contact juggling guide

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KAES GUIDE

TOCONTACT JUGGLING

by Kae Verens

[email protected] to the others of the Four Horsemen - Ferret, Rich, andMarco for providing the shoves I needed to finish this.


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Thanks to Ferret in particular for hosting the first ever contactjuggling convention.

Also, thanks to Rich in particular for www.contactjuggling.com,without which I wouldnt have felt the need to constantly improve.org (competition is great)

Also, thanks in particular to Marco for providing lifesavingassistance when the website was in threat of disappearing.

Thanks to the many wonderful people in the contact jugglingcommunity, for pushing us to keep refining and creating moves. Icant name them all, but a few might be Shifty, Lance, the variousMatt[e]s, Klas, Chico, Ian (the Four Horsemens Stableboy), and all

the other people. Sorry if I havent mentioned your name theContact Juggling community is immense, and I have a book to write!

Thanks to all the people who contributed their experience andvideos to the www.contactjuggling.org website. This book is analmost direct consequence of your creativity.

Thanks to Bronwyn, for sometimes letting me sit at my computer soI could produce this.

Thanks to Michael Moschen for his video, and James Ernest for hisbook.

Thanks to Terry Pratchett I like his books.Basic ContentsBasic Contents................................................................................................ 3

Detailed Contents........................................................................................... 6

Foreword ...................................................................................................... 14

What Is Contact Juggling?.......................................................................... 16Materials....................................................................................................... 18

About This Book .......................................................................................... 20

Holds............................................................................................................. 22


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Basic One Ball Moves.................................................................................. 30

Body Rolling................................................................................................. 41

Catches ......................................................................................................... 54

Misc Tricks............................................................................................... 59One Ball Combinations............................................................................... 60

Palmspinning ............................................................................................... 64

Basic Palmspinning (1-4 balls) ................................................................... 66

More Palmspinning (1-4 balls).................................................................... 75

Basic Palmspinning (5 ball and above) ...................................................... 80

Multi-ball Ball-Rolling ................................................................................ 86

Combining Ball Rolling and Palmspinning ............................................... 95Combining Toss- and Contact-Juggling..................................................... 99

The Head .................................................................................................... 104

Combining Magic with Contact Juggling................................................. 109

Wishful Thinking....................................................................................... 114

Creating New Moves.................................................................................. 116

Practicing, and Conditioning .................................................................... 117

Glossary ...................................................................................................... 120Bibliography............................................................................................... 122

Still To Do................................................................................................... 124

Detailed ContentsBasic Contents................................................................................................ 3

Detailed Contents........................................................................................... 6

Foreword ...................................................................................................... 14

What Is Contact Juggling?.......................................................................... 16

Materials....................................................................................................... 18

About This Book .......................................................................................... 20


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Holds............................................................................................................. 22

Palm Hold.....................................................................................................22

Cradle ...........................................................................................................22

Tripod Hold..................................................................................................23Thumb Hold.................................................................................................24

Cradle Hold w/ Thumb Hold......................................................................24

Knuckle Hold ...............................................................................................24

Fist Hold .......................................................................................................25

Open Fist Hold.............................................................................................25

3-Finger Hold...............................................................................................25

Elbow Hold...................................................................................................26Outside Elbow Hold ....................................................................................26

Forehead Hold .............................................................................................26

Neck Hold.....................................................................................................27

Temple Hold.................................................................................................28

Basic One Ball Moves.................................................................................. 30

Windshieldwiper..........................................................................................30

Wristhold Windshieldwiper .......................................................................31Elbowhold Windshieldwiper ......................................................................32

Butterfly........................................................................................................33

Twirling Butterfly........................................................................................34

Spined Butterfly...........................................................................................34

Planebreaking Butterfly..............................................................................35

Palm-Palm Pass ...........................................................................................36

Back-Palm Pass............................................................................................37

Palm-Back Pass............................................................................................37

Back-Back Pass............................................................................................38

Back-Back Walkaway.................................................................................39


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Palm-Palm Walkaway.................................................................................40

Thumb-Thumb Pass....................................................................................40

Body Rolling................................................................................................. 41

Forearm Roll................................................................................................42Backarm Roll ...............................................................................................43

Backarm-Forearm Roll...............................................................................45

Forearm-Backarm Roll...............................................................................45

Chop Roll......................................................................................................45

Armroll to Shoulder Hold...........................................................................46

Spiral.............................................................................................................46

Helicopter.....................................................................................................47Forearm Chestroll .......................................................................................47

Backarm Chestroll ......................................................................................48

Neck Roll ......................................................................................................49

Neck Loop.....................................................................................................50

Pirouette Neck Roll .....................................................................................51

Back Roll ......................................................................................................51

Catches ......................................................................................................... 54Elbow Catch.................................................................................................54

Outside Elbow Catch...................................................................................55

Shoulder Catch ............................................................................................55

Foot Catch ....................................................................................................55

Head Catch...................................................................................................56

Neck Catch ...................................................................................................57

Misc Tricks............................................................................................... 59

Elevator ........................................................................................................59

One Ball Combinations............................................................................... 60

Back-Back Butterflies .................................................................................60


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Palm-Palm Butterfly ...................................................................................61

Palm-Palm Twisting Butterfly ...................................................................61

Flytrap ..........................................................................................................61

Circle.............................................................................................................62Walking Halfpipe ........................................................................................62

Horizontal Circle .........................................................................................62

Palmspinning ............................................................................................... 64

Basic Palmspinning (1-4 balls) ................................................................... 66

2b Palmspin..................................................................................................66

2b Palmspin Transfer..................................................................................67

3b Palmspin..................................................................................................683b Cascade....................................................................................................69

3b Palmspin Transfer..................................................................................70

3b Chasing Transfer....................................................................................70

3b Pinkylift...................................................................................................70

3b Thumblift ................................................................................................71

4b Stack ........................................................................................................71

4b Stack Pinkylift ........................................................................................724b Stack Thumblift......................................................................................72

1b Palmspin..................................................................................................73

4b Flat Diamond Palmspin.........................................................................73

4b Flat Spin ..................................................................................................74

More Palmspinning (1-4 balls).................................................................... 75

2b Orbital Isolation .....................................................................................75

2b Ratchet.....................................................................................................75

2b Curl..........................................................................................................76

2b Isolated Curl ...........................................................................................76

2b Magnetic Palmspin.................................................................................77


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3b Ratchet.....................................................................................................77

3b Orbital Isolation .....................................................................................78

4b Stack Tumble..........................................................................................78

1b Isolation...................................................................................................784b Curl..........................................................................................................79

Basic Palmspinning (5 ball and above) ...................................................... 80

5b Linespin...................................................................................................80

5b 2h Palmspin.............................................................................................81

6b Linespin...................................................................................................81

6b 2h Stack ...................................................................................................82

6b 2h Triangle Palmspin.............................................................................827b Linespin...................................................................................................83

7b Stack Linespin ........................................................................................83

7b 2h Flower Propellor ...............................................................................84

7b 2h Cheater Flower Palmspin.............................................................84

8b Stack Linespin ........................................................................................84

8b Linespin...................................................................................................84

9b Stack Linespin ........................................................................................8510b 2h Pyramid Stack .................................................................................85

11b 2h Cheater Flower Stack .................................................................85

Multi-ball Ball-Rolling ................................................................................ 86

2b Folding Butterfly ....................................................................................86

2b Asymmetric Butterfly ............................................................................86

2b Symmetric Butterfly...............................................................................87

2b Back-Back Butterfly...............................................................................87

2b Twirling Butterfly ..................................................................................87

2b Circle .......................................................................................................88

2b Back-Palm Shower.................................................................................88


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2b Forearm Roll...........................................................................................89

2b Train ........................................................................................................89

2b Backarm Roll Transfer..........................................................................89

2b Simultaneous Back-Forearm and Fore-Backarm Rolling .................903b Forearm Roll Cascade ...........................................................................91

3b Backarm Roll Transfer..........................................................................91

3b Folding Cascade .....................................................................................92

3b Backarm Cascade...................................................................................92

4b Circle .......................................................................................................93

4b Backarm Cascade...................................................................................94

Combining Ball Rolling and Palmspinning ............................................... 952b Palmspin Escape.....................................................................................95

3b Palmspin Escape.....................................................................................96

4b Stack Escape ...........................................................................................96

4b Flat Spin Escape .....................................................................................97

Combining Chest Rolls with Hand-Hand Passes .....................................97

Combining Toss- and Contact-Juggling..................................................... 99

2b Square......................................................................................................992b Elbow Catch..........................................................................................100

2b Elbow Catch Shower............................................................................100

2b Elbow Toss Shower ..............................................................................100

3b Mill's Mess with Cradle .......................................................................100

3b Back-Palm Mills Mess ........................................................................101

3b Mesh.......................................................................................................102

3b Forearm Shower...................................................................................102

3b Baby Pass Shower ................................................................................103

The Head .................................................................................................... 104

Butterfly W/ Head Butterfly.....................................................................104


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Neck Butterfly............................................................................................105

Neck to Chest Circle..................................................................................105

Head Butterfly ...........................................................................................106

Arm Roll to Forehead Hold......................................................................107Head Circle.................................................................................................107

Combining Magic with Contact Juggling................................................. 109

Through the Body......................................................................................109

Colour Change...........................................................................................110

Scarf Balance .............................................................................................111

Sleight Of Hand .........................................................................................112

Wishful Thinking....................................................................................... 114Creating New Moves.................................................................................. 116

Practicing, and Conditioning .................................................................... 117

Glossary ...................................................................................................... 120

Bibliography............................................................................................... 122

Videos..........................................................................................................122

Books/Magazines .......................................................................................122

Websites......................................................................................................122Still To Do................................................................................................... 124

Finger Flip..................................................................................................124

Finger Roll..................................................................................................124

Pilf Regnif...................................................................................................124

Finger Flurry .............................................................................................124

Tripod Pickup............................................................................................124

Caterpillar..................................................................................................124

Outside Elbow Flyaway ............................................................................124

2b Stairstep.................................................................................................124

2b Tandem Spined Butterfly ....................................................................124


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2b Mineshaft roll .......................................................................................124

2b Blackstones Balls.................................................................................124

The Train....................................................................................................124

2b Back-Back Pass w/ Thumb Hold ........................................................1242b Upsidedown Palmspin..........................................................................124

2b Toss and Catch .....................................................................................124

2b Palm-Palm Pass w/ Cage .....................................................................124

3b Propeller Isolation................................................................................124

3b Mesh w/ Arm Catch .............................................................................124

3b Mesh Cascade .......................................................................................124

3b Mesh.......................................................................................................1243b Thumblift Isolation ..............................................................................124

3b Rockabye...............................................................................................124

4b Isolation.................................................................................................124

4b Vertical Isolation ..................................................................................124

Floating 4 Stack (aka Half Diamond)......................................................124

4b Twist ......................................................................................................124

4b Snake .....................................................................................................1244b Rotating Columns.................................................................................124

4b Propeller................................................................................................124

4b Collapse and Rebuild ...........................................................................124

4b Pinky Lift ..............................................................................................124

4b Asymmetrical Orbital ..........................................................................124

5b Propeller................................................................................................124

Blossom (5 Stack).......................................................................................124

5b Pyramid.................................................................................................124


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Foreword

Up until very recently, this rare form of juggling was unknown tothe general public. It was looked down on by a lot of themainstream jugglers, and it was impossible to find any more thanhalf a dozen websites that had any information on the art.

All that has changed. Contact juggling turns up in thestrangest places now, and almost every person has seen at least oneperson magically roll a ball around his/her arms. Contact jugglingturns up in music videos Pommes Frites by The Orb, for example books Robert Jordans Wheel of Time mentions a man rollinggolden globes over his arms and body television shows Star TrekDS9 has a scene where a man can be seen in the background contact

juggling and, of course, films Jim Hensons The Labyrinth isthe most famous example.

Up until very recently, there was no sign that a revolution wasabout to take place. Every search for contact juggling on theInternet returned the same three or four sites, and those sites hadnot been updated in years.

I had read The Book Contact Juggling by James Ernest, andhad studied every move in it there are only a few that I stillcannot do, and Im not certain that they are possible at all.

One day, I came across an Internet mailing list concerningcontact juggling. I was overjoyed for years I had been developingmy skills in isolation my only contact with another contact jugglerbeing Paul Wills, who started learning at the same time as me, butleft off developing his skills after he reached a level sufficient forhis own purposes.

The mailing list gave me a chance to learn what other peoplehad been doing. Those of us who had been CJing for years had beendoing exactly as I had searching the Internet irregularly, andbecoming despondent when the same lack of news was returned.

In 1999, together with Marco Van Der Bijl, I createdwww.contactjuggling.org; a website dedicated to teaching newcontact jugglers, and providing a community website for us all. The


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site brought out the contact juggler in a lot of people who wouldotherwise have passed it by.

New people came, and brought fresh variations on old moves Shifty, Lance Coombes, and Matthew Olsen, for example. Newmoves were also created by people who had been regulars in theoriginal mailing list Marco, Ferret, and myself, for example.

This book is an effort to bring to the public what has beencreated since James Ernest wrote his book. I have tried to describeas many different moves as I could. There are still many, manymore moves that I could have placed in the book, but I had to stopwriting at some point and publish the thing.

If you are new to the world of contact juggling, then I hopeyou find this book easy to follow.

If you are an experienced contact juggler, I hope you find

enough variations and difficult moves to keep you busy for a fewmonths.

Enjoy.

KaeWhat Is Contact Juggling?

Good question.

According to James Ernest's book, "Contact Juggling" whichoriginally coined the term contact juggling is "manipulations ofsingle objects or object groups, usually involving very little tossingor spinning".

According to the community website www.contactjuggling.org, Contact Juggling is half dance, juggling,mime and magic1.

Contact Juggling is almost always about balls whethertheyre silicon, acrylic, or plain tennis balls, it is rare to find a

person doing something with anything other than balls, and callingit Contact Juggling.1My own little maths joke


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Staff-spinning, pencil-manipulation, coin-rolling and othersuch stuff could theoretically be called Contact Juggling using thedefinition, but they already have their own names. Contact Jugglinghas been accepted as solely belonging to the manipulation of ballsusing the body, and shouldnt be confused with other forms ofobject manipulation.

The best way to really get to know what contact juggling is tosee it in action. Michael Moschen's PBS video, "In Motion", has asection at the end where he is contact juggling although heprefers the term "Dynamic Balance" or Dynamic Manipulation -perhaps he is more entitled to call it by either of those names, ashe was CJing before the term was invented. He can also be seenin Jim Hensons film The Labyrinth; he is the hands of Jareth inthe crystal manipulation scenes no, that is not David Bowie doing

it. No. It is not. No.Speaking of terms, there are many "Dynamic / Crystal /

Contact - Manipulation / Balance", "Ball/Sphere/Orb Rolling" arejust a few. The average name for the art is "Contact Juggling", andthat is how I will refer to it throughout the book. There is a smallglossary of terms near the end of the book that can be referred towhenever I forget to explain one.

