27 3-Finger Hold...........................................................................................27 Elbow Hold...............................................................................................28 Outside Elbow Hold.................................................................................28 Forehead Hold..........................................................................................29 Neck Hold.................................................................................................29 Temple Hold.............................................................................................30 Windshieldwiper......................................................................................32 Wristhold Windshieldwiper....................................................................34 Elbowhold Windshieldwiper...................................................................35 Butterfly....................................................................................................35 Twirling Butterfly....................................................................................36 Spined Butterfly.......................................................................................37 Planebreaking Butterfly..........................................................................38 Palm-Palm Pass........................................................................................38 Back-Palm Pass........................................................................................39 Palm-Back Pass........................................................................................40 Back-Back Pass........................................................................................41 Back-Back Walkaway..............................................................................42 10
Palm-Palm Walkaway.............................................................................43 Thumb-Thumb Pass................................................................................43 Forearm Roll............................................................................................45 Backarm Roll............................................................................................46 Backarm-Forearm Roll...........................................................................48 Forearm-Backarm Roll...........................................................................49 Chop Roll..................................................................................................49 Armroll to Shoulder Hold.......................................................................49 Spiral.........................................................................................................50 Helicopter.................................................................................................50 Forearm Chestroll....................................................................................51 Backarm Chestroll...................................................................................52 Neck Roll...................................................................................................53 Neck Loop.................................................................................................54 Pirouette Neck Roll..................................................................................55 Back Roll...................................................................................................55 Elbow Catch.............................................................................................58 Outside Elbow Catch...............................................................................59 Shoulder Catch.........................................................................................59 Foot Catch................................................................................................60 Head Catch...............................................................................................60 Neck Catch................................................................................................62 Elevator.....................................................................................................64 Back-Back Butterflies..............................................................................65 Palm-Palm Butterfly................................................................................66 Palm-Palm Twisting Butterfly................................................................66 Flytrap.......................................................................................................67 Circle.........................................................................................................67 11
Walking Halfpipe.....................................................................................67 Horizontal Circle......................................................................................68 2b Palmspin..............................................................................................71 2b Palmspin Transfer..............................................................................72 3b Palmspin..............................................................................................73 3b Cascade................................................................................................75 3b Palmspin Transfer..............................................................................75 3b Chasing Transfer................................................................................76 3b Pinkylift...............................................................................................76 3b Thumblift.............................................................................................76 4b Stack.....................................................................................................77 4b Stack Pinkylift.....................................................................................78 4b Stack Thumblift..................................................................................78 1b Palmspin..............................................................................................79 4b Flat Diamond Palmspin......................................................................79 4b Flat Spin...............................................................................................80 2b Orbital Isolation..................................................................................81 2b Ratchet.................................................................................................81 2b Curl......................................................................................................82 2b Isolated Curl........................................................................................83 2b Magnetic Palmspin.............................................................................83 3b Ratchet.................................................................................................84 3b Orbital Isolation..................................................................................84 4b Stack Tumble......................................................................................84 1b Isolation...............................................................................................85 4b Curl......................................................................................................85 5b Linespin...............................................................................................87 5b 2h Palmspin.........................................................................................88 12
6b Linespin...............................................................................................88 6b 2h Stack...............................................................................................89 6b 2h Triangle Palmspin.........................................................................89 7b Linespin...............................................................................................90 7b Stack Linespin.....................................................................................90 7b 2h Flower Propellor............................................................................91 7b 2h “Cheater” Flower Palmspin.........................................................91 8b Stack Linespin.....................................................................................91 8b Linespin...............................................................................................92 9b Stack Linespin.....................................................................................92 10b 2h Pyramid Stack..............................................................................92 11b 2h “Cheater” Flower Stack..............................................................92 2b Folding Butterfly.................................................................................93 2b Asymmetric Butterfly.........................................................................94 2b Symmetric Butterfly...........................................................................94 2b Back-Back Butterfly...........................................................................94 2b Twirling Butterfly...............................................................................95 2b Circle....................................................................................................95 2b Back-Palm Shower.............................................................................96 2b Forearm Roll.......................................................................................96 2b Train....................................................................................................97 2b Backarm Roll Transfer......................................................................97 2b Simultaneous Back-Forearm and Fore-Backarm Rolling..............98 3b Forearm Roll Cascade........................................................................98 3b Backarm Roll Transfer......................................................................99 3b Folding Cascade................................................................................100 3b Backarm Cascade.............................................................................100 4b Circle..................................................................................................101 13
4b Backarm Cascade.............................................................................102 2b Palmspin Escape...............................................................................103 3b Palmspin Escape...............................................................................104 4b Stack Escape......................................................................................105 4b Flat Spin Escape................................................................................105 Combining Chest Rolls with Hand-Hand Passes................................106 2b Square................................................................................................107 2b Elbow Catch......................................................................................108 2b Elbow Catch Shower........................................................................108 2b Elbow Toss Shower...........................................................................108 3b Mill's Mess with Cradle...................................................................109 3b Back-Palm Mill’s Mess.....................................................................110 3b Mesh...................................................................................................110 3b Forearm Shower...............................................................................111 3b Baby Pass Shower.............................................................................111 Butterfly W/ Head Butterfly.................................................................113 Neck Butterfly........................................................................................114 Neck to Chest Circle..............................................................................114 Head Butterfly........................................................................................115 Arm Roll to Forehead Hold..................................................................116 Head Circle.............................................................................................117 Through the Body..................................................................................118 Colour Change.......................................................................................119 Scarf Balance..........................................................................................120 Sleight Of Hand......................................................................................121 Videos......................................................................................................131 Books/Magazines....................................................................................131 Websites..................................................................................................132 14
Finger Flip..............................................................................................133 Finger Roll..............................................................................................133 Pilf Regnif...............................................................................................133 Finger Flurry..........................................................................................133 Tripod Pickup........................................................................................133 Caterpillar..............................................................................................133 Outside Elbow Flyaway.........................................................................133 2b Stairstep.............................................................................................133 2b Tandem Spined Butterfly.................................................................133 2b Mineshaft roll....................................................................................133 2b Blackstone’s Balls.............................................................................133 The Train................................................................................................133 2b Back-Back Pass w/ Thumb Hold.....................................................133 2b Upsidedown Palmspin......................................................................133 2b Toss and Catch..................................................................................133 2b Palm-Palm Pass w/ Cage..................................................................133 3b Propeller Isolation............................................................................133 3b Mesh w/ Arm Catch..........................................................................133 3b Mesh Cascade....................................................................................133 3b Mesh...................................................................................................133 3b Thumblift Isolation...........................................................................133 3b Rockabye...........................................................................................133 4b Isolation.............................................................................................133 4b Vertical Isolation...............................................................................133 Floating 4 Stack (aka Half Diamond)..................................................133 4b Twist...................................................................................................133 4b Snake..................................................................................................133 4b Rotating Columns.............................................................................133 15
4b Propeller............................................................................................133 4b Collapse and Rebuild........................................................................133 4b Pinky Lift...........................................................................................133 4b Asymmetrical Orbital.......................................................................133 5b Propeller............................................................................................133 Blossom (5 Stack)...................................................................................133 5b Pyramid.............................................................................................133
Foreword Up until very recently, this rare form of juggling was unknown to the general public. It was looked down on by a lot of the mainstream jugglers, and it was impossible to find any more than half a dozen websites that had any information on the art. All that has changed. Contact juggling turns up in the strangest places now, and almost every person has seen at least one person magically roll a ball around his/her arms. Contact juggling turns up in music videos – “Pommes Frites” by The Orb, for example – books – Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” mentions a man rolling golden globes over his arms and body – television shows – Star Trek DS9 has a scene where a man can be seen in the background contact juggling – and, of course, films – Jim Henson’s “The Labyrinth” is the most famous example. Up until very recently, there was no sign that a revolution was about to take place. Every search for contact juggling on the Internet returned the same three or four sites, and those sites had not been updated in years. I had read The Book – “Contact Juggling” by James Ernest, and had studied every move in it – there are only a few that I still cannot do, and I’m not certain that they are possible at all. One day, I came across an Internet mailing list concerning contact juggling. I was overjoyed – for years I had been developing my skills in isolation – my only contact with another contact juggler 16
being Paul Wills, who started learning at the same time as me, but left off developing his skills after he reached a level sufficient for his own purposes. The mailing list gave me a chance to learn what other people had been doing. Those of us who had been CJing for years had been doing exactly as I had – searching the Internet irregularly, and becoming despondent when the same lack of news was returned. In 1999, together with Marco Van Der Bijl, I created www.contactjuggling.org; a website dedicated to teaching new contact jugglers, and providing a community website for us all. The site brought out the contact juggler in a lot of people who would otherwise have passed it by. New people came, and brought fresh variations on old moves – Shifty, Lance Coombes, and Matthew Olsen, for example. New moves were also created by people who had been regulars in the original mailing list – Marco, Ferret, and myself, for example. This book is an effort to bring to the public what has been created since James Ernest wrote his book. I have tried to describe as many different moves as I could. There are still many, many more moves that I could have placed in the book, but I had to stop writing at some point and publish the thing. If you are new to the world of contact juggling, then I hope you find this book easy to follow. If you are an experienced contact juggler, I hope you find enough variations and difficult moves to keep you busy for a few months. Enjoy. Kae
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What Is Contact Juggling? Good question. According to James Ernest's book, "Contact Juggling" – which originally coined the term – contact juggling is "manipulations of single objects or object groups, usually involving very little tossing or spinning". According to the community website – www.contactjuggling.org, Contact Juggling is half dance, juggling, mime and magic1. Contact Juggling is almost always about balls – whether they’re silicon, acrylic, or plain tennis balls, it is rare to find a person doing something with anything other than balls, and calling it Contact Juggling. Staff-spinning, pencil-manipulation, coin-rolling and other such stuff could theoretically be called “Contact Juggling” using the definition, but they already have their own names. Contact Juggling has been accepted as solely belonging to the manipulation of balls using the body, and shouldn’t be confused with other forms of object manipulation. The best way to really get to know what contact juggling is to see it in action. Michael Moschen's PBS video, "In Motion", has a section at the end where he is contact juggling – although he prefers the term "Dynamic Balance" or “Dynamic Manipulation” perhaps he is more entitled to call it by either of those names, as he was “CJing” before the term was invented. He can also be seen in Jim Henson’s film “The Labyrinth”; he is the hands of Jareth in the crystal manipulation scenes – no, that is not David Bowie doing it. No. It is not. No. Speaking of terms, there are many – "Dynamic / Crystal / Contact - Manipulation / Balance", "Ball/Sphere/Orb Rolling" are just a few. The average name for the art is "Contact Juggling", and that is how I will refer to it throughout the book. There is a small
1
My own little maths joke
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glossary of terms near the end of the book that can be referred to whenever I forget to explain one. Contact Juggling can be broken into two separate forms, each of which can be combined at a later stage to form more complex moves. The first form is ball-rolling, where balls are rolled over the hands, arms, chest, head, back, etc. The ball rolls from one point to another. This is the most basic form of contact juggling. The windshieldwiper is the first contact juggling move which should be learned from this form, where the ball rolls from the palm to the back of the hand, then rolls back again. The second form is palmspinning, where groups of two or more balls are spun in the hands. Up to eleven balls are used in palm-spinning routines. Although contact juggling usually means the balls stay in contact with the body, a lot of contact jugglers like to put tosses in their moves. These moves are sometimes looked down on by “purists”, but I believe that bending the “rules” of contact juggling should be allowed where the result is a fascinating move.
