A Rotating Feed

OK, as promised an (attempted) description of the four person, 12 club rotating feed Fran and I stole* from the Flying Karamazov's recent show.

The basic plan (no site swap descriptions here Tarim! just good old English with perhaps a line or two of french or italian to spice things up) is that we will be doing a feed pattern, one person feed the other three in a sweeping motion. The feeder is doing 2 count (every throw from the right hand is a pass, ie what Allen always hates calling a shower) and the feedees are doing an 8 count if they are on the end or a 4 count in the middle. The sweep will start at the right hand end of the line and goes right middle left middle etc

A picture is worth 1K words so let's draw one:

                             K



                     F       T       M

Ken is starting feeding Fran, Tarim and Mark (Neale, back on line and back in the UK now. How's things Mark? Sorry I never made it down to Washington!). The trick is this: at some crucial moment, Fran is going to replace me as the feeder. He will move to where I am and I will move to the end of the line, to Mark's right. Got that? Here's how it goes (are we sitting comfortably?). I start with Fran then Tarim then Mark then Tarim again then Fran again. Fran catches the incoming club and passes as normal but then moves, coming to my right. I pass with Tarim as normal which gives Fran plenty of time to move. However, the next pass is Mark and Fran exchanging. Fran is now the feeder so I have to pick up my heels, spin my wheels and get out of there to take up a position to Mark's right, ready for Fran's next pass! Hectic for the ex-feeder, and Tarim finds he has nothing to do for about half an hour and can do little tricks like 441 or a flash (55500). The feed continues as normal until Tarim decides it is time to go.

What happens to everyone else? When Fran moves, everything changes. Mark has to spot it and make his next pass to Fran not at me, or I might get a little upset. I have to get ready for Fran's next pass, Mark finds himself doing every others instead of every 4th and Tarim is slowed right down with a long pause. It is possible to do this other ways. For example Fran could start his sweep the other way and make his next pass after Mark to Tarim instead of tom me. That gives the feeder loads of time. It isn't half so much fun though.

The thing I really like about this pattern is that every position is different and every time a change happens, it's different for each person. Have fun, enjoy and don't take too many drugs before trying it :)

* Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal - Igor Stravinsky


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