Contact Juggling can be broken into two separate forms, eachof which can be combined at a later stage to form more complex

moves.The first form is ball-rolling, where balls are rolled over thehands, arms, chest, head, back, etc. The ball rolls from one pointto another. This is the most basic form of contact juggling. Thewindshieldwiper is the first contact juggling move which should belearned from this form, where the ball rolls from the palm to theback of the hand, then rolls back again.

The second form is palmspinning, where groups of two ormore balls are spun in the hands. Up to eleven balls are used inpalm-spinning routines.

Although contact juggling usually means the balls

stay in contact with the body, a lot of contact

jugglers like to put tosses in their moves. These


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moves are sometimes looked down on by purists,

but I believe that bending the rules of contact

juggling should be allowed where the result is a

fascinating move.Materials

The first thing you need is a ball. For ball-rolling, there are no realrestrictions on the ball's properties, but the ball should be heavyenough for you to feel it, and solidly spherical enough for you to rollit.

For many, the ideal ball is a 3" acrylic ball, or a 2.5" if you areof slightly small stature (like me...). If you are on a tight budget,then it is crucial that you pick something which you will still be ableto use when you move onto a more advanced level so make surethat you buy something sturdy; this may mean saving for a while.If you plan on doing only single-ball work, you might like one of thelarger balls.

The ideal properties of a good contact juggling ball are slightbut solid weight, the ability to hold three comfortably in the palmof the hand (for multi-ball work), and the ability for the balls toslide against each other (for simpler palmspinning).

You can learn ball-rolling with a cheap rubber ball. I started

off with a rubber ball I bought for one Irish pound, and it didn'timpede me I also got some much-needed exercise from chasing itevery time I dropped it!

Rich Shumaker (www.contactjuggling.com) advocates learningwith a lacrosse ball. Possibly, that is equivalent to a rubber croquetor cricket ball.

Acrylics can be purchased sometimes from good jugglingshops, but if that's not true where you are, then you can alwaysorder over the Internet. www.dube.com, www.infiniteillusions.com,

www.renegade.com, and www.seriousjuggling.com each supplyacrylics. If you have a large group of people interested in contactjuggling, then you can buy cheap acrylics by bulk fromwww.plasticballs.com ($100 minimum order).


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It might be a good idea as well to have some balls you dontmind scuffing, for practice. Ferret has some balls he calls his stuntdoubles survivors of earlier mishaps in practice. Stunt doublesare ideal for practice, as you are not restricted to practicing inplaces that you would definitely not perform in for fear of ruiningyour good balls.

One of the frequently asked questions in the forums ofcontactjuggling.org is "How do I get the scratches out of myacrylics?". The old adage "Prevention is better than cure" is apthere. A lot of scratches on acrylics are caused by the balls hittingand scraping against each other when being carried around in a bagor left in a box with other juggling materials or potentially sharpobjects.

A very easy way to stop balls from rubbing against each other

is to keep them singly or in pairs in tight fitting socks. The socksprevent the balls from moving against each other, and protect fromoutside objects as well.

Another way is to store your balls on a stand instead of in abox somewhere - Shifty, at http://www.shiftys-spheres.com/,shows his acrylics on fantastic stands, possibly originally made forcandles, but easily adapted to hold acrylics.

I keep eleven balls beside my computer at home

held by a simple piece of rope. Make a 7b "blossom"shape, and measure off a circle of rope so it goes

around the tops of the balls, but not so large that it

might slip down over them. When you have the rope

tied off, lay it in a circle and put the blossom shape

within it. Then you can easily balance a 4Stack on

top of it. Simple, yet pleasant to look at.About This

Book

This book was written to show some of the new moves that havedeveloped in the ten years since James Ernests book came out. It is


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not a replacement. Jamess illustrations are extremely helpful inmost cases, and it is always advisable to learn different methods ofdoing the same things, so I would recommend that you at least geta look at a copy of the book, even if you dont buy it.

The instruction in this book is separated into chapters. I havearranged the chapters, and the moves in each chapter, inapproximate order of ease. Well you could learn Palmspinningbefore Armrolls, but thats up to you - you do not have to learnstraight through in order. Many difficult moves can be learned afterlearning only a few simpler ones, so I would recommend that youskim through the book once to get an idea of what you would like tolearn, then start learning the steps that make up what you want.

The most basic list of moves you should learn might includeWindshieldwipers, Palm-Palm, Palm-Back, Back-Palm and Back-Back

Passes, and maybe a hold or two. That will give you enough movesto make an interesting routine that will mystify most non-jugglers.

The book is not comprehensive almost every week,something new is developed by the contact juggling community.Usually, these new moves have to do with combinations withdifferent arts magic and toss juggling, for instance but once in awhile something new which is pure contact juggling comes along.

Each style of CJing in the book is introduced with a chapter onbasic moves. Maybe the word fundamental is more appropriate,

as some of the moves are difficult, even for the advanced contactjuggler.Although it may seem so, I am not describing every possible

move in this book. A lot of moves involving combinations of patternsseemed a bit redundant for me. The same reason I prefer not toplace an animation of a person performing a 4Stack in both handson the contactjuggling.org lies behind my not placing similar movesin this move. Suffice it to say that almost every pattern that can beperformed in one hand can be performed in the other hand at thesame time.

Most of the two-handed moves that I describe are in the bookbecause they involve using patterns that cross between both hands.Any two-handed pattern that involves patterns that do not cross


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between the hands is really two separate one-handed patternsperformed at the same time.

However, that does not mean that, for example, spinningsimultaneous 5Stacks while gripping another ball between theelbows is not a true 2-handed pattern. You could say that the held11th ball is halfway through a transfer - especially if now and thenyou actually completed the transfer...

By the way every image in this book is of me, yet

they mostly look like different people. This is partly

because of my (very) moderate skills as an artist,

and partly because I keep cutting my hair shorter

and shorter. In fact, as I write this, I amcontemplating shaving my head to make my head

rolls a bit smootherHolds

This chapter is about how to hold a ball. Dont argue!There are many different holds, most of which you would neverthink of as out of the ordinary, some of which you would neverthink of how to get into, and one or two which are difficult to getout of. The Palm and Cradle holds are the most important for us,and are used in almost every move involving the hands.

Palm HoldThis is usually just called Palm. Hold yourhand out, palm up. Put a ball in the flat ofthe palm. Dont bend your fingers, but letthem relax.

If you place the ball at the base of

the fingers, you are technically still doinga Palm Hold, although its stretching theterm slightly.


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CradleThere are three basic ways tohold a ball on the back of thehand.

The first is simply knownas the "cradle". Hold your righthand out in front of you, fingerstogether, and palm facing theground. Lower the middle fingerto form a groove. Place your ballin that groove. The little fingermay raise slightly that's okay.This is also known as the "three-finger cradle", as three fingers

support the ball.The second is the cradle

that I prefer the "two-fingercradle", so called that because

the ball is balanced on two fingers. Place your hand in front of youin cradle position, fingers together. Form a slight 'V' between theindex and middle fingers. Balance the ball there. This cradle solvessome little problems with the windshieldwiper and similar moves.Make sure not to exaggerate the 'V', as it is hard to correct later!

