Technical Corner: Apr08

Dave and I come up with many ideas that we want to capture at a later point on film.. given the weather around here, and difficulties+time for filming ourselves, and (Dave) editing the vid, then posting it.. well, it can take months to get our really cool ideas up on video for folks to see. In the interim, I figured it might be nice to post periodic "here's our latest cool thing we want on film when we can". To that end, here are some of the highlights of the last month or so. :)
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As you know, we've been working extensively with 7 club passing lately [in prep for the "7 Clubs 7 (More) Ways" video]... last night we realised the ease of segue possible if you had a right-right [standard, non-offset] pattern to yet another.. this is extremely common with 6 clubs, and noone gives it any thought.. obviously this is just as easy for 7 clubs, with some caveats.

There is a pattern for 6 clubs known as "PSSS PSS PS P PS PSS PSSS PSSSS".. ok, no idea what the name really is, but it switches immediately between 4-count, 3-count, 2-count, 1-count, then back up to a final 5-count to get it back to the same hands-that-pass as the first iteration. I looked at the 7 club version of 4-3-2-1-2-3, and well, it's too fast to really appreciate, even by other jugglers. :) Slowing it down tho, and you get a really sweet pattern that we actually managed to pull off repeatedly:
http://tinyurl.com/3ulmnt
[that fires up an online simulator showing the complete trick - I'll be using that simulator extensively for these posts...]

I'll break that down for the technical junkies out there:

<               [22][22] | [22]2                  > : cold start
<[25p][23]335p 3335p 333 | [23]35p 3335p 3335p 3  > : 4-count as triples for 12 beats
<   5p 335p 335p 335p 33 | 334p 334p 334p 334p    > : 3-count, straight triples,
                                                      crossing doubles for 12 beats
<    4p 3 4p 3 4p 3 4p 3 | 3 4p 3 4p 3 4p 3 4p    > : 2-count, crossing doubles {all going
                                                      to same side of pattern} for 8 beats
<3p 3p 3p 3p 3p 3p 3p 3p | 4p 4p 4p 4p 4p 4p 4p 4p> : ultimates as single/double for 8 beats
<    4p 3 4p 3 4p 3 4p 3 | 3 4p 3 4p 3 4p 3 4p    > : 2-count going to same-as-before side for 8 beats
<   5p 335p 335p 335p 33 | 334p 334p 334p 334p    > : 3-count for 12 beats
<   5p 333 5p 333 5p 333 | 335p 3335p 3 335p 3    > : 4-count for 12 beats
<                     22 | 22                     > : clean collect

UPDATE: We have found it's actually easier in the long run to just do 12 beats of every pattern as seen here -- http://tinyurl.com/12down

Other things have fallen from that too... since you can segue between any of those patterns without going thru the in between... Here are some cool examples:
Spiffy 2c-1c thing <-- This is an absolute blast to do!
Spiffy 3c-1c thing A Spiffy 3c-1c thing B
Spiffy 4c-1c thing A Spiffy 4c-1c thing B
-=+=-
There is a beautiful parking structure exterior spiral staircase just one block north of LaSells and the football stadium. Being conveniently exterior, there is some great promise for vertical passing for folks hanging over the railing. Hard to describe, so here's a sim of it:
http://tinyurl.com/39bf8h
Astute folks will note it's a '4p 2 3' style pattern, similar to an early double in a typical pattern. The sweet part about the railing heights is that the lower passer throws a triple {which becomes a double as the upper passer catches it}, and the upper passer basically misses their self toss, and it becomes a double to the lower passer. It's a bit strange to feel, but it's really sweet after a few tries...

Prettying that up a bit for someone watching {we asked the stair walkers their opinion to verify}, passing with both hands is the most pleasant to do, and the most pleasant to watch: http://tinyurl.com/3xnw5w

4-count has it's uses, in that one could actually feed it.. Take this: http://tinyurl.com/33g55v
...and extend it vertically to the next two stair levels like so: http://tinyurl.com/323zmf
Think of that last one as vertical equivalent to an "N" on the ground.

Clearly we didn't do that last one....yet... we figure it's something to consider for the convention. The biggest concern is that if a club from the 3rd or higher level hits the ground, it's basically destroyed as the bottom level is asphalt. Insert dreams of extra club catchers with blankets held between like the old firefighter thing in cartoons and silent movies...

Getting back to reality, here is something we actually want to get on film as well: http://tinyurl.com/35w797
Vertical 7 pattern... that seems totally doable, but our first night out at that location got rather cold after the sun set, so we didn't last out there too terribly long, thus didn't actually try this one yet..

Other thoughts make more sense for 7 balls -->
http://tinyurl.com/2yfll3 http://tinyurl.com/2zwpyh
Should be simple enough {read: we'll try this next time we're there again}.. the upper person could keep their hands in a claw position if that helps..
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Going with the stairwell idea, and the convention possibilities... we are hoping to do the following spiral pattern. Visually tho, it needs some setup. The stairwell is a left hand spiral (as you go up, you make left turns). It does the typical "half story of stairs, landing, half story of stairs back to next landing which is now one level up and directly above the previous one". The simulator is in stereo, just cross your eyes until the images overlap, and you'll see it in 3D. In case you haven't figured it out yet, you can actually grab-n-rotate the simulator's image as it goes, which may help if you slowly move it around for this one.
http://tinyurl.com/2r9h7y
Here would be a great challenge for folks: keep going until you get your clubs back and then clean collect and finish...

Now, I know what you're thinking - how does everyone start at the same time?... simple, you designate the two corner folks to watch a spotter or two who are sync'ing up at ground level (ie: juggers in the 2, 4, 6, and 8 spots). To save you some thinking there, the spiral starts at the bottom with juggler 1, and goes up counter-clockwise (as the stairway does)... so the first four are positioned like so:
43
12

'1' and '2' are on same level as each other, '3' and '4' are on the half level up, and so on. '1' passes to '2' only as 4-count, '2' feeds '1' and '3' like normal, '3' feeds '2' and '4', and so on.. Clearly that can be extended to as many folks as we can scrounge. :) I smell (sorta-kinda-)annual challenge for the conventioneers!

If that works (too) well, we can include other typical feeds like 3-count (or PPS if ya like), and gorillas!
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Well, I hope you enjoyed that little glimpse into what Dave and I have been working on of late. You should see some of this in actual video sometime later this year. :) Cheers! --Crizzly