Your argument:

"Rings hurt when I catch them. They smash my fingernails off. They give me blisters when I throw them. Rings are boring, the only thing are good for is breaking world records. They are only ever used to pad out juggling acts, never have a full routine for themselves. There aren't enough trick you can do with rings. And they hurt."

My answer?

You are right! Rings hurt! I took up ring juggling but stopped after about 2 months because my hands just couldn't take any more beating. I agree with you.

But then I discovered that rings don't have to hurt at all. They only hurt me because I tried throwing lots of them really high. So I asked myself, why do I have to throw lots of rings high and hurt my hands all the time? Why can't I do something creative with just 3 or 4 rings, with none thrown high enough to come down fast and hard and hurt.

And then I discovered fat rings, which I throw lots of high and they still don't hurt. Well, they sometimes hurt but no more than clubs and far, far less than thin rings. Buy some, you won't regret it.

It is also right that there are hardly any purely ring juggling acts out there. I think this is only because nobody has explored ring juggling to its full potential. I don't claim to have myself but I've spent enough time playing with rings to realise that no one else has. I hope to encourage and maybe inspire some people to do so.

So, here are some notes I've made touching on some of the more creative aspects of ring juggling. I've not included anything like "5 ring 3 up" pirouette because it is something everyone has seen before. These aren't all the tricks you can do with rings but just some of the things you can only do with rings.

Please use what I have put down here as a basis for your own creativity and if you want to use any of these tricks in an act, go ahead. One word of caution, most of these tricks could be considered very "Arty" which means that they look nice but aren't that hard to do, just hard to think up. If you just spend 3 minutes dancing and doing these it will be pretty boring. Add some character, humour and a mix of really hard technical stuff for a perfect act.

Credit to Luke Wilson and Ben Richter for inspiring me to compile these notes.

Everyone else, grab a few rings to play with while reading this and enjoy.

Starting from the very beginning...

Throws

Basic - Throw it up in front of you with some spin to keep it stable in the air, catch it again. Sounds simple. Just remember:
- If you are throwing to the other hand, tilt it in that direction, so the top of the ring is leaning in towards the center of your body. If you are throwing to the same hand, tilt the ring outwards. This angling of the ring makes it follow the correct path in the air. Being an aero dynamical object it makes its path when flying through the atmosphere. If you see someone juggling really high numbers of rings (say 9) look at the top of the pattern, it is much wider than the base. The rings fly up and out, then down and back in. However, if you are juggling columns, throw them with no lean, as you want them to go straight up and down.
- Reach up to catch the ring. If thrown high it will hurt if it hits the stretched skin between index finger and thumb so catch it as it hits the palm of your hand.

90's - My name for a ring thrown 90 degrees from the basic ring throw. Hold a ring out in beside you, keep your elbow in the same place and your forearm horizontal. Make sure it is facing to the front of you and throw. This throw can go either:

- Over your head to be caught in the other hand in the opposite position to the throwing hand.

- To the same hand that threw it. Just straight up and down.

Pancakes - Hold a ring with your palm up, ring horizontal. Throw. It flips over like a pancake. If you just use your arm swinging up to impart the flip it doesn't spin with much force and if thrown high like this can have lost almost all it's flipping motion by the time it reaches your hand. To keep it going, trap it gently under your thumb as you throw it and pull your hand down sharply. It flips much faster for longer. Pancakes are hard because they take up so much room in the air, as much as a basket ball each.

Over shoulder - Catch a ring like normal, swing it down, under and up behind you. When you let go, put some spin on it to keep it steady as it flies over your shoulder. Or to the other hand if you direct it over your head.

Lazies - Like an Over the shoulder throw but if it is thrown straight up behind your shoulder you can catch it there again. The trick is not to reach up to catch it, just to let it fall into your hand.

Flops - what I call throws which have no spin making them very unstable in the air. I like to do these by holding a ring with my fore arm vertical and pushing up hard, like punching the sky. And letting go. By tilting the ring you can make it fall in various ways. These always seem slow but aren’t.

- 90's pancakes, flipped over your head or beside your body.

- Lazy pancakes = pancakes + lazies

- Back crosses. These work best thrown as 90's.

- Under arm. These look nice over as 90's over the pattern to the throwing hand in its usual position.

- 90's that are not at 90 degrees. A nice 6 columns pattern is to have 2 rings thrown in the middle in the basic throw, the next 2 thrown at 45 degrees, and the last 2 as 90's. But realise that things at about 45 degrees can look just like sloppy 90's or wobbly basic throws.

Catches

You want to juggle lots of rings or want to catch lots of rings in one hand. This can be very dangerous to your fingers. The rings often don't land in exactly the right place and more often than not, create quite nasty guillotine devices that trap your fingers. To stop much of the finger trapping, as you catch each ring, flip it back over your hand. It is now out of the way of your next ring to be caught yet still held on your arm.

Generally with rings you catch the ring in the same way as it was thrown. If it was thrown as a pancake, you catch it with your palm up. For variety and for transitions try:

Colour change catch - twist your arm over so your palm is facing away from your body, thumb on the bottom. Catch the ring and untwist your arm. Now the sides of the ring have swapped places and if they were different colours... you get the idea. Do this with all the rings in your pattern at high speed for the best effect.

Inside catch - instead of catching the ring let it fall slightly further, slip your fingers through the center and catch the top. If you hold the ring out now, most of it is behind your hand, resting against your forearm. From this position you can:

- Swing the ring forward to the basic grip. This can be used in place of the colour changing catch.

- Catch another ring in the hand creating a nice figure of eight shape. With this double hold you can do things like a single ring pulldown but with two rings in your hand. This isn't possible if you had caught two rings in the normal catch.

- Do an inside catch and go straight into a pancake throw. Done smoothly, it can be easier than a basic catch into a pancake throw.

Outside catch - like the inside catch but instead of catching by putting fingers through, reach to the outside of the ring and put your thumb through the center. If you hold the ring out now, it looks almost the same as the inside catch did but on the other side of your forearm. From this position:

- Swing back to the basic grip (for colour change)

- Catch another ring for the 8 shape. However, depending on the size of ring it is hard to do a pull down as the ring can get in the way, digging into your arm.

Lazy catch - a catch in the same place as Lazies. These can be catches thrown back over your shoulder.

Extras:

- Catch 90's thrown over your head as an Inside catch. Or an Outside catch. Remember that the inside and outside says where your hand is in relation to the ring, not the ring to the hand.

- Catch a pancake by the far side of the ring.

- Catch three rings in one hand in basic, inside and outside holds.

Placements

One of the great things about rings is that they are very easy to hold in places other than your hands. Try putting a ring in some of these places to create a pause in a 3 ring pattern:

- Over your head.

- Under one arm.

- Over one arm (needs to be slipped over an empty hand).

- Between your legs.

- Balanced on your nose.

- In your mouth (careful).

- Put another one on the one you just put in your mouth, leaning on your head.

- Hang one on your ear (tricky).

- Stick your foot out and catch a ring there, it can be kicked back into the pattern.

- Stick your heel out behind you and catch a pancake thrown over your head.

- Trapped in the crook of your elbow.

- Trapped behind your knee.

- Throw a ring with lots of spin and catch it on a horizontally held ring.

- On an erect penis (I've not tried this, so it's at your own risk, guys).

To expand on some of these placements:

Breakdown - nothing new but still lots of room for creativity. It looks best with lots of rings. The classic breakdown goes like so:

- When juggling 7 put a ring over your head, juggle 6 for a bit, put a ring between your legs, juggle 5 for a bit, one under an arm, juggle 4, one under your other arm, juggle 3, one in your mouth, one on top of that one. With the last ring, fan yourself, pretend it is a steering wheel, whatever. Now add the rings back into the juggling pattern again until juggling 7 again.

Continuous Placements - most of the above placements can be kept going in succession without a throw in between. Or just one throw. Some ideas with 3 rings:

- Placement Cascade - place a ring under the opposite arm. Place the another ring under the other arm. You now have an empty hand, so let the ring on that side drop into the hand, and replace the ring with the other hand. Repeat on both sides.

- Placement Shower - with a ring in your mouth, throw a ring high from one hand to the other, remove the ring from your mouth, replace with different ring, catch thrown ring. Repeat.

Both the placement shower and cascade can be done from virtually any placement. The main difference between them is that the shower involves usually involves a basic throw from one hand to other so is more dramatic, if less symmetrical... but it doesn't have to be a basic throw, try pancakes, 90's, etc... And try different catches too, some lead directly to placements, like an outside catch to an inside elbow trap.

Any of these can be done with more than 3 rings. You can trap two rings at once in different places, or just trap one and throw three.

A good example of a placement shower:

- While juggling four rings in an asynch fountain, with your left hand place one between your legs. Throw the next ring from your right hand to your left, then after a a normal throw with your right grab the ring from between your legs. Replace immediately with a ring from your left hand, and continue (siteswap 5344 with all 5's as a placement).

Remember that the same placement doesn't have to be used continuously, you can swap between them or never return to the same one twice. And try different rhythms too.

Placement to placement - where you don’t hold the ring in a hand between one placement and the next.

- Mouth flip - holding a ring in your teeth, flip it back over your head.

- Nose balance to foot catch - explains itself really.

- Elbow Flip - in an outside, hold the near edge of the ring is next to the inside of your elbow, trap it there by bending your arm. Let go with your hand and hold your arm in the typical body builders "Look at my bulging biceps" position. Now relax your arm so the ring is balanced on your shoulder and arm. Punch your hand at the sky and the ring flips over your head to hang around your neck. This move can also be done with more than one ring in your hand. Try catching a ring in your hand as normal, doing an outside catch with a second ring, an elbow flip, then a pulldown with the first ring caught. Also good from an inside catch, swinging the ring over to the outside catch position, then the trick. It adds an extra step.

- Explore your own placement to placement methods.

For mathematical jugglers:

The siteswaps behind placements are all quite simple; placements are just really high siteswap values. A 9 doesn't have to be thrown really high, it can just be held in the mouth for 9 events. A 5 ring breakdown would look like 55555q4444g333372222333344445555. Or near enough. But you probably worked that out already.

Using your head:

Placing rings over your head is a perfect way to get rid of rings for a while. You might want to juggle one less ring for a few tricks, and having it hanging around your neck means it will stay there no matter what else you do, short of a back flip, and will generally be well out of the way.

You can get rings over your head by:

- Pulldowns - pulling it down over your head. Very simple. It can be done one at a time or with two or more in your hand. This also makes for a good end to a routine, the last catch with each ring pulled down over your head. A pulldown has to be done very fast but learn them slowly to begin with until you are confident you aren't going to smack the rings into your face at high speed.

- Catching pancakes on your head - as the head points upwards it is quite a handy place to catch hoops. This can be quite painful if not executed correctly. When learning start by simply tipping your head forwards and making a low pancake throw that only does half a flip before going over your head. Then do a slightly higher throw with a full spin. Keep going higher but keep the flips slow. And always remember to tip your head forward to avoid bashing your nose.

You can get rings off your head by:

- Pulling them off in a reverse pulldown.

- Hunching your shoulders quickly, this flips the ring(s) backwards over your head, to a neat pile on the floor or to a Lazy-like catch.

Extra head ideas:

- Try the pancake throws or pulldowns holding the ring in both hands at once.

- Juggle 3 or 5 rings, throw a high pancake, pull down the 2 or 4 remaining rings, catch pancake.

- 90's pancake headcatches.

- Do pancake headcatches with all rings until the last one, then holding it behind your back with both hands, throw it pancake-like up over your head and catch.

- Do pulldowns from outside catches (careful, the hole is smaller).

Passes

With passes I mean a ways to pass a ring from one hand to the other without throwing it up. These are what happen at the bottom of a shower, the box and tricks like that. Basically, a 1 in siteswap. Here are some you could to try and are good to learn while juggling 441:

- Pass from a basic grip, grabbing just above or below the first hand.

- Pass from a basic grip, grabbing at the ring opposite the first hand in an outside grip and flip ring into basic grip again.

- Pass from a basic grip, but cross arms, grabbing at the ring opposite the first hand in an inside grip and flip ring into basic grip again.

- Do the above two in reverse.

- Pass from a basic grip but turn your palm down so the ring passes through a horizontal position and grab beside the first hand.

- Like above but turning your palm up.

- Like the above two but from and to inside and outside holds.

- Swing the ring round so you are holding it in front of you with both hands like a steering wheel.

- Do all the above under your leg.

- See which ones work behind your back.

- Pass the ring behind your head.

- Do a quick pulldown and off again into the other hand (careful with this one).

- See if you can work out some of your own.

I enjoy seeing how many variations of these passes I can do in a row while juggling 66661 without dropping. It is the behind the back ones that always get me.

Flourishes

Flourishes are things you do with a ring in your hand that doesn't have to be throw right away (a 2 in siteswap). Holding one in your hand, try some of these:

- Finger roll. Go as if to throw the ring, let go with all but your index finger. If you keep your thumb out of the way it rolls around your finger back to where it was.

- Do two of them.

- Finger roll in the other direction.

- Flip the ring so it does a half turn around its vertical axis.

- Flip the ring so it does a half turn around its horizontal axis (these two look good when using colour changing rings).

- Do them twice in a row.

- Do them one way then back in the other direction.

- Do them for a full flip.

- Swing the ring into an inside or outside hold and spin it over your hand or thumb.

- If you caught the ring in an inside or outside catch, do the above and then swing back into the basic hold.

- Cross the ring over the other arm, drop the ring and catch it again underneath. Try this with the falling ring vertical and horizontal, with basic, inside, outside, palm up and palm down catches.

- Hold the ring over your shoulder and drop to a Lazy catch, this can be done quite quickly.

- Find some more for yourself.

One thing I like to do, though it is very tricky while juggling:

From the basic hold, roll the ring back over your hand and a short way up you fore arm. Let it fall outwards yet let the bottom of the ring slip inwards. This makes it do a little sliding flip over your arm that can be caught in the hand again.

Double flourishes/double passes

Sometimes you might throw a ring or two up really high and find yourself with one in each hand but you don't have to throw them for a short while. Traditionally jugglers would take this opportunity to do a pirouette but there are many more creative things to do.

- Try a simple finger roll in both hands at once.

- Try doing one half a roll after the other.

- Try a finger roll in opposite directions in each hand at once.

- Flip the rings in combinations of directions and axis.

- Let go of both rings, cross your arms, catch and uncross your arms.

- Cross your arms, let go of both rings, uncross your arms and catch.

- Let go of the rings, cross your arms, catch, uncross and re-cross your arms with the other hand underneath, let go, uncross your arms, catch. This one has a pleasant, almost club swinging feel to it.

- Try other variations of the above.

- From the basic grip in each hand turn both palms down and pass one ring over the top of the other to the opposite hands.

- Do a pulldown pass with one while passing the other behind your head.

- Do a pulldown pass with one while passing the other behind your back.

- See what other combinations of passing you can do with the above. And add some flourishes in there too.

But whatever you do, don't hold the two rings up in front of your eyes like a pair of comedy specs. Just don't.

Multiplexes

This is where you throw more than one ring at a time from one hand. Everyone has tried juggling 6 rings in a 3 cascade, throwing two at once, but there are many more things to try.

Multiplexed rings split in the air in a strange way. If you do a basic throw they go to the same height but one ring flies out in front and the other flies out behind. You don't notice this much when doing low throws but throw slightly higher and you have to catch one close to you with one hand and the other ring in the hand as far forward as you can reach. This can look quite clumsy but is still possible. However, when juggling more rings or throwing higher still they split too far to be able to catch them in that way.

You can solve this problem by:

- Doing a quarter turn underneath them and catch one on either side of your body as 90's.

- Do the multiplex throw as a 90 and catch on either side of the body as 90's.

- Do the multiplex throw as a basic, catch one ring in the same hand as a Lazy behind your shoulder and the other as a basic catch in front of you.

- Combinations of the above.

Another way to get good multiplex throws is from a combination of basic and outside holds. From that figure of eight hold, throw the rings so that they both go straight up, one directly above the other. This way the ring that was in the basic hold will always gain a good height but the lower ring will never get much height at all. Try continuous multiplexes like this in one hand but let the two rings swap place each time.

Multiplex pancakes - throw two, catching one on your head and the other in your hand. Or throw four; catch one on your head, one in each hand and one on your foot.

Multiplex flops - hold two in the basic hold, let them drop apart slightly