Shoulder Throws

Here are some tips for improving your shoulder throws:

1. Keep your preceding left self throw inside. This means it should be caught in front of your body so it will be out of the path of the shoulder throw. Otherwise, the natural tendency is to try to avoid a collision by throwing the shoulder throw outside, which, of course, makes your partner have to reach.
2. Catch the club in your right hand which will be the shoulder throw lightly, and let it slip in your hand as you make the throw so at the very last moment, it is held only between the tip of your thumb and the side of your index finger.
3. Bend your elbow as much as you can.
4. Let it be a weak throw, which is to be caught low and inside by your partner. If your partner were to ignore this throw, it would land almost between her/his feet, slightly in front of the body.
   (An older way is to throw it to the usual pass position, requiring the partner to catch it upside down, and throw a 1/2 or 1-1/2 self-throw. This is harder for the catcher, and not practiced much anymore. You'll see jugglers who date back more than 12 years do it this way. If you throw a "proper" throw to the Karamatsov brothers, they will kneel down to the ground to catch it the way they are used to!)
   Chris Baer replies:
   I beg to differ. I love this catch! If you have a strong left-hand flourish, you can flourish your way out of the catch in a number of ways. An obvious one: flourish into a self-throw. A devious one: Flourish with the left and then pass that same club back to your partner. The pass can be a single or a double depending on the speed of the flourish.
5. At first, concentrate on making your shoulder throws very inside. It actually is caught below the partner's pattern, almost in the middle of the body.
   Brendan Brolly adds:
   The way I remember it is to aim for the groin, the same goes with tomohawks.