Advanced Rings

Tricks and Numbers Outline

Drills and Training:

Work a pattern to its optimal form, elbows at sides, relaxed shoulders, power from arms and wrists, smooth non-hand-banging catches. The better your form is, the less your rings wobble.

Learning Odd Number Patterns

5:

• Work your 3 ring shower in both directions, eventually switching directions without stopping
• 3 ring chase in a 5 pattern, this will get your height consistent (SS: 53 or 35)
• Build on the chase with patterns such as 55253

7: (drills are your friend)

• Shower with 4 rings, build up until you can switch directions
• 4 ring chase in a 7 pattern and height (SS: 70 or 07)
• Learn to hold 4 in one hand, finger exercises
• Releasing 4 rings drills
• Building up from 7 to 14 catches

9: (exercise is your friend, drills are a necessity)

• Holding 5 in one hand, finger exercises, release drills
• Protecting your fingers (wrapping fingers)
• Shower 5 rings, yes, in both directions too.
• 5 ring chase
• Drills to build from 7 to 19 catches

Learning Even Number Patterns

6, 8, 10:

• Always inside to outside circles
• Fight to keep your elbows in at your sides, see the rubber band trick
• Relax shoulders, the more they move, the harder it is to bring the next throw back to center
• Stack your runs, 2 catches at a time
• Work in off sync and on sync, switching to isolate problems and correct them
• The hardest part of 6, 8, 10 for most people is throwing 3, 4, 5 in their subordinate hand
• Find a position that works for you, hand exaggerated outward all the way to hands close to the body
• Practice one side at a time in combination with the whole pattern (both hands). Switch back and forth for best results

Hit a wall with your numbers?

For evens bang out one side at a time to double the number of catches you get on that number. (ie; If the most you get with 20 catches with 6 rings and have been stuck there for a while, hammer out each side until you get 40 catches each.) For odd numbers, run the shower on both sides to double your best run. (stuck at 20 catches with 7, run a 4 rings shower for 40 catches on each side)

Tricks with Numbers:

(This workshop is more focused on tricks with 6 or more, but will cover certain key 5 ring tricks)

Q. What can a workshop teach you that you can’t get from watching a trick on video?

A. How to practice!

Learning 5 ring tricks:

My first tricks were whatever I saw Ignatov do in the ‘80s, but I didn’t know how to learn them.

Break it down into bite size pieces.

Ie.; reverse flat shower, juggle a SS:53 (4 ring pattern), then throw the ‘5’ over the top in a flat throw. Pay attention to how your other hand catches the overhand throw, either palm toward you or hand up facing out (harder). Switch and work on the other side.

Same technique for overhead, or one hand overhead, or backcross, or even pancakes. If it’s too hard with 4 rings, drop down to 3 or even 2 until you iron out the wrinkles. Keep the same pattern of one hand throwing in a 5 ring pattern so that you learn the height and speed you’ll need when you put it all together.

Others (listed for purely academic reasons):

Most site swaps are left out, since they tend to be better when you add some flair to some of the throws, otherwise they tend to blend together. Pirouettes (360’s) are a special case. See Jason Garfield’s training for that.

Learning 6 ring tricks:

The most important part of 6 ring tricks is getting to the point where you can come in and out of async and on sync patterns comfortably. To get there practice longer and longer runs where you switch your timing between the 2 rhythms several times. When you can do that half a dozen times in a single run, you’re ready for more!

My first 6 ring trick: (8,8)(4,4)

Wrong trick, too soon. Finger buster.

Better, 855, or what I knew as “throw one high to the side”. High right side throw (can be thrown up the middle) followed by 2 throws in a 5 ring pattern, then back into 6 rings. This trick is done in async.

Easier first trick:

If you practiced on to off sync and back again, then putting a ring around your neck and taking it off will be easy for you. Essentially you’re moving from 5 to 6 rings and back again. It looks better to have one hand place the ring, then the other take it off and throw it back. (more going on for the viewer) Practice by putting one on your neck, then start with 2 in one hand, throw them high, maybe just above your 6 ring height, pulling the one off and continuing to juggle 3 in one hand. Then do that in reverse.

Half shower, the not impossible way:

Learn onsync, then onsync crossing with staggered throws (one slightly higher) This resembles triple doubles with 6 clubs.  Once you have onsync staggered down you can throw 1 over top as in a flat half shower. Then 2, then 4, etc. Pay close attention to your catches, hand in or out. Stay consistent. Once you’ve learned it this way you can go directly into the pattern from an onsync pattern. Hint: Kulakov does this with pancakes! His practice is the same as this technique.

On Sync flat reverse: Probably the prettiest 6 ring trick

You can move gradually from the half shower, to making both hands throw an overhead flat throw, one higher than the other, to the full trick where both sides throw the same height in full sync. One hand should naturally throw slightly in front so they don’t collide. Throws must be even and not wobble to keep them from sliding off of each other.

