Staff juggling

Hmmm, now all I need are some more juggleable staffs and a videocamera...

Antti, do you use 1m staffs like Seb and co?

Ok, I've been thinking about this for a while, but the cold weather has slowed down my progress on this trick

I call it 'logic' or 'perfect 3 staff cascade' and I'd like to know if there's anyone out there who can do it... ready... here comes the explanation:

When doing a three staff cascade, I've seen it done with 'foward' and 'backward' throws (is this correct terminology?) i.e. normal and reverse cascade, but to do these, you have to stop the staves in order to throw them back the other way (whether you're doing the Antti or French cascade this is true).

The thing that makes a staff different from a club is the beauty of its spin so purists (I'm looking at you Dave) would say that it's wrong to stop the staff in order to throw it back, SO, here's the 'perfect cascade':

(R= Right L= Left H=Hand)
RH: normal cascade throw
LH: normal cascade throw
RH: normal cascade throw
LH: (after catching 1st RH throw) reverse cascade throw
RH: reverse cascade throw
LH: reverse cascade throw
RH: normal cascade throw (This is identical to the first throw and so the sequence repeats ad infinitum)

As you can see, because each staff is being thrown alternately with a normal and reverse throw in the appropriate hand, its spin never changes direction thereby making it perfect or a logical progression which is why I like to call it 'logic.'

I'm sure people use the above sequence to transition from normal cascade to reverse (I think _Y_ showed it to me once), but I haven't seen anyone do it back to back so you're juggling 3 throws normal - 3 throws reverse - 3 throws normal etc.

So, who can do it? Seb? Antti? _Y_? And who's gonna post the first video to show how it looks with fire !

it would look very nice I think, the pattern would be very wide with staffs though to stop them clashing, or some VERY accurate throws would be needed.
what about columns?

2 outside staffs thrown together and the centr staff thrown at right angles... the 2 outside staffs would be continuous circles / spirals... could be done as double without the middle staff (would have to be SHORT staves of course)

If you look on COL 5 Antti does a version of the outer/inner cascade on fire, and its not an easy move! Sebastian has a slightly different variation of it, inner to outer with outer being these strange behind the head throws, and I don't recall this one being on video anywhere.

Cool, just have to get hold of the COL5 DVD now

Mynci, when you say at right angles, do you mean that the two outside staffs are in the wallplane whilst the middle staff is thrown in front of the body (kind of in the buzzsaw plane) like a club?

Ooh, also, is anyone doing flats with a staff. I think they should be easier with staff than club because you can hold the CoG much easier.

Just thoughts.

I think Seb from Fenfire is doing flats.

The way I do the outer/inner cascade is starting inners from left.. then right.. and for the 3rd inner from left I throw it under the right hand chopping and then then right outer and so on.. Always doing the same with the 3rd inner. This way I was able to get the rhytm much nicer. And I spin staffs back and to the front after catching from an outer throw.. But go straight into the outer throw when catching from an inner throw. So in away it must be offbeat or uneven rhytm but it goes smoothly. The behind the neck throws go easier to the right rhytm.

Hope this helps.

And I use 110cm staffs. I'm thinking of changing to 100cm staffs for the 3 staff juggling etc. For doubles it's 110 or 120cm. I like the 120's better for spinning but they are much harder to throw behind the back.

Thanks for the tips. I agree that the rhythm is weird when you try going from inside to outside because of the spins.

You just reminded me (with the chop throw) that, if you can do chops (continuous, preferably throwing doubles) then it's quite easy to do with staffs

I'm not even going to try BTB throws with my 120s (too much head-hitting potential)!

Mynci, if you're trying to juggle your contact staffs it's gonna hurt (if memory serves). Btw. did you actually break your hand at play or was it just a bad bruise?

I didn't bother in the end, I broke my hand in 3 places a while ago and any bang causes serious discomfort now because it didn't heal properly (due to it being missed on first x-ray)
My current contact staff is heavier than the one I had at play I snapped that one on my head

I have light doubles though but still 135-140 long, I want 1m or 120's to juggle with so I'm pretty poor at the moment.

yop good Idea !! I'll talk to people in france about it
I think we can do some footage of some good staff jugglers.
let's see who can be interested ^^

I'm in and i'm sure Meast and Stephan will be also.

Ok. Let's make it happen.

Please send me a PM or email at antti[at]rubberheart.com if you want to be a part of this video.

REQUIRED: max 1 minute of staff juggling (1-4 or more(?)) Can be small routines/sequences or single tricks. I prefer the first one.

SEND IT TO: contact me and ask for my home address and send it on a minidv or a cd

OR: upload the file on your server for me to download

ABSOLUTE DEADLINE: 10TH OF FEBRUARY (if you can't make it then you won't make it)

EDITING: I'll do to editing unless I'm too busy for it and pass the honor to Imakokode. Or we might both do it to make two wicked versions of the same footage.

WILL BE RELEASED ON: The internet and I can put it on high-res on dvd and send it to the people involved.

IT WILL BE: Amazing.

hey you
we are still in cold grey Germany
much too cold too do some nice outdoor footage
if its an interest of purely technical stuff we might be able to do some stuff in our traininghall
is it that what your looking for or are you aiming for the
artsy stuff ?
greetings josh

It can be purely technical. I'm not going outdoors either. If someone wants to use fire go ahead but make sure the tricks are visible.

EDITORS REQUEST: Shoot 10 seconds of close up posing.. few seconds of it will go in the intro of the vid...

i set this thread up and to be honest completly forgot about it,i am very happy to see so many familiar faces and a few new ones talking about staff juggling,althought the great seb himself seems to missing.

bentstix..is that the incredible toe twirler i spent time with at uber??

kooothor.....salut mon amis

as far as the video goes i am very up for it and think we should post it on some juggling sites as well as here
is you tube any good as a server antti????

For all my twirling and juggling with two or more i use 90cm staffs,this is good and bad,

good because they are less likely to collide in mid air and therefore easier to juggle

bad because the heat from these short staffs is very intense and therefore harder to juggle

another point i cant resist making,although i agree for the purpose of the video daylight shots will be much easier to watch and understand i believe that these tricks for me personally are only worthwhile from a performance point of view when i can deliver them with fire at night........................which as we all know is sooooooooooooooooooo much harder(especially when 8 wicks are involved!?!?!)

If somebody wants to go for fire on this one feel free. I'm sure everything will look amazing. We don't need to be able to understand and copy and paste everything. But I'll go for the classic circus hall setting with out fire. I guess the best one for the video would be if everyone would do both but let's do that for the sequel.

I got a 30 second sequence pretty much figured out already. I'm trying to get it clean now. Or atleast get all the tricks done in a row.. Or atleast find time to practice it.. Anybody else started working yet?? If you want to go for single tricks that is fine also.

i got a single trick that i like, but ain't filmed it yet... *slack*