Holy grail sequence

Prerequisites: Reading Four-Handed Siteswaps & Zaps & Doubles | Next: Advanced patterns and takeouts in 4-handed siteswaps.

Holy grail (975). Holy grail is a difficult 7-club one-count pattern that combines zaps, singles, and doubles. What makes this pattern particularly challenging to learn is a double-zap combination, known as dragon ("the dragon to slay on the way to the holy grail"), where the double is thrown first, but the zap arrives first -- that is, to catch a dragon, you cannot look up for the incoming double until catching the zap. While it was considered nearly impossible 15 years ago and only few people could run a few cycles, there are now quite a few people who have a stable pattern.

9R X7R X5L X9L ||7R ||5R ||2|22|1

Warm-up. Holy grail requires solid zaps, singles, and doubles.

For zaps, it is useful to try the various easier zap patterns until zaps feel comfortable, even under stress. Then, the pattern 756 (see zaps) is a great warm-up pattern for every holy grail session.

The double is probably the most difficult throw in holy grail. 7-club three-count (966) and 972 (see doubles) are good warm-up pattern. Provide detailed feedback on all double passes to your partner (length, spin, height) and practice to look down to see the passes landing in 7-club three-count to calibrate without feedback.

Finally, the most important warm-up pattern is 945, to dial in the dragons (just hold the 4 without a flip). Again focus on giving good feedback on the doubles or watching your own double throws land (which is rather difficult). This pattern is hard, nearly as hard as holy grain, and not a good pattern to learn dragons. Use it as a warm-up pattern or come back to this if holy grail is unstable. From this one to holy grail, use the same start but juggler B adds a club for the additional single pass.

9R X4R X5L X9L ||4R ||5R ||2|21|1

Learning dragons. Practice dragons first with only two clubs: Passer A throws double-zap (both crossing), the other tries to catch it, and then throw it back (both straight). Vary hands occasionally.

A next step is often to throw a dragon as a trick in 7-club one-count, something like:

7R ||7R X7L ||7L X7R ||7R X9L X7L X5R X7R X7L ||7L X7R ||7R X7L ||2|22|1

There are several siteswaps that include dragons that are likely easier than 945. Nice examples are the 5-club patterns Dragonfly (97522) and Dragoncat (95524), the 6-club pattern Hidden dragon (7772955) the 7-club permutated sequence pattern 97586.

9R X7R X5L X2L ||2R X9R ||7L ||5L ||2R X2R ||2|11|1

9R X5R ||5L X2L ||4R ||9R ||5L X5L ||2R X4R X2|11|1

7R ||7R X7L ||2L ||9R X5R ||5L X7L X7R ||7R X2L X9L ||5R X5R ||2|21|1

9R X7R X5L X8L X6R X9R ||7L ||5L ||8R ||6R ||2|22|1

Tips for learning holy grail. This pattern is hard, but possible. Keep practicing.

  • Zaps and singles should be fairly automatic and clean. Practice 756 until it is fully automatic and very stable. Try to intentionally throw bad passes in 756 and try to recover.
  • The throw most likely to break the pattern is the double. Focus on clean doubles. Warm up with 966, 972, and 945, and go back to those patterns if doubles are rough in holy grail.
  • Practice 945. Every single time. This is the most important practice pattern for holy grail. 97522 and other dragon patterns can be a good practice to learn dragons initially, but are less useful when actually working on holy grail (they introduce their own challenges with doubles in period 5 patterns that are not important for mastering holy grail, see Improve your siteswap passing).
  • Throw double-zap in quick succession and throw fast zaps to make the dragons easier to catch. It may help to gallop the entire pattern a bit by throwing double-zap-single fast and then waiting a moment before throwing the next double-zap-single round.
  • Communicate. It is difficult to see how throws land. Provide feedback about poor throws, especially doubles.
  • As passer A, throw the crossing zaps narrow; as passer B, throw the straight zaps wide. This avoids collisions and gives the other passer space to throw good double passes. Other collision problems are often a sign of too short passes.
  • Both sides of holy grail (passer A and passer B) feel quite different. If you have a stable practice partner, it might be worth to learn the pattern on one side first to identify and fix problems.
  • Slow down and throw lofty passes (except the zaps). Breathe.