Overhead Throws:

This one may make you go back to just 1 ring, practicing throwing it overhead by your ear straight up.  Build up to 3 in each hand, throwing just 1 at a time, finally bring that into the full 6 ring async pattern. Slightly easier, onsync with one hand overhead. Careful not to give yourself a black eye! (speaking from experience)

Outside Flats:

Like onsync flat reverse, but throws are straight up from the side of the body, and rings are facing the audience. Looks great when combined with the reverse.

777771bx:

Throw 5 rings in a 7 pattern, pass the one remaining behind your back. A personal favorite.

REMEMBER: These tricks will feel hard if you haven’t practiced your onsync to async patterns!

* (8,8)(4,4) and pirouettes are best learned after you have some experience with 8. The throws are high, and therefore a bit more dangerous.

Extra credit: flourish the on sync flat reverse, throw the occasional pancake, throw 4 high & flourish the 2 in your hands, multiplex splits onsync, etc…

Learn 7 ring tricks:

Half shower, flat reverse, and overhead can be broken down into a SS:73 pattern, working one side at a time.

My first site swap was 86. If you can sustain long runs of 50 or more catches, I recommend trying it. 966 is much harder to get the first time, and hard to practice or break down into bite size pieces. Unfortunately 86 doesn’t look like anything but an accident, but for academic purposes it makes for good practice. 966 gets a great response though.

If you’re an (8x,6)(6,8x) fan, try it with rings. Start with 4 and just flash a pair. The 8’s go very high compared to an 8 ring fountain.

Many 7 ring tricks become finishing moves because continuing the run is often the hardest part. 1, 2 or 3 pancake throws, 3 or 4 half shower throws, or the pullover make good finishing moves. I like the arm stack with a flourish to end a run or trick.

Others: multiplex stack (2 in each hand), neck catch or pull-over back into 7. Pirouettes? Watch Dana Tison videos…

8 Ring Tricks:

Seriously?  What can be done with 8?

I practice async into onsync and back to get the pattern more stable and my timing down. Other tricks are (a,a)(a,a)(4,4) which is onsync 2 pair high then 1 pair low. (one round of that is plenty!) Another is 99999991bx which is make 7 tosses in a 9 pattern passing 1 behind your back. (A good finisher, since going back into a pattern is touchy) The half shower is not too bad if you can do it with 7. a77 is also possible. I’ve seen 3 people in my life do a pirouette under 8. I managed to throw a couple pancakes…once…

Better than tricks is to learn a long pole balance or ring spinning on your leg in combination with 8. It’s a real show-stopper and there’s evidence that several performers have done this for decades.

The pull-over is an old stand-by as well. That one at least you can practice one hand at a time!

*I’ve also done over the head, but it gave me a black eye, so that trick is retired for now.

What exercise works? There really is training that works for jugglers!

Absolutely!  First, for the fingers, get a guitar finger exerciser and strengthen those metacarpals.

Second, warm up those shoulders with narrow and wide circles for a minute, switching directions in between.

Workouts:

I’ve done body-for-life training for 9 months and pyramid strength training for 6 months and it only had a marginal effect on my numbers juggling skill. I was stronger, just not a better juggler.

What works? Athletic training. Classic resistance training where you work each muscle only once a week, broken into 3 different sessions Monday, Wednesday, Friday. By work I mean push to failure with lots and lots of reps. Each muscle may have 8 to 10 set each. The other days fill with intense cardio, kickboxing, jumping/plyo, and absolutely don’t forget yoga. Not beginner yoga, do the stuff that makes your eyes water! These kinds of trainings work the fibers you won’t touch with machines because they’re real world muscles.

Essential finger training: Guitar finger exerciser! Also, pick up a grip trainer if you don’t use dumbbells. See band exercise for training to keep your elbows in. (borrowed this one from the Russians)

Beginning Rings Workshop Outline
This ring workshop is focused on giving you the most gain for your efforts. Laid out for you here are several throwing and catching positions and techniques that can be mixed together to produce a great variety of patterns and tricks.

Basic throwing hand positions:

1. Standard Cascade / Straight hand position palms facing each other
2. Standard Reverse Cascade / Rings Flat to the audience and palms facing out
3. Inward Flats Cascade / Rings Flat to the audience, but palms turned inward facing yourself
4. Overhead Flats Reverse Cascade / Rings Flat to the audience and palms facing out and over head
5. Overhead Flats Cascade / Rings Flat to the audience and palms out  and upside down with elbows out
6. Overhead Cascade palms facing each other (ring throws off the little finger end of your hand)

Basic catching hand positions:

1. Catching in a standard cascade with palms facing each other
2. Catching with palms facing out at your sides
3. Catching with palms facing in at about shoulder width or closer
4. Catching overhead with palms facing out
5. Catching overhead with palms facing in (almost exclusively for the shower pattern)
6. Overhead palms facing each other

Mixing it up:

Reverse cascade throwing palms out and catching palms out puts you in position to flourish the rings, but reverse cascade throwing palms out and catching palms inward introduces a quick color change and a change in style.

Reverse cascade throwing palm out from one hand and catching overhead palm out in the other becomes a variation on the statue of liberty pattern. The overhead hand can throw from outside or inside the body.

