Seven passing patterns with seven clubs

These notes are to go with a workshop that Jo presented on passing seven clubs at BJC 2024. (Any mistakes are Iain’s.)

Pre-requisite: solid 6‑club passing, ideally having thrown some doubles. Most of the patterns will require more experience than that.

The seven patterns:

2-count doubles, <4p3|L34p>
3-count doubles, 966
2-count singles
1-count singles, 7
French 3‑count, 786
5-count popcorn, 78686 or 7a666
Funky Bookends, 77786

There are more notes below, but Aidan Burn’s “The Highgate Collection” already describes these patterns and many more. Some of the patterns can be described by “4-handed siteswap” notation and have links to passist, which describes and animates the pattern. This tool can also help you explore even more passing patterns for any number of clubs, including seven.

Double passes

If double spin passes are challenging, first practice 6‑club 2‑count (pass-self) with synchronous straight double passes. Watch the passes, and match their heights. You’ll have a pause when the passes are in the air. The passes need to be higher than normal so that they take longer than normal. If over-spinning, push the passes up with your whole arm, moving your wrist less.

7‑club 2‑count with double spins, <4p3|L34p>

Both jugglers throw straight passes
The second juggler (with 3 clubs) passes when the first pass is half way
The pattern is actually synchronous: one juggler passes at the same time as the other does a self. The second juggler can start with a left-hand self at the same time as the first juggler’s first pass.
Give and get feedback: it’s hard to see how your own passes land

You could try practicing with both jugglers left-handed to warm up for ambidextrous patterns.

It’s also easy for just one juggler to practice left-handed: both jugglers start right-handed and both jugglers cross all of their passes. One juggler starts with a self and throws all of their crossing passes left-handed, while the other starts with a right-handed pass. Amazingly, the staggered passes mean that this crossing pattern isn’t particularly collision prone.

7‑club 3‑count doubles (966)

One juggler crosses, and throws are now asynchronous.
Higher passes (siteswap 4.5p rather than 4p in 2‑count doubles)
Can be colour-coded (see The Highgate Collection)
Most jugglers have juggler one take 4 clubs and pass straight, and the second juggler waits a long time, as long as possible, before starting with a crossing pass.

4‑handed siteswap theory says that (for a standard right-handed start) the first juggler crosses and the second juggler starts with a self after half a beat. You can do that too.

What’s going on in the “usual” start? When the straight doubles passer starts right-handed, the second juggler must start left-handed. However, if they miss out the first self, they do a right-handed crossing pass after 1.5 beats, a really long wait!

Single passes

Depending on your experience, you may find the patterns with single spins easier or harder than with doubles. The passes are less intensive than doubles, and you have more hope of seeing what’s going on. However, there are other challenges.

2‑count single passes (galloped)

Back to both jugglers right-handed with straight passes
Classic two count, but the second juggler waits longer than with double spins
The long wait forces a gallop: pass-self … pass-self
Do floaty passes (and selfs) to make it managable
Both jugglers need to gallop (or one feels like they’re passing 8 clubs). More experienced jugglers often end up galloping more to absorb some of the difficulty.

1‑count or “ultimates” (siteswap 7)

Every throw is a pass
Juggler one passes straight. Juggler two crosses, starting 0.5 beats later.
Really floaty passes
Short passes easily cause collisions.
Give feedback on width: too wide is hard to control; too narrow is stressful and collision prone (especially the crossing passes).

A six-club workup exercise is Martin’s 1‑count, pass-pass-zip-pass-pass (juggler two starts at the pass after the zip, with four passes). You’ll probably think of it as four passes and a zip, or as 1‑count with a missing club, with zips to make it work, which you’ll probably do naturally. Just as in 1‑count, you’ll need floaty passes to make it work.

Still too hard? Try the 5‑club Parsnip, pass-pass-zip-pass-zip (with juggler 2 starting crossing pass-zip), which also requires the same floaty passes.

Patterns with Heffs

These patterns require you to have done “heffs” before (a self double to the same hand). Solo 3‑club warm-up patterns are 423 and 441. You’ll often have to do quite high heffs in passing patterns to keep everything else relaxed. You’ll probably want to throw the heffs from the inside of the pattern, so they land on the outside. For that, the club will point straight ahead or outwards, rather than to the inside like normal self throws.

French 3‑count (786)

pass-self-heff, with floaty passes
Juggler 1 starts with a straight pass. Juggler 2 a heff and a crossing pass.
The pass forces the next pass, so must be kept floaty or the passes rapidly get worse on both ends, destroying the pattern.
In theory, the heffs are the same height as the passes in two-count doubles.

3‑count doubles (966) and French 3‑count (786) are “compatible siteswaps”, which means one juggler can do one and the other juggler the other (if you figure out the start). You can also swap between them on the fly: when about to throw a double-spin throw (either a heff or a double pass), you can freely choose which of the two double-spin throws to do, and then carry on with the pattern that has it (heff-pass-self… or double-self-self…).

5‑count popcorn (78686) or (7a666)

pass-self-self-trelf-self (trelf = triple-crossing-self) or pass-self-self-heff-heff

Juggler one starts and does straight passes. Juggler two starts 0.5 beats later, with trelf-self (53) or heff-heff (44), and does crossing passes.

Traditionally popcorn patterns (of which there are many) have the really high self-triples (“trelfs” or 5’s). Practice these with the solo pattern 531.

However, the two-tower or heff-heff version is an easier starting point. Practice for that with the solo pattern 441.

If you’re a solid 4‑club juggler the heff-heff version might be one of the easier 7‑club passing patterns, because there’s not many passes! But for many passers the 2‑count and 3‑count patterns above are easier.

Funky Bookends (77786)

pass-pass-self-pass-heff, with floaty single passes. Juggler 2 starts second with crossing-pass heff.

The heff causes a pass, so bad or low heffs are likely to mess up that pass.

Too hard? One juggler can drop a club and do the 5‑club pattern Parsnip, pass-pass-zip-pass-zip (with juggler 2 starting crossing pass-zip). It’s a compatible siteswap.

Others

Again, you’ll find many more patterns in The Highgate Collection and with passist.

You might wonder whether it’s possible to do 3‑count with only single spins. You have to “gallop” so much that the pass and first self become thrown at the same time. So you do a simultaneous pass and self, then the second self (with the hand that just did a pass), then repeat with a simultaneous pass and self on the other side. The second juggler does the same, but starts really late and crosses their passes. This pattern, called “Techno”, is challenging! But it’s great practice for 8‑club 2‑count singles, which also has simultaneous passes and selfs.

If you’ve learned all the classic 6‑club patterns, you might also be wondering about doing 7‑club pass-pass-self (PPS). There’s not an obvious simple pass-pass-self pattern with seven clubs where both jugglers do the same thing. However, there are several interesting 7‑club patterns based on PPS in the Highgate Collection.