Modern Passing

With this short book (and corresponding website), my goal is to provide an opinionated introduction to the fascinating world of modern club passing. Like many areas of juggling, club passing is a field that has its own community that continuously pushes the field and invents and shares new patterns and new styles of passing. I have learned many things from this community and tremendously enjoy patterns that go beyond traditional 6-club 4-count ("every others") and 7-club 2-count and 2-count/4-count feeds. In passing corners at juggling festivals and at festivals dedicated to passing, it is now common to find ambidextrous 4-handed siteswaps with zaps and triple selfs and Roundabout-style manipulator pattern of various difficulty with 3 to 5 people.

Getting into modern club passing can be intimidating and overwhelming. There are so many patterns, notations, and video collections, it can be difficult to know where to start and where to go next, and how to even figure out what's going on. I try to provide a clear guide, laying out possible paths to learn patterns and skills that incrementally build on each other and increase in difficulty. Along the way, I'll compactly introduce necessary notation and concepts, which allows sharing and explaining individual patterns more compactly.

I try to curate and guide in a short book, rather than create a comprehensive repository. With this book, you will learn the essentials that are broadly known in the passing community -- at any level you will likely find people to pass interesting and challenging patterns with. You will find plenty of patterns beyond the basics to push yourself, and also gain the skill to find, read, and create other patterns.

What is modern club passing? Modern club passing is ambidextrous. Modern club passing is combining passes at different heights (zaps, singles, doubles) with zips, flips, heffs, and triple selfs. Modern club passing is to slow down and control the pattern. Modern club passing embraces manipulator and walking patterns with 3 or more people. Modern club passing is for the passer and not for an audience, constantly pushing the boundaries and trying more challenging patterns, even when they all look the same from the outside. Modern club passing is not a fixed concept but a term I embrace for the kind of passing that I and many in the passing community like.

-- Christian Kästner

Table of Content

Learn to pass / teach to pass

Next: Synchronous passing notation or Four-handed siteswap notation

5-club one count

The most effective way to teach beginners passing is to teach them 5-club one count. Especially if one passer is more experienced, it is possible to teach almost everybody passing within minutes and get them to experience success, even if they have never tried to juggle clubs before. As it allows for more control and feedback and trains both hands equally, this approach is much more effective than the traditional approach of first requiring a solo cascade pattern and then learning 6-club four count as the first pattern. This approach was first introduced by Amiel Martin and published on passingpedagogy.com; it has since been widely taught in workshops.

In the following I assume a more experienced teacher and a less experienced student. While it is easier to get to success with a more experienced teacher, who can throw good passes and recover from less good responses, the same sequence also works with two beginners.

Step 1: Practicing passing throws in isolation. The teacher has a single club, the student has two empty hands. The teacher throws a lofty crossing pass from the right hand with a single spin. Ideally the student can catch the club comfortably with the right hand at about shoulder height. The student then throws a lofty straight pass back to the teacher, from the student's right hand to the teacher's left hand. This is followed by a lofty crossing pass from the teacher's left hand to the student's left hand, and finally followed by a lofty straight pass from the student's left hand to the teacher's right hand.

Illustration of the four passes between the teacher (T) and the student (S).

Use this first step to practice passes, watch them land, and correct with the next throw if needed. Passes will often be too spinny, too short, too fast, or too low. Passes should be lofty and should be caught with an open hand facing the other passer roughly at shoulder height, maybe 10 to 20 cm (4-8 inch) diagonally in front of the shoulder. It is a good exercise for the teacher (a) to hold the empty hand where they want to catch the club as a reference point for the student to aim for, and (b) to provide feedback on what to correct.

[TODO: Photo of where to catch]

When throwing the pass, avoid spinning the club from the wrist – keep the wrist fixed. Adjust height and length of the throw primarily by controlling how much to move the lower arm (bending at the elbow) and when to release the club. For extra far throws, also the upper arm might be involved (moving from the shoulder joint) but that is rarely needed. If the club is not spinning enough, correct by throwing it higher, not by spinning it more. When avoiding spinning from the wrist, it does not matter much where exactly to grip the club; usually grab it anywhere comfortably at the handle, some people like to slide it down to the knob for every pass.

[TODO: Photo or graphic with the path of a club]

Step 2: Responding to a pass with a pass. The teacher has a single club in the right hand and the student has one club in each hand. The teacher throws a lofty crossing pass and the student responds by throwing a lofty straight pass from the right hand back to the teacher's left hand in response, before catching the club with the now empty right hand. Students often want to throw their responding pass very early – delay it as long as possible – it is thrown when the incoming club starts to descend, more than half-way across the pattern. The responding pass is thrown underneath the incoming pass, not outside of it. Once the first and the responding club are caught, the teacher repeats the sequence on the other side.

The teacher needs to throw lofty passes that are high and wide enough for the student to comfortably pass underneath – having good lofty crossing passes is more critical for the pattern than good straight passes, that is why we have the teacher throw them. The student's straight passes should be wide enough that the teacher can comfortably pass on the inside. If there are collision problems, the incoming pass is likely too short or too low. The student may need a few attempts to get comfortable with the timing to still throw good responding passes; practice on both sides, and go back to step 1 if needed. Find a rhythm that is slow and comfortable.

Step 3: Continue the pattern. Adding one more club, both teacher and student now start with one club in each hand. The teacher again starts with a lofty crossing pass, the student responds with a straight crossing pass, and now the teacher continues by responding with another lofty crossing pass, forcing the student to another response on the other side, which is caught by the teacher's empty hand. That is, we now have a sequence of four passes, involving all hands, teaching the speed of responding with alternating passes from both hands. Continue to pay attention to clean throws and catches and a generally slow rhythm.

If this is working well, a more experience teacher take a shortcut to 5-club one-count without telling the student by always handing the caught pass to the other hand to indefinitely continue the pattern (this is technically the four-handed siteswap 720). This can be done without any announcement and will often result in a student surprised about what they can do; adding another club for the final step will not make a difference from the student's perspective.

Finally: 5-club one count. Adding one more club again, the teacher starts with two clubs in the right hand and one club in the left hand, the student still has one club in each hand. The teacher starts with a lofty crossing pass and the rest is a continuous sequence of responses. This is it. This is 5-club one count. The student can also practice starting with three clubs, but should continue to do straight passes, unless they want to get ready to teach somebody else.

Onward to 6-club one-count and 7-club one-count

With an experienced teacher, most students can learn 6-club one-count on their first day, and some even see first success with 7-club one-count. Both patterns will likely still be easier than learning 6-club four count.

To warm up for 6-club one-count, first pass three clubs between the teacher's left hand and the student's right hand. All passes are straight and thrown a little from the inside to the outside. Try to keep passes lofty. The responding passes are thrown underneath incoming passes, and collisions indicate too short or too low passes. Once this works, switch sides and pass three clubs between the teacher's right hand and the student's left hand. Finally, combine both sides, alternating right-hand and left-hand passes. The most common start is for both passers to have two clubs in their right hand and one club in their left hand and to start at the same time with a right-handed pass – a more experienced teacher might start with four clubs and a left-handed pass, whereas the student starts responding one beat later with a right-hand pass.

Illustration of the passes between the teacher (T) and the student (S) in 6-club one-count. Both passers throw at the same time, alternating their right and left hand.

If the teacher is comfortable with 7-club one-count, transitioning from 6-club one-count to 7-club one-count is a fairly small step for the student. The student continues a one-count pattern with lofty straight single passes, now at a marginally faster pace (most students speed up too much going from 6 to 7 clubs, it is really not much faster). The teacher has to carry the pattern though with lofty crossing passes, typically starting with four clubs and a lofty crossing pass from the left hand slightly before the student's right-handed start.

What's next?

One-counts are great beginner patterns because the learner can focus entirely on passes, rather than focusing on separating passes and self throws. An experienced teacher can carry the pattern, so most incoming clubs for the student will be fairly stable, whereas other patterns often fall apart from bad self throws. One-counts also provide a good foundation for passing slow and lofty and for passing with both hands.