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Materials The first thing you need is a ball. For ball-rolling, there are no real restrictions on the ball's properties, but the ball should be heavy enough for you to feel it, and solidly spherical enough for you to roll it. For many, the ideal ball is a 3" acrylic ball, or a 2.5" if you are of slightly small stature (like me...). If you are on a tight budget, then it is crucial that you pick something which you will still be able to use when you move onto a more advanced level – so make sure that you buy something sturdy; this may mean saving for a while. If you plan on doing only single-ball work, you might like one of the larger balls. The ideal properties of a good contact juggling ball are slight but solid weight, the ability to hold three comfortably in the palm of the hand (for multi-ball work), and the ability for the balls to slide against each other (for simpler palmspinning). You can learn ball-rolling with a cheap rubber ball. I started off with a rubber ball I bought for one Irish pound, and it didn't impede me – I also got some much-needed exercise from chasing it every time I dropped it! Rich Shumaker (www.contactjuggling.com) advocates learning with a lacrosse ball. Possibly, that is equivalent to a rubber croquet or cricket ball. Acrylics can be purchased sometimes from good juggling shops, but if that's not true where you are, then you can always order over the Internet. www.dube.com, www.infiniteillusions.com, www.renegade.com, and www.seriousjuggling.com each supply acrylics. If you have a large group of people interested in contact juggling, then you can buy cheap acrylics by bulk from HYPERLINK "http://www.plasticballs.com/"www.plasticballs.com ($100 minimum order). It might be a good idea as well to have some balls you don’t mind scuffing, for practice. Ferret has some balls he calls his “stunt doubles” – survivors of earlier mishaps in practice. “Stunt doubles” are ideal for practice, as you are not restricted to practicing in 20
places that you would definitely not perform in for fear of ruining your good balls. One of the frequently asked questions in the forums of contactjuggling.org is "How do I get the scratches out of my acrylics?". The old adage "Prevention is better than cure" is apt here. A lot of scratches on acrylics are caused by the balls hitting and scraping against each other when being carried around in a bag or left in a box with other juggling materials or potentially sharp objects. A very easy way to stop balls from rubbing against each other is to keep them singly or in pairs in tight fitting socks. The socks prevent the balls from moving against each other, and protect from outside objects as well. Another way is to store your balls on a stand instead of in a box somewhere - Shifty, at http://www.shiftys-spheres.com/, shows his acrylics on fantastic stands, possibly originally made for candles, but easily adapted to hold acrylics. I keep eleven balls beside my computer at home held by a simple piece of rope. Make a 7b "blossom" shape, and measure off a circle of rope so it goes around the tops of the balls, but not so large that it might slip down over them. When you have the rope tied off, lay it in a circle and put the blossom shape within it. Then you can easily balance a 4Stack on top of it. Simple, yet pleasant to look at.
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About This Book This book was written to show some of the new moves that have developed in the ten years since James Ernest’s book came out. It is not a replacement. James’s illustrations are extremely helpful in most cases, and it is always advisable to learn different methods of doing the same things, so I would recommend that you at least get a look at a copy of the book, even if you don’t buy it. The instruction in this book is separated into chapters. I have arranged the chapters, and the moves in each chapter, in approximate order of ease. Well… you could learn Palmspinning before Armrolls, but that’s up to you - you do not have to learn straight through in order. Many difficult moves can be learned after learning only a few simpler ones, so I would recommend that you skim through the book once to get an idea of what you would like to learn, then start learning the steps that make up what you want. The most basic list of moves you should learn might include Windshieldwipers, Palm-Palm, Palm-Back, Back-Palm and Back-Back Passes, and maybe a hold or two. That will give you enough moves to make an interesting routine that will mystify most non-jugglers. The book is not comprehensive – almost every week, something new is developed by the contact juggling community. Usually, these new moves have to do with combinations with different arts – magic and toss juggling, for instance – but once in a while something new which is pure contact juggling comes along. Each style of CJing in the book is introduced with a chapter on “basic” moves. Maybe the word “fundamental” is more appropriate, as some of the moves are difficult, even for the advanced contact juggler. Although it may seem so, I am not describing every possible move in this book. A lot of moves involving combinations of patterns seemed a bit redundant for me. The same reason I prefer not to place an animation of a person performing a 4Stack in both hands on the contactjuggling.org lies behind my not placing similar moves in this move. Suffice it to say that almost every pattern that can be performed in one hand can be performed in the other hand at the same time. 22
Most of the two-handed moves that I describe are in the book because they involve using patterns that cross between both hands. Any two-handed pattern that involves patterns that do not cross between the hands is really two separate one-handed patterns performed at the same time. However, that does not mean that, for example, spinning simultaneous 5Stacks while gripping another ball between the elbows is not a true 2-handed pattern. You could say that the held 11th ball is halfway through a transfer - especially if now and then you actually completed the transfer... By the way – every image in this book is of me, yet they mostly look like different people. This is partly because of my (very) moderate skills as an artist, and partly because I keep cutting my hair shorter and shorter. In fact, as I write this, I am contemplating shaving my head to make my head rolls a bit smoother…
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Holds This chapter is about how to hold a ball. Don’t argue! There are many different holds, most of which you would never think of as out of the ordinary, some of which you would never think of how to get into, and one or two which are difficult to get out of. The Palm and Cradle holds are the most important for us, and are used in almost every move involving the hands.
Palm Hold This is usually just called Palm. Hold your hand out, palm up. Put a ball in the flat of the palm. Don’t bend your fingers, but let them relax. If you place the ball at the base of the fingers, you are technically still doing a Palm Hold, although it’s stretching the term slightly.
Cradle There are three basic ways to “hold” a ball on the back of the hand. The first is simply known as the "cradle". Hold your right hand out in front of you, fingers together, and palm facing the ground. Lower the middle finger to form a groove. Place your ball in that groove. The little finger may raise slightly – that's okay. This is also known as the "threefinger cradle", as three fingers support the ball. The second is the cradle that I prefer – the "two-finger cradle", so called that because 24
the ball is balanced on two fingers. Place your hand in front of you in cradle position, fingers together. Form a slight 'V' between the index and middle fingers. Balance the ball there. This cradle solves some little problems with the windshieldwiper and similar moves. Make sure not to exaggerate the 'V', as it is hard to correct later! The third is used by a few CJers on the www.contactjuggling.org site, and is known as the "Vulcan cradle", after the Vulcan greeting gesture in Star Trek. Place your hand as in the two-finger cradle position, but form the 'V' with the middle and ring fingers. Personally, I find this to be awkward to use, but I'm sure there are people that will find it useful if they have trouble with the others. More advanced holds on the back of the hand include holding the ball right behind the knuckles of the first and second fingers (between the tendons), holding between the little finger’s first knuckle and the ring finger, and holding between the thumb’s knuckle, the base of the thumb and the first finger’s knuckle. You will most likely never get to use these, though – unless you come up with some very outlandish moves - in which case, submit them to www.contactjuggling.org to share them with the world!.
Tripod Hold Put your thumb, index finger, and middle fingers up, with the tips held close to each other. You can balance a ball on the tips. This is used as a demonstration hold – it points out the ball. In the film, “The Labyrinth”, the first contact juggling clip begins and ends in this hold. Personally, I prefer the three-finger hold to this one, but a lot of people use this as their “Look! A
ball!” hold. It is simple to do, and can be moved into (or out of) from the palm, open fist, or cradle holds.
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Thumb Hold For this, start with a hand palm up. Place a ball there, and wrap your thumb over it. Now turn the hand over so it is palm down. The ball should still stay in the palm, held there by the thumb. This can be used to great effect as a surprise in the middle of something routine. If you butterfly normally for a while, for example, then suddenly throw in a single Thumb Hold so the ball ends up under the hand instead of above it, the audience is usually surprised and then impressed.
Cradle Hold w/ Thumb Hold This hold, while it is simply a combination of two other popular holds, pops up enough in contact juggling that I felt it needed to be pointed out on its own. The Thumb Hold is important to this hold, so should be practiced carefully. The Cradle Hold used here is the three-finger cradle. Although I am a great fan of the two-fingered cradle, it is simpler by far to use the three-finger version in this hold.
Knuckle Hold James Ernest says in his book that this is one of the only times he ever lets his fingers tense. It is a style decision. The hold is not right for everyone, but can be perfect for some moments. Form a fist, and raise the forearm so the fist is pointing up, with the index and middle fingers forming a groove along the first phalanges. Place the ball there. This is tricky to get into, and tricky to balance. Try tossing from one hand to another, keeping the same hold. Or, even harder – try placing your two fists together and roll the ball from one to the other. 26
Fist Hold This hold is also called the Cup Hold, as the shape of the hand is as if you were holding a large mug’s handle. Form a fist, with the fingers knuckles held in a vertical line so the index finger and thumb are on top. Place the ball on the slight dip formed near the end of the index finger. Mostly, this hold is used as part of a group of holds flowing into each other – it can look very good to “flourish” the ball with a series of holds.
Open Fist Hold I call this the Open Fist hold because, from the Fist Hold, all you need to do is unfold the fingers and press the thumb in tighter to get this hold here. This hold is elegant from all sides, so is ideal for little pauses in your routine.
3-Finger Hold This hold is a good starting and finishing move. It is also fascinating when come by suddenly The front view looks like the ball is just balancing on the end of the fingers. The side is even more magical sometimes. It can be very impressive when you are rolling the ball around your arms for a while, then suddenly stop with the ball apparently just balancing on your fingertips. Start learning this by making a tripod of your index, middle and ring fingers. Balance the ball on the fingertips. To begin with, the fingertips should be held wide apart, but as you gain experience, try to bring the fingertips closer and closer. Eventually, you come to a point where you can't bring the fingertips closer 27
without bending the middle finger. Stop there - bending the finger makes the hold lose some of its appeal.
Elbow Hold A lot of people hold their balls here by gripping the ball between the forearm and biceps. That is crude and unnecessary The inner elbow is relatively flat, so all it takes is a little practice to be able to balance the ball there without a problem. Balancing a ball there while doing something else with the same arm is another thing altogether, but we'll get to that. This version of the hold is called the “Inside” Elbow Hold.
Outside Elbow Hold Much harder to do than the Inside Elbow Hold, this one has a lot of possibilities. Robin Spehar, in the first video I saw of him, rolled a ball from the cradle to here, then paused in the act to hop the ball up and down there for a while. Joe DiNoto (the Golden Chicken) uses this in a strange variation of toss juggling’s “Mills Mess”. To learn this hold, you should first feel around the area with your other hand, while tensing, untensing, and moving the arm around in small ways. As you can see, I have let my right hand go limp in the picture. If you tense the hand, then the tendons of the arm shift and bunch in uncontrollable ways. I balance the ball at the base of the biceps, about two inches from the audience side of the forearm. Another interesting move, I see Robin doing very often, is to balance here, then keep the ball isolated while rolling it to the cradle, pass over the cradle to the other cradle, and do the same in reverse on the other arm.
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Forehead Hold This is not a beginners’ hold. Not because I think you won't be able to do it - with a few minutes practice, I'm sure you could be walking slowly around the room with no problems! No - it is an advanced CJer's hold because there are no simple ways to get into it. The simplest way to get into it is a toss to catch there (see Head Catch), and that is something I would refuse to teach any beginner because it is dangerous. Anyway - assuming you are an advanced CJer, here are my thoughts on the hold. To begin with, the ball is held just above the eyebrow muscles. Tense up your eyebrows (furrow them as if you were concentrating on something), and feel there - you will notice that with the muscles furrowed, you have a dip in the forehead - this is where the ball is held. With practice, the ball can be held without furrowing the muscles. I'd recommend this, as a move always impresses more if it looks effortless. Don't let the ball go below the eyebrow area - if it reaches the nose, it is difficult to get back to the forehead. If the ball starts moving left - move your whole body further left, and turn the head slightly to the right - this will cause the ball to roll a bit to the right - correcting the error. If it rolls to the right, of course, just reverse these instructions. If the ball starts rolling down towards the face, step slightly forward and lean your head further back. If it starts rolling further up the forehead, step slightly back and straighten up a bit.
Neck Hold This is another of the advanced CJers’ holds. There is no easy way to get into it. The most obvious ways – a roll up the arm
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behind the head, tossing to catch, and rolling from the forehead to the neck, are all advanced moves. Despite all that, this hold is extremely simple. Simply bend over at the waist, scrunch your shoulders up, and hold your head up so you’re looking straight ahead. The ball is cushioned at all sides – by the spine, the base of the head, and the shoulder muscles. The image here is of myself doing a neck hold with a 5” ball – it’s not a trick of perspective…
Temple Hold The Temple Hold is very difficult to keep steady. It must be done in a way that is awkward to the body (unless, of course, you are lying on your side as you do it), so a bit of flexibility is also required. Getting into this hold is a difficulty which all advanced CJers have to figure out at some point. The easiest way, in my opinion, is the first move of the “Butterfly With Head Hold”, where you simply roll the ball off the cradle and onto the temple. Robin Spehar (a comic artist who just happens to also be a fantastic contact juggler) submitted a video to contactjuggling.org of a small one ball show he did, in which he had the ball on the right Outside Elbow Hold, placed his head down so the right temple was on the ball, and flipped over towards the left and took the arm away so the ball was balanced on the right Temple Hold. In the image, I am holding the ball right at the front of the temple dip in the skull. I find that the bony rim of this area helps to keep the ball steady. Other people like to bring the ball further down so it is almost in the ear! This area is much more stable again, and makes your head contact juggling look extreme. I wouldn’t call that a Temple Hold, though – but go ahead and learn it anyway.
