ARE
YOU FED UP WITH CLUB JUGGLING?! Spend
too much time with the clubs landing on the
floor?! Why not try club rolling? If you have
never noticed that when you roll a club on
the floor, it makes a circular shape, then
give it a try (best to use a wooden floor!)
Armed with this knowledge, then there are
a few patterns you can try! (have a look at
the animation on the left to see the club
rolling!)
WHAT DO I NEED? Just 3 or
more ordinary juggling clubs (preferably 6
so you can try out some more complex patterns!)
First Few Patterns
Around the
feet (one club):
Stand with your feet together,
and place a club with the knob (large bit)
end away from you just in front of your
feet. Give the club a little roll, and it
will travel round your feet and back to
starting position (it travels like the hands
of a clock).
Around the
feet (3 or more clubs)
Start with 3 clubs all pointing
knob end away just in front of your feet. Push
the first club, wait a second, push the next
clup, wait a second, push the third club. The
aim here is to keep the pattern going, but keep
the clubs spaced evenly apart. They will keep
slowing down due to friction of course, so you
need to give them the occasional roll to speed
them up. How many clubs can you keep going?
A good way to end this routine is to stop one
club in front of your feet, and hold it still
so that the other clubs come round, bang into
it and come to a halt also!
Clockwork
/Gears
Try putting a club in front
of you but with the knob end nearest your feet.
Now give it a push. It of course forms a circle
just as before, but this time the circle goes
away from your body. It is possible to do patterns
whereby you have clubs rolling round your body
and away from your body, and you really just
have to keep an eye on the pattern so that they
don’t collide! Go on, give it a try! The
effect can look like a series of gears if done
smoothly!
More Patterns
Leg Roll
(one club)
Sit on the ground with your legs in front
of you (raised at the knee). From your knee
down to your feet forms a nice ramp which
you can take a club and place at the top
so that the knob end fits nicely on your
legs and just let go. The club should roll
down your leg, then roll in a circle until
it reaches you again. Practice picking it
up and letting it roll down your leg in
the other direction. This is like a cascade
pattern!
Leg Roll
Cascade Pattern (3 clubs)
You need to prepare the clubs first
of all so that they are easy to grab and place
on your ramped legs! Remember where the club
ends up when you roll it down your leg and it
comes to a stop (should be slightly under your
ramped leg? This is where you need to set up
your clubs. Set up all 3 so they are facing
the same way and are beside each other. Grab
one at a time and drop it down the ramp. The
third club should be released before the first
club has came back to your opposite side. Just
keep the pattern going. All 3 clubs ends up
over one side of your body and then back to
the other.
Leg Roll
(2+ clubs)
Try with just 2 clubs (one on either
side of you). Then it is just a matter of timing.
Take a club from one side, drop it down the
ramp, take the club from the other side, drop
it down the ramp, then go back and drop the
first club down your legs again and then the
second one and and keep going! I do this routine
with 6 clubs, but you have to be quite fast!
Bum Lift!
Do a leg roll as above with just one club,
but when it comes back round, lift your bum
and then your legs, so that the club has done
a full circle, then continue your pattern! Try
doing this as part of a routine with more than
one club now!
What Next?
I haven’t seen many people do
club rolling routines, but it is great to teach
at circus skills workshops, even if you do the rolling
bit and the other person just forms the ramp or
stands still with their feet pointing forwards and
you roll a club round them, they still feel like
they have had a part to play in it all! If you know
of any more tricks, then please get in touch as
I would love to develop my skills further and I
can’t think of any more!