The third is used by a few CJers on thewww.contactjuggling.org site, and is known as the "Vulcan cradle",after the Vulcan greeting gesture in Star Trek. Place your hand as inthe two-finger cradle position, but form the 'V' with the middle andring fingers. Personally, I find this to be awkward to use, but I'msure there are people that will find it useful if they have troublewith the others.

More advanced holds on the back of the hand include holdingthe ball right behind the knuckles of the first and second fingers(between the tendons), holding between the little fingers first

knuckle and the ring finger, and holding between the thumbsknuckle, the base of the thumb and the first fingers knuckle. Youwill most likely never get to use these, though unless you come up


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with some very outlandish moves - in which case, submit them towww.contactjuggling.org to share them with the world!.

Tripod HoldPut your thumb, index finger, and middle fingers up,with the tips held close to each other. You canbalance a ball on the tips.

This is used as a demonstration hold it pointsout the ball. In the film, The Labyrinth, the firstcontact juggling clip begins and ends in this hold.

Personally, I prefer the three-finger hold tothis one, but a lot of people use this as their Look!

A ball! hold.It is simple to do, and can be moved into (or out of) from the

palm, open fist, or cradle holds.Thumb Hold

For this, start with a hand palm up. Place a ballthere, and wrap your thumb over it. Now turn thehand over so it is palm down. The ball should stillstay in the palm, held there by the thumb. Thiscan be used to great effect as a surprise in themiddle of something routine. If you butterflynormally for a while, for example, then suddenly

throw in a single Thumb Hold so the ball ends upunder the hand instead of above it, the audienceis usually surprised and then impressed.

Cradle Hold w/ Thumb HoldThis hold, while it is simply a combination oftwo other popular holds, pops up enough incontact juggling that I felt it needed to bepointed out on its own.

The Thumb Hold is important to this

hold, so should be practiced carefully. TheCradle Hold used here is the three-finger

cradle. Although I am a great fan of the two-fingered cradle, it issimpler by far to use the three-finger version in this hold.


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Knuckle HoldJames Ernest says in his book that this isone of the only times he ever lets hisfingers tense. It is a style decision. Thehold is not right for everyone, but can beperfect for some moments.

Form a fist, and raise the forearm sothe fist is pointing up, with the index andmiddle fingers forming a groove along the

first phalanges. Place the ball there. This is tricky to get into, andtricky to balance. Try tossing from one hand to another, keepingthe same hold. Or, even harder try placing your two fists togetherand roll the ball from one to the other.

Fist HoldThis hold is also called the Cup Hold, asthe shape of the hand is as if you wereholding a large mugs handle.

Form a fist, with the fingers knucklesheld in a vertical line so the index fingerand thumb are on top.

Place the ball on the slight dip

formed near the end of the index finger.Mostly, this hold is used as part of a group of holds flowinginto each other it can look very good to flourish the ball with aseries of holds.

Open Fist HoldI call this the Open Fist hold because, fromthe Fist Hold, all you need to do is unfoldthe fingers and press the thumb in tighterto get this hold here.

This hold is elegant from all sides, sois ideal for little pauses in your routine.


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3-Finger HoldThis hold is a good starting and finishing move.It is also fascinating when come by suddenly -The front view looks like the ball is justbalancing on the end of the fingers. The side iseven more magical sometimes.

It can be very impressive when you arerolling the ball around your arms for a while, then suddenlystop with the ball apparently just balancing on yourfingertips.

Start learning this by making a tripod of your index, middleand ring fingers. Balance the ball on the fingertips. To begin with,the fingertips should be held wide apart, but as you gainexperience, try to bring the fingertips closer and closer. Eventually,

you come to a point where you can't bring the fingertips closerwithout bending the middle finger. Stop there - bending the fingermakes the hold lose some of its appeal.

Elbow HoldA lot of people hold their balls here bygripping the ball between the forearm andbiceps. That is crude and unnecessary -The inner elbow is relatively flat, so all it

takes is a little practice to be able tobalance the ball there without a problem.Balancing a ball there while doing

something else with the same arm isanother thing altogether, but we'll get to that. This version of thehold is called the Inside Elbow Hold.

Outside Elbow HoldMuch harder to do than the Inside ElbowHold, this one has a lot of possibilities.

Robin Spehar, in the first video I saw of him,rolled a ball from the cradle to here, thenpaused in the act to hop the ball up anddown there for a while. Joe DiNoto (the


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Golden Chicken) uses this in a strange variation of toss jugglingsMills Mess.

To learn this hold, you should first feel around the area withyour other hand, while tensing, untensing, and moving the armaround in small ways.

As you can see, I have let my right hand go limp in thepicture. If you tense the hand, then the tendons of the arm shiftand bunch in uncontrollable ways.

I balance the ball at the base of the biceps, about two inchesfrom the audience side of the forearm.

Another interesting move, I see Robin doing very often, is tobalance here, then keep the ball isolated while rolling it to thecradle, pass over the cradle to the other cradle, and do the same inreverse on the other arm.

Forehead HoldThis is not a beginners hold. Not because I think you won't be ableto do it - with a few minutes practice, I'm sure you could be walkingslowly around the room with no problems!

No - it is an advanced CJer's holdbecause there are no simple ways to getinto it. The simplest way to get into it is atoss to catch there (see Head Catch), and

that is something I would refuse to teachany beginner because it is dangerous.Anyway - assuming you are an

advanced CJer, here are my thoughts onthe hold.

To begin with, the ball is held just above the eyebrowmuscles. Tense up your eyebrows (furrow them as if you wereconcentrating on something), and feel there - you will notice thatwith the muscles furrowed, you have a dip in the forehead - this iswhere the ball is held.

With practice, the ball can be held without furrowing themuscles. I'd recommend this, as a move always impresses more if itlooks effortless.


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Don't let the ball go below the eyebrow area - if it reaches thenose, it is difficult to get back to the forehead.

If the ball starts moving left - move your whole body furtherleft, and turn the head slightly to the right - this will cause the ballto roll a bit to the right - correcting the error. If it rolls to the right,of course, just reverse these instructions.

If the ball starts rolling down towards the face, step slightlyforward and lean your head further back. If it starts rolling furtherup the forehead, step slightly back and straighten up a bit.

Neck HoldThis is another of the advanced CJersholds. There is no easy way to get into it.The most obvious ways a roll up the arm

behind the head, tossing to catch, androlling from the forehead to the neck, areall advanced moves.

Despite all that, this hold isextremely simple. Simply bend over at the

waist, scrunch your shoulders up, and hold your head up so yourelooking straight ahead. The ball is cushioned at all sides by thespine, the base of the head, and the shoulder muscles.

The image here is of myself doing a neck hold with a 5 ball

its not a trick of perspective

Temple HoldThe Temple Hold is very difficult tokeep steady. It must be done in away that is awkward to the body(unless, of course, you are lying onyour side as you do it), so a bit offlexibility is also required.

Getting into this hold is a

difficulty which all advanced CJers have to figure out at somepoint. The easiest way, in my opinion, is the first move of theButterfly With Head Hold, where you simply roll the ball off thecradle and onto the temple.


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Robin Spehar (a comic artist who just happens to also be afantastic contact juggler) submitted a video to contactjuggling.orgof a small one ball show he did, in which he had the ball on theright Outside Elbow Hold, placed his head down so the right templewas on the ball, and flipped over towards the left and took the armaway so the ball was balanced on the right Temple Hold.