One the one hand, one-counts provide a good entry point for four-handed siteswaps (actually 5-club one-count and 7-club one-count are four-handed siteswaps: 744 and 7). To go this route, learn about the notation and start with the beginner patterns, slowly introducing zips, flips, and selfs. For beginners, zips are easier to introduce than selfs, so good patterns to try next are 777742 (see compatible siteswaps) and 77722 (Parsnip, see beginner patterns).

On the other hand, most other passers will have learned 6-club four-count first and other synchronous patterns next. To have a wider range of passing partners at all levels, it is useful to learn those patterns too. They also are the foundation for most group patterns. Depending on how stable their cascade is, some beginners might find it easier to learn patterns with more self, like 6-count, and others might prefer starting with patterns with fewer selfs, such as pass-pass-self.

Introduction to synchronous passing & notation

Most traditional passing patterns, including 6-club four count, three-count, and pass-pass-self as well as 7-club two-count are synchronous patterns in that both jugglers throw at the same time. This is where a lot of people start passing, though we recommend a different first pattern (see learning to pass).

Many passers explore only a small number of traditional synchronous patterns, usually with many selfs and with most or all passes thrown from the right hand, making it harder only by adding more clubs. It is not surprising that many find this boring soon. But there is a large number of synchronous patterns to explore, both one-sided (e.g., six-count popcorn) and ambidextrous (e.g., Jim's three-count) patterns, and then there is also the whole world of four-handed siteswaps.

Notation

Learning a specialized notation can make reading and understanding different patterns much easier than trying to decipher textual descriptions. There are many different notations and they are not used consistently, since they emphasize different things; some notations are overly complex for simple patterns. Here, we adopt a consistent notation for all synchronous patterns based on solo siteswaps and visualize them in simple diagrams.

We use the following symbols for different throws:

A pattern where both passers make the same throws at the same time can now be written as a sequence of throws, such as "p s s" or just "pss" for 6-club three-count where both passers throw a single pass on every third beat. This can also be visualized as follows:

In such visualization, we show two rows, one row for each passer. Time is progressing from left to right. Usually both passers start at the same time with the right hand and then alternate hands, as indicated with the "R" and "L" labels for right and left-handed throws. The numbers on the left indicate how many clubs each passer has in their right and left hand at the start ("right|left"), and the "||" and "X" next to a pass indicate whether that pass is thrown straight (i.e., right to left or left to right hand) or crossing (i.e., right to right or left to left hand).

Basic 6-club synchronous passing patterns

Prerequisites: Learning to pass | Next: Jim's patterns, 7-club and 8-club synchronous patterns, tedious patterns, or four-handed siteswaps

In all these 6-club patterns, both passers start with two clubs in the right and one club in the left hand. Both passers start at the same time with a straight single pass. It is customary to synchronize the start with an up-down-pass sequence where both passers lift the club without throwing it.

6-club four-count (pass-self-self-self) and two-count (pass-self). Four-count (old name every others) and two-count (old name everies) are probably the most common pattern used as a basis for group patterns, trick throws, and performances, but they are both one-sided, with all passes thrown from the right hand. I consider them as traditional passing, not modern passing. In four-count ever other right-hand throw is a pass.

In two-count every right-hand throw is a pass; the left hand only throws selfs.

For a more modern version, try 6-club three-count or 6-club one-count instead, or the beginner four-handed siteswaps.

6-club one-count. The 6-club one-count from learning to pass (also known as ultimates, old name thundershower) is the easiest synchronous pattern for beginners to learn when they have a stronger passer as partner, because all throws are the same. Both passers pass from their right hand at the same time and then again from the left hand at the same time.

6-club three-count (pass-self-self). A good pattern to introduce selfs ofter one-count is three-count (old name waltz) with both passers counting pass-self-self. The pattern is ambidextrous, so has both right-hand and left-hand passes. Note that two clubs are always passed and the other clubs are always selfed – each club received as a pass gets thrown back as a pass again. Using two clubs of a different color to highlight the passes can help beginners remember when to pass.

Pass-pass-self, bookends (pass-pass-self-pass-self), and countdowns. Any other sequence of passes and selfs is possible. Pass-pass-self (old name two-thirds-count), pass-pass-self-pass-self (known as bookends), and various countdowns are common sequences to introduce some challenges. The countdown pass-self-self-pass-self-pass-pass-self can be remembered as the sequence three-count, two-count, one-count, two-count. Another common countdown is to start with a four-count and count down to a one-count and back up for the ambidextrous pattern pass-self-self-self-pass-self-self-pass-self-pass-pass-self-pass-self-self.

Early doubles and triples. In all patterns (except one-count), instead of a self-pass combination, we can throw a crossing double pass followed by a wait (or flip) – that is, replace any 3 3p with 4p 2. This works because the double is thrown one beat before the single pass would have been and is thrown to the same hand. For the receiving passer, if the double is thrown well, this should not make a difference – the early double can be thrown to replace any single pass and does not need to be announced. It may require some practice though to get the timing and placement right.

The same idea also works with triple passes. Any self-self-pass combination can be replaced with a straight triple pass and two waiting beats (triple-flip-flip) – that is replace any 3 3 3p with 5p 2 2.

When first learning doubles and triples, focus on throwing them high and at the same distance as the singles. Again, avoid spinning clubs from the wrist – if the pass arrives underspun, add height from moving the entire lower arm.

Variations on selfs. As solo jugglers might know, every two selfs can be replaced by heff-flip (as in solo siteswap 342) and every three selfs can be replaced by trelf-self-zip or heff-heff-zip (as in solo siteswaps 531 and 441). These can be easily integrated as tricks in three-count and four-count.

Jim's patterns (sync)

Prerequisite: Basic Synchronous Passing Patterns | Next: Four-handed siteswaps or 7-club and 8-club synchronous patterns.

Jim's patterns are a common variation for basic synchronous patterns that mess with the timing and the hand sequence. They turn one-sided patterns into ambidextrous patterns. The basic idea is that one passer will throw crossing passes, while the other passer keeps throwing straight passes. As a consequence passers will sometimes receive an incoming pass to a hand that they do not expect, but they fix it by quickly making the next throw from that wrong hand instead. This forced, quick action from the same hand is known as a hurry.

Jim's three-count. If passer B throws crossing passes, passer A will receive their first pass to the right hand, rather than to the left. Hence, they throw their first self also from the right hand, very quickly after just having thrown a right-handed pass; their next pass is again from the right hand. Notice how the hands do not always alternate in this diagram – the hurries are highlighted. Overall, each passer always has two right-handed passes and then two left-handed passes before the pattern repeats.

Even with the hurries, both passers should throw passes and selfs at roughly the same time. The pattern is synchronous and simply fudges the timing by rushing two throws from the same hand. It is also possible to throw the pattern as a four-handed siteswap without hurries, but with time for a flip, as we will show among the beginner four-handed siteswaps

See also the asynchronous version with a flip in beginner four-handed siteswaps.

Jim's four-count and two-count. The same idea of crossing passes, turns the one-sided four-count and two-count patterns into ambidextrous patterns with hurries. Here is the diagram and hand sequence for Jim's two-count.

Jim's two-count is compatible with why not (see below) and can be useful to stabilize the pattern when learning why not. There are also 7-club versions of both that change sides with a hurry after every three double passes.

Brainstorming (Jim's pass-pass-self-pass-self). This pattern is a tricky milestone for many passers. It may not be physically hard, but it requires a lot of concentration. It is a long sequence that only repeats after 20 beats. Rather than memorizing the entire sequence, just count the pass-pass-self-pass-self sequence (aloud) and make those throws those regardless of which hand is next.

This pattern can be juggled as the four-handed siteswap 7747746677466.

Why not. The pattern why not is another popular after-the-basics pattern for many passers. It can be considered as a trick throw in Jim's two-count: Instead of the hurried self the passer throws a heff-zip combination with a hurried zip. Rather than fudging the timing in a synchronous pattern, we recommend to learn why not as a four-handed siteswap.

