Heffs and doubles in 3‑count

These workshop notes describe adding the following special throws to the standard 6‑club 3‑count passing pattern:

Pre-requisites: 3‑count passing with 6 clubs (pass-self-self), and solo “423”, which is throwing a heff out of a normal solo 3‑club cascade, pausing, and then continuing to juggle. For later tricks, being able to do the solo pattern 441 or heff-heff-zip, will also be useful.

The main initial aim is to be able to throw heffs and doubles as “tricks” while passing 3‑count. Adding in zips will let you throw a heff and double next to each other. Once you can throw heffs, doubles, and zips reliably, a large set of passing patterns opens up. Practicing the particular sequence of tricks in these notes lead steadily and naturally to nice 7‑ and 8‑club patterns, particularly if you also learn or practice 4‑clubs solo.

Doubles

Pick up one club and practice throwing a double back and forth. The pass should be higher than a normal pass, so that it takes an extra beat and spin to arrive. It should cross, thrown from one juggler’s right hand to the other juggler’s right hand. Ideally also swap over and throw between the left hands.

If the club is over-spinning, try locking your wrist more, pushing the club up with your whole arm. If the club is under-spinning you could flick your wrist more, but it’s more likely you should throw it higher.

Make sure the club is still arriving in a nice place to be caught: to the outside of the other person’s shoulder, so they can catch it while vertical. Even if thrown well, your partner might drop the club at first, because they may not be used to the fast spin.

Early doubles in 3‑count

Juggle 3‑count as normal. Then as a trick throw, pass a beat earlier than normal, as a double (a high crossing pass) that will land at the same time and place as your usual pass would have. Your partner shouldn’t have to do anything different, except catch a club that’s spinning faster than usual.

Normal 3‑count is pass-self-self-pass-self-self…, so replacing the second pass with a double becomes pass-self-double-wait-self-self. (Siteswap: we’ve replaced a “3 3p 3” with “4p 2 3”.)

When you do just one double, you’ll notice you pass three times in a row with the same hand. For example, pass(R)-self(L)-double(R)-wait(L)-self(R)-self(L)-pass(R)-… If you’re finding it confusing, try to do that sequence at the very beginning.

This animation has one juggler doing three count, and the other doing early doubles to replace all of their left-hand passes. (The “wait” is animated as a small “pop”, which is a lot harder to juggle than just holding the club.)

At first have one juggler try to throw doubles while the other concentrates on doing as stable a 3‑count as possible. Swap roles regularly. If both of you manage to throw and catch a double in 3‑count, that’s a win you can build on.

Over time, probably in future practice sessions, try to throw more of your passes as early doubles, from both hands. Also try to have both jugglers throwing doubles. In theory you shouldn’t need to coordinate, because these “early doubles” arrive at the same time and place as the standard passes that they replace. If you have collisions, make sure your throws are high and to the outsides. You may need to “scoop” your passes, which means bringing your hand across your body as you throw it, passing the club clearly down the other side, out of the way.

Heffs in 3‑count

Work-up exercise: Take one club each, and hold them in opposite hands (one person’s right and the other person’s left).

  1. One person passes
  2. The other person does a heff to catch the pass
  3. They then send the passed club back as a pass to catch the heff

At this point you can stop, reflect, and try again. You can also swap roles.

Add to 3‑count: Congratulations, you can now do a heff in response to a pass, and can now try that as a trick within 3‑count. When a pass is coming in, you can choose to do a heff instead of a normal self to catch it. Wait (the other hand does a hold), throw the pass back and carry on with 3‑count.

Animation of one juggler doing 3‑count, and the other doing heffs in response to every pass. It shows the “wait” after the heff as a small “pop”, which is harder to juggle.

Either or both jugglers can do this trick on as many passes as they like. At first have one juggler stick to standard 3‑count to keep everything stable, swapping roles regularly. Then see if you can both do it.

Alternative work-up exercise to build up to doing continuous heffs. Pick up three clubs between two opposite hands. (Your other two hands do nothing for a bit.)

  1. The person with two clubs passes one.
  2. As a club is coming in, throw a heff to catch it and throw it back.
  3. Go to 2.

(Animation, which again does a small pop instead of just holding and waiting.)

The same club is passed back and forth, so you could make it a different colour. The clubs doing the heffs stay with the same juggler. It’s siteswap 423p between two hands.

You can then practice on the other side (the other two hands). Then you can try putting it together. Like with 1‑count (ultimates) you could do that sync or async. You’ve now also learned a trick for sync 1‑count: when a pair of clubs come in, you can throw two heffs to catch them before throwing the passes back.

Heff-double-zip and double-heff-zip

The two previous double throws can be combined by adding a zip.

Heff-double-zip: as a pass is coming in, do a heff to catch it, immediately throw an early double pass, and a zip. You can then drop back into standard 3‑count with self-self-pass, or continue with another heff-double-zip.

Double-heff-zip: after an early double (pass-self-double), you can immediately do heff-zip. This heff is in a different point in the pattern to the ones you’ve done so far. Drop back to 3‑count with self-pass, or continue double-heff-zip.

Once you can chain together throwing heff-double-zip and double-heff-zip continuously, you can try picking up a seventh club and doing double-heff-heff. Your partner only needs to do 3‑count, but if you ask them to start self-pass (their first pass is with the left hand), you can neatly start double-heff-heff.

Once you’ve swapped around and can both do double-heff-heff against standard 3‑count solidly, you can pick up an eight club and both do double-heff-heff at the same time. This is a synchronous 8‑club 3‑count. You can also do other synchronous rhythms, such as “pass-pass-self” as double-double-heff. If you both throw crossing passes, possibly scooped a bit, these patterns shouldn’t collide.

Animations: