4-ball Mills Mess: Other descriptions

Ed Carstens

Arnold Wilson

   A try to explain 4-ball Mills' Mess:


       ^     4          1    ^                       <3
       1                V   <3

             3                4                   1      ^
       2     V   ==>       2> V         ==>       V   4  2
       L     R             L> R                      <R
    4 balls async      Toss 3 over to                    L
                       left, and carry
                       2 UNDER to Right.         Toss 2 out of Left
straight
                                                 up. Carry 4 over left.
Prepare
     V========================================== to toss 4 up and bring
left
                                                 back to catch 1.

              ^               4>                        1>
       3 ^    2           ^      2                           4
       V 4>               1>     V                   ^       V
                                                     3
       1 R         ==>    3  L>          ==>                 2
       L                  R                            R>    L

 toss 4 with R and        toss 1 to right.         Catch 2 with L(over R)
**
catch 1 with L. Prepare   catch 3 with R.         and pull R back to
prepare
to catch 3 with R and     carry L hand OVER       to catch 4.  Prepare to
toss 1 to right.          Right to catch 2.       toss 2 back to left with
L.
                                               **oops-Toss 3 with R
straight up
  V================================================================

    3                            <2
    V     ^ 1                 3
         <2 V                 V

            4                 4      1              etc.....
          L R                 R      L

    toss 2 back to         Catch 1 w/ L, carry
left, pull right back      4 OVER L to left.
to catch 4. Prepare to     prepare to toss 4 w/
carry 4 OVER L to left.    R and 1 w/ L.
Prepare to catch 1 w/ L

Clues to learning 4 balls Mills Mess: Learn 4 balls false shower to the right and left. False shower is tossing all balls from one side of the body and catching them all on the other.

• 4 balls MM is an asynchronous pattern;
• the same two balls are juggled by each hand. No left hand ball is ever caught by the right hand and vice versa.
• timing needs to be almost perfect to avoid collisions.
• Hands are continually crossing right over left and then left over right.

Rick Wilson

Last week Arnold Ward posted an attempt at explaining the 4-ball Mill's Mess pattern. (Thanks Arn) I worked on that a bit this weekend. Although I didn't succeed in learning the trick yet, I did have a revelation about the pattern.

Arn said that the same two balls stay with one hand throughout the pattern. That means that the pattern can be demonstrated (and practiced) one hand at a time. Breaking it down into a one-hand-two-ball pattern, here is what I came up with:

Position 1 is where the left hand usually is, and Position 2 is where the right hand usually is. For now tie one hand behind your back (it doesn't matter which) and use the remaining hand to cover both positions.

The first throw is straight up from position 1. (ball 1) The second throw is across to position 2. (ball 2) The third throw is straight up from position 2. (ball 1 again) The fourth throw is back across to position 1. (ball 2) Repeat....

        |\       /--------\       /|
        ||      /          \      ||
        ||     /            \     ||
        |^   _2              4_   ^|
        |1   /|              |\   3|
        |^  /                  \  ^|
        || /                    \ ||
        ||/                      \||
      Position 1                Position 2

Now, perfect this with both hands in a sync pattern. (alternate which hand crosses over the other during throw 2-4)

Finally, for Wilson's Wonder, do this pattern async, 90 degrees out of phase.

Example:
 right hand does throw 4
 left hand does throw 3
 right hand does throw 1
 left hand does throw 4
 right hand does throw 2
 left hand does throw 1......
 (remember to alternate right-over-left, left-over-right)

Unknown

With 4 ball MM 2 balls remain in each hand, because of this you can start to learn it by teaching each hand separately.

The throws for the RIGHT hand are:

1. Hold two balls in right hand

2. Cross arms, right hand on top, throw first ball up and towards the center of the body.

3. Uncross arms in a flowing circle (like 3 ball MM) and re cross with right hand underneath left arm, throw second ball almost straight up with a slight tilt towards the center of the body.

4. Uncross right hand and catch first ball, continue uncrossing motion and throw the ball you just caught when your hands are completely uncrossed. (this is the only throw from the right hand side of the body). Again throw towards the center of your body.

5. Continue swing with right hand until it is back on top of your left arm, it should now be catching the second ball and throwing it up towards the center of the body (which is where we started).

Practice this whole thing with both hands, then to get into the real pattern start a 4 ball reverse cascade (fountain?) and just go for it. (i.e. start crossing your hands).

If you can't do a reverse cascade then guess what you should be practicing before attempting 4 ball MM.

Things to remember when you are doing it right:

1. There are three throws from each side of your body. e.g. 3 left, 3 right, 3 left, 3 right.

2. Your hands still throw left,right,left,right ...

3 Add a bit of height to make collisions less likely.

4. This trick is extremely difficult, don't expect to get it without hours/weeks of practice.

If any of this advice turns out to be wrong, or at least wildly inaccurate then I deny everything. I'm just practicing my typing and I've never seen a juggling ball before in my life. :-)

Geoff Thorpe

I posted some tips a while back, and I'll include them here. Don't know if they'll help you at all, and they do not come with any money-back guarantee:

I'm not sure if this is mills mess you're describing or even something like it, but here's my $0.02 worth on 4-balls mills mess.

This is the instruction I recieved when first learning:

Step 1: Practise 3 ball mills mess real low fast and even.

Step 2: Practise 3 ball mills mess higher (at the height of 4's) and concentrate on all throws going the same height. The most common problem is the underneath hand not throwing high enough.

Step 3: Do a regular off-synch 4 ball pattern.

Step 4: Throw one over the top from the leading hand, and then move the leading hand over the other one.

Step 5: Go for it!

Initially I thought Step 5 was a bit of a cop-out, but having learnt the pattern, analysed it, understood it, and got used to it, I'm sure this is the best way to learn it. I used 4 fergies with 2 black in the left hand, 2 green in the right, and the balls never swap hands during the pattern, so that may help too?!

Simon Richard Fox

A big help I found is to move your body to the right when throwing with the right hand UNDER the left (and same for left).

The idea is that you make room for that throw, and there is much more room in the pattern. I think it is the under throws that make it hard, especially with the bad hand.

Rob Stone

Not that I can do this pattern you understand but I find a big help in trying is to practice the cross-handed cascade. Cross your hands and throe reverse cascade throws nice and high without uncrossing your arms. Remember to practice with right over left and left over right. Keep those throws high.