Other patterns to try: Every synchronous pattern can be jimsified by throwing a club to the wrong hand with the receiver reacting with a hurry. For example, Jim's one-count is fast sequence with many hurries; Jim's pass-pass-self turns out to be a one-sided pattern; Jim's countdown requires a lot of patience. It is possible to cross only some but not all passes or even to throw some doubles or selfs to the wrong hand. Also both passers can decide whether and when to throw crossing passes, though this is collision prone when done without coordination. None of the variations beyond the ones described above are very common, but there is a huge space for experimentation.

Common 7-club and 8-club patterns

Prerequisite: Basic Synchronous Passing Patterns | Next: Four-handed siteswaps or tedious synchronous patterns.

There are many more variations of synchronous patterns, especially when exploring 7-club and 8-club patterns. They are still all synchronous in that both passers throw at the same time, but they may not both make the same throw, or throw from the same hand.

We already introduced early doubles as a crossing double pass in basic 6-club synchronous patterns. Those are a good way to practice double passes. In fact, continuous early doubles in 6-club three-count (after a first normal pass) are a good way to practice doubles with both hands:

7-club two-count. Many passers learn 7-club two-count as a milestone. Being one-sided, I consider this traditional passing, not modern passing and recommend the four-handed siteswap 7-club three-count instead.

The conventional setup is the following: Both passers, throw straight double passes with every right hand; passer A starts with four clubs and a double pass as the first throw; passer B starts with three clubs and a double pass on the second beat. That is, passer B throws a right-hand pass when passer A throws a left-handed self and vice versa.

When learning 7-club two-count aim for consistent passes. Since both passers cannot see their passes land, provide feedback on placement and spin. A good strategy is to remember the spot on the ceiling where the first club peaks, to then try throwing all following passes such that they peak in the same place – consistency is usually more important than the exact placement.

See also the galloped version 7-club two-count on singles. Also consider the four-handed siteswaps 7-club one-count and 7-club three-count for a more modern introduction to 7-club patterns.

A tiny bit of theory. Why are early doubles crossing when doubles in 7-club two-count are straight? Why do passers start on different beats in 7-club two-count?

The patterns are indeed from the same family. By default, passers in synchronous patterns both start with the same hand and throw their singles straight and their doubles crossing. However, it is also possible to throw singles crossing and doubles straight, when one passer starts with the opposite hand.

Strictly following the theory, the most obvious approach for 7-club two-count would be for both passers cross their doubles and for both passers to start at the same time with a right hand throw, which is a right-handed pass for passer A and a right-handed self for passer B. This is actually a fairly nice pattern to allow one passer to practice left-handed doubles.

By flipping straight and crossing passes and having passer B start with the left hand, we get a pattern with straight doubles.

In practice, passer B often leaves out that first left-handed self to start on a right-handed pass one beat later, resulting in the conventional start shown above. However, actually starting with a left-handed self can help with timing.

7-club four-count. To explore one-sided triple passes, 7-club four-count is a well known, albeit boring, pattern.

6-count popcorn. This is one of several one-sided popcorn patterns -- named after the trelfs that pop up on alternating sides. It can also be thrown with heff-heff instead of trelf-self, which many find easier to learn. Again, notice that, conventionally, we again throw the double passes straight and passer B starts with the left hand (but often skips the first self).

See 5-count popcorn with heffs and 5-count popcorn with trelfs for ambidextrous versions.

7-club pass-pass-self. With odd-length patterns, there are no synchronous patterns where both passers throw the same sequence. The most common 7-club pass-pass-self pattern has passer A throws single-double-self and passer B throws double-self-double (3p 4p 3 vs. 4p 3 4p):

Another common variation is double-self-single versus single-double-heff (4p 3 3p vs. 3p 4p 4):

As discussed above, all of these can be also passed with crossing single passes and straight double passes if one passer starts left-handed.

Other variations of 7-club pass-pass-self, often with one side being substantially harder than the other, are:

• 3p 3 3p vs. 4 4p 4p
• 3p 3p 4 vs. 4p 4p 3
• 3p 3p 4 vs. 4p 4 3p
• 3 3p 4p vs. 5 3p 3p
• 3p 3p 4 vs. 5 3p 3p
• 4p 4p 1 vs. 4p 5 3p

In the appendix, we list a few more patterns with triple passes.

See 8-club pass-pass-self both the synchronous version below and the four-handed siteswap 996 for pass-pass-self pattern that are the same for both passers.

7-club synchronous three-counts. For three-counts that are not four-handed siteswaps, there are many possible variations that again combine two different throw sequences; none of them are common patterns:

• 3p 3 4 vs. 4 4 3p
• 3p 4 4 vs. 4p 3 3
• 3 4 4p vs. 4p 3 3
• 3 3p 3 vs. 4p 4 4
• 3 3p 3 vs. 5 3p 4

In the appendix, we list a few more of these patterns.

Try also techno, 7-club three-count (966), and french three-count (786) for other three-count patterns with 7 clubs.

8-club patterns (not two-count). For eight clubs there are obvious sequences of doubles and heffs that mirror standard 6-club patterns: 4p 4 4 (8-club three count), 4p 4p 4 (8-club pass-pass-self), 4p (8-club one count), and 4p 4 4 4 (8-club four count). These are usually passed with crossing doubles, but can also be passed with straight doubles if one passer starts left-handed. For passers used to 9s in four-handed siteswaps it may be useful to lower the double passes a bit.

Try also the siteswap 8-club pass-pass-self (996) with only one passer crossing and 8-club one-count on singles versus doubles (97).

Beyond classic synchronous patterns

Prerequisite: Advanced synchronous patterns | Next: Four-handed siteswaps

There are a number of patterns that generally fit with the theme of traditional synchronous patterns, but they push the go beyond the original patterns by modifying the throwing rhythm to squeeze the timing, resulting in throws that are lower than in the initially described notation. We use a asterisk to note these throws are lower than they should be if they were juggled as traditional synchronous patterns:

Gallops

For a number of one-sided patters it is common to juggle them lower than standard timing would require, but to fudge the timing by galloping the pattern, that is throwing a fast left-hand self quickly after the right-hand.

7-club two-count on singles and 8-club two-count on doubles. The most common galloped patterns are to throw 7-club two-count with lofty singles instead of doubles, followed quickly by a fast self from the left hand, and to throw 8-club two-count on doubles (instead of the triple needed for a non-galloped pattern).

(Technically, we fudge the timing and throw lofty singles instead of doubles. By default, we would expect crossing passes, but just as in 7-club two-count on doubles it is most common to throw all straight passes from the right hand for both passers by swapping straight and crossing and starting hands.)

8-club two-count follows the same idea:

6-count popcorn on singles. The standard 6-count popcorn can be juggled on singles and with a double-self instead of trelf if the pattern is galloped.

Long beach popcorn. This 8-club pattern has the right-hand sequence lofty-triple pass (instead of a quad), double-self (instead of a trelf), lofty single pass (instead of a double), while all left-hand actions are quick, galloped selfs.

See Will Murray's pattern collection for many more galloped patterns and theory of how to create more of them.

Fully synchronized patterns

There are several patterns, where a passer's left and right hand always throw at the same time -- similar to synchronous throws in solo siteswaps. That is, all four hands always throw at the same time. This effectively doubles the speed, as there are two actions on every beat, rather than one; passers usually compensate with lofty selfs and lofty passes to slow down to a manageable speed.

Techno. In this 7-club three-count variation a single pass and a self is thrown from both hands at the same time, followed by a single self on the next beat, before it all repeats on the other side. One passer crosses their passes. This pattern is helped by throwing very lofty passes and delaying passer B's start as long as possible. Technically, all hands from both passers throw at the same time, though in practice a slight gallop might help to learn the pattern.

Video: https://www.juggle.org/tricks-in-three-count-causal-diagrams/

8-club two-count on singles, swing, and variations. There are many variations on the fully synchronous 8-club two-count on singles. Again, all four hands throw at the same time, one hand throwing a self and one hand throwing a single pass. This pattern really benefits from lofty passes and lofty selfs. The traditional pattern most people learn first is fully right handed:

Swing (or the swinging door) is a challenging modern ambidextrous variation that alternates passes on the right and the left side of the pattern, while effectively juggling a cascade at the same time. Warm up with left-handed 8-club two-count and focus on lofty and narrow(!) selfs in the actual pattern.

