Club (juggling device)
In addition to the ball and ring , the club is a classic juggling device . Typically a juggling club is caught by the handle and used for throwing juggling. Since the late 20th century , numerous jugglers have also been dealing with other techniques and exploring every possibility of manipulating clubs. Forms of contact juggling with clubs are also increasingly developing .
In terms of physical properties, torches and juggling knives are very similar. Tricks in which clubs are only caught by the handle are usually also possible with these devices. They are therefore often used, especially by street artists, as they make a big impression on the audience even without outstanding skills.
Club shapes
Each juggling club has a thin and a thick end, the handle and the body. Beyond the handle, the club becomes even thicker; The English term knob is usually used for this head among jugglers . The English term is also used for the end of the leg on the body side: top . Clubs are usually about 50 cm long, the diameter of the body is between 5 and 10 cm. Multi-part clubs have an adhesive strip in the transition between handle and body, and the edge of the top is often protected by another strip.
Early clubs
Until well into the 20th century, juggling clubs hardly be distinguished from the still in the rhythmic gymnastics used clubs . They were made of solid wood and in many cases were made by the artists themselves. These clubs were heavy, and catching high throws was painful, and broken clubs were difficult to repair.
Modern clubs
Nowadays there are countless hobby jugglers and a corresponding demand for juggling clubs, so different manufacturers offer products. The cheapest clubs are hollow, one-piece plastic clubs. They are very easy and can only be recommended to a limited extent, even for beginners, as only a few jugglers have fun juggling with them. In addition to the price, the advantages of these clubs are that they are almost indestructible and waterproof.
High-quality clubs today consist of at least two hollow plastic parts for the handle and body that are placed on a central rod. The sticks are almost exclusively made of wood, the company Play from Italy brought a juggling club with a plastic stick onto the market at the beginning of the 21st century . The body end and knob of modern juggling clubs are made of shock-absorbing materials such as rubber to increase the life of the stick. If it breaks, it can be replaced for all clubs with varying degrees of effort. Handle and body are usually much more durable than the rod. Instead of a hard plastic tube, the most elaborate clubs have a handle made of plastic or textile tape, which is even softer than a one-piece plastic handle, making catching even more comfortable.
Other forms
In addition to the classic body shape, which has the largest diameter at around 3/4 of the length of the club and tapers towards the center of the club and towards the end, some manufacturers have experimented with alternative shapes, some of which found some enthusiastic supporters, but only limited use. Such shapes include the teardrop-shaped Fathead clubs from the American manufacturer Renegade or the radical fish , whose special feature is a thickening in the middle of an otherwise slim body.
decoration
Juggling clubs are made in all imaginable color combinations. For clubs with a colored body, completely white juggling clubs are by far the most common variant. Such monochrome clubs, but especially the white clubs, are known as training clubs. In addition, many jugglers use clubs with a different colored decoration, which is glued to the body or in some cases even melted into the plastic. Aside from your own creations, there are two variants: Circus clubs have stripes about the width of a thumb parallel to the axis on the body. There are almost always silver stripes on a colored body. Two broad stripes around the ends of the body are called "Euro" or European decoration. They only leave about the thickest third of the body free, as in the picture above.
Circus decorations are found almost exclusively on slim clubs, European decorations mainly on thicker clubs. In addition, jugglers have the opportunity to buy their own personal club with different colored adhesive strips, knobs and tops or to decorate them themselves in order to own a unique device.
Club juggling
Throwing juggling
Many tricks are equally possible with balls, clubs and rings. Clubs take up more space in the air than rings and balls, making collisions easier. In addition, they are no longer spherically symmetrical, but have to point the handle to the hand so that they can be caught. For these two reasons, club tricks are often more difficult. This can also be seen from the fact that the number of objects in the world records is significantly lower:
World records
- 9 clubs - 11 catches - Eivind Dragsjø (2016)
- 8 clubs - 16 catches - Anthony Gatto (2006) and Willy Colombaioni (2015)
- 7 clubs - 4 minutes 12 seconds - Anthony Gatto (2005)
- 6 clubs - 7 minutes 38 seconds - Anthony Gatto (2005)
- 5 clubs - 53 minutes 21 seconds - Thomas Dietz (2005)
Club specific tricks
Many club tricks are difficult or impossible to transfer to balls and rings. Clubs and other sticks have been balanced for a long time . Often, while balancing a club, other objects are juggled.
Some tricks are much easier with clubs than with other objects, including throwing behind the back and through the legs. The additional freedom to influence the number or direction of the rotation of the club enables many tricks that are conceivable with rings and balls, but not visible. Throwing a club without any rotation is called flat , as in English . With flat fronts , the clubs remain on the whole in one plane perpendicular to the direction of view, i.e. perpendicular to normal club juggling, which makes the figure very large so that the clubs can fly past each other. Helicopters are rotated horizontally, parallel to the ground and thus also occupy a large flight space so as not to collide with each other. Using the leverage that is only possible with clubs, it is possible to catapult clubs into the air with your foot. Even when rolling the club over the body, especially over the head, very own club-specific tricks are possible.
Most recently, the peculiarities of different juggling objects have been explored by modern, creative jugglers. Since then, some new groups of tricks with clubs have become increasingly popular, such as clamping clubs between the forearm and another club, in the elbow, the back of the knee or under the arm. Even consciously catching the club on the body is part of many creative juggling activities today, whereas in the past it was only perceived as a mistake.
There have been several very experimental attempts at rebuilding a club to create new illusions and effects. For example, small magnets were built into the knob, the lowest part of the club. These then made it possible to catch individual clubs only by touching other magnetic clubs.
Fit
Under Adjust refers to juggle with multiple, with jugglers throwing each other Objects. This is possible with all objects, but clubs are somewhat more popular here than other objects.
Volleyclub
Volleyclub is a team sport that is widespread at juggling conventions and is played on a volleyball field with rules based on volleyball, but with clubs. Instead of a volleyball, which is played from one side to the other, a juggling club is played, which can always be picked up while juggling and thrown out of it.
Combat / Fight Club
Combat is a sport that can also be found at juggling conventions, which is played either as elimination (all against all) or as one on one. The aim here is to disturb the opponent's 3-club cascade (e.g. by knocking off or catching one of his clubs).
Another name for Combat is "Fight Club". The sport receives this mainly through the evening event "Fight Night", which is held annually at the world's largest juggling convention, the EJC . A tournament is held until the winner of the duel in the final is the winner of this year's Fight Night in the Fight Club or Combat.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Joscha Westerkamp: Juggling: Tips for Success . Ed .: Maternus Verlag.