In the image, I am holding the ball right at the front of thetemple dip in the skull. I find that the bony rim of this area helps tokeep the ball steady.

Other people like to bring the ball further down

so it is almost in the ear! This area is much more

stable again, and makes your head contact juggling

look extreme. I wouldnt call that a Temple Hold,though but go ahead and learn it anyway.Basic One

Ball Moves

I will describe all one-handed moves here using the right hand (mystrongest hand), but you should also practice with the left. If youare left-handed, simply reverse instructions here, and don't forgetto practice with your right hand. Two-handed moves should also be

learned both ways.This chapter is probably best practiced by choosing

combinations from the following chapter that youd like to learn,then learning the moves in this chapter that are necessary for them.The Windshieldwiper and the various Cradles should most definitelybe learned, as they are basic to almost all other moves.

It is not necessary to learn all possible moves in order to be agreat contact juggler. Just learn the basic versions of whatever youfeel you can do, then when you feel competent, move on to harder

versions and harder moves.Some of the moves at the end of the chapter should not belearned until you have practiced multi-ball and palmspinning. It ispossible to learn straight through, but you will be better off with ageneral education in all styles than in specific in one style.


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WindshieldwiperThe first ball-rolling move most people learn is the windshieldwiper.This is a common basic move of a lot of complex combinations, andis also a good filler on its own between moves. It is named after themotion the arm makes, which is similar to the motion of a carswindshield wiper. The similarity is more obvious when you do itwith both arms simultaneously.

Start with your ball in the rightcradle. It doesn't matter which form ofcradle you use.

Toss the ball gently upwards, andcatch the ball in the same position. Beforeyou move onto the next stage, it is

essential that you can do this. You mayfind that the ball bounces off your hand. In

that case, when you are catching the ball, drop your hand at thesame speed as the ball and slow it so the ball comes to a gentlerest. It may help to examine closely how you would normally catcha ball in the palm of the hand, and apply that to the cradle.

Next, practice the same with the palm. Your forearm shouldbe pointing directly out from you, perpendicular to your chest. Thisshould be easier than the cradle-toss, so won't need as much work.

It is important that you do not allow your fingers to curl around theball as you catch the ball, so a bit more care than usual is neededwhen cushioning the ball.

After you are comfortable with the first two practice tosses,you can go on to the next stage.

Practice tossing from the first position (cradle, forearmparallel to the chest) to the second position (palm, forearmperpendicular to the chest). When you are comfortable with that,try practicing the same, but toss the ball back from the palm tocradle as well.

Now start to smooth out this movement. Learn to toss fromcradle to palm and back again, while keeping the elbow in the sameplace. A good way to practice this is to hold the elbow with the lefthand while tossing with the right (as seen in the images below).


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The final stage is to lower the height of the toss until the ballis in constant contact with your hand as it moves between palm andcradle. Be very careful here if you are throwing from palm tocradle and your fingers are curled, the ball will get caught in thecurl and be thrown at whatever is next to you! Practice somewhereout of sight of cats, TVs, valuable china, etc.

The catches can be smoothed somewhat by moving the handin the direction of the throw slightly as you catch the ball i.e.; asyou catch a ball tossed from palm to cradle, say, move your handslightly further to the left to give the ball more space to slow down(before falling off the end of your fingers onto your toes).

When you have this smoothly, your arm will be moving in asmooth windshieldwiper-like motion, hence the name of the move.

Congratulations, you may now celebrate learning your first

contact juggling move!

Wristhold WindshieldwiperIt is sometimes helpful to have a hand nearby to help you in caseyou drop the ball. In most cases, though, it is difficult to do thisaesthetically. In the 3b Escape I placed onto the contactjuggling.orgwebsite, for example, I tried to keep my left hand by my side, butit jerked forward of its own accord when I almost dropped a ballfrom the right forearm. This move, however, allows you to keep a

hand nearby while looking sufficiently graceful that it can beconsidered a move of its own.Assuming you

are doing theWindshieldwiper inthe left hand, here ishow to do it. Firsttry it without theball.

Hold a ball in

the left palm, whichis pointing left. Theright hand is palmdown, resting flat on


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the left forearm so the tips of the fingers are near the wrist.The left hand comes up to vertical, with the right hand

slipping around the front side of it so the fingers are pointing leftand the thumb is at the wrist.

The left hand continues down so the ball is in the cradle. Theright hand slides further down the back of the forearm and the rightforearm is raised so the ball is still visible from the front.

Bring the left hand forward so the ball is on the other side ofthe right forearm.

Now, you simply bring the left hand back upwards to thestarting position, and the right hand back around to its startingposition.

Elbowhold Windshieldwiper

This is just like the Wristhold move, except the right hand is furtherdown towards the left elbow and doesnt move as much.

Start with the left hand as before. This time, the right handrests on the inside of the left elbow.

Butterfly the left hand out until the ball is in the palm. Allthis while, the right hand remains at the base of the left biceps.

Stretch the Windshieldwiper further left and slide the righthand around the right side of the elbow until its fingers aretouching the outside of the elbow (the pointy bit).

Butterfly the left hand in so the hand drops down inside theloop created by the right arm.Raise the right elbow and dip the left hand further down so

you can then bring the left hand forward to the outside of the rightarm, and slide the left hand back to the base of the biceps.

You can also do this move in the opposite direction, so theball comes up through the loop, but I think the way I have describedis easier to learn.

Butterfly

The butterfly is named after a handmotion used in some Middle-East danceswhere the hands intertwine and wave as iffluttering in the wind.


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The butterfly is an extension of the windshieldwiper. In thewindshieldwiper, there are two end-points on the arc that the ballfollows. We simply smooth the movement out by removing those

end points, forming an infinity symbol.Moving your elbow will greatly help youwith this move.

Imagine a large figure "8" lying on it'sside floating in front of you (an infinitysymbol).

Your ball starts on the bottom of theleft loop, in the cradle. The ball then travels to the top of the rightloop, where it goes over the fingertips to end up at the bottom ofthe right loop in the palm.

From there, you pull the ball to the top of the left loop,

where it goes over the fingertips to end up in the starting positionagain.

Remember that at all times the ball ismoving right, the ball should be in thecradle, and at all times while moving left,the ball should be in the palm of the hand.Good movement of the elbow will help youhere, so limber up!

The butterfly can be reversed, but there is little benefit to it

the average audience member will not notice the difference.Not e: Butterfly is also used as a verb to describe the rolling ofthe ball from the palm to cradle and vice-versa, no matter how themovement is accomplished.

Twirling ButterflyImmediately, we see an example of the wordButterfly being subverted. This move does not form aninfinity symbol, so technically it shouldnt be called a

Butterfly, but the word is so much nicer than

Windshieldwiper, that it is used in almost all cases wherethe word Windshieldwiper should really go. Live with it.

Start by placing your right hand palm up, and your


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left hand over it palm down so they cross at the wrist. The wristsshould touch at all times.

Now put the forearms together, bringing the hands up, andkeeping the fingertips of the left hand as far apart from the right-

hand fingertips (and vice versa) as possibly. You should end upwith a T shape.

Continue the movement of the hands so the forearms arebrought apart and down again, and the hands cross each other

again at the wrist, this time with the left hand palm up and theright hand palm down.

Repeat the movement in reverse to bring yourself back tothe beginning again.

