Jim's 4-count

This pattern is part of the Selfs and Passes series.

Patterns to do before this one

• stable 3 club cascade
• 5-club 1-count
• 4-count - and 4-count with passes from the left hand

Jim's 4-count

As with all Jim's pattern, they are easier to describe as a half-synchronous pattern, where both jugglers have a throw at the same time (but some passes arrive early and force a hurry from the wrong hand), but are easier to juggle as an asynchronous pattern.

Explanation based on regular 4-count:

This is like a normal 4-count, but one juggler (B) throws all his passes diagonal, one passer (A) throws all passes straight, just as usual.

This means that the first pass from B to A arrives at the wrong hand and A has to "hurry" to throw his next self from the same hand as his first pass, while B gets a normal throw and continues with normal selfs, as usual. The hurry means that A is doing a throw from his right hand when normally A would do a throw from the left hand - so 3 selfs later, when the pass is thrown, A has to throw a pass from the left hand instead of the right.

In the next cycle, the roles are reversed: A gets the diagonal pass where it is expected in their pattern, but B now gets a pass from A's left hand - so this goes to the "wrong hand" of B and B has to "hurry" to accomodate for this.

In two lines, one for each juggler (A has straight passes, B has diagnoal passes):

Hand:   R   R   L   R   L   R   L   R
A 1|2:  P   S   S   S   P   S   S   S 

B 1|2:  P   S   S   S   P   S   S   S 
Hand:   R   L   R   L   R   L   R   L

P=pass

S=self

As a consequence, just looking at the hands throwing passes, the sequence is "right, right, left, left" for both jugglers (only A starts after the first "right" in this sequence and has the first switch immediately). This is true for all Jim's pattern.

The pattern can be juggled like this, but it becomes much easier to juggle, if both jugglers throw half a beat apart in time, making this an asynchronous pattern. Then instead of a "hurry" there is extra-time when hands change, so the "hurry" becomes "wait" on the other hand - or one can actually do a flip on the other hand in between pass and self from the same hand.

Asynchronouse, this becomes:

Hand:   R   L   R   L   R   L   R   L   R
A 1|2:  P   F   S   S   S   P   S   S   S 
B 1|2:    P   S   S   S   P   F   S   S   S 
Hand:     R   L   R   L   R   L   R   L

Animation and diagrams: Animation and diagrams

Next Patterns

Any other Jim's patterns of the Selfs and Passes series.