As a variation, throw a crossing pass and a heffling (a self to the same hand/a single-spin heff) at the same time. This can be done as a trick throw or continuously. For example, alternating between straight and crossing passes provides an ambidextrous pattern that is compatible with right-handed 8-club two-count.

[TODO: more clearly visualize straight and crossing]

This is also compatible against various scratch your hand patterns (see below). As usual, all straight passes can be turned into crossing passes and vice versa (see theory in advanced synchronous patterns)

8-club one-count on singles. Similar to two-count, it is possible to juggle 8-club one-count all synchronously, all four hands throwing at the same time. To avoid collisions, some lane management is needed. A good version to try is with all straight lofty single passes first throwing outside on the right and inside on the left, and then inside on the right and outside on the left for the second throw, but many other variations are possible.

Example of two possible lanes for 8-club one-count synchronously, consider alternating between them.

Also see the many other 8-club one-count variations in the appendix.

9-club two-count on doubles. A traditional one-sided pattern can be thrown fully synchronous or slightly galloped.

Scratch your head. Throw a single pass and a heff at the same time; one passer is crossing (this can technically be seen as a siteswap transformation in techno, replacing self-self with heff-flip, though the flip is usually just held). While technically all synchronous, the actions of both jugglers alternate since they only hold a club on the off beat and only throw every other beat.

Video: https://www.juggle.org/tricks-in-three-count-causal-diagrams/

[TODO: add mini-scratch-your head with flip and self]

There are a number of variations found and collected by Will Murray and described on his web page, including a 5-club version (single pass and flip at the same time), a 9-club version (double pass and heff at the same time), and scratch your nose (one-sided with all straight passes, but crossing double selfs instead of heffs).

Tedious synchronous patterns

There are various ways to make juggling patterns harder mentally without making them harder physically, typically by requiring nontrivial counting or introducing randomness. They can be an interesting challenge, but few people practice them regularly. I include them more for completeness.

Passing colors. Pick clubs with some distinct colors and assign different counts to different clubs. The number of colors and the assigned counts do not really matter; for example, 2 red clubs = 3 count, 1 blue club = 4 count, 3 white clubs = 2 count. Now focus on the passes of juggler A and the pass thrown determines the next count. Colors can also be assigned as double passes, whether passer A throws crossing or straight passes (see Jim's), or other variations. This will result in a random new sequence for every start.

Random passing. Any random sequence of single passes and selfs can be passed synchronously. Also double passes and heffs can be added to the mix, typically pausing the pattern for a beat to continue when they land (doing random valid sequences without pauses is possible by walking a siteswap state chart, but not trivial without paper or a program). The sequence could be called out by one passer or by a third person watching the pattern. Experiment with the timing of calling out the throws, typically calling them one beat before throwing them works quite well.

Patterns from hell. These patterns involve counting. Pass three count and throw a double on every fifth throw (double pass or double self, whichever happens on that beat) waiting for it to land to continue. If that becomes too easy start walking in one direction (e.g., passer A walks forward, passer B walks backward) one step per throw for 7 beats, and then walk in the other direction for the next 7 beats. This works with any other numbers and other actions on those counts, particularly if actions are always on multiples of prime numbers.

Another hard pattern is Jim's pass-pass-self-pass-self (brainstroming) with switch who is passing the crossing passes. The most common variation is for passer A to throw crossing-crossing-straight-crossing-straight (counting only the passes) and for passer B to do the opposite. This pattern will have a lot of hurries and only repeats after 120 beats.

For four-handed siteswaps, randomness is very difficult since both passers do different actions, but consider trying very long siteswaps, such as 796827726867726 or 777928892296626.

Improve your passing

There are a number of common problems in passing patterns and a number of tips and exercises to improve.

Slow down. Most patterns become easier to juggle if the pattern is slower and passes are lofty. Go back to 5-club one-count (see learning to pass) to practice lofty single passes and experiment with early doubles (see basic synchronous patterns) to practice double passes. Similarly, beginners often throw heffs and trelfs fairly low and thus fast, rushing the rest of the pattern.

About 110 to 120 beats per minute is a typical reasonable speed for synchronous 6-club patterns, 90 beats per minute is possible to deliberately slow down, and 130–160 beats per minute would be on the fast end. For galloped patterns these higher speeds are common, and for fully synchronized patterns, 100–120 beats per minute is normal (i.e., effectively twice the speed of a normal pattern).

Count out loud to synchronize timing. If running into problems where passers go at different speed, count the passing sequence aloud ("pass-self-self-pass-self-self") to synchronize both passers. Some might find it useful to find music with a strong beat at the right pace – some music apps for runners allow to select music by speed or have playlists for specific speeds (in beats per minute; a 200bpm song works well for 100bpm passing).

Control spin with the arm, not the wrist. A passer can control the motion of a throw at three points: the wrist, the elbow joint, and the shoulder joint. Flicking motions from the wrist can create very fast spinning clubs and throwing with a long outstretched arm from the shoulder joint allows to perform very heigh throws with a single spin – try this solo with a single club to get a feel for the different spins.

To throw slow and lofty passes, entirely avoid spinning the club from the wrist, but mostly throw from the elbow – the same holds for heffs, lofty doubles, crossing double selfs, and trelfs. If the pass arrives underspun, correct it by throwing it higher, not by adding spin from the wrist. If the pass is too short, release it earlier or add a little force from the shoulder joint. It is much easier to get consistent throws with the arm than with the wrist. By not throwing from the wrist, the position where the club is held (e.g., near the knob or near the center) matters much less.

In synchronous patterns, with both passers doing the same thing, it is perfectly fine to throw very lofty passes that are slower than selfs, even if the beats may not be perfectly spaced out in time. The main exceptions are patterns where passers do different throws on different beats (see early doubles and synchronous 7-club pass-pass-self patterns), where it may be necessary to speed up double passes a bit – here, lowering the doubles with a little spin from the wrist might help keep an even rhythm.

Wide selfs, pass to the outside. Passes should be thrown under an incoming self or an incoming pass. There should be no collision problem and no need to throw a pass from far inside (in a scooping motion), or from far outside, or far in front. High and wide selfs are helpful to provide the space. Similarly passes should usually go slightly to the outside, so that the partner can comfortably pass underneath and slightly inside of them. Collisions are typically a symptom of passes that are too short or too low.

Provide feedback. Even if a poor throw is recoverable – for example, caught underspun or caught up-side-down but fixed with a extra half spin on the next throw – provide feedback to the other passer, especially if a problem is reoccurring or consistent. Use consistent terminology, either always describing what is wrong (e.g., "overspun", "too short") or, more constructively, describing how to change (e.g., "a little bit more spin", "longer"). It can be helpful to provide feedback during the pattern, when the problem is occurring, rather than afterward after the pattern fell apart. Especially good passers have a tendency to just correct for problems without saying anything – explicitly and repeatedly ask for feedback.

Watch outgoing passes. Practice to see "through" the pattern and to watch the other passer juggle. In addition to helping with timing, this allows a passer to see how their own passes land and to make corrections without asking for feedback. Start with easier patterns, like 6-club three-count and start watching the other passer more on more, until it is possible to constantly look at their pattern.

Learn to recognize what an underspun and an overspun pass looks like when caught. Underspun passes are often caught (if caught) with the palm of the hand pointing up and overspun passes can be recognized by a quick catching movement with the hand snapping down. Intentionally throw under- and overspun passes to observe this and practice to adjust throws accordingly.

Do not neglect the left hand. Doing only right-hand passes will becoming limiting very quickly, making it harder to progress beyond four-count and two-count. Practice ambidextrous patterns, such as three-count and pass-pass-self or Jim's two-count, from the beginning.

Start at the same time. Even on patterns with doubles, like 7-club two-count and 6-count popcorn, it can be helpful to start at the same time with the common up-down-pass start, even if it means that passer B has to start with a left-handed self. This can make it easier to get the timing consistent, rather than waiting to start "as late as possible".