Throw with one hand overhead and the other in a standard cascade. The lower hand throws up higher close to your opposite ear.

Flourish:

The ring that was just caught and not in the air or involved in an exchange is the one that can be given a little style or movement to add life to the pattern.

(For some jugglers, this may be the first time you’ve tried to do a move with the non-throwing hand in a pattern. It can feel a lot like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. Give it time, it can be frustrating but this skill will reward all your juggling.)

The simplest move it to spin the ring one time around all 4 fingers at once, pushing outward from the body in a normal cascade. It is possible to work your way down to 1 finger which is decidedly more difficult, but it appears to moves noticeably more smoothly.

The second easiest position to flourish from is with palms facing out as in a reverse cascade. Again, pushing outward around all 4 fingers is the safest move, but 1 finger has its own look to it that you may prefer. Mixing up inward and outward moving flourishes in both overhead and cascade patterns will give you a lot to work with.

Intermediate flourish: pancake or flutter the ring around the thumb. Push ring outward at a balance point so that it “rolls” around the thumb while your fingers get out of the way. Takes practice, but it’s worth it.

The World of 2 & 1:

Now that you’ve been introduced to all these throwing and catching positions and flourishes, a simple pattern such as throwing 2 rings on sync in a 4 ring pattern followed by 1 ring becomes more interesting (ss: (4,4)(4,0) )

1. Flourish the 2 rings in opposite directions
2. Throw the 1 ring reverse over the 2
3. Throw the 2 rings in a reverse palms out with a flourish
4. Throw 1 ring straight up palm out on one side, then the next throw a reverse cascade to the other side, catching with a flourish and repeating
5. 1 ring thrown overhead palm out in the center, with the 2 on the outside

… and so on and so on…

Shower:

The ring shower looks best if it’s performed with the rings flat to the audience. The catching hand naturally migrates slightly higher than the throwing hand making the exchange between them a little easier. Decide with trial and error if you prefer to be a palm out catcher or a palm in catcher here. It depends on which way makes the exchange between your hands feel most natural. The whole pattern is higher than with balls or clubs.

Ring on Ring Spin:

This may seem hard at first, but with a little practice and aim you’ll have a skill that can add a lot to your routine.  Henry’s rings and absolutes and pure ABS plastic rings spin best, airflights and other thin rings the least.  The faster it spins, the steadier it will be, and the easier it will be to transfer from ring to ring.  For best results, “snap” spin a ring into the air using lots of wrist for the most RPMs. The thrown ring should be perpendicular to the floor. The catching ring should be parallel to the floor and thus perpendicular to the spinning ring. The faster you spin the ring the more you can break this rule, even spin parallel to the floor and catching on top of another, an advanced move.

What looks best? Quick exchanges and passes around the body, arms and legs. Simply catching one ring on another is only interesting to the audience once, the second time pass between rings and mix it up.

Picking up Drops:

Easily the most awkward of the big 3 props to get off the ground, here are 3 tricks to making it look good, and easier on your back.

1. On carpet, pinch down one end so the opposite side sticks up, then slide your other toe under it, swing it back toward you then out and up to a pancake and back in your hand.
2. The wobble ring, watch a ring wobble to a stop and learn the timing of getting your toe under it at just the right point. With practice you’ll get a lot of drops this way.
3. Finally, pinch the 2 ends of a ring on the ground with the edge of your shoes so that you can flip one end over the other and on to one of your feet. This one is the hardest, but after a while you can do it without thinking.

4 Ring Pointers:

• Pinch your elbows to your sides.
• Energy for each toss comes down the forearm, past the wrist and out your fingertips. Thumbs point to the sky then the fingers as you release.
• Inside to outside circles, it’s not a free-for-all.
• The more you use your shoulders, the harder your working, bring them to a relaxed position and fight to keep those elbows from flaring out.
• Switch regularly from on-sync to off-sync throws to pinpoint problems.
• If you’re having trouble reaching 10 catches, practice getting to 8 and STOPPING there several times in a row. Isolate your issues, then go for those 10 catches.

OUCH!

Thin rings hurt your hands more than thick ones. Every millimeter makes a big difference.

Catching while your hand is moving up (banging the ring into your hand) hurts too. Work on cradling the ring as it comes down.

Band-aids are great for covering sensitive areas of your fingers.

Keep those nails trim, a bad break can split them. (Multivitamins keep your nails strong too!)

If Time Allows…

Rings fit nicely over your head for a reason! There are cool things you can do with even 3 rings that are simple to learn involving placing or catching rings around your neck and pulling them off.

Ah, the pancake, how do I love thee?

Wrap-up

Once you have a firm grasp of the basics and all the various ways you can handle throwing and catching rings it will be easier to add different elements to your collection. You will be more prepared for tricks like behind the back or other body throws, head rolls, pancakes and other unique throws.

This is how 9 rings felt a couple years ago, with 11 catches being what I could count on every time and an occational run. Now yesterday I had between 25 and 30 catches with 9 and that feels like the norm now.

It would be really sweet if 30 catches with 10 became the norm someday. That would be video-worthy.