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Tricks - Club Juggling
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Have you learned the 3
ball cascade yet? It is a lot easier to
build your way up to learning clubs, by practicing
with juggling balls first. Most of the tricks
you can do with balls, can be done with clubs
also. |
Rules to juggle by
Once the simple 3 ball cascade is mastered and you
feel comfortable with it, you are now ready to progress
to learning 3 club tricks. A few points to consider
before continuing are:
- Dropping is a sign of progress (if you never dropped
a club, you would never learn how to correct yourself!)
- If you keep making mistakes, have a break, relax,
don't worry about it. Try again later!
- Keep returning to the 3 club cascade, and try
to work your new tricks into this pattern
- Record your progress. That way, you can look back
on your achievements and remember the hard work
you put in.
- Above all else, have fun. Juggling is a well known
form of relaxation, If you concentrate on your juggling,
then all other thoughts/worries/problems etc are
forgotten (for a short while anyway)!
3 Club Cascade
Ok so you have mastered the basic 3 ball cascade, and
are now ready to begin 3 club juggling. Firstly, well
done. Secondly, please read the above rules again! If
you stick by them, you can be sure that you will remain
calm and focused throughout your practice sessions!
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To build up to 3 clubs, you must
first practice throwing one club from one hand
to the other. Make sure that the club flips only
once, and you can catch it cleanly in your other
hand before you move onto two clubs. Now try two
clubs (using the exact same pattern as you learned
when trying the 3 ball cascade). Some people say
that it helps to build up to 3 clubs by using
one club and two balls. Other people say that
this is more distracting, as you have to get used
to doing two different throws during one routine.
It may be worth trying it if you are having trouble! |
First few tricks to learn?
Same as the first few tricks in the Ball
Juggling Tricks section! This will also be the first
few tricks you should try when juggling 3 of any item
(rings, bowling balls, chainsaws, fire clubs etc):
| Reverse Cascade |
The opposite of
the Cascade. In the cascade, the clubs are always
thrown underneath each other. In a reverse cascade,
every club is thrown over the top of the previous
club thrown.. |
| Reverse Arms |
The cascade pattern, but with your
arms reversed (your left arm is over at your right
hand side and vice versa). This trick is very
impressive once achieved (if done smoothly). Instead
of a cascade throw, you throw the club under the
opposite arm, to be caught by that hand. |
| Juggler's Tennis
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This is a trick that can be built
up gradually. What happens is that to begin with,
every club thrown from one hand goes over the
top of the other two, which are just swapped from
hand to hand. Once this is mastered, you can then
try just throwing the same club over the other
two back and forth (like a tennis match with the
other two clubs as the net! - hence the name)! |
| Under the legs |
The trick to build up to, is that
every right hand throw is made under the right
leg, and every left hand throw is under the
left leg. You can achieve this by starting with
just one club and practicing getting your throws
accurately from one hand to the other, then
move up to two clubs, then three clubs. Once
you can do this, try working up to every right
hand throw under the left leg, and vice versa!
Then you can try doing them both one after the
other:
- Left hand, left leg, then
- Right hand right leg, then
- Left hand, right leg, then
- Right hand, left leg, then repeat again
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| Wrong way round
/ Half flips |
You can try starting with one or all
of the clubs the wrong way round (eg you are holding
on to the bulky part), or you can practice doing
half flips, so that you can catch the club the
wrong way. This is a good comedy trick! |
| Double / Triple
spins |
In order to master
some of the more difficult 3 club tricks (and
to move on to 4+ club juggling), it is suggested
that you learn how to do double or triple
spins smoothly. The reason for this, is it
will give the clubs more airtime, which allows
you to do various other moves such as flourishing.
Start with one club, and practice throwing
it so that it flips twice and you can catch
it cleanly in the other hand. Then try with
two clubs, then move up to 3 clubs. Once you
have mastered doubles, you could try practicing
triple spins (if you have enough room above
your head!!) |
| Flourish |
When you are able to throw a double
from one hand, you should try to learn some
basic flourishing moves with the same hand (such
as wiping your brow with the club, twirling
the club like a baton, spinning the club on
your hand etc). |
| Chin Rolls |
When juggling a 3 club cascade,
try placing one of the clubs (upright with the
knob facing down) on top of your chin. The objective
of this is not to balance the club, but that
it should fall into your other hand and the
cascade can be continued! It all happens in
under a second, and looks impressive! |
| Chops |
A chop is made after you have
caught a club, when you rapidly carry the club
downwards (chopping motion) into the middle
of the pattern. The following throw is under
the arm that just chopped a club. You should
be able to work up to chopping with every throw
(both hands doing the chopping). You can then
work on making your throws higher and wider
to make the trick look really impressive! |
What next?
If you have mastered all these tricks
and are ready to move on, then please let me know.
One good way to reinforce what you have learned,
is to teach others. When you explain a trick, it
sometimes helps to reinforce it in your own mind
(and you will therefore understand the trick better!)
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