Let the club slide to the knob. This is somewhat controversial but may be helpful to some: Before a pass, in the downward motion, let the club slide down to the know. That is, still fully grip the handle (i.e., do not swing from the knob), but do this at the far end of the club. This can ensure some consistency in the throws, which is particularly important when spinning clubs from the wrist, but it is less important when spinning a club with the arm.

Introduction to Four-Handed Siteswaps & Notation

Prerequisites: Learn to pass / teach to pass; Next: Beginner four-handed siteswaps

Four-handed siteswaps describe a large class of two-person passing patterns. They are all ambidextrous and symmetric, performing the same sequence both one the right and the left side. They are all characterized by an asynchronous beat where both passers juggle the same sequence but offset from each other and by having one passer throw crossing passes.

Four-handed siteswaps come at all difficulty levels and can be learned as the first patterns, before synchronous patterns. We strongly recommend to learn how to read the notation first and then try the beginner patterns. After that doubles, heffs, zaps, and trelfs can be added in any order.

Notation

Here we only describe how to read a pattern; for understanding why the notation works this way and why some passes are crossing, see four-handed siteswap theory.

A four-handed siteswap is written as a sequence of numbers such as 744, 77722 or 8686777. Similarly to the letters used for synchronous patterns, each number denotes a throw:

The number sequence describes the infinitely-repeating alternating actions of two passers; the first digit is the first action of passer A, the second digit is the first action of passer B, the third digit is the second action of passer A and so forth. A common and helpful way to think of (and write) siteswaps is to repeat a siteswap twice and alternate the numbers between two rows. Now we can read the actions of each passer in separate rows -- for example seeing that passer A starts with the sequence 7-8-4-5-6 (single-heff-flip-zap-self) in the siteswap 75864:

Note how both passers do the same sequence of throws in the same order, but start in different places of the sequence.

What about other numbers? The numbers 1 and 3 are conceptually passes that are not used in popular patterns, because it would be difficult to impossible to pass fast enough. The number 0 for an empty hand can be used, but most people avoid such patterns, simply because having an empty hand for a beat is awkward. Higher numbers are possible -- for example, b for a triple pass -- but less common.

Starting a pattern

Passer A always starts the pattern with a right-hand action (the first digit of the siteswap) and passer B always follows slightly afterward with a right-hand action (the second digit of the siteswap). Technically, passer B should start between passer A's first and second action; in practice most patterns are fairly forgiving to fudge the timing a bit.

It is possible to start a siteswap on any beat of the sequence, or conversely to shift siteswaps -- for example, 786 is the same pattern as 867 and 678. Here, we write all featured siteswaps as they would usually be started and we indicate how many clubs are in each hand (read "right|left") -- see the theory section for how to select a start and figure out clubs or use an online tool like passist.org). We additionally include hints about which hand does the action for the initial throws (R and L for right and left), whether to throw a pass straight (||) or crossing (X), and how many clubs are in each hand at the start ():

Beginner four-handed siteswaps

Prerequisites: Reading Four-Handed Siteswaps & Learn to pass / teach to pass | Helpful: Sync 6-club one-count and ppsps | Next: Add doubles, heffs, or zaps.

5-club one-count (744 and 726). Note how 5-club one-count (from learn to pass) is actually the four-handed siteswap 744

When you get more comfortable with the pattern, try flipping the 4s or throw self-zip instead:

Parsnip (77722). Another good beginner pattern is parsnip. Notice that we often automatically do zips without noticing them; it might be easier to focus on the passes, of which there always be three from the same hand, before changing sides.

Martin's one-count (77772). If you are comfortable with parsnip, add a club, resulting in 4 passes and a (fairly automatic) zip.

7-club one-count (7). Now add another club and leave out the zips. Especially the crossing singles should be lofty. If you drop a club continue in 77772, if you drop another one, continue in 77722 or 77272.

Mild madness (7777266). A well known juggling pattern, often juggled synchronously with fudged timing, makes a nice easy sideswap with selfs.

Jim's three-count, async (7746666). An four-handed siteswap version of Jim's three count (see Jim's patterns) without a hurry. Notice the extra time for a flip after every second pass from the asynchronous nature of four-handed siteswaps. (There are siteswap version for all Jim's patterns)

Other similar patterns to try. 77272, 774, 77466 (Jim's two-count), 7742744, 7747746

Doubles

Prerequisites: Reading Four-Handed Siteswaps & Beginner four-handed siteswaps | Helpful: Advanced synchronous patterns | Next: Add heffs or zaps.

7-club three-count (966). A good pattern to practice doubles. Provide feedback about incoming doubles (e.g., over/under-spun, short/long, high/low, wide/narrow). As the pattern gets more stable, try to look down to see your passes land.

7-club Jim's two-count (9964966).

972. A great pattern to combine singles and doubles, one of them crossing, so both thrown to the same hand ("stacks"). Note: Juggler A starts with one club in the right hand and two in the left.

Not likely (96672). Doubles in period-5 patterns can be tricky, make sure they are lofty and use the self-zip-self to stabilize.

Funky bookends friend (96677). Harder version of not likely, keep the double high.

8-club pass-pass-self (996). A great introduction to ambidexterious 8 clubs.

Other similar patterns to try. 96627 (Maybe not), 9647772 (Odnom), 9669667 (Placebo), 9797926 (Moscow Mule)

Heffs

Prerequisites: Reading Four-Handed Siteswaps & Beginner four-handed siteswaps | Next: Add doubles, zaps, or trelfs, or introduce takeouts.

Why not (78627). Why not is probably the first pattern with heffs for most jugglers. It is a widely know 6-club pattern, with lots of videos and good video tutorials. Many jugglers fudge the timing with a fast zip (like Jim's patterns) and juggle it synchronously. The most common and easiest to learn start is to have juggler B start with two clubs and react to the first pass with heff-zip-pass-self-pass.

There is also a 5-club version (78622) and the similar pattern not why (72867).

French three-count (786). A very common 7-club pattern and a great foundation for many harder siteswaps.

Funky bookends (77786). Another common, well known pattern.

5-count popcorn with heffs (78686). While the original popcorn patterns arguably have trelfs in them, this is a common easier version.

Notice that french three count (786), 5-count popcorn (78686), and 7-count popcorn (7868686) all follow a common idea.

Vitoria (7778686). Essentially a combination of funky bookends and popcorn, named after the city Vitoria-Gasteiz where EJC was held in 2009.

Other similar patterns to try. 72867 (not why), 72786 (maybe), 8677777 (Mojito), 7868686 (7-count popcorn), 7888882 (7-count popcorn variation).

Zaps

Prerequisites: Reading Four-Handed Siteswaps & Beginner four-handed siteswaps | Next: Add doubles, heffs, or trelfs, or introduce takeouts.

Zaps are low, fast passes that only spin half a rotation. The open a whole new group of interesting patterns. Look at a video or an animation for examples. They are usually thrown with an extended arm, letting the club slide down to the knob, without any spin from the wrist, aiming quite a bit behind the person catching the zap. Most of these patterns do not have commonly used names and are simply known by their numbers.

Getting started with zaps (56464). This is a great warmup pattern to learn and practice zaps. Hold the 4s and think of it at self-self-zap-wait-wait, starting with the self-self when it is necessary to free a hand to catch the zap. The zap is always the same club and there is plenty of time to watch the throw.

Once this is stable, replace the wait-wait with a self-zip (56662) to make it feel like an actual juggling pattern. Throw the self from the hand that did not just throw the zap.

Killer bunny (564). The next good practice pattern is shorter and slightly more challenging -- think of it as self-zap-hold or self-zap-flip. Once the pattern is more stable, flipping rather than holding the club will help with timing.

552, 522, and 5. Nice warm-up patterns to lean into zaps with 4, 3, and 5 clubs. In 522, try doing one of the zips behind the back. 5 is simply a very fast one-count with 5 clubs.