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Basic One Ball Moves I will describe all one-handed moves here using the right hand (my strongest hand), but you should also practice with the left. If you are left-handed, simply reverse instructions here, and don't forget to practice with your right hand. Two-handed moves should also be learned both ways. This chapter is probably best practiced by choosing combinations from the following chapter that you’d like to learn, then learning the moves in this chapter that are necessary for them. The Windshieldwiper and the various Cradles should most definitely be learned, as they are basic to almost all other moves. It is not necessary to learn all possible moves in order to be a great contact juggler. Just learn the basic versions of whatever you feel you can do, then when you feel competent, move on to harder versions and harder moves. Some of the moves at the end of the chapter should not be learned until you have practiced multi-ball and palmspinning. It is possible to learn straight through, but you will be better off with a general education in all styles than in specific in one style.
Windshieldwiper The first ball-rolling move most people learn is the windshieldwiper. This is a common basic move of a lot of complex combinations, and is also a good filler on its own between moves. It is named after the motion the arm makes, which is similar to the motion of a car’s windshield wiper. The similarity is more obvious when you do it with both arms simultaneously. Start with your ball in the right cradle. It doesn't matter which form of cradle you use. Toss the ball gently upwards, and catch the ball in the same position. Before you move onto the next stage, it is essential that you can do this. You may find that the ball bounces off your hand. In that case, when you are catching the ball, drop your hand at the 32
same speed as the ball and slow it so the ball comes to a gentle rest. It may help to examine closely how you would normally catch a ball in the palm of the hand, and apply that to the cradle. Next, practice the same with the palm. Your forearm should be pointing directly out from you, perpendicular to your chest. This should be easier than the cradle-toss, so won't need as much work. It is important that you do not allow your fingers to curl around the ball as you catch the ball, so a bit more care than usual is needed when cushioning the ball. After you are comfortable with the first two practice tosses, you can go on to the next stage. Practice tossing from the first position (cradle, forearm parallel to the chest) to the second position (palm, forearm perpendicular to the chest). When you are comfortable with that, try practicing the same, but toss the ball back from the palm to cradle as well. Now start to smooth out this movement. Learn to toss from cradle to palm and back again, while keeping the elbow in the same place. A good way to practice this is to hold the elbow with the left hand while tossing with the right (as seen in the images below). The final stage is to lower the height of the toss until the ball is in constant contact with your hand as it moves between palm and cradle. Be very careful here – if you are throwing from palm to cradle and your fingers are curled, the ball will get caught in the curl and be thrown at whatever is next to you! Practice somewhere out of sight of cats, TVs, valuable china, etc. The catches can be smoothed somewhat by moving the hand in the direction of the throw slightly as you catch the ball – i.e.; as you catch a ball tossed from palm to cradle, say, move your hand slightly further to the left to give the ball more space to slow down (before falling off the end of your fingers onto your toes). When you have this smoothly, your arm will be moving in a smooth windshieldwiper-like motion, hence the name of the move. Congratulations, you may now celebrate learning your first contact juggling move!
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Wristhold Windshieldwiper It is sometimes helpful to have a hand nearby to help you in case you drop the ball. In most cases, though, it is difficult to do this aesthetically. In the 3b Escape I placed onto the contactjuggling.org website, for example, I tried to keep my left hand by my side, but it jerked forward of it’s own accord when I almost dropped a ball from the right forearm. This move, however, allows you to keep a hand nearby while looking sufficiently graceful that it can be considered a move of it’s own. Assuming you are doing the Windshieldwiper in the left hand, here is how to do it. First try it without the ball. Hold a ball in the left palm, which is pointing left. The right hand is palm down, resting flat on the left forearm so the tips of the fingers are near the wrist. The left hand comes up to vertical, with the right hand slipping around the front side of it so the fingers are pointing left and the thumb is at the wrist. The left hand continues down so the ball is in the cradle. The right hand slides further down the back of the forearm and the right forearm is raised so the ball is still visible from the front. Bring the left hand forward so the ball is on the other side of the right forearm. Now, you simply bring the left hand back upwards to the starting position, and the right hand back around to it’s starting position.
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Elbowhold Windshieldwiper This is just like the Wristhold move, except the right hand is further down towards the left elbow and doesn’t move as much. Start with the left hand as before. This time, the right hand rests on the inside of the left elbow. Butterfly the left hand out until the ball is in the palm. All this while, the right hand remains at the base of the left biceps. Stretch the Windshieldwiper further left and slide the right hand around the right side of the elbow until its fingers are touching the outside of the elbow (the pointy bit). Butterfly the left hand in so the hand drops down inside the loop created by the right arm. Raise the right elbow and dip the left hand further down so you can then bring the left hand forward to the outside of the right arm, and slide the left hand back to the base of the biceps. You can also do this move in the opposite direction, so the ball comes up through the loop, but I think the way I have described is easier to learn.
Butterfly The butterfly is named after a hand motion used in some Middle-East dances where the hands intertwine and wave as if fluttering in the wind. The butterfly is an extension of the windshieldwiper. In the windshieldwiper, there are two end-points on the arc that the ball follows. We simply smooth the movement out by removing those end points, forming an infinity symbol. Moving your elbow will greatly help you with this move. Imagine a large figure "8" lying on it's side floating in front of you (an infinity symbol). Your ball starts on the bottom of the left loop, in the cradle. The ball then travels to the top of the right
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loop, where it goes over the fingertips to end up at the bottom of the right loop in the palm. From there, you pull the ball to the top of the left loop, where it goes over the fingertips to end up in the starting position again. Remember that at all times the ball is moving right, the ball should be in the cradle, and at all times while moving left, the ball should be in the palm of the hand. Good movement of the elbow will help you here, so limber up! The butterfly can be reversed, but there is little benefit to it – the average audience member will not notice the difference. Note: “Butterfly” is also used as a verb to describe the rolling of the ball from the palm to cradle and vice-versa, no matter how the movement is accomplished.
Twirling Butterfly Immediately, we see an example of the word “Butterfly” being subverted. This move does not form an infinity symbol, so technically it shouldn’t be called a Butterfly, but the word is so much nicer than Windshieldwiper, that it is used in almost all cases where the word Windshieldwiper should really go. Live with it. Start by placing your right hand palm up, and your left hand over it palm down so they cross at the wrist. The wrists should touch at all times. Now put the forearms together, bringing the hands up, and keeping the fingertips of the left hand as far apart from the right-hand fingertips (and vice versa) as possibly. You should end up with a ‘T’ shape. Continue the movement of the hands so the forearms are brought apart and down again, and the hands cross each other again at the wrist, this time with the left hand palm up and the right hand palm down. Repeat the movement in reverse to bring yourself back to the beginning again. 36
When you repeat this quickly, you’ll see that the hands are “twirling” around each other. This is the basis of the name “Twirling” Butterfly. Start from the beginning again, but this time with a ball on the right palm. Straighten the forearms out into the ‘T’ shape. The ball is still in the right hand, but moving towards the fingers. Now, as you bring the twirl to a finish, “Butterfly” the ball over the fingertips and down into the cradle. That is the end of the first part. From there, “Butterfly” the ball into the right palm as you straighten out the forearms again. When the ball rolls over the fingertips, you should be in the ‘T’ position again. Continue the twirl, bringing the ball back to the original position.
Spined Butterfly The butterfly motion can be performed in many different ways – this is a way to perform it in an almost flat line, using what Ferret calls a “flip-flop” to do the butterflying part of the move. Start with a ball in the right palm, with the palm held far to the left. Bring the palm to the right until it’s held in the normal position just to the right of the chest. Now, bring the hand up slightly, and flip the hand under the ball so the ball rolls into the cradle. Continue the movement of the cradle to the far right. If you are doing this with both hands, you can either start both butterflies from opposite sides of the chest (arms crossed), or from the same side. If you are starting both from the same side, then the hand which is on it’s own side of the body (i.e.: the left hand if you are staring on the left) starts with the ball in the cradle position, and ends up in the Palm Hold (remember that all contact juggling moves can be reversed!). Expanding even further, you can add a third ball. Perform a 2b Spined Butterfly as above, both hands moving from the same 37
side, but start with a third ball held in the palm-down hand. When the hands are flipping over, pass the ball from a Thumb Hold in the first hand to the second. The pass is a form of Thumb-Thumb Pass (described later in this chapter).
Planebreaking Butterfly In the original CJ book, “Contact Juggling”, James Ernest pointed out that most CJ moves seem to be in only two dimensions, and that they can be expanded into the third just by thinking about it. This is one example of that – instead of X and Y, we move the butterfly in Y and Z. Place your right hand out, cradle upwards, and put your ball on the cradle. Now, swing the arm up and back so the ball rolls over the fingertips to land in the palm, which is just above the right shoulder. The hardest part of this is when you bring the ball back down – be very careful! If you make a mistake, your ball may get trapped in the curl of your fingers, and be flung straight out in front of you – destroying whatever mirror you’re practicing in front of, or smacking an audience member unexpectedly (I hope they never expect to be smacked…). Another variation on this is the Reverse Planebreaking Butterfly, which is practically the same movement, but with the palm upwards in the beginning, and the cradle at the end held above the shoulder.
Palm-Palm Pass There are four basic palm-palm passes – the "classic palm-palm pass", a more difficult one I call the "chalice palm-palm pass", a variant of what is called the "cheater palm-palm pass", and the “baby pass”. The "classic palm-palm pass" is extremely simple – just hold your hands together, knife-edges and little fingers of both hands together. Now place the ball in the right palm, and simply roll it to the other palm, so it crosses at the base of the little fingers. It's
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called the "classic" palm-palm pass because it's the most basic method to do it. For the "chalice palm-palm pass", hold your forearms together so they're pointing in front of you and up. The palms should face upwards, with the right fingers pointing right, and the left fingers left. Place the ball in the right palm, and roll it across the heels of the hands to the other palm. I call it the "chalice" palm-palm pass because of the shape the arms and hands make. The "cheater palm-palm pass" is based on a lazy way to do the classic palm-palm pass, but smoothed up. Place your hands together so they're both pointing right, and the left little finger is touching the right knife-edge of the palm. Roll the ball from the right palm, across the knife-edges into the left palm, sliding the hands towards the left all the while so you end up with the hands pointing left, right little finger against left knife-edge. This pass allows you to make the movement quite large, which is good for stage work. For the “baby pass”, you should start with your right palm facing up, the little finger next to the left armpit. The left hand is also palm up, with it’s little finger next to the right forearm or elbow. This position is similar to how a baby is held against the chest. The ball rolls from the right hand to the left. From those four basic passes, it is possible to make more complex passes – palm-palm passes with the wrists crossed, palm-palm passes with the forearms twisted right round, palm-palm passes over the fingertips. As long as the ball passes from one palm into the other without too much messing around in between, it is a palm-palm pass. The choice of which you use at any particular time is aesthetic – whatever looks best is best.
Back-Palm Pass There are two basic forms of back-palm passes. For the most common form, place your right hand in front of you pointing to the left, palm down, and a ball in the cradle. Place the left hand so it’s pointing the same direction, palm up, with the heel of the hand touching the right hand’s fingertips. This is kind of an awkward position, but it can be adapted to more comfortable
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positions after it’s learned. Simply pass the ball along the fingers to the left palm. For a more comfortable form of the above move, place your hands in the beginning position again, then, keeping the heel and fingertips together, move the left hand forward. You’ll find that the angle becomes less awkward, yet the look of the move hasn’t degraded. This version of the back-palm pass is used in the “horizontal circle”. In the less common one, the ball is passed from the cradle back up the arm and off at the wrist to the other palm. The first form is good for large movements, and can be performed slowly, even “isolated”. The second is good for tight, or quick, movements, and is good for passing during “twirling butterflies” parts of your routine.
Palm-Back Pass This is just the opposite of the previous pass. The ball is passed from the palm of one hand to the cradle of the other. The most common two methods are similar to the two most common Back-Palm Passes, but in the opposite direction. For the most common version, place your hands in line, left hand pointing left and palm up, right hand pointing left with the palm down and the fingertips touching the left heel. Pass the ball from the left hand to the right. This must be done relatively slowly; as it is difficult to correct high-speed passes in that position (the hands aren’t too maneuverable like that). The more uncommon pass is done by placing the right hand palm down, parallel to the chest, and the left hand above it, palm up, both wrists touching. The ball passes from the right palm over the base of the thumb to the left hand. In this move, the right hand has more movement available to it, so fast passes can be corrected by raising the fingers, making the ball slow. There is a “Baby Pass” version of this as well. The right hand is placed palm up, with the little finger next to the left armpit. The right hand is placed alongside the left forearm with the thumb pointing downish so the left index finger is fully in contact with the
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right forearm. The ball is rolled from the right hand along the arm to the left.