When you repeat this quickly, youll see that the hands aretwirling around each other. This is the basis of the nameTwirling Butterfly.

Start from the beginning again, but this time with a ball onthe right palm.

Straighten the forearms out into the T shape. The ball is stillin the right hand, but moving towards the fingers.

Now, as you bring the twirl to a finish, Butterfly the ballover the fingertips and down into the cradle. That is the end of thefirst part.

From there, Butterfly the ball into the right palm as you

straighten out the forearms again. When the ball rolls over thefingertips, you should be in the T position again.

Continue the twirl, bringing the ball back to the originalposition.

Spined ButterflyThe butterfly motion can be performed in many different ways this is a way to perform it in an almost flat line, using what Ferretcalls a flip-flop to do the butterflying part of the move.

Start with a ball in the right palm, with the palm held far tothe left.Bring the palm to the right until its held in the normal

position just to the right of the chest.


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Now, bring the hand up slightly, and flip the hand under theball so the ball rolls into the cradle.

Continue the movement of the cradle to the far right.If you are doing this with both hands, you can either start

both butterflies from opposite sides of the chest (arms crossed), orfrom the same side.

If you are starting both from the same side, then the handwhich is on its own side of the body (i.e.: the left hand if you arestaring on the left) starts with the ball in the cradle position, andends up in the Palm Hold (remember that all contact juggling movescan be reversed!).

Expanding even further, you can add a third ball. Perform a2b Spined Butterfly as above, both hands moving from the sameside, but start with a third ball held in the palm-down hand. When

the hands are flipping over, pass the ball from a Thumb Hold in thefirst hand to the second. The pass is a form of Thumb-Thumb Pass(described later in this chapter).

Planebreaking ButterflyIn the original CJ book, Contact Juggling, James Ernest pointedout that most CJ moves seem to be in only two dimensions, and thatthey can be expanded into the third just by thinking about it. This isone example of that instead of X and Y, we move the butterfly in

Y and Z.Place your right hand out, cradle upwards, and put your ballon the cradle.

Now, swing the arm up and back so the ball rolls over thefingertips to land in the palm, which is just above the rightshoulder.

The hardest part of this is when you bring the ball back down be very careful! If you make a mistake, your ball may get trapped inthe curl of your fingers, and be flung straight out in front of you destroying whatever mirror youre practicing in front of, or

smacking an audience member unexpectedly (I hope they neverexpectto be smacked).

Another variation on this is the Reverse PlanebreakingButterfly, which is practically the same movement, but with the


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palm upwards in the beginning, and the cradle at the end heldabove the shoulder.

Palm-Palm PassThere are four basic palm-palm passes the "classic palm-palmpass", a more difficult one I call the "chalice palm-palm pass", avariant of what is called the "cheater palm-palm pass", and thebaby pass.

The "classic palm-palm pass" is extremely simple just hold yourhands together, knife-edges and little fingers of both handstogether. Now place the ball in the right palm, and simply roll it tothe other palm, so it crosses at the base of the little fingers. It'scalled the "classic" palm-palm pass because it's the most basicmethod to do it.

For the "chalice palm-palm pass", hold your forearms together sothey're pointing in front of you and up. The palms should faceupwards, with the right fingers pointing right, and the left fingers left.Place the ball in the right palm, and roll it across the heels of thehands to the other palm. I call it the "chalice" palm-palm pass becauseof the shape the arms and hands make.The "cheater palm-palm pass" is based on a lazy way to do theclassic palm-palm pass, but smoothed up. Place your hands togetherso they're both pointing right, and the left little finger is touching

the right knife-edge of the palm. Roll the ball from the right palm,across the knife-edges into the left palm, sliding the hands towardsthe left all the while so you end up with the hands pointing left,right little finger against left knife-edge. This pass allows you tomake the movement quite large, which is good for stage work.For the baby pass, you should start with your right palm facingup, the little finger next to the left armpit. The left hand is alsopalm up, with its little finger next to the right forearm or elbow.This position is similar to how a baby is held against the chest. Theball rolls from the right hand to the left.

From those four basic passes, it is possible to make more complexpasses palm-palm passes with the wrists crossed, palm-palmpasses with the forearms twisted right round, palm-palm passesover the fingertips. As long as the ball passes from one palm into


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the other without too much messing around in between, it is apalm-palm pass. The choice of which you use at any particular timeis aesthetic whatever looks best is best.

Back-Palm PassThere are two basic forms of back-palm passes. For the most common form, place your right hand in front of youpointing to the left, palm down, and a ball in the cradle. Place theleft hand so its pointing the same direction, palm up, with the heelof the hand touching the right hands fingertips. This is kind of anawkward position, but it can be adapted to more comfortablepositions after its learned. Simply pass the ball along the fingers tothe left palm.For a more comfortable form of the above move, place your hands

in the beginning position again, then, keeping the heel andfingertips together, move the left hand forward. Youll find that theangle becomes less awkward, yet the look of the move hasntdegraded. This version of the back-palm pass is used in thehorizontal circle.In the less common one, the ball is passed from the cradle back upthe arm and off at the wrist to the other palm.

The first form is good for large movements, and can beperformed slowly, even isolated. The second is good for tight, or

quick, movements, and is good for passing during twirlingbutterflies parts of your routine.

Palm-Back PassThis is just the opposite of the previous pass. The ball is passedfrom the palm of one hand to the cradle of the other.

The most common two methods are similar to the two mostcommon Back-Palm Passes, but in the opposite direction.

For the most common version, place your hands in line, lefthand pointing left and palm up, right hand pointing left with the

palm down and the fingertips touching the left heel. Pass the ballfrom the left hand to the right. This must be done relatively slowly;as it is difficult to correct high-speed passes in that position (thehands arent too maneuverable like that).


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The more uncommon pass is done by placing the right handpalm down, parallel to the chest, and the left hand above it, palmup, both wrists touching. The ball passes from the right palm overthe base of the thumb to the left hand. In this move, the right handhas more movement available to it, so fast passes can be correctedby raising the fingers, making the ball slow.

There is a Baby Pass version of this as well. The right handis placed palm up, with the little finger next to the left armpit. Theright hand is placed alongside the left forearm with the thumbpointing downish so the left index finger is fully in contact with theright forearm. The ball is rolled from the right hand along the armto the left.

Back-Back Pass

The Back-Back Pass is the more difficult of the basic passes, andcan be very frustrating for the beginner. Dont worry, though persevere! You will get it.

Start with a ball in the right cradle; arm parallel with thechest. Place the left hand in front of it so the base of the indexfinger is against the right wrist. There is a groove between theindex finger and thumb that slides very nicely against the oppositeforearm. Try to get your hand into a comfortable position there sothat the base of the left thumb is against the right hands heel.

To start off learning this pass, it ispossibly best to bend the left hand up andback so the fingers end up almost touchingthe ball in an almost vertical cradle. Tipthe hands over to the right so the ball rollsover the right knuckles and is stopped bythe left hands fingers. Tip the handfurther and further so the ball is supportedmore and more in the left cradle, until youcan take away the right hand.

That method is only good for learningthe move it will hinder the speed atwhich you can perform moves at a laterstage, so well learn to improve it now.


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Starting again in the same position,lift the right fingers up to about 30degrees, tilting hand so the ball rolls tothe left hand, passing on to just behind theleft knuckles. The ball should have enoughspeed to continue on to the left cradleposition.