756. This a well-known 6-club pattern and a great milestone in combining zaps and singles. Each passer throws a zap and then a single (a "stack") to the same hand (crossing one of the passes), and then, after a self, a zap and a single to the other hand. Ensure the zaps are fast and the singles are lofty.

Other patterns to try. 56252, 75666, Katzi (75724), Funky magazine rack (55564), 75625.

Trelfs

Prerequisites: Reading Four-Handed Siteswaps & Beginner four-handed siteswaps | Next: Add doubles and heffs and look for combinations among common named patterns.

Trelfs are triple selfs, introducing the artificial term to distinguish them from triple passes. They are common in solo juggling, for example, the solo siteswap 543 with single, double, and triple spins is a good solo practice pattern.

5-count popcorn (7a666). A well-known, popular 7-club pattern. Some might find it easier to first throw trelf-self as a trick instead of heff-heff in 78686 (see heffs). Note that the trelf is always the same club.

a77. This 8-club pattern is substantially harder since there are two trelfs in the air at any time.

A decent warmup pattern is 7a274:

Other patterns to try. 74a, 7a2a6 (popcorn variation), aa7 (9-club three-count).

Advanced patterns

Prerequisites: Reading Four-Handed Siteswaps & Beginner four-handed siteswaps & doubles & zaps & heffs. Next: Holy grail sequence, compatible siteswaps, and full siteswap list

Once comfortable with basic siteswaps and multiple additional kinds of throws, like zaps, heffs, doubles, and trelfs, there is a whole world of siteswaps that combine these. The following is far from comprehensive but highlights common popular patterns, many with names:

Heffs and Doubles

There are lots and lots of 7 and 8-club patterns that include plenty of heffs and doubles in all kinds of sequences.

7-club why not (9968926).

978. Warm up with the 6-club pattern 972 (see doubles).

Poem (9969788). A challenging, well known 8-club pattern.

Other patterns to try. The One to Concentrate (97428), Aspirin (9667867), Good morning (9792688), 8-club Vitoria (9797888)

Zaps and Heffs

Many patterns combining zaps and heffs require very stable heffs that can be caught almost blind, which will probably take a bit of practice.

582 and 852. Two nice and beginner-friendly 5-club patterns. 582 feels familiar from why not and 852 is substantially more challenging because it requires catching a zap under a heff.

585 and 858. More challenging 6 and 7 club patterns that require precise zaps and stable heffs. Most passers prefer straight zaps wide (to throw heffs inside) and crossing zaps narrow (to throw heffs outside), but check with your partner.

52585 and 57585. A nice introduction to longer sequences and combining zaps, heffs, and also singles.

Zaps with Doubles or Trelfs

96956. Combining zaps and doubles usually requires fast zaps and slow doubles.

a56 to a5555. Combing zaps with trelfs makes for rather challenging patterns, requiring very reliable trelfs. Especially a5555 has very limited time to look up -- here, a555566 is a decent warmup pattern with the self in a strategic location.

Other patterns to try. 89562 and see holy grail patterns for more tricky combinations of zaps and doubles.

Sequences

There are a large number of patterns that consist of a sequence of increasing numbers including all kinds of throw: for example, 456, 567, 789, 45678, 56789, 6789a, 456789a, and 56789ab. Those all make valid siteswaps, that all tend to stack passes and selfs. They are usually interesting to pass, because they combine so many different throws.

For each siteswap sequence of 5 consecutive numbers, there are actually two additional permutations that make valid siteswaps too: one where each juggler passes the sequence counting up (locally) and one where they pass the sequence (locally) counting down; for longer periods there are even more permutations.

95678. The sequence 56789 is probably the best known sequence pattern. This 7-club pattern produces a large stack: a sequence of zap, single, and double pass, all to the same hand -- as in holy grail.

The permutations are 97586 (each juggler counting up) and 96857 (each juggler counting down):

Suicide bunny (56784). This 6-club sequence from 4 to 8 is challenging at first, but usually more for remembering the many different throws more than for the actual physical difficulty.

The permutations are 75864 and 57468.

789a6. This 8-club pattern from 6 to a combines a stack with the common solo siteswap 345.

The permutations are 97a86 and a7968.

789a456 and 9ab5678. These long sequences, with 7 clubs from 4 to a or and with 8 clubs from 5 to b, make the stacking really noticeable.

Both have permutations following the same recipe (each juggler counting up or down) and several more, too many to list here.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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. [TODO: better approach to explaining starts in appendix]

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.

Hijacking / Programming

TODO

7->77772->77722

77[s,h,7...]

common combination

Improve your siteswaps

Prerequisites: Reading Four-Handed Siteswaps & Beginner patterns & Doubles. | Recommended: Improve your passing.

This is a collection of advice for common problems in four-handed siteswaps.

Slow down. The single pass in four-handed siteswaps should be slow and lofty. In particular, the crossing single should be high enough that the partner can comfortably pass below the incoming passes. Return to 5-club one count (744 or 726) to calibrate singles or practice with increasingly fewer zips from 77722 (Parsnip) to 77772 (Martin's one count) to 7 (7-club one count).

Request feedback. Most passers are not good about giving feedback, at it often gets worse as they get better and can catch more things. Explicitly request feedback, possibly direct feedback on every pass while juggling the pattern.

Watch your passes land. Conversely, aim to rely less on feedback by watching your passes land where possible. This will not work for all patterns, but for many. For example, set it as a goal to watch doubles land in siteswaps of length 3 (e.g., 966, 972) -- this is challenging but eventually possible when the incoming passes are decent.

When learning a siteswap, switch starts. When it is difficult to get a full round of a pattern, it often helps to have both passers start with the same throws but start left-handed. This allows them to practice the second side of the pattern and come afterward to the already-practiced first side.

Make zips and flips a full beat. Zips often happen very fast and automatic. Many passers may not even notice that they are doing them, which can make a pattern like Parsnip (77722) tricky to learn. Passers who have learned why not (78627) and Jim's two-count (74667) as synchronous patterns are used to very quick zips. Since zips are so fast, the are often used to fudge the timing, which on the one hand can help make patterns like 972 much more forgiving, but on the other hand can also screw up the timing of a pattern. Try make zips a full beat; to force this try to hand the zip between both hands behind the back. In particular patterns with two consecutive zips, like 77272 and 522, can be fun by handing one zip in the back and the other in the front.

Similarly, patterns with 4s are easier to juggle in a consistent rhythm if the club is flipped rather than just held. For example, actually flip the club in the pause of Jim's three-count (7746666) to juggle the pattern as fully asynchronous siteswap rather than a (nearly) synchronous pattern with hurries.

Focus on doubles in siteswaps of length 5. Double passes in siteswaps with 5 beats can be challenging. Those double passes force each other -- that is, each double pass gets thrown under an incoming double pass to free the hand for that incoming pass. If a double pass is too low or too fast, the pattern can quickly degrade, because the receiving passer has little time to throw a good double pass in response. The best strategy to rescue the pattern from falling apart is to respond to a low double pass with an extra high one. Not likely (72966, see doubles) is a good pattern to practice recovery (it is extra forgiving with the zip) -- intentionally throw low doubles occasionally and try to recover.

Separate passes in stacks. Many patterns throw multiple consecutive passes to the same hand, such as zap and single in 756, single and double in 972, and zap, single, and double in 95678 (and other sequences). Separate those passes clearly in height, which means fast zaps, lofty singles (substantially higher than in synchronous patterns), and lofty doubles. At the same time, make sure that all passes of a stack land in roughly the same location and can be caught at the same height.

A bit of siteswap theory and lore

Siteswap basics

Siteswap notation dates back to the 1980s. It describes a sequence of throws with numbers, where each number represents how many beats later a thrown object will be thrown again. For example, a 4 describes that the object thrown now will be thrown again four beats later after three other throws. Traditional siteswaps assume a single juggler with two hands who alternates throws from both hands, so a siteswap 441 would be read as a right-handed 4 throw, followed by a left-handed 4 throw, followed by a right-handed 1 throw, then repeating on the other side. As a consequence any odd-numbered throw crosses from one hand to the other (i.e., it gets rethrown an odd number of beats later when it is the other hand's turn) and all even-numbered throws return to the same hand.

