Compatible Siteswaps

Prerequisites: Reading Four-Handed Siteswaps & Beginner patterns.

In four-handed siteswaps, usually both passers juggle the same sequence, just offset of each other. However, this is not necessary -- just like there are many synchronous passing patterns that match different patterns, such as throwing an early double (see advanced synchronous patterns).

Matching and easier and a harder four-handed siteswap allows passers with different skills to both juggle interesting patterns. A good example is matching the easy 5-club one-count (744) against the harder 7-club pattern french three-count (786):

Matching compatible siteswaps also helps to stabilize passes for a passing partner when learning hard patterns. A common example is learning the 8-club pattern 978, where one passer at a time can drop a club to switch to 972, which usually provides them with much more room to recover and still provide good passes.

Theory: What makes two siteswaps compatible?

Two patterns are compatible if they have the same length and the same sequence of catching passes and non-passes. The sequence of catching passes and non-passes is the interface. For example, 744 and 768 both require catching one pass followed by two non-passes (interface pxx), and 972 and 978 require catching two passes followed by one non-pass (interface ppx).

Importantly, it does not matter when clubs are thrown, but when they land, since it only matters whether an incoming club comes from another passer or one-self. For example, in maybe (72786), the passer throws two consecutive singles, but in maybe not (96627), the passer throws a double and a single a pass apart -- nevertheless, in both cases the passes arrive on consecutive beats, so they are compatible with the interface ppxxx.

Note that ppxxx, xppxx, xxppx and so forth are all the same interface, simply by shifting where to start each siteswap.

Unfortunately, figuring out the interface of a siteswap is nontrivial and often requires pen and paper -- or simply look it up in a table like in the appendix. Many standard siteswap transformations preserve the interface, as we will discuss in siteswap theory. Also figuring out how to start is not always obvious and may require some trial and error or scribbling of causal diagrams.

Compatible Common Patterns

Here is a table with the compatibility of some common period 1, 3 and 5 siteswaps -- all patterns in the same row are compatible:

Even-length siteswaps

In siteswaps of an even length, both passers perform their own sequence. The most common example of this is 8-club one-count on singles versus doubles, which is simply the siteswap 97:

All combinations of two odd-length siteswaps, discussed above, turn into even-length siteswaps. For example, the combination of maybe (72786) and maybe not (96627) turns into the siteswap 7279662786, as visible in the diagram above. Since it is interleaving the local actions of each passer and requires finding the right start, doing this combination manually is nontrivial.

More interestingly, even-length siteswaps open possibilities for combining two sequences that are not a valid four-handed siteswap on their own. A typical example is 777726, where the passers throw pass-pass-zip (very good for beginners after one-counts) versus pass-pass-self:

Such patterns are fairly uncommon in the passing community right now, but there is a large space of possible patterns to explore. This includes the possibility of finding patterns that work against pass-self-self and thus feel like traditional 6-club three-count on one side, such as 786966 and 77a666:

To find more patterns, use any siteswap generator (such as passist.org) to generate patterns with an even length and exclude any patterns with 1 or 3s.

Programming

TODO

7->77772->77722

77[s,h,7...]

common combination