Back-Back Pass The Back-Back Pass is the more difficult of the basic passes, and can be very frustrating for the beginner. Don’t worry, though – persevere! You will get it. Start with a ball in the right cradle; arm parallel with the chest. Place the left hand in front of it so the base of the index finger is against the right wrist. There is a groove between the index finger and thumb that slides very nicely against the opposite forearm. Try to get your hand into a comfortable position there so that the base of the left thumb is against the right hand’s heel. To start off learning this pass, it is possibly best to bend the left hand up and back so the fingers end up almost touching the ball in an almost vertical cradle. Tip the hands over to the right so the ball rolls over the right knuckles and is stopped by the left hand’s fingers. Tip the hand further and further so the ball is supported more and more in the left cradle, until you can take away the right hand. That method is only good for learning the move – it will hinder the speed at which you can perform moves at a later stage, so we’ll learn to improve it now. Starting again in the same position, lift the right fingers up to about 30 degrees, tilting hand so the ball rolls to the left hand, passing on to just behind the left knuckles. The ball should have enough speed to continue on to the left cradle position. If you find that the ball continues too far and falls off, you can slow its progress by raising the left fingers up at an angle to 41
cause the ball to have to climb uphill. The further you raise the fingers, the quicker the ball will slow. It is also a good idea to move the receiving hand slightly in the direction of the ball’s motion, bringing it to a halt smoothly. You can practice this using a move called the Back-Back Roll. Pass from the right cradle to the left cradle, then bring your right hand under the left to the other side and pass again from left to right. Done continuously, this feels great, and looks like the ball is rolling left to right. This pass is not yet complete. As it is, you are passing directly from the cradle to the opposite cradle. To make it look a lot better, and increase the control you have over the action, you can lengthen the move out by passing to positions further down the hand and back of the arm. Be careful, though – I used to practice with glass balls, which are very heavy and very hard. This caused bruising on the backs of my hands that took weeks to get rid of2. The best place to pass to aesthetically is possibly the position near the base of the radius and ulna bones, but not so near that the ball hits the lump of the ulna’s base (that can hurt, too).
Back-Back Walkaway This move is based on a variant of the Back-Back pass, and looks best when isolated. Start with a ball on the right cradle, hand pointing forwards. Place the left hand in front of the right and roll the ball onto it so at passes onto the back of the left hand and rolls to it’s cradle. Now, repeat the same move onto the right hand. You will need to step forward to be comfortable with this. The move can then be repeated over and over, all the while walking forward. The effect is that the ball is “walking away”, hence Walkaway. This move can also be isolated – the ball stays still, and the hands are pulled from under it, keeping the same movements of the hands, but the ball doesn’t move. This gives the effect that the ball is floating, which is a point of all isolations. 2
It also caused my to learn very, very quickly (through something like shock therapy), but I don’t recommend you learn that way.
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You can also reverse the move, so the ball is actually coming back towards you. In this case, you start with the ball on a cradle, and roll the ball backwards, picking it up with the opposite cradle. If done right, this makes the ball appear as if it’s moving smoothly along a path which is being created as it moves. If you reverse this move, it becomes the Back-Back Walktowards (imaginative naming scheme!).
Palm-Palm Walkaway After learning the Back-Back Walkaway, you should find this simple to learn. It is exactly as you would imagine. Hold a ball in the left palm, place the right hand in front of it so it’s heel touches the left fingertips, and then roll the ball forward onto the right palm. Then repeat with the left hand in front. You can, of course, variate this idea further by having BackPalm Walkaways, Palm-Back Walktowards, etc. I guess further instruction would be very redundant.
Thumb-Thumb Pass This is part of the Twirling Butterfly suite of moves, and looks out of place with most other moves. Start with the right hand over the left, crossing at the wrist. A ball is held in the right Thumb Hold. Twirl the hands as you would a normal Twirling Butterfly, pausing at the palm-palm position to roll the ball from the right hand to the left, grabbing it in the left Thumb Hold. Continue the twirl so you end up in a mirror image of the starting position, then repeat back.
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Body Rolling When you first describe Contact Juggling to a person who has never heard of it, you might say something like “It’s like normal juggling, but the balls are rolled all over the arms and body instead of thrown in the air”. This gives a mental image, which is fascinating, and is what I live for as a CJer – the idea that someone could dance, or mime, all the while rolling a ball on the body as though strings are attached. Unlike Palmspinning, which is a very “close-up” art, body rolling is large and expressive. To entertain your audience, you have to become large and expressive as well. Compare close-up magic and stage magic. In close-up magic, you concentrate on the hands (usually) – it does not matter what expression is on the magician’s face, or whether he/she is wearing an outfit. All that matters is the interaction of the hands with the object being manipulated. In stage magic, however, the magician’s body language is all important. A fantastic contact juggler can practice for weeks, and be baffled about why the audience is not impressed if he/she forgets to include the whole body with the move. I have seen routines where the audience “oohed” and “aahed” at moves which any green CJer could pull off with only the minimum experience – this was because of the performers “stage presence” – an invaluable aid in a performance. By all means, learn the most difficult moves you can learn, but always be aware of how they look to the audience! When you practice any move in body rolling – also practice moving the body to accentuate the move. Pretend the ball has a life of it’s own. One comment I heard about a CJer I knew years ago was that he never moved his legs. The commenter did not say anything about the CJing itself, which said to me that the fact the CJer had not moved his legs made the legs stand out more than the ball. You must avoid this.
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Move your body to focus the audience on the ball. Don’t look around while performing – examine the ball. The audience will pick up on your focus, and watch it themselves.
Forearm Roll After the butterfly, arm rolls are the next learning block. It will take a while to become consistent with them. The forearm roll is much easier than the Backarm Roll (yes, I made up the word “backarm” – what else would you call it?), as the forearm is very smooth, and therefore easier to balance on. To learn, you should first learn to balance a ball on the inside of the elbow. Hold your right arm out in front of you so it is almost straight, but not so much that the elbow is stiff. If you feel the elbow area, you will notice that there is a tendon that connects the biceps to the forearm. You can balance the ball to the right of this. If you straighten the arm even further you’ll notice the area flattens out even further. Don’t straighten so far that your arm is stiff, or you’ll find it difficult to correct the balance of the ball. Okay, now balance the ball there. If the ball moves to the right side of the arm, move the arm further right to compensate. If the ball moves left, move the arm left. This should be fairly easy at the elbow, but you should practice this balance point a lot, to make the action sink in. The next step is to learn to balance in the middle of the forearm. Feel the area. Close your fist and open it to see the difference. When the fist is closed, the arm is tense, and the muscles form a curve, which makes balance a little more difficult, so it is best to learn with the fist open. This agrees with a lot of people’s ideas of how contact juggling should be done, so that’s all the better. Place the ball on that area, and learn to balance there. This will take much longer than the elbow. In my case, it took weeks of practice to get to the stage that I could walk around with a ball there. When you have practiced sufficiently (in your opinion), it is a simple matter to roll a ball from the elbow, through the middle balance point, and to the palm of the hand. 45
Learning the other way around is a little more difficult. The hand is used to catching things, but the elbow isn’t. Try it and see. When the ball is just reaching the elbow, pull the elbow back a little, at the same speed as the ball, and slow it to a stop. This is a variation of the catch principle, which I’ll explain later. This stops the ball, yet isn’t as clumsy as a sudden stop. The ball slows to a halt. Now that you can roll the ball up and down the forearm, you can add it into your practice routines. You could stretch out your Back-Back Butterflies, for example, by doing a forearm roll every time you butterfly into the palm. You can even just do continuous arm rolls – balance the ball on the elbow, and roll to the palm, while pulling the arm in towards you so the ball is not really moving. When the ball reaches the palm, pass it onto the other elbow and roll back. You can also do this in the opposite way. Ferret came up with a pass from one elbow to the other. Roll from palm to elbow, bringing the other elbow in close to it, then roll the ball onto the other elbow. If you’re rolling from the right to left, then you simply move the right arm to the right and lift it – this will cause the ball to move left. If you roll it right, then the ball should just roll on down the other arm. If you want to learn this with larger gap between the elbows, then you should learn Elbow Catches first (described later), then just toss the ball from one to the other and continue the roll.
Backarm Roll The “backarm” is the side of the arm opposite the forearm (duh!). When you are learning to roll on the backarm, it is important to first get a feel of where the muscles are. Hold your arm out in front of you so it is parallel to the chest, palm down. Run your hands over the arm while alternatively clenching and unclenching your fist, hand muscles, and arms. You will notice that the backarm is much lumpier than the forearm. This is why you should learn forearm rolls first. Before beginning your rolling, you should plan out where are the points that the ball should stop or go through. If you tense your 46
biceps, you’ll see that a flat area appears on the inside of the elbow. This is one place you could stop the ball. Another is at the base of the biceps – it is not necessary to tense anything to balance here, but if you tense the back of the upper arm, the muscle helps form a wall just above the elbow which may help while you are learning. Of course, you will have to be feeling the area in order to notice this. They are difficult to see. Each of those areas will help you during Backarm rolls towards the elbow. The balance point in the middle of the backarm is directly on the opposite of the one for the forearm. Luckily the backarm doesn’t really get bumpy until near the elbow. If you straighten out the arm, you’ll see that the backarm muscles form a triangle, with the thin end at the elbow. This makes it difficult to roll with a straight arm, so we’ll learn with the arm bent at a right angle – parallel to the chest. Choose which spot you want to stop the ball in on the elbow, and mentally plot a course from the cradle to there. This is for two reasons: 1) you will know what you’re doing at all times, and 2) you will have accomplished the move already in your head, making the physical act much easier. Now, roll the ball. Concentrate on the stopping position so you really know what you’re doing as the ball gets there. Make sure that the elbow is in the right position, with the appropriate muscles tensed. Difficult, yes? It gets easier with practice. It is much easier to do a Backarm Roll if you don’t have to worry about stopping the ball. Place the right arm in position, with the ball on the cradle, then place the left arm in front of it. The right hand should rest on the left bicep, and the left arm should be pressed against the right. Roll the ball right down to the elbow, and then pass the ball forward to the left hand’s cradle. Then bring the right arm under the left (if you bring it over, it will obscure the audience’s view) and bring it against the right’s, so you are in the opposite starting position. This is a very extended Back-Back Pass. A variation of this is called the “Genie Roll”. Start with the right arm in front with the ball on the cradle, and the left arm behind, hand resting against the upper arm. Roll the ball down to the elbow, and pass back to the left cradle, which then rolls to its 47
elbow and passes forward to the starting position again. It is called the “Genie” Roll because of the position the arms take. A lot of people simply roll the ball right off the elbow in a straight line onto the opposite arm’s cradle. The receiving hand should be poking out past the starting arm’s elbow. This can be continued on the opposite arm then. Rolling down the backarm is a bit harder, as you have to figure out how to get into a position where you may have to roll from the elbow to the cradle. This can be done with the exact opposite move as just above. Place a ball in the left cradle; arm parallel to the chest, extended to the right. Place the right arm over it, extended to the left, and toss the ball to the right elbow, and roll to the cradle – if you toss it with a lot of sideways motion, you will not have to balance on the elbow before starting the roll. A very good way to practice your backarm rolls is to vary how you pass from one arm to the other. You can roll a ball to the elbow and pass to the other arm either inside or outside the bend of the arm, or behind the upper arm. By varying the pass, you are learning both to strengthen your backarm rolls, and also essential moves for recovering mistakes. The more ways you can do a move, the more likely you will be able to recover it smoothly when something goes wrong. Of course, the above variations can be reversed as well.
Backarm-Forearm Roll When rolling from the Backarm Roll to the Forearm Roll, you should first make sure that the backarm roll is performed parallel to the chest. As the ball reaches the elbow, allow it to roll slightly up the upper arm, and bring the forearm up and over in an arc as if you were performing a Windshieldwiper, then allow the ball to continue its roll down the forearm. This can be done to extend the roll in as long a line as possible. For a continuous Backarm to Forearm Roll, start with a ball in the right palm, butterfly it to the cradle, Backarm to Forearm Roll it, and you will end up with the ball in the palm again, ready to start again.
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Forearm-Backarm Roll Rolling from the Forearm Roll to the Backarm Roll is slightly harder, as when you are turning the forearm over, the elbow rises up on the outside, which means that your ball may drop on the inside. Therefore, you should roll the ball a little further than you would normally, possible giving it a little “hop” with the elbow to get it over to the outside of the elbow. For continuous Forearm to Backarm Rolls, it’s just the opposite of the continuous Backarm-Forearm Roll – start with a ball in the right cradle, butterfly to palm, Forearm-Backarm Roll it, and you will end up with the ball in the cradle again, ready to restart.
Chop Roll An extreme form of arm roll is the Chop Roll. It may help to learn this in a point-to-point manner. Start with the ball held on the Elbow Hold. The hand is held in a chop position (knife-edge down, thumb up). Roll the ball down to the hand, so it ends up in an Open Fist Hold. To do this, you’ll have to roll along the edge of the forearm, almost onto the backarm – the tendon from thumb to arm and the wrist bone tend to be a it bumpy. From there, bring the forearm straight up so the ball is in a Stretched Three Finger Hold. Carry on from that so the hand goes back behind the head, and the ball rolls down the backarm to rest on the extreme opposite of the Elbow Hold. It is easy to balance here as it is very flat, but getting into a position to use the hold is a bit awkward. From there, “simply” roll back up the arm, over the fingertips, and back to the Elbow Hold. It may help to sort of toss the ball upwards from the elbow before starting the chop motion required to bring the ball over and back to the starting position.