N-handed siteswaps

Nothing in the siteswap notation or theory requires juggling with two hands. Siteswaps merely describe after how many beats an object is thrown again, and based on which hand's turn it is on that beat we figure out where we need to throw the object. Patterns can be juggled with 1 hand, 3 hands, or 16 hands; we do not even need to assume that the hands always alternate.

Four-handed siteswaps are one way to interpret siteswaps for two passers with four hands total: We assume two passers facing each other with passer A throwing with the right hand on beat 1, passer B throwing with the right hand on beat 2, passer A throwing with the left hand on beat 3, and passer B throwing on the left hand on beat 4, before it all repeats on beats 5, 6, 7, and 8 -- as shown in the diagram below. That is, all odd beats are thrown by passer A and all even beats by passer B.

From this, all the standard throws in four-handed siteswaps can be derived:

• A 4 (flip) gets rethrown four beats later from the same hand, but there is only a single beat from the same passer before then. An 8 (heff) gets rethrown eight beats later from the same hand, while that same hand has another throw before then, four beats later.

• A 6 (self) gets rethrown six beats later from the passer's other hand, a 2 (zip) two beats later with the passer's next throw, and an a (trelf) gets rethrown 10 beats later.

• A 7 (single pass) gets rethrown seven beats later by the other passer. The straight/crossing passes approach where passer A throws straight single passes and passer B throws crossing single passes follows directly from the hand sequence: A right-hand single pass from passer A on beat one gets rethrown on beat 8, which is a left-hand throw from passer B, whereas a right-hand single pass from passer B on beat 2 is rethrown on beat 9 which is a right-hand throw from passer A.

• A 5 (zap) and 9 (double pass) are crossing for passer A and straight for passer B following the same mechanism.

• A 1 would be a very very fast pass (faster than a zip), that gets immediately rethrown on the next beat by the other passer; there is no plausible way of juggling this. A 3 is a very fast pass, which is technically feasible if slowing everything down a lot, but not commonly juggled. Hence, lists of four-handed siteswaps generally exclude patterns with 1s and 3s.

Assuming that both passers juggle at a normal speed, all numbers are twice as high as in solo (two-handed) siteswaps, as we have twice the number of beats in the same time.

The same way we define a four-hand sequence for two passers, we can define a six-hand sequence for three passers, an eight-hand sequence for four passers, and so forth. We now have much higher numbers, as there are even more beats in the same amount of time. In the following, we illustrate the hand sequence and the throws that represent selfs and single passes. For example, as a start, try the 6-handed siteswap a899 and aa79 or the 8-handed siteswap fcc ("three-count friction").

Transforming siteswaps

There are a number of common transformations that can be used to transform a pattern into other patterns.

Adding/removing clubs. It is possible to add the length of the siteswap to any individual throw to get a pattern with one more object. For example, the 6-club pattern 972 of length 3, can be transformed into the 7-club pattern 975 (holy grail) by adding 3 to the last throw, and then be transformed into the 8-club pattern 978 by adding 3 to that throw again, which can then be transformed into the 9-club pattern 9a8 by adding 3 to the second throw. Conversely, removing the length of the pattern from any throw yields a pattern with one club less, such as transforming the 6-club pattern 972 into the 5-club patterns 672 (5-club one-count) or 942.

This transformation is useful in many passing patterns to make them incrementally harder (or easier) without changing the pattern otherwise. In siteswaps of length 3, all zips can be turned into zaps, all zaps can be turned into heffs, all flips into singles, all singles into trelfs, and all selfs into doubles -- and vice versa. In siteswaps of length 5, all zips can be turned into singles (e.g., 77722 to 77772 and 52585 to 87585), and, in siteswaps of length 7, all zips can be turned into doubles.

It is also possible to add 1 to every throw to add a club to the pattern, for example, turning the 6-club pattern 45678 into the 7-club pattern 56789 and turning 77786 (funky bookends) into 88897. However, this usually changes the character of the pattern substantially.

Swapping throws. Siteswaps get their name from a manipulation that swaps the landing places of two throw sites. Any two throws in a pattern can be changed such that the first throw lands where the second would have landed and the second lands where the first would have landed. This is the logic behind early doubles: Throw a higher pass earlier to where the normal pass would have landed and then make up for it with a lower throw later instead of the original pass -- the two throws have swapped their landing sites. Generally two throws x and y that are n beats apart can swap into y+n and x-n -- for example transforming solo siteswap 441 into 531 and 531 into 333.

This transformation is commonly useful in four-handed siteswaps to think of compatible variations of a pattern, such as early doubles or extra trelfs, either as a one-time trick throw or as a different pattern. In practice, we are usually interested in transformations from the perspective of one passer, thus transform two consecutive throws of one passer, which are two beats apart in the siteswap. For example, we can turn the local sequence single-single into double-zap (e.g., 77722 to 97522) or heff-pass into double-self (e.g., 77867 to 77966).

Repeating and shifting the pattern. It is probably obvious at this point, but 7, 77, and 777 are effectively the same pattern, as are 786 and 786786. Also 786, 867, and 678 are the same pattern, just shifting the start. In lists, siteswaps are usually normalized -- without repetitions and starting with the highest throw -- rather than selected for a convenient start.

To create compatible siteswaps it is useful to repeat an odd-length siteswap twice and then manipulate the resulting even-length siteswap with another transformation. For example, 786786 can be transformed by swapping the landings of beat 4 and 6, resulting in 786885, that is, creating the compatible siteswaps 786 and 858.

Diagrams

Several diagrams are common to depict siteswaps, usually developed for solo siteswaps. For example, just like we illustrate passer A and passer B on separate lines, in a solo siteswap a diagram may show the alternating actions of the right and left hand in two lines.

Moreover, there are two common ways of showing the throws in a pattern as lines: ladder diagrams and causal diagrams. In a ladder diagram, a line illustrates the path of an object from where it is thrown to where it is thrown again next. This is a ladder diagram for French three-count (786):

In such diagram, we can observe the path that a club takes, for example, that the self in 786 is always the same club and that all heffs turn into a passes.

Note that a throw lands quite a bit before it gets thrown again. It lands somewhere between the beat it is thrown again and the previous action of the same hand happening 4 beats earlier in a four-handed siteswap. This previous action is necessary to empty the hand to catch the incoming throw -- we say that that action was caused by the incoming throw.

A causal diagram illustrates how throws cause the passer to do other actions to empty their hands, that is, they illustrate which throw triggers which other throw rather than illustrating the path of individual objects. This is the causal diagram for the same pattern French three-count (786):

We can see that we always throw a single pass to catch an incoming single pass (i.e., 7 causes 7), and we always throw a self to catch a heff (8 causes 6) and vice versa. The fact that singles cause singles in patterns of length 3 (and doubles cause doubles in patterns of length 5) is why these patterns easily fall apart when those passes are too low and fast (see Improve your siteswap passing).

In the passing community, ladder diagrams are rarely used other than for determining starts and color coding (see below), but causal diagrams are more common, especially for reasoning about takeouts.

How to start a pattern

Determining starting hands. In a ladder diagram, it is very easy to see which hand starts with how many clubs, simply by counting the beats in the beginning without incoming lines. In the ladder diagram for French three-count diagram above, we can see that passer A throws four throws (two right and two left handed) before throwing the first caught club (a self) and passer B throws three throws before rethrowing a caught club.

This also works for less intuitive starts like the start of 972, where we can see that passer A has only one right-handed throw without an incoming club but two left-handed throws:

Similarly, we can count the hand without incoming lines in causal diagram and add one club to each hand (one less if the very first action is a zip).

Avoid skipping initial beats. Some common patterns are often taught with starts that skip the first beat for the second passer. For example, it is common to start 7-club three count with a right-handed straight double, and for the other passer to start "as late as possible" with a right-handed crossing double, which should be three beats later. This works but requires to practice a new timing. We argue it is better to start all four-handed siteswaps one beat apart, that is, passer A should start with a crossing double from the right hand and passer B should start just afterward with a self from the right hand, followed by a straight double from the left hand as clearly indicated by the notation:

Selecting a beat to start. Since siteswaps can be shifted, it is possible to start on every beat. There is no single right way to start a siteswap, but some starts are usually better than others.