If you find that the ball continues toofar and falls off, you can slow its progressby raising the left fingers up at an angle tocause the ball to have to climb uphill. Thefurther you raise the fingers, the quickerthe ball will slow.

It is also a good idea to move the

receiving hand slightly in the direction of the balls motion, bringingit to a halt smoothly.

You can practice this using a move called the Back-Back Roll.Pass from the right cradle to the left cradle, then bring your righthand under the left to the other side and pass again from left toright. Done continuously, this feels great, and looks like the ball isrolling left to right.

This pass is not yet complete. As it is, you are passing directlyfrom the cradle to the opposite cradle. To make it look a lot better,

and increase the control you have over the action, you can lengthenthe move out by passing to positions further down the hand andback of the arm.

Be careful, though I used to practice with glass balls, whichare very heavy and very hard. This caused bruising on the backs ofmy hands that took weeks to get rid of2.

The best place to pass to aesthetically is possibly the positionnear the base of the radius and ulna bones, but not so near that theball hits the lump of the ulnas base (that can hurt, too).

2 It also caused my to learn very, very quickly (through something like shock therapy), but I dont

recommend you learn that way.


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Back-Back WalkawayThis move is based on a variant of the Back-Back pass, and looksbest when isolated.

Start with a ball on the right cradle, hand pointing forwards.Place the left hand in front of the right and roll the ball onto it soat passes onto the back of the left hand and rolls to its cradle.

Now, repeat the same move onto the right hand. You willneed to step forward to be comfortable with this.

The move can then be repeated over and over, all the whilewalking forward. The effect is that the ball is walking away,hence Walkaway.

This move can also be isolated the ball stays still, and thehands are pulled from under it, keeping the same movements of thehands, but the ball doesnt move. This gives the effect that the ball

is floating, which is a point of all isolations.You can also reverse the move, so the ball is actually coming

back towards you. In this case, you start with the ball on a cradle,and roll the ball backwards, picking it up with the opposite cradle.If done right, this makes the ball appear as if its moving smoothlyalong a path which is being created as it moves.

If you reverse this move, it becomes the Back-BackWalktowards (imaginative naming scheme!).

Palm-Palm WalkawayAfter learning the Back-Back Walkaway, you should find this simpleto learn.

It is exactly as you would imagine. Hold a ball in the leftpalm, place the right hand in front of it so its heel touches the leftfingertips, and then roll the ball forward onto the right palm. Thenrepeat with the left hand in front.

You can, of course, variate this idea further by having Back-Palm Walkaways, Palm-Back Walktowards, etc. I guess furtherinstruction would be very redundant.

Thumb-Thumb PassThis is part of the Twirling Butterfly suite of moves, and looks outof place with most other moves.


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Start with the right hand over the left, crossing at the wrist. Aball is held in the right Thumb Hold. Twirl the hands as you would anormal Twirling Butterfly, pausing at the palm-palm position to rollthe ball from the right hand to the left, grabbing it in the leftThumb Hold.

Continue the twirl so you end up in a mirror

image of the starting position, then repeat

back.Body Rolling

When you first describe Contact Juggling to a person who has neverheard of it, you might say something like Its like normal juggling,but the balls are rolled all over the arms and body instead of

thrown in the air.This gives a mental image, which is fascinating, and is what I

live for as a CJer the idea that someone could dance, or mime, allthe while rolling a ball on the body as though strings are attached.Unlike Palmspinning, which is a very close-up art, body rolling islarge and expressive. To entertain your audience, you have tobecome large and expressive as well.

Compare close-up magic and stage magic. In close-up magic,you concentrate on the hands (usually) it does not matter what

expression is on the magicians face, or whether he/she is wearingan outfit. All that matters is the interaction of the hands with theobject being manipulated. In stage magic, however, the magiciansbody language is all important.

A fantastic contact juggler can practice for weeks, and bebaffled about why the audience is not impressed if he/she forgetsto include the whole body with the move. I have seen routineswhere the audience oohed and aahed at moves which anygreen CJer could pull off with only the minimum experience thiswas because of the performers stage presence an invaluable aid

in a performance.By all means, learn the most difficult moves you can learn,

but always be aware of how they look to the audience!


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When you practice any move in body rolling also practicemoving the body to accentuate the move. Pretend the ball has a lifeof its own.

One comment I heard about a CJer I knew years ago was thathe nevermoved his legs. The commenter did not say anything aboutthe CJing itself, which said to me that the fact the CJer had notmoved his legs made the legs stand out more than the ball. Youmust avoid this.

Move your body to focus the audience on the ball. Dont lookaround while performing examine the ball. The audience will pickup on your focus, and watch it themselves.

Forearm RollAfter the butterfly, arm rolls are the next learning block. It will

take a while to become consistent with them.The forearm roll is much easier than the Backarm Roll (yes, I

made up the word backarm what else would you call it?), as theforearm is very smooth, and therefore easier to balance on.

To learn, you should first learn to balance a ball on the insideof the elbow. Hold your right arm out in front of you so it is almoststraight, but not so much that the elbow is stiff. If you feel theelbow area, you will notice that there is a tendon that connects thebiceps to the forearm. You can balance the ball to the right of this.

If you straighten the arm even further youll notice the areaflattens out even further. Dont straighten so far that your arm isstiff, or youll find it difficult to correct the balance of the ball.

Okay, now balance the ball there. If the ball moves to theright side of the arm, move the arm further right to compensate. Ifthe ball moves left, move the arm left. This should be fairly easy atthe elbow, but you should practice this balance point a lot, to makethe action sink in.

The next step is to learn to balance in the middle of theforearm. Feel the area. Close your fist and open it to see the

difference. When the fist is closed, the arm is tense, and themuscles form a curve, which makes balance a little more difficult,so it is best to learn with the fist open. This agrees with a lot of


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peoples ideas of how contact juggling should be done, so thats allthe better.

Place the ball on that area, and learn to balance there. Thiswill take much longer than the elbow. In my case, it took weeks ofpractice to get to the stage that I could walk around with a ballthere.

When you have practiced sufficiently (in your opinion), it is asimple matter to roll a ball from the elbow, through the middlebalance point, and to the palm of the hand.

Learning the other way around is a little more difficult. Thehand is used to catching things, but the elbow isnt. Try it and see.

When the ball is just reaching the elbow, pull the elbow backa little, at the same speed as the ball, and slow it to a stop. This isa variation of the catch principle, which Ill explain later. This stops

the ball, yet isnt as clumsy as a sudden stop. The ball slows to ahalt.

Now that you can roll the ball up and down the forearm, youcan add it into your practice routines. You could stretch out yourBack-Back Butterflies, for example, by doing a forearm roll everytime you butterfly into the palm.

You can even just do continuous arm rolls balance the ballon the elbow, and roll to the palm, while pulling the arm in towardsyou so the ball is not really moving. When the ball reaches the

palm, pass it onto the other elbow and roll back. You can also dothis in the opposite way.Ferret came up with a pass from one elbow to the other. Roll

from palm to elbow, bringing the other elbow in close to it, thenroll the ball onto the other elbow. If youre rolling from the right toleft, then you simply move the right arm to the right and lift it this will cause the ball to move left. If you roll it right, then theball should just roll on down the other arm. If you want to learn thiswith larger gap between the elbows, then you should learn ElbowCatches first (described later), then just toss the ball from one tothe other and continue the roll.

Backarm RollThe backarm is the side of the arm opposite the forearm (duh!).


