Passing Seven

Alan "Crunchy Frog" Morgan

  Can anyone offer some helpful hints on how to get started with seven
  seven clubs?

No problem. Hold 4 in your right and 3 in your...

  (err, that's seven clubs and TWO people -- you know, four
  hands, two heads...)

Never mind. Start again. One of you holds 4 (2 and 2) and the other holds 3. I will assume you are both right handed and can pass double spins and a 6 club 2-count (everys).

You will be throwing double spins out of sync. The person with 4 starts with a right throw straight across. The receiving person *waits a smidgen* and then starts (again with a right handed throw straight across). All doubles - all straight across. You can do it with singles (it isn't really all that hard) but I think doubles are easier to learn with. Keep the doubles rather lofty to begin with and you will find the pattern is about the same speed as 6 clubs.

Simon Richard Fox

doubles is probably recommended for starters. Singles is quite fast and relentless, though i am now finding it easier to control.

there are two good ways to start. most common is for the guy with 4 clubs to throw one... when halfway across the other guy starts and then you're off, with doubles it isn't that fast.

another way is to get the guy with 3 to start with 2 in his non-passing hand and 1 in the other. he starts by doing a self-pass (from the hand with 2). very soon after the other guy starts with a pass from his right. my friend and i use this because he is left-handed and can't start properly with his bad right hand.

the best way to get this trick is to find a person who is *very* good at it and do the pattern with him for a while. then it will set in your head.

i could hardly do it at all until i met this guy on holiday and within the week we were passing 8 with triples and attempting 9. mind you he was carrying me, but i still learned the rhythms etc...

good luck. i still think passing 7 clubs looks better than 8 with doubles because of the off-skew timing, the pattern is nicer.

Allen Knutson

The relevant pattern to generalize is "every right hand". (Probably that's what you mean by "every", making the three patterns listed in parentheses be every 3/4/2nd throw. Just so long as you don't call it a "shower"...) Go back to 5 balls, but have one person "cheat". This means that their self throws are not actual throws but merely handoffs. If you set up the timing right, the non-cheater should not be able to tell the difference. Once that's easy (and it should be a little easier than passing 6, once the cheater learns to not throw too deep), try it with 6 balls. Learn it with either person cheating. N.B. doing this with 6 balls is ONLY A LITTLE faster than with 5. The only extra ingredient for 7 is starting with 4; the initial throws should be right-left-pause-pause. Don't start like 6, with a real pause between the right and left throws. Nor throw three balls in rapid succession. Rightleftpause, then throw when a ball is coming, as usual.

Brendan Brolly notes: "Also the other person should start a little bit later than the person with 4 (usually when the first object is half way across)."

Incidentally this cheating method generalizes for learning higher numbers; I am currently using it to simulate 14 with 11 balls, unfortunately without much success.

Passing Seven / Juggling Information Service / help@juggling.org