The 531Juggling Trick

Video Transcript

"EMIL LAMPRECHT: The next trick I'm going to show you is called siteswap 5-3-1, but I've also heard it referred to as high-middle-low or pattern stack. Now, the reason it's called a pattern stack is because the way you throw the balls will literally stack them in a way that they fall in sequence, kind of like that. Now, it's not as apparent with three balls but you can do this trick with four or five and higher numbers so that when you're doing the trick, it actually looks like all the balls go up and fall together. Now, in this trick, you're working with timing in a way that you probably have not done before. It's very important to learn how high a throw goes to fall down. Okay. The two most important throws to learn for this trick are one, the vamp, which you would use for a 4-4-1 or shower pattern; and two, your high throw. You need to be able to throw a high three-ball cascade. If this type of thing is hard for you, you need to practice it till it's down. Otherwise, this trick may be far more difficult than is necessary. Now, the essence of the trick is to throw a high throw, a middle throw, and then a vamp. It doesn't look very difficult, maybe, but because you're dealing with timing in a way that you probably have not before, it's going to take a little while for your hands and brain to get a hold on it. Also, you're throwing a different throw every time. At no time are your hands doing the same thing, which makes kind of evaluating and thinking about the pattern while you're doing it very difficult. It's often helped some people to yell, "high, middle, low!" but I personally don't suggest it. One thing that is very common the second you start doing patterns with high throws is leading. Don't round your shoulders, keep your shoulders back, keep your head up, because the second you start bending over, especially for the vamp, your throws will either go far forward or you won't be able to see them well enough to catch them. Start one at a time...two at a time...and move on from there. This is a great trick."