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When you are learning to roll on the backarm, it is importantto first get a feel of where the muscles are. Hold your arm out infront of you so it is parallel to the chest, palm down. Run yourhands over the arm while alternatively clenching and unclenchingyour fist, hand muscles, and arms. You will notice that the backarmis much lumpier than the forearm. This is why you should learnforearm rolls first.

Before beginning your rolling, you should plan out where arethe points that the ball should stop or go through. If you tense yourbiceps, youll see that a flat area appears on the inside of theelbow. This is one place you could stop the ball. Another is at thebase of the biceps it is not necessary to tense anything to balancehere, but if you tense the back of the upper arm, the muscle helpsform a wall just above the elbow which may help while you are

learning. Of course, you will have to be feeling the area in order tonotice this. They are difficult to see.

Each of those areas will help you during Backarm rolls towardsthe elbow. The balance point in the middle of the backarm isdirectly on the opposite of the one for the forearm. Luckily thebackarm doesnt really get bumpy until near the elbow.

If you straighten out the arm, youll see that the backarmmuscles form a triangle, with the thin end at the elbow. This makesit difficult to roll with a straight arm, so well learn with the arm

bent at a right angle parallel to the chest.Choose which spot you want to stop the ball in on the elbow,and mentally plot a course from the cradle to there. This is for tworeasons: 1) you will know what youre doing at all times, and 2) youwill have accomplished the move already in your head, making thephysical act much easier.

Now, roll the ball. Concentrate on the stopping position so youreally know what youre doing as the ball gets there. Make sure thatthe elbow is in the right position, with the appropriate musclestensed. Difficult, yes? It gets easier with practice.

It is much easier to do a Backarm Roll if you dont have toworry about stopping the ball. Place the right arm in position, withthe ball on the cradle, then place the left arm in front of it. Theright hand should rest on the left bicep, and the left arm should be


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pressed against the right. Roll the ball right down to the elbow, andthen pass the ball forward to the left hands cradle. Then bring theright arm under the left (if you bring it over, it will obscure theaudiences view) and bring it against the rights, so you are in theopposite starting position. This is a very extended Back-Back Pass.

A variation of this is called the Genie Roll. Start with theright arm in front with the ball on the cradle, and the left armbehind, hand resting against the upper arm. Roll the ball down tothe elbow, and pass back to the left cradle, which then rolls to itselbow and passes forward to the starting position again. It is calledthe Genie Roll because of the position the arms take.A lot of people simply roll the ball right off the elbow in a straightline onto the opposite arms cradle. The receiving hand should bepoking out past the starting arms elbow. This can be continued on

the opposite arm then.Rolling down the backarm is a bit harder, as you have to

figure out how to get into a position where you may have to rollfrom the elbow to the cradle. This can be done with the exactopposite move as just above. Place a ball in the left cradle; armparallel to the chest, extended to the right. Place the right armover it, extended to the left, and toss the ball to the right elbow,and roll to the cradle if you toss it with a lot of sideways motion,you will not have to balance on the elbow before starting the roll.

A very good way to practice your backarm rolls is to vary howyou pass from one arm to the other. You can roll a ball to the elbowand pass to the other arm either inside or outside the bend of thearm, or behind the upper arm. By varying the pass, you are learningboth to strengthen your backarm rolls, and also essential moves forrecovering mistakes. The more ways you can do a move, the morelikely you will be able to recover it smoothly when something goeswrong.

Of course, the above variations can be reversed as well.

Backarm-Forearm RollWhen rolling from the Backarm Roll to the Forearm Roll, you shouldfirst make sure that the backarm roll is performed parallel to thechest. As the ball reaches the elbow, allow it to roll slightly up the


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upper arm, and bring the forearm up and over in an arc as if youwere performing a Windshieldwiper, then allow the ball to continueits roll down the forearm. This can be done to extend the roll in aslong a line as possible.

For a continuous Backarm to Forearm Roll, start with a ball inthe right palm, butterfly it to the cradle, Backarm to Forearm Rollit, and you will end up with the ball in the palm again, ready tostart again.

Forearm-Backarm RollRolling from the Forearm Roll to the Backarm Roll is slightly

harder, as when you are turning the forearm over, the elbow risesup on the outside, which means that your ball may drop on theinside. Therefore, you should roll the ball a little further than you

would normally, possible giving it a little hop with the elbow toget it over to the outside of the elbow.

For continuous Forearm to Backarm Rolls, its just theopposite of the continuous Backarm-Forearm Roll start with a ballin the right cradle, butterfly to palm, Forearm-Backarm Roll it, andyou will end up with the ball in the cradle again, ready to restart.

Chop RollAn extreme form of arm roll is the Chop Roll. It may help to learn

this in a point-to-point manner.Start with the ball held on the Elbow Hold. The hand is held ina chop position (knife-edge down, thumb up).

Roll the ball down to the hand, so it ends up in an Open FistHold. To do this, youll have to roll along the edge of the forearm,almost onto the backarm the tendon from thumb to arm and thewrist bone tend to be a it bumpy.

From there, bring the forearm straight up so the ball is in aStretched Three Finger Hold.

Carry on from that so the hand goes back behind the head,

and the ball rolls down the backarm to rest on the extreme oppositeof the Elbow Hold. It is easy to balance here as it is very flat, butgetting into a position to use the hold is a bit awkward.


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From there, simply roll back up the arm, over thefingertips, and back to the Elbow Hold. It may help to sort of tossthe ball upwards from the elbow before starting the chopmotionrequired to bring the ball over and back to the starting position.

Armroll to Shoulder HoldThis is just a roll along the arms ending at the shoulder.

The Backarm Roll seems to be the most aesthetic one for longrolls, so use that one.

There are two main areas in which the ball can be stopped between the clavicle and the trapezius (the huge muscle coveringthe shoulder blade), and between the clavicle and pectoral muscle.

The first one is difficult to get out of the ball is essentiallystuck there unless you either jerk it out with a body movement, or

nudge it out with your chin.The second one can be used to go either back down the same

arm, across the chest into a chest roll, over the shoulder towardsthe back of the neck, or down the body to your legs.

James Ernest used this move as an example of serendipity that even mistakes can be used to form new moves (he waspracticing chest rolls, and the ball halted above the clavicle).

Spiral

This move looks fantastic when accompanied by a lot of bodymovement. In the video Contact Juggling: Part One, Greg doesseveral variations on it pirouetting, both arms at once, andstraightforward.

Start with a ball at the Elbow Hold. From there, slightly toss itforward and up to give it a bit of momentum.

The ball rolls up the forearm, but as it rolls, you should turnthe arm under it so as it is coming up to about 2/3rds of the arm, itis then rolling on the backarm.

As the ball approaches the hand, you spiral the arm around it

so the ball curves around the heel of the hand and into its palm.Allow the ball to continue up the hand and into the Tripod or

Three Finger Hold.


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HelicopterThis could be thought of as the opposite of the Spiral.

Start with a ball in the cradle. Roll it along the backarm untilit reaches the middle of the backarm.

Using the elbow as a pivot point, swing the arm in towards thechest so it ends up with the hand pointing palm down and heldabove its own shoulder. The ball is still in the same position.

Continue the pivot, twisting the hand palm-up so the ball rollsonto the forearm and the arm ends up pointing away from youagain.

Let the ball continue its roll to the elbow.I like to do this move, and continue with a Chestroll followed

by a Spiral in the opposite arm.It is possible, but difficult, to do mu

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contact juggling guide