Armroll to Shoulder Hold This is just a roll along the arms ending at the shoulder. The Backarm Roll seems to be the most aesthetic one for long rolls, so use that one.
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There are two main areas in which the ball can be stopped – between the clavicle and the trapezius (the huge muscle covering the shoulder blade), and between the clavicle and pectoral muscle. The first one is difficult to get out of – the ball is essentially stuck there unless you either jerk it out with a body movement, or nudge it out with your chin. The second one can be used to go either back down the same arm, across the chest into a chest roll, over the shoulder towards the back of the neck, or down the body to your legs. James Ernest used this move as an example of “serendipity” – that even mistakes can be used to form new moves (he was practicing chest rolls, and the ball halted above the clavicle).
Spiral This move looks fantastic when accompanied by a lot of body movement. In the video “Contact Juggling: Part One”, Greg does several variations on it – pirouetting, both arms at once, and straightforward. Start with a ball at the Elbow Hold. From there, slightly toss it forward and up to give it a bit of momentum. The ball rolls up the forearm, but as it rolls, you should turn the arm under it so as it is coming up to about 2/3rds of the arm, it is then rolling on the backarm. As the ball approaches the hand, you spiral the arm around it so the ball curves around the heel of the hand and into it’s palm. Allow the ball to continue up the hand and into the Tripod or Three Finger Hold.
Helicopter This could be thought of as the opposite of the Spiral. Start with a ball in the cradle. Roll it along the backarm until it reaches the middle of the backarm. Using the elbow as a pivot point, swing the arm in towards the chest so it ends up with the hand pointing palm down and held above it’s own shoulder. The ball is still in the same position.
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Continue the pivot, twisting the hand palm-up so the ball rolls onto the forearm and the arm ends up pointing away from you again. Let the ball continue its roll to the elbow. I like to do this move, and continue with a Chestroll followed by a Spiral in the opposite arm. It is possible, but difficult, to do multiple Helicopters – when the ball arrives on the forearm at the end of the spin, twist the arm over (hop the ball to make sure it doesn’t get knocked off), and start a new spin.
Forearm Chestroll You will find after a while that it is easier to do Backarm Chest Rolls, but it is easier for the beginner to learn Forearm Chest Rolls. To do these, you should be proficient with Forearm Rolls on both arms. Just like learning the Forearm and Backarm Rolls, it is a great idea to plot out the ball’s route before journeying out. First of all, get an image of how you will be standing – you will be standing leaning slightly back, with both arms outstretched, as if inviting someone to hug you. The ball will travel up one arm, across the chest, and down the other arm. In greater detail, the ball will take the smoothest path possible, avoiding all bumpy muscles – it will roll up the forearm, up the inside of the upper arm (avoiding the biceps), crossing to the chest just above the armpit (avoiding the shoulders), crossing the chest below the collarbone (another bumpy area), and down the other side in the same method. After we have decided the route the ball is to take, it is time to decide how are you going to encourage it to take that route. The key is to use your body to change the ball’s momentum to make it want to move in the route you have planned. Rolling up the forearm is easy enough. Rolling along the inside of the upper arm encourages the ball to move towards the chest. As the ball comes towards the armpit, lean back, then move your entire body in the direction the ball should go, encouraging the ball to speed up to cross the chest – this movement is subtle, and you 51
won’t notice it after a while, but use it while learning so it becomes a habit. The ball should move just fast enough to reach the other side before starting to fall. The roll down the other arm is just a controlled fall from there. Leaning back also encourages you to get your chin out of the way – you don’t want a lump of acrylic hitting you in the jaw – especially in front of an audience (it’s a bit unprofessional).
Backarm Chestroll This chestroll is a bit more difficult to learn, but ends up being easier, and is a lot smoother in the end. It can also be repeated over and over, making for a good pause in the routine. Again, we start by figuring out how we’re going to stand. Stand straight, back tilted back a bit, and arms held out palm down as if they were around a large barrel. The index fingers should be about a foot apart (30cm). The ball will again be traveling by the smoothest route. This time, the route is clearer. The ball travels up the backarm, along the outside of the biceps (which is lying flat because of the pose the arm is in), midway between the armpit and shoulder, and along the chest just under the clavicle. The route down the other arm is just the same. To learn this chestroll, it is best to start with a large ball before gradually using smaller and smaller ones. I use a novelty 6” tennis ball to learn long body rolls. It is a good idea to imagine the ball rolling smoothly in a circle along the arms and chest, and make sure that the pressure is the same at all points. Don’t forget the small nudge in the direction of movement that you should do is the ball reaches the shoulder. It is needed to make sure that the ball doesn’t just get to the sternum then drop. If you do a lot of toss juggling, a chest roll thrown in at an appropriate point is a real crowd pleaser. This move can be repeated over and over by bringing the hands together at the end of the move and passing the ball over the fingertips and repeating the roll.
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A video I saw once (at yo-yo.org) showed a good example of when to allow the ball to drop at the middle of the chest. The person performing the routine (someone called Mike, I think) sat down on the floor, did a chestroll, and allowed the ball to roll down the chest and up the legs to the feet (he raised them together to make a channel for the ball to follow). Taking more from that video, it is a good idea to practice the Backarm Chest Roll in stages – practice Backarm Rolling to the elbow, then passing to the opposite hand, practice rolling right to the elbow and onto the opposite hand, practice rolling to the opposite shoulder before passing to the same hand you rolled from, and then practice the whole move from cradle to cradle. Don’t forget to practice doing this in both ways. You may never get as proficient in one way as the other, but you could say that the CJ equivalent of toss juggling’s “yeah, but can you do it with one more?” is “yeah, but can you do it in the other direction?”
Neck Roll This is also called the Back Roll, which can confuse, as some people call a Back Roll the roll of a ball from the neck to the lower back. Rolling behind the neck is more difficult than via the chest. Mostly, this is because of the shape of the shoulders – they are concave to the front. An added difficulty is the inability to watch what you’re doing, but that doesn’t matter if you have practiced the other Chest Rolls thoroughly. It is easier to perform this using the Backarm Roll than the Forearm Roll. This is partly because you will have to lean the head well forward, an awkward move if your palms are facing up. Also, having the palms facing up causes the shoulders to rise slightly, which will make later stages difficult. Using a large ball again, you should move as if to perform a Backarm Chestroll. When the ball reaches the shoulder, however, you should bow the head forward, and stoop forward at the waist a little so the ball rolls along the shoulders and behind the neck. At this point, it may help to stop the ball in a neck hold, to allow you time to think about getting the ball back down the other arm. To do this easily, you can turn the head to watch the ball 53
approaching, and raise the shoulder the ball is heading towards – when the ball goes behind the head, hunch your shoulders to slow and stop the ball. If you have long hair, it may be advisable to either have it loose, or tied into two separate ponytails. Having a single ponytail makes an awkward obstacle at the neck. I suppose you could get around that by hopping the ball directly over the neck using the shoulders, but you don’t want to learn that until you’ve learned to do it the old fashioned way. After you practice this for a while, you’ll probably come across one or two things that you absolutely need to iron out. If you find that the ball keeps falling off when it hits the neck, then you are not leaning the head far enough forward. It should feel like you are ducking under the ball – as if the ball was coming for your head and you were avoiding it. If you find the ball rolls onto the opposite shoulder blade before falling behind you, try leaning the head forward more and pulling the shoulders back a bit. If the ball goes around the neck, but then drops directly in front of you, try slowing down the move, and stand up a bit more as the ball goes behind the neck. This move can look very good if it is alternately combined with Backarm Chest Rolls continuously.
Neck Loop On contactjuggling.org, this is called an “Around the Neck Roll”, but I think a “Loop” is more evocative of what is going on here. Basically, a loop is where the ball travels from one position, rolls around something, and returns to the original position. In this move, the ball starts in the cradle, rolls to the chest, rolls round to the back of the neck, and returns to the cradle. Congrats to Michael Glenn for creating this gem, which I would have thought is impossible beforehand. Of course, as we always say on .org, if you can imagine it, then you can do it. Before you start this move you should be very confident of your Backarm Chestrolls, and have at least reasonable success with your Backarm Neckrolls. 54
Start with the ball in the right cradle (reverse, as usual, for the left hand). Roll the ball as for a Backarm Chestroll, with the roll traveling in the Chestroll route right up until it hits the middle of the chest. Now, pass the ball onto the left upper arm, but lower the arm so the ball is more on top of it than in front. When the ball is there, duck your head as if for a neck catch, and raise your left upper arm so the ball is passed back to the back of the neck. If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that the ball isn’t so much passing around the neck, as the neck is passing around the ball’s route. The ball is returning in almost the exact path it used to get there in the first place. As with a Neck Roll, concentrate on getting the ball into a solid neck hold before letting it past onto the right upper arm, raising the head and bringing the ball safely down to the right cradle. Some people consider this to be one of the hardest commonly known contact juggling moves. I was pretty excited when I got it the first time.
Pirouette Neck Roll This form of Neck Roll is surprisingly easy to do, once you can already do a normal Neck Roll. Basically, the idea is to twirl your body whole performing a Neck Roll. In effect, this isolates the ball, so it seems that you twirl under the ball, and the ball doesn’t move. It is important to keep a rounded shape while doing this move. The usual Neck Roll can be done in any old rickety way, but in order for this version to come off properly, it is absolutely essential that the ball roll smoothly.
Back Roll For this move, you have to either be very flexible, or be ready to get into some rather strange positions. Learn to Neck Roll first, because this involves half of that move.
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Okay – roll a ball up the backarm and duck your head so the ball goes into the neck hold. Hold there for a moment so the ball loses momentum. Now, you have to decide how to do this next one – the lazy way is to drop carefully to your hands and knees, and very carefully lean your head back so the ball is pushed over the shoulders and onto the lower spine. Curve your back upwards to make a cradle for the ball to roll in. The non-lazy, flexible way is to do the same as above, but while standing. Keep your legs straight, and bend at the waist, remembering the curve of the back. You may need to spread your legs quite a bit in order to keep your balance. Getting the ball back up is interesting. Drop your upper back so the ball rolls towards the shoulders. As the ball comes up towards the shoulders, stand up quickly, and curve your back back to its original shape. The ball should roll back into the neck hold. From there, you can simply roll the ball down the other (or the original) arm and into the hands.
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Catches All contact juggling catches are based on the same method – you plot the approach of the ball to the catching limb, and when the ball is nearly in the right position, you move the limb to meet the ball, and then move the limb in the direction of the ball’s path at the ball’s speed, smoothly bringing them both to a halt. This can be seen in action by examining how you catch a ball in the open palm (without using your fingers). The ball comes down, and you bring the hand up to meet it. You match the speed of the ball with your hand, and bring them both to a smooth halt. This is a much more aesthetic catch in most cases than a gripping catch – one where the ball is caught between two or more opposing limbs (the fingers, the forearm and biceps, the feet, etc).
Elbow Catch The Elbow Catch is an ideal way to start learning contact juggling catches. The area is easy to balance a ball on, and it can easily be moved up and down – the directions you will usually have to catch a ball in. First of all, you should practice without a ball. Put your catching arm directly out in front of you, palm up, elbow bent at about 150 degrees (almost, but not quite, straight) with the hand at a level just below the shoulder. Watch the elbow while you alternatively push the hand further out, and bring it back in. As you push the hand out, the elbow rises, and as you bring it back in, the elbow sinks. Now, place a ball in the palm of the same hand, and toss it in an arc about a foot high towards the elbow. As the ball approaches the elbow, straighten the arm to bring the elbow up to meet it. Just before the ball hits, start to bring the elbow back down, so the ball doesn’t just bounce right off again. Bring the elbow down at the same time as the ball. Bring the elbow to a halt, and balance the ball.
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Outside Elbow Catch If you place your arm in front of you as if to perform a Backarm Roll, the side of the elbow facing upwards is known as the “outside” side. The goal of this move is to catch the ball on a stable spot there. Some such spots are mentioned in the Backarm Roll section. If you raise the elbow while keeping the hand still, you can see how the elbow is to move when it is catching the ball. This method of catching is best used for catching balls tossed from the opposite side of the body. Toss from the opposite hand to the elbow, with the ball describing an arc with its apex about a foot higher than the elbow. As the ball approaches, lift the elbow up to meet it. Bring the elbow down, then, at the same speed as the ball, and slow it to a halt.
