The Unusual Suspects

 

I discussed The Unusual Suspects as a standalone passing pattern before but I wanted to go over it in more detail and see how it can be worked up to so it can be incorporated into a 16 exchange Eulerian Circuit. That, to me, is the Holy Grail of partner juggling: all 16 club exchanges incorporated into a 16 throw pattern (not including the necessary hand-acrosses) with no repeats.

The Unusual Suspects (only exchanges)

13 14 15 16

While the pattern of exchanges reverses I think it's useful to write them all down because once you put in the hand-acrosses it may not reverse. It depends on the choices. In this post I'm going over the variation I originally picked:

13B 14T 15B 16T

Note that this reverses and is more difficult for the Bottom juggler. When the Bottom juggler does the hand-across I call it "beauty" and when the Top juggler does the hand-across I call it "truth". Since this variation reverses we only need to focus on the first two exchanges. Start by writing down the labels:

poss-sposs:B crass-scrass:T

Now apply the truth/beauty transformation:

scrasso-sposs crass-posso

For the mantra split up the passes:

T: sposs posso

B: scrasso crass

Since it's exceedingly difficult to throw a hand-across from a hand with two clubs a slow start is always used. That means make the 0 throw but don't repeat it. 

I'm not sure if it's useful to practice the 3-count version or not. That would be:

T: 0:self 1:sposs 2:sself 3:self 4:posso 5:sself 6:self

B: 0:sself 1:scrasso 2:self 3:self 4:crass 5:self 6:self

Note that I'm writing "self" when thrown with the right hand and "sself" when thrown with the left hand (in keeping with my terminology for passes).

Whether or not the 3-count version is useful, the next step I recommend is to work on both exchanges together in a 5-count to focus on each side. First:

T: 0:self 1:sposs 2:posso 3:self 4:sself 5:self

B: 0:sself 1:scrasso 2:crass 3:sself 4:self 5:sself

Then the other side:

T: 0:sself 1:poss 2:sposso 3:sself 4:self 5:sself

B: 0:self 1:crasso 2:scrass 3:self 4:sself 5:self

Once that's achievable, practice the chocolate bar version:

T: 0:self 1:sposs 2:posso 3:self 4:sself

B: 0:sself 1:scrasso 2:crass 3:sself 4:self

Once that's achievable, practice ultimates (still with a slow start, but the self does not repeat):

T: 0:self 1:sposs 2:posso

B: 0:sself 1:scrasso 2:crass