We usually do not consider starts where a club would need to be caught with a non-empty hand, such as the first throw of starting 972 on the 2:

Beyond that, we usually prefer starts where (1) the first throw of passer A is a pass, (2) the first throw of passer B is a pass, (3) the number of starting clubs is the same in both hands or the right hand has one more club, and (4) the number of starting clubs are relatively balanced between the passers.

It is not always possible to satisfy all four preferences. For example, among the two remaining starts of 972, both violate at least one preference: Starting with the double requires juggler A to start with two clubs in the left hand (violating preference 3). Starting with the single requires juggler B to start with a non-pass, with two clubs in the right and an empty left hand (violating preferences 2 and 3). Despite not satisfying all preferences, the start with the double seems overall the better start.

With a siteswap animator like passist.org it is easy to cycle through the various starts and pick a nice one.

Orbits and color coding

Following a pass in a ladder diagram identifies its orbit, that is the sequence of throws until the club repeats the same path through the pattern. Clubs that always repeat only a single action are called magic and can be highlighted by using a club of a different color. Zaps and trelfs in siteswaps of length 5 are always magic, and so are selfs and doubles in siteswaps of length 3 and singles in siteswaps of length 7.

Terminology

The passing community has now adopted a couple of terms that may not be broadly known among beginners or people who learned passing a long time ago. Some terms simply became popular and spread through the community.

A heff is not an abbreviation but was simply a random short term or a misheard version of the letter f for fountain, depending on who you ask. It has spread because "double self to the same hand" really needs a shorter alternative.

A trelf is a more recent attempt to disambiguate triple selfs from triple passes with a short term. It is not as broadly used, but I adopt it to have a distinct short word for all throws.

The zap was originally discovered when playing with the early passing animator JoePass! Based on the software's name, they were sometimes called joe passes, but now the name zap is much more common.

In this book, I use passer A and passer B and assume that passer A starts and throws straight single passes and crossing zaps and doubles. This is arbitrary. When agreeing on a side, it is common to negotiate who is throwing straight and crossing passes. As a running gag, some in the community have adopted "James" as the name for the passer with straight singles and "Not James" as the name for the passer with crossing singles. Alternatively, some have suggested "James" and "Jims," because the latter throws crossing singles as in Jim's three count.

Passing with 3+ People

There are many different ways to include more than two passers in a pattern. In this part, we will discuss both static patterns, in which multiple passers stand in specific locations such as in a triangle to exchange passes, and moving patterns, in which some or all passers change their positions during the pattern, usually while they continue to juggle and pass. In addition to static and moving patterns, in the next part, we will discuss another popular class of group patterns, manipulator patterns (also known as takeout patterns), in which one or more additional jugglers steal and replace clubs out of a static or moving pattern, often swapping places with those passers in the process. These group patterns can be learned in many orders, but static patterns are usually a good starting point before adding movement, manipulators, or both.

Notation. To describe a group pattern, we need two parts: (a) the actions of each passer over time and (b) the positions where the passers stand or move. The actions of each passers are usually described using the notation of synchronous patterns or four-handed siteswaps for two passers. Although it is not always need, we add an index to the notation of all passes indicating which passer to pass to. The positions are usually shown in with diagrams showing locations as seen with a birds-eye view from above; for moving patterns, often multiple diagrams are used to show changing positions throughout the pattern.

Here is an example, of three passers passing 3-count in a triangle:

Keep group patterns small. Most group patterns are best with 3 or 4 passers, and there are some interesting patterns with 5 passers. Larger groups are usually better off by splitting into smaller separate groups. While it can be fun to pass with many people at the same time, and there are some patterns that scale to very large numbers of passers, it can be very difficult to keep even simple patterns going with large groups. In patterns with 10 or more passers, even with very good passers, somebody will drop fairly early, resulting in frequent stops and resets. Because it is so challenging to keep large group patterns going, large groups usually pick patterns that are not particularly challenging or interesting for each passer individually.

Feeds

Prerequisite: Basic Synchronous Passing Patterns or Compatible Four-Handed Siteswaps | Next: Moving Patterns, Static Group Patterns

Feeds are a common and simple form to involve three or more passers. A passer acting as the feeder (A) will pass with multiple feedees (B, C, ...). Each feedee will only pass with the feeder, but not with other feedees.

V(A,B,C)

Feeders and feedees generally juggle different patterns that are compatible when merged together. Feeders usually have the more difficult job as they receive (possibly inconsistently thrown and inconsistently timed) passes from multiple feedees and need to aim their passes at multiple different positions. Unless the intention is to integrate weaker passers in easier positions, it is common to try a feed and then rotate positions clockwise until everybody has tried every position.

Synchronous feeds

The basic idea of a feed based on synchronous 6-club patterns is simple: The feeder juggles a repeating sequence of selfs and passes where different passes in the sequence may go to different feedees; the feedees each juggle selfs and passes so that they pass to the feeder on exactly those beats that the feeder passes to them.

Basic feeds. The traditional standard pattern is to feed two feedees on 6-club four-count (starting two beats offset) with 6-club two-count alternating between the two feedees:

As usual, we instead recommend an ambidextrous pattern as a modern starting point: 6-club three-count vs 6-club pass-pass-self:

(From the feeder's perspective it can be helpful to think inside-inside-self-outside-outside-self for the fact that the first pair of passes go in between the two feedees and the second pair goes to the outside hands.)

For four passers, this can be easily extended to a feeder juggling 6-club one-count and alternating passes to three feedees each juggling 6-club three-count:

As another beginner-friendly feed, a feeder juggling 6-club one-count can alternate passes to two feedees in 6-club two-count -- with one of them juggling left-handed two count.

Chaining multiple feeds. To integrate more passers, it is possible to have more than one feeder in a pattern, producing N-shaped or W-shaped layouts, for example here is a pattern with two feeders (B, C):

Getting creative. It is easily possible to come up with various different variations by deciding whether and to whom the feeders should pass on each beat. For example, a feeder juggling 6-club one-count could pass to one feedee in bookends (pass-pass-self-pass-self) and to two more feedees in five-count. To further extend this, one of those feedees could act as a feeder themselves, feeding the first feeder in five-count and a fifth passer in pass-pass-self-self-self:

It is similarly possible to introduce (crossing) double passes as early doubles, either as a trick throw or continuously, for example:

It is also possible to feed Jim's patterns, but we recommend to treat them as four-handed siteswaps, see below.

Adding clubs to synchronous feeds. It is possible to add extra clubs to a feed. The most common traditional pattern is a feeder passing 7-club two-count to two feedees passing 7-club four-count on doubles:

(Note that, as for 7-club two-count, rather than crossing all doubles, the feedees conventionally start left-handed or a beat late. Also the two feedees each juggle a pattern that would not work with two passers, since they split the extra club between them.)

Also 8-club pass-pass-self can straightforwardly feed two feedees juggling 8-club three-count:

(As with 6-club patterns above, any sequence of double passes to feedes and heffs can be combined to create more patterns.)

Beyond this, extra-club synchronous feeds become a bit obscure. Any 6-club or 8-club pass-pass-self pattern can feed any pair of two compatible 7-club three-count patterns and many additional strategies can be found to distribute one or two extra clubs across feeds with three or more passers. None of these are common, and we recommend to explore feeds with four-handed siteswaps instead.

Feeding four-handed siteswaps

There are many common feeds of four-handed siteswaps and it is easy to create more. N-shaped and W-shaped patterns with more than one feeder are possible, but not common. Who throws straight and who throws crossing passes can be negotiated -- usually the feeder gets to throw the (easier) straight passes and the feedees throw crossing passes (that can be harder as they may require extra wide angles to go all the way across the pattern).

774 vs. 5-club one-count. To integrate beginner's into a feed it is possible for a more experienced passer to feed two passers in 5-club one-count with 774 or three passers in 5-club one-count with 7-club one-count.