Shoulder Catch This is done using the same method as the Head Catch, but is obviously much simpler because less caution is needed. There are two points at which you can hold the ball here, as pointed out in the Armroll To Shoulder Hold. The point below the clavicle is best for low tosses where you plan on leading the ball out with an Armroll. The point between the clavicle and trapezius is best for throws that are mostly vertical, or tosses from behind the back (a toss from behind the back to the Shoulder Hold is called “The Ungodly Jose”). Basically, a toss to the lower point is caught by leaning back at the same speed as the ball is moving. If you read what I’ve written about the Head Catch, you can use all the tips in there to help you with this (apart from furrowing your forehead, of course). The toss to the upper point is caught by raising your shoulder to meet the ball, and then dropping your whole body with the ball. You can help the catch, if you want, by leaning your head over to grip the ball between shoulder and jaw.
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Foot Catch This is easier to do in bare feet or wearing pumps or some similar tightly shaped footwear. It is best not to learn this while wearing shoes, boots, or runners (or “sneakers” as Merkins call them), as eventually, you will wear out the footwear, and when you replace it, you will have to learn all over again. This is easier to learn with a large ball and work your way down. I learned it with a soccer ball, and worked my way down through my trusty novelty tennis ball to a standard 2.5” acrylic. Drop the ball from about waist-high. It is best to drop from about 1.5 to 2 feet in front of the body to allow the leg room to maneuver – in order to lift the foot, the knee must be lifted. If it gets in the way, your ball will not reach the foot. As soon as you’ve dropped the ball, raise the foot to meet the ball, and then drop the foot at the same speed as the ball, bringing it to a halt. An ideal place to catch the ball is just behind the second and middle toes. Raise the toes to create a groove to hold the ball. It is a very good idea to spend some time, before attempting this, practicing balancing the ball on the foot. If you were wondering what could be done once you have the ball on your foot, I’d recommend watching some of Francis Brunn’s old videos. You can find some through the www.jugglingdb.com website. He used larger balls, but there is no reason why smaller balls can’t be used. One example from one of his videos is to roll the ball from the foot, up to the waist, then twist around to let the ball roll up the back and down one arm. You will need to be very flexible to perform that move, but as incentive, you will have the respect of the whole contact juggling community.
Head Catch Do NOT practice this with a hard ball until you are certain you have it down with a softer one. Learn the Shoulder Catch first – it uses practically the same motions, and will give you practice in the technique needed.
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The head catch is one move where the direction of the ball’s throw is very important to decide before trying the catch. Remember that in order to successfully slow the ball to a halt, you must be able to move in the same direction as the ball. This will be difficult in the case of the head. For example, if you toss straight up, then the only way to bring the head down at the right speed is to use your whole body to move the head. This is difficult, but not impossible – don’t try it until you’ve learned a simpler way. We’ll start with the simpler way. The ball will be tossed from about one foot in front of the chest in an arc, which would end one foot behind the chest. The top of the forehead is at the apex of the arc’s path, which means that when the ball reaches the forehead, it will not be moving upwards anymore. The only speed you’ll have to match is it’s backwards motion. Before tossing for the first time, decide where you are going to catch the ball. Most people have a fairly flat forehead (except me… courtesy of some nasty falls in my past), so you should be able to balance the ball easily without too much correction. If you can’t find a suitable place to hold the ball, then try furrowing your brow and pressing your eyebrows in towards each other. This will cause your forehead muscles to bunch, making a cushion for the ball to sit on. Now that you have a place to stop the ball, we can start learning the catch. First of all, you should practice for a while holding the ball just before the chest, then bringing it up in a smooth slow arc to sit on the balance spot – holding it in your hand all the while. After you get this smooth and can keep the ball there for a while, try learning to bring the ball up and roll it into the balance point from an inch or so below it. Use your head to bring the ball under control. It is important to learn this at this point, as when you toss the ball for the first time, you will not have your hand to bring the ball under control. For the first toss, start again with the ball held just before the chest. Bring your hand up as usual, and then just as the hand is over the bridge of the nose, release the ball with a little push so it is
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tossed to the point just before the balance point and rolled into place. Gradually, you should be able to make the toss longer and longer as you lower the hand, until it’s straight from the chest. I have been told (I haven’t seen this yet) that Tony Duncan can toss a silicone ball straight from his foot to his forehead. I’m sure it is possible – I have seen Francis Brunn do it with a larger ball.
Neck Catch This move is even more dangerous than the Head Catch; so make absolutely certain you can do it with a soft ball before moving onto a hard ball. You are best off learning with a large soft ball (trusty novelty tennis ball time…) before moving onto a small soft ball (trusty non-novelty tennis ball time…), and finally onto your regular ball. You must be aware of the dangers of this move before trying it. There was a 19th century performer who used to perform the neck catch with a cannonball. He died when he misjudged the toss and hit the back of his head with the ball. An acrylic is much lighter than a cannonball, but nevertheless, you should be careful. The back of the head is a dangerous area to mess around with, and the spine is not to be trifled with either, so make sure that you have other catches down well before you try this – to make sure you have the general catch method down pat. Another danger is that you cannot see what you are doing, but we can work around that. Starting with a large ball, toss it up six inches above your head so it would fall about a foot in front of your face. In fact, allow it to fall a few times to make sure you have it right. Now, try the toss again, but bend forward, keeping your head level, and bring your arms up. You keep your head level so the spine curves to catch the ball – not bounce it off, and your arms are brought up to bunch your shoulder muscles, creating an added cushion. If you have the distance right, then the ball will either land on your shoulders and neck, or bounce off them. 62
If the ball hit your back, then throw the ball further forward – a foot and a half in front of the face, for example. If it hit your head, throw it closer to your face, or bow further forward after the toss. If the ball bounced off the neck, then you are not bowing fast enough, or you’re bowing too soon. The ball should clear the head just before you start your bow, and the bow should start off slow, move a bit faster as the ball approaches the neck, and slow to a halt after the ball has landed. You can bring the ball off the neck by either reversing the bow while leaning your head downwards then flicking it up, or by rolling down either of the arms. When you have the catch down with a large ball, try making the ball smaller and smaller until you think you’re ready for a hard one. Before catching with a hard ball, make sure you are completely confident with the catch. If you hesitate at all, then the catch will be wrong, and you may hurt yourself. Certainly, I wouldn’t like an acrylic slammed into the back of the head. You should be wary of it as well. Make sure you are doing a low catch before you try tossing higher up.
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Misc “Tricks” This chapter describes some moves which are not palmspinning, and are not ballrolling, yet have made it into the contact juggling repertoire.
Elevator This wonderful move looks fantastic when the body is held as still as possible. Start by holding a ball in the crade of your left hand. Bring the cradle up to about eye height. Your other hand is directly below it, about waist height, palm up. Drop the ball from the cradle to the palm, without moving the hands or body beyond what is necessary to get he ball moving. That was not the Elevator – that was the reverse of it… Imagine what you have just done was filmed, then reversed. That is the Elevator. Hold a ball in the right palm, about waist height, with the other hand above it, about eye height, cradle up. Using a wave motion, bring the ball forward to the fingers. This wave motion helps you to “whip” the ball upwards with the fingertips so the hand doesn’t move too much – making the ball almost seem to go up of it’s own accord. The ball goes up so that if the left hand fingers are kept still, the ball would hit the finger tips before falling back. Curl the fingers so the ball goes just above hand height, then straighten the fingers out again. If you get the toss just right, then the ball seems to float upwards and stop right on the hand. The ball should not go any higher than the hand, or you may have trouble catching it and keeping still at the same time. To help with the illusion, you can use your body movement to try bring attention to the top hand, so the audience watches it instead of the left. I like to do a finger-flourish to distract the audience. Edson’s Enigma Greg’s Grip 64
One Ball Combinations This chapter is a list of combinations of moves that are common in the CJ world. Each one uses two or more of the moves mentioned in the previous chapter
Back-Back Butterflies This move can be seen in The Labyrinth – Jareth says, “I’ve brought you a gift”, then produces a crystal and manipulates it. Most of that manipulation is the Back-Back Butterfly. To learn it, first learn the movements without a ball, then learn it one piece at a time with a ball. Start off with your forearms pointing up, the hands palm up, the right hand pointing right, and the left hand pointing left. Keeping your elbows still, fold your forearms over so the right forearm is closest to the body. Keep the hands palm-up as long as possible, bringing them palm down at the last moment so they’re flat against the opposite arms. Now unfold the arms again to the original position. While the arms are unfolding, keep the hands palm-down until the last moment, then bring them palm-up again to the original position. Now repeat the fold, but with the right arm on the outside, and the left hand closest to the body. Unfold again, keeping the hands palm-down until the last moment. Now that you’ve gone through the motions, repeat them a few times to get the movements smooth. Concentrate on making the hand motions as smooth as possible – the motions should not be jerky, as you will be doing it with a ball next. Okay – time to learn with a ball. Go back to the beginning position – forearms raised, both hands palm up, and a ball in the right palm. Now fold the arms with the right arm closest the body (on the inside), butterflying the ball at the last moment into the cradle. From there, Back-Back Pass the ball from the right cradle to the left cradle. 65
Butterfly both arms out so you’re in the starting position but the ball is on the opposite side. Now repeat the above move, with the ball’s arm always butterflying to the chest-side of the other arm. Remember to try to keep the arms’ movement symmetrical, and keep track of the movement the ball makes. Try to make the ball’s movements as smooth as possible, with no hesitations or halts.
Palm-Palm Butterfly This is the opposite of the Back-Back Butterfly, and very good for practicing your cradle balance and choosing which Palm-Palm Pass is best for you. Start with both hands in front of you as if you were to do a Back-Back Pass from the left to right. The ball should be in the right cradle. Butterfly the ball out of the cradle and into the right palm. From here, it’s up to you which Palm-Palm Pass you do. If you want to do a quick move, maybe you’ll choose the Chalice Pass. If you want it to be as large as possible, choose the Cheater Pass. Up to you. After you have passed to the left palm, butterfly the ball into the cradle, bringing both hands together as if to prepare for a BackBack Pass again, this time with the left hand in front. Reverse the move to complete.
Palm-Palm Twisting Butterfly When I placed a video of the Twisting Butterfly on the contactjuggling.org website, I had one person comment that it was pointless, that there was nothing that can be done with it. I then described some variants of it leading up to a four-ball move. The point here is that even the simplest moves can be extended to create great new moves. To do the Palm-Palm Twisting Butterfly, first start with the hands crossed, right over left, right hand palm-down and left hand palmup. Place the ball in the left palm.
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Now, start twisting the butterfly. When you get to the point where both hands are symmetrical – forearms together, fingers pointing forward and up – pass the ball from the left palm to right palm (using the Chalice Pass) and complete the movement.
Flytrap The Flytrap is a variation of the Palm-Palm Butterfly. Start with the left hand palm-up in front of the chest pointing to the left. The right hand is then placed on top of the left cradle-up. The ball is placed in the right cradle. Keeping the hands touching at the wrist, butterfly the ball into the right palm, moving only the right hand. You should now be in a position to do the Chalice Pass. Do so, and then butterfly the ball into the left cradle moving only the left hand. You should now be in the opposite position from the starting one. This move is a good one to move into or out of a Cage section of your routine.
Circle This movement is a reason for great happiness when you are learning contact juggling. When you have learned this move, and can intersperse it with Back-Back and Palm-Palm butterflies at will, you can say you have truly accomplished something. You have gotten past the difficult part of the learning curve, and always have some moves to fall back on when you are fed up trying harder ones. This move is simply a Back-Back Pass followed by a butterfly to palm followed by a Palm-Palm Pass followed by a butterfly to cradle. The movement of the hands makes the ball travel through a circle – hence “The Circle”. Some people call this “Around The World”.
Walking Halfpipe This is an extension of Back-Back Rolls. Start with a ball in the palm of the right hand. Palm-Back Pass. Back-Back Pass. Back-Palm Pass. The ball should now be in the left palm. Simple!
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You can do this flat, or raise both ends of the pattern (so the ball travels in a ‘U’ or “Halfpipe” shape). Greg Maldonado and Owen Edson like to extend this even further by bringing the ball up to a Tripod Hold. You can extend it further again by bringing it to a Three-Finger Hold.
Horizontal Circle The Walking Halfpipe uses three of the four Basic passes – BackBack, Back-Palm, and Palm-Back. This move adds the last, the Palm-Palm Pass, to make a full workout for your passes. Learn the Walking Halfpipe. Then, doing it flat, start to do it so the Palm Holds at the endpoints are facing away from you – the fingers are pointing forward. If you do the Back-Back Passes so the fingers are pointing about 30 degrees forwards, then you can bring the palms even closer, until the fingers almost touch – let the ball roll over the ends of the fingers to the opposite hand, and you can repeat the whole movement over and over. Spiral Curly Backwards Prayer Backhand Roll 1b MillsMess Circle
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Palmspinning Palmspinning is the simplest way to contact juggle more than one ball. It is the art of spinning balls in your hands so they form what looks like “bubbles” that move in entrancing ways. The groups of balls may break apart and reform into new patterns, or separate completely and revert to body rolling. Some of the more mesmerizing patterns incorporate isolations, where parts of the patterns stay still in space, and other parts of the pattern and the body revolve and rotate around them. Palmspinning can be performed with a minimum of one ball, and up to eleven have been used to form patterns. The easiest pattern, the 2b Palmspin, is used in all sorts of alternative health plans. For details of how palmspinning affects your health, see the website www.handhealth.com. Palmspinning looks easy. In fact, when done smoothly, it looks like the balls are doing all the work, and you are just providing a platform for them. This effect is evident because of one of the differences between palmspinning and body rolling. Whereas bodyrolling uses expansive gestures to move the balls, the movements in palmspinning are extremely subtle – slight shifts in balance are all that is needed in most cases. This can be seen very effectively when you learn to spin a 4stack with large balls. Palmspinning can be very simple, using the various shapes of the stacks to define your routine, or it can be complex, with balls interchanging and swapping hands at any time. In the beginning, I would encourage you to learn all the 2b moves before going onto anything else, then, no matter what else you practice, I’d encourage you to get your 3b moves down solid and always practice them – plenty of other palmspinning moves are built on a 3b base, so make sure that is solid. You might be surprised that I leave one ball moves until after the four ball moves, but it is easy to understand when you start learning – the 1b palmspinning moves are much harder than the 3b moves, and I believe harder than the 4b – therefore, I’ve placed them after the four. Try them anyway when you feel like it – it may just be me… 69
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Basic Palmspinning (1-4 balls) 2b Palmspin In contact juggling “notation”, 2b is short for “2 ball”. The 2b Palmspin is very well known all around the world. It is used in oriental alternative medicine as a method of stimulating points of the hand (and meanwhile giving them some exercise and flexibility). If you go into just about any alternative health shop you will find a set of “Chinese Medicine Balls”, most of which have small bells in them, which tinkle when you roll them. In CJ, the 2b Palmspin is taken a few steps further. The balls are larger, forcing the fingers to exercise more, we don’t isolate ourselves to rolling in just one direction, and the movement of each ball can be individually controlled. Place two balls in the right hand. The first should be in the palm near the heel on the little finger’s side. The second is held between the thumb, index finger, and side of the middle finger. The fingers should be relaxed and in contact with both balls. Forgetting about the back ball, straighten out the middle finger a little and push the front ball to the left with the thumb. Straighten out the ring finger and curl the index finger in so it pushes the ball further left. The thumb loses contact with the ball and the little finger loses contact with the back ball. Straighten the little finger and curl in the middle finger slightly, but not so much that the ball falls off the hand. The back ball may start rolling towards the thumb now. Push the thumb downwards so the back ball rolls towards it. The index finger should curl in slightly to stop the ball from rolling too far. When the ball is behind and to the right of the front ball, curl in the little and ring fingers to make the front ball roll back towards 71
the heel. This will push the back ball further to the right where the thumb, index finger, and the side of the middle finger can stop it. Now you can practice this move over and over. Soon you will be doing it without thinking about it. If you practice for a long time, the tendons on the back of the hand may start hurting or becoming warm. If this happens, stop practicing and relax for a while or practice in the other hand. Learning in the opposite direction is difficult for some people. Just go through the steps one at a time in reverse, with one addition: To start off, uncurl the little and middle fingers, and push the thumb-side ball to the back with the thumb. When you get really good, you can start learning to palmspin without the balls touching. This is difficult for beginners, so practice the normal palmspin in both hands and directions well before you start on it. Some people find the clicking that happens with palmspinning to be a nuisance, but it is not a sign that you are doing it “wrong”. The importance is in the overall movement of the balls, not in a precisely kept distance between them.
2b Palmspin Transfer The difference between a transfer and a pass in CJ is that a pass is simply a way of moving one or more balls from one hand to the other, whereas a transfer is about moving two or more balls from one hand to another while retaining their pattern. Thus, a 2b Palmspin Transfer is about moving the two balls from one hand to the other, while keeping the palmspin going. There are two basic ways of performing a transfer. The first is simply to move the motion over, so that if the spin was clockwise, the balls retain that spin. The second is to reverse the spin, so if the balls started out clockwise, they end up anticlockwise. To keep the same spin, you have to learn to spin both clockwise and anticlockwise in both hands. Start with the two balls in the right hand, spinning anticlockwise. This is called a “pushing” palmspin, based on the thumb’s motion.
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Place the left hand next to the right, and move the palmspin over so both hands are performing it at the same time. The center of the palmspin should be between the hands. Now, raise the right hand, tilting the palmspin so it moves on to the left. At this point, you are now doing a “pulling” palmspin, because the left thumb pulls the ball into motion. To reverse the spin, you start with the anticlockwise spin in the right hand again. Place the left hand next to it. Now, allow one of the right hand balls to “escape” into the left hand, so it’s heading for the heel of the hand. The other ball chases after it so you start a clockwise spin in the left hand. This is called a 2b Palmspin “Chasing” Transfer, as the balls chase each other from hand to hand. If you continue transferring the balls from one side to another, you’ll see that they are chasing each other in a figure eight pattern.
3b Palmspin The 3 Ball Palmspin is a problem for many people. After trying it for a while, they decide that it’s impossible for them to do it as “the balls are too large”, or “my fingers don’t move that way”. This is wrong. As has been said many times on www.contactjuggling.org, if you can hold three balls in your hand, you can spin three balls in your hand. If you think about it, you don’t have to learn to spin the balls all the way around – the 3-ball pattern is symmetrical such that when the pattern is spun through 120 degrees, it’s the same as when it wasn’t moved at all. So – all you have to learn is to spin the balls through one third of a circle – the other thirds are the same move repeated. Place three balls in your palm such that one is in the palm held at the heel, and the fingers hold the other two.
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There are two directions in which the balls can be spun. In the right hand, an anti-clockwise spin is called a “pushing” palmspin (based on the movement of the thumb), and a clockwise spin is called a “pulling” spin. In the left hand, this is reversed. An anticlockwise spin is “pulling”, and a clockwise spin is “pushing”. Some people find pushing spins easier than pulling spins. It is your decision, which you learn first. It is important to learn both, though, for later moves that sometimes depend on them. For the “pushing” spin, we start in the start position, and curl the little finger in to pull its ball towards the back. Straightening the thumb allows the back ball to roll forward along its length, causing the entire pattern to start its spin. As the back ball comes forward, move the thumb behind it and push it forward to complete one third of the spin. Now, all that’s required is to repeat this move twice more to complete a full circle. For the “pulling” spin, you curl the index finger to push it’s ball back, and curl the little finger to the outside of the pattern to encourage it’s ball to move towards the index finger. Allow the thumb to slide under the index finger’s ball as it approaches, and when it’s possible, pull the ball towards the back of the pattern, completing a one-third rotation. No just repeat this twice to complete the circle. A lot of people find this move tricky to get, so here are a few tips to note. It is a habit of a lot of people to raise the front higher than the back, making the balls want to roll back, and as there is already a ball at the heel in some positions, the front balls therefore roll off beside it. Keep the front of the hand slightly downwards to counter this. Your fingers will stop the ball from rolling off from the front. Start off with small balls – perhaps pool or snooker balls. This will allow you to get the motion right without worrying so much about the balls always rolling off the hands. Practice while doing something else. Watch TV, or read a book, or whatever. Your hands will eventually accustom themselves to the movement of the balls, and you will find that you are learning the move smoothly without even trying. 74
It is possible, but very difficult, to do a 3b Palmspin with the balls completely separate from each other. It is essential to learn it that way if you are using balls that do not slide against each other, but otherwise, there is no need to go that extra yard.
3b Cascade This is a horizontal version of Toss Juggling's Cascade (the easiest 3 ball juggling pattern). Start with two balls in the right hand and one in the left. Spin the right balls anticlockwise, then pass one of the balls to the left hand. Now spin the left balls clockwise before passing one of the balls to the right hand. You can also do this the opposite way - spin the right hand clockwise and the left hand anti-clockwise. If you'd like a challenge, try isolation one of the balls while continuing the cascade pattern - it's harder than it sounds! Or, if you're wondering what other Toss Juggling moves made the translation to CJ, try The Box, or Mills Mess, or try make up your own version of a popular Toss Juggling move - Burkes Barrage, Rubenstein's Revenge, Dancey's Devilment, etc.
3b Palmspin Transfer In this transfer, you palmspin in one hand, and then simply pass it from one hand to the other without stopping the spin. The awkward part is that when you spin a palmspin in the right hand in your normal direction and pass it to the left, you end up spinning in the opposite direction to "normal". In order to learn this transfer, you must be fluent in spinning in both directions in both hands. Also, it is an added benefit to be able to palmspin in both directions using both hands (i.e.: the balls are held in both hands at the same time). If you transfer the balls forwards over the fingertips, then the move becomes a 3b Palmspin Walk – try to keep the palmspin in one location, pulling the hands in towards you as you transfer the pattern.
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3b Chasing Transfer This transfer is easier than the standard transfer as the spin reverses direction as it passes from one hand to the other. Start by spinning in your normal way in the right hand. For me, that means anti-clockwise. Now, bring the palms together, and pass one ball into the opposite hand. The other balls continue spinning, and follow the first one into the opposite hand, where the spinning continues, but in the opposite direction. While this transfer is easier than the normal 3b Palmspin Transfer, you should concentrate on the ordinary one more - the more you practice difficult moves, the easier all others get.
3b Pinkylift With the lifts, we bring palmspinning out of the flat plane, literally adding another dimension to your juggling. Hold three balls in the left hand. A ball should be resting against the index and middle fingers, and another between the pinky and ring fingers. One ball is in the center of the palm, not touching any fingers. Carefully, straighten the pinky and ring fingers, bending the fingers up so the ball resting against them is pushed right over the other two. As the ball comes down the other side, balance it with the thumb, while shifting all three clockwise to bring the stack into position to do it again. Of course, you could do it anti-clockwise, but it is simpler and usually more visible to the audience if you do it clockwise. The opposite applies in the opposite hand, of course. By alternating the direction of spin (first clockwise, then anticlockwise, then clockwise, etc), you cascade the balls. Therefore, alternating the spinning direction is known as the 3b Pinkylift Cascade.
3b Thumblift This is slightly trickier that the Pinkylift, and that difficulty is more pronounced as you learn to use more balls.
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Hold the three balls in the left hand so there is one on either side of the hand (one of which is completely held by the thumb), and the last one is right at the front. Bend the hand down at the front, and press the base of the thumb upwards so it’s ball is pushed up. As the thumb reaches the highest it can go, bend the thumb and push the ball over the other two balls with the thumb-tip. On the other side, the ball is helped down by the ring finger, before shifting the whole pattern clockwise. It is better (more visible) to shift the pattern anticlockwise, but easier to learn it (for me, at least) clockwise. If you find anticlockwise is easier, then practice that before learning clockwise. If you alternate the direction you shift the pattern in, then you are doing what is known as the 3b Thumblift Cascade.
4b Stack The 4 Ball Stack (usually called simply “The Stack”) is a 3b Palmspin with an extra ball placed on top of the three to form a pyramid. Some people call this a 4b Palmspin, but I like to differentiate between flat patterns (palmspins) and patterns in 3 dimensions (stacks). Besides, there is another move more rightly called a 4b Palmspin. For a long time, the Stack was called a 4b Palmspin, but there are ways of performing a Palmspin with 4 balls that are more appropriate to that name. Before you learn the 4b Stack, you should be very practiced in the 3b Palmspin. Place the extra ball on top of your 3b Palmspin, and very slowly start to spin. You will find that at some points, the pressure of the extra ball will push the bottom balls apart from each 77
other. Learn to tilt the hand in such a way as to minimize this, but not so much that the top ball falls off. For this move, it is best to start with large balls on the bottom, and a smaller ball on top – maybe 2.5” acrylics on the bottom and a pool ball on top. The smaller size of the top ball will make it more difficult for the ball to be thrown off, and its smaller weight will lower it’s tendency to tear apart the base’s pattern.
4b Stack Pinkylift This is just like the 3b Pinkylift, but more care is needed when you are settling the new top ball on the base. Extend your thumb up to catch the falling top ball as soon as possible. This will allow you to keep the balls together. If you don’t keep the balls together, the move looks haphazard.
4b Stack Thumblift This lift is similar to the 3b version, but there are some small differences, which you should be aware of. With the 3b version, you start with one ball held against the length of the thumb, and the other two balls held with two fingers each – this is a very secure way of holding three balls. The 4b version, though has the thumb holding one ball as usual, the index, middle, and ring fingers holding the front ball, and the last ball is held securely between the pinky and the heel of the hand. The pinky curls over the ball to hold it secure. This difference is because with a lot of the move, the front face of the stack is balanced against the back ball, so it is best to have as many fingers free as possible to manipulate the moving balls. Drop the ring-finger side of the stack slightly, and sort-of flow the thumb upwards, more pressuring than pushing the thumb ball to rise up over the stack. Stretch the index and middle fingers downwards so the stack face can be held smoothly at all points. 78
As the old top ball starts to fall over, reach up with the ring finger, and gently ease the ball down.
1b Palmspin Despite only using one ball, the 1b Palmspin is about as difficult as the 4b Stack. The reason for this is mostly because you are spinning a ball as if it were one of a pair of balls, but the second ball is not there, meaning there is no helpful pressure to keep the ball from rolling to the center of the palm. Possibly the best way to learn this move is using a point-topoint system. You learn to hold the ball in each point the ball passes through, and then you learn to move the ball from one point to another. Start with the ball held at the heel of the right palm. This is your starting position. From there, move the ball forward and to the right so it is held by the thumb and index finger. Now, you pass the finger so it’s held between the index and middle fingers, at the second knuckles. Pass the ball along each finger like this, until it is held by the pinkie and ring finger. From there, roll the ball back to the heel. Learn this until you get it smooth, and then concentrate on learning it so the fingers hardly move, and also so the ball travels in as wide a circle as possible.
4b Flat Diamond Palmspin The “Flat” part of the name is there because there is a stack palmspin called the Diamond. This move, though, is not stacked. Using smaller balls than usual, hold three balls in the palm as if you are doing a 3b Palmspin. Place one more ball beside any other two to make a flat diamond shape. There are two axes here – the long axis runs from the just added ball to the ball on the opposite side of the pattern, and the short axis runs through the two balls beside the new one. When you spin this, you have to be careful to keep the short axis balls together. This is easy when the long axis of the pattern runs from the fingertips to the forearm, but when it is 90 degrees 79
rotated, it is difficult to keep the short axis balls together and make sure the other two balls don’t drop off either side of the hand. A tip I’d give here is to bring the pattern forward when you are moving the long axis balls to the side. When you bring the pattern forward, the balls will be supported mostly by the fingers, and the front of the palm. You will still have to stretch your thumb and pinky out to the sides to do the move, but it does solve a lot of problems.
4b Flat Spin Also known as the 4b Palmspin, this move is difficult to learn - so learn slowly. It may even be easier to learn the 5b Stack before learning this – the 5b Stack helps to keep the pattern from collapsing into a 4b Flat Diamond Palmspin. Basically, a 4b Flat Spin is a group of four balls arranged in a square, and spun in the palm. Stretch your fingers before attempting this, and move very slowly until you are certain of the move. Again, like the Flat Diamond version, I’d recommend bringing the shape forward onto the fingers, which will allow you more room to play with. You will find after a while that a lot of the motion is performed by the thumb, which moves in a wave-like motion to bring the balls along. Try to bring the center of balance of the pattern close to the thumb to take advantage of this.
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More Palmspinning (1-4 balls) 2b Orbital Isolation An “Orbital” Isolation is when one ball is isolated, and one or more others are "orbited" around it - like the moon around the Earth. It's not really clear which should be learned first - the 1b Isolation or the 2b Orbital Isolation - learning the 1b Isolation first would help very much with this move, but also learning this move first would probably give you a basis for the 1b Isolation. Maybe you should learn them both at the same time. Start learning by spinning very slowly. Concentrate on one ball, and try to get it to stay still in space while the other one is orbited around it. Pick a spot on the floor, or a corner of the room, and try to keep the ball still relative to that point. The second ball presses against the isolated ball, which actually helps with the isolation. Without the second ball, as you see from learning the 1b Isolation, the ball tends to try moving to the center of the palm. You can learn to do this with the balls not touching. Transferring this palmspin takes a bit of thinking. You can’t just transfer it as normal, because you have to keep the location of one of the balls precisely still. If you are spinning anticlockwise in the right hand, wait for the moving ball to come closest to the left hand before starting the transfer. The isolated ball is moved over before the moving ball – as the moving ball continues spinning away from the left hand back to the right side, follow it with the left hand, taking control over the pattern.
2b Ratchet This move is half isolation and half joke. Start with two balls in the right palm, with the elbow held in front of the chest, and the arm going out in front of you. 81
Spin the balls clockwise, but move the arm around the balls so both balls stay isolated in space. When you reach the point where your forearm is directly on the opposite side of the balls to where it was in the beginning, move the forearm back, bringing the balls around clockwise with it. When spinning the forearm back to it’s “home” position, you can either not palmspin the balls, allowing the movement of the arm to spin them for you (giving the “ratchet” effect), or you can spin the balls – clockwise for a quick “unwinding” effect, or anticlockwise to keep the isolation effect.
2b Curl Here is our first palmspin which needs a bit of bodily flexibility. Hold two balls in the right palm, forearm pointing out in front of you. We’ll do this without spinning first. Twist the forearm anticlockwise, bringing the palm in so it comes to the place just vacated by the elbow, which goes out to the side. Now, bend yourself forward and to the left at the waist, and carefully continue the twist until your forearm is pointing out the side (raise your elbow to keep the bend in the arm). Your arm will be twisted, with the palm still pointing up. Bend further to the left, and continue the twist so the palm comes over the head. Be very careful here, as a ball on the noggin hurts. Finish off the twist by bringing the elbow down, and straightening yourself back up. Practice that for a short while, being very aware of any twinges in your side. If you feel these twinges, stop what you’re doing, and sit down for a while. Don’t continue the curl practice for a few hours. When you are competent with the motion, try carefully adding a bit of anticlockwise spin to the balls. You will have a little trouble with the spin when your arm is very twisted. Try varying the bend of the elbow and waist to find the most comfortable position for you.
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In the right hand, this is the anticlockwise curl (the direction the forearm spins) – as with all contact juggling moves, though, it can be reversed.
2b Isolated Curl As someone said at the first ever contact juggling convention (CJC2001); every move can be isolated. It is tricky to think of a rolling or spinning move where this is not true. To start learning the isolation, you should first learn to curl so the pattern stays in the same general place, without moving vertically, or horizontally – it is okay for it to spin for now. To do this, you will need to bend your knees a lot, so you may tire quickly (don’t practice this too much before a performance…). When you can curl this reasonably well, it is time to finish the isolation. The isolation is “simply” a matter of palmspinning clockwise where you are curling anticlockwise in the right hand – at just the right speed to keep the balls still. Reverse the direction as needed.
2b Magnetic Palmspin This move is really a 1b Palmspin in disguise. Spin a 1b Palmspin in the left hand. In the right hand, grip a ball with your fingers. Move the held ball in a circle mimicking the left hand ball. Keep the ball is near to a set distance from the left ball as possible. If done correctly, the left ball will look as if it is being controlled by the right. This illusion will work especially well if you can palmspin the left ball with the least amount of movement necessary from the fingers. The right hand does not need to stay on the right – you can move the hand around the left hand to any position you want – just keep the motion going at all times. You can even do it without a ball in the right hand, by pretending your fingers are controlling the left ball through some sort of telekinesis – but it looks best with the ball.
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3b Ratchet I think the effect of this is very surprising. Start by holding the balls in your right hand as if starting a clockwise palmspin. Start the clockwise palmspin. Isolate the palmspin, though – the whole spin – so your hand moves, but the 3 balls stay still. When you reach a point where you can’t move your hands any further – hold the balls, and spin your hands back to the beginning position. Then start again. If you know what a ratchet is, you’ll understand this move. If you have trouble understanding it, ask any mechanic to show you a ratchet in action.
3b Orbital Isolation This move is done practically the same as the 2b Orbital isolation, the only real difference being the amount of work needed to get one orbit finished. The 3b Orbital Isolation should be learned slowly before you attempt to do it fast. Concentrate on getting the isolation good when seen from all directions. That is a common pitfall for contact jugglers - when seen from above (as we usually see the moves), it is fairly easy to get the horizontal part of the isolation good, but it's difficult to get the vertical element nicely when you can't see it. You can get a good idea of how an isolation looks to the audience by practicing in front of a mirror. If the mirror is a sufficient distance from you, you will not be looking down on the balls, but will see the move as the audience sees it.
4b Stack Tumble This little move is very impressive, very simple, and can be expanded to many other moves. Start by spinning a 4-Stack in the left hand. Bring your right hand under the left so it is on the left side of the stack. 84
Pinky-lift the stack so the top ball falls off into the right hand. Continue pinky lifting the remaining balls - this is just to continue the illusion of fluidity. Bring the right-hand ball around the other side of the stack by either bringing the right hand under the left hand or around the front of the left hand. Note that if you bring the right hand under the left, you may block off the ball's visibility - get around this by exaggerating the movement. Bring the ball upwards so it slots into the pinky lifting in the left hand, and ends up as the top ball of a new stack there. For added kudos - continue the pinky lifting for a moment or two.
1b Isolation The 1b Isolation feels similar to the 1b Palmspin. The pressures are slightly different, but the movements are the same. Start learning this the same way you learned the 1b Palmspin – by moving from point to point. When you are moving from point to point, though – keep the ball still in space, and pull the hand under it. The points the ball moves through actually come to the ball, rather than the ball moving to the points. This, like all isolations, is easier to learn with a heavy ball, as heavy balls resist changes in their momentum much more than light ones. A ball has momentum whether it is moving or not, so physically, all you’re doing is moving your hand, trying not to apply any additional pressure to the ball. It looks very good when you isolate in one hand for a while, and then switch over to the other hand - you isolate the pass as well so the ball doesn’t move. The ball is usually passed from the index finger onto the opposite hand’s heel.
4b Curl This move can be seen in many different forms of object manipulation – ball spinning and plate spinning being the most common.
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Start off with a 4 Stack held in the right hand – do not spin it. You do not want to try this spinning until you have learned it still (acrylics hurt – especially on the head). Lean your body forward and twist the hand in until it is directly under the shoulder. Continue twisting the stack under until the arm is pointing almost directly right of you. That is an awkward position, so raise the stack (or lower your body) to ease the strain. Continue the twist slowly so the stack approaches a point a few inches in front of and above the head. When it reaches there, start leaning back, following the stack with your eyes as you pull it over your face and off to the right. Your arm should have the forearm facing up now, and the elbow pointing out in front of you. From there, simply continue the twist around until you are back at the starting position. This move poses strain in a few directions on the shoulder joint and blades; so make sure that you are limber before you attempt it. I disclaim all responsibility of you ignoring this point. Don’t come crying to me if you can’t go to work the next day because your arm doesn’t work.
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Basic Palmspinning (5 ball and above) While this chapter is titled “Basic Palmspinning”, it is far from easy. You should be accustomed to the moves in the 1-4 ball chapters before trying these. If you really want to do over four ball work, but find these moves difficult, don’t despair – remember that the first Basic Palmspinning chapter was about up to four balls in one hand. That means that by using both hands, you can do up to eight ball palmspinning without learning the moves in this chapter. This chapter is about the fundamental moves for five ball and above. Most of them involve combinations of various lower-number palmspins, so you may find one or two surprisingly easy. It is not essential to be able to perform large number palmspinning in order to be a successful contact juggler. In toss juggling, the difference between five ball juggling and seven ball juggling represents a huge difference in skill, but the average audience member will be more impressed with many tricks at lower numbers than the ability to do a few at larger numbers. 5b Cascade
5b Linespin A “linespin” is a palmspin with five or more balls which consists of two lines of ball, one held by the fingers, and the other by the heels of the hand. Hold five balls in two lines with both hands so there is a line of three balls at the fingers, and two balls behind them, each of them touching two of the front balls. Treat the two front left balls and the back left ball as 3b Palmspin pattern, and the other two as a 2b Palmspin pattern, and 87
rotate each anticlockwise until there is a line of two at the front and a line of three at the back. Then, treat the front right and two back right balls as a 3b Palmspin and the other two as a 2b Palmspin and rotate anticlockwise again until you’re back at the start again. Make sure that the balls are touching at all times. Surprisingly, this style of palmspinning wasn’t noticed until a new CJer, Shifty, who had been practicing only about a year, came up with a whole gamut of new moves like this one.
5b 2h Palmspin This palmspin is a circle of five balls following each other. There are two paths to follow in order to learn this spin. First off, it is very important to learn the 5b Linespin - this one is essential, as the 5b 2h Palmspin is, in a way, simply a variant on it. The second is the 4b 2h Palmspin (also called the 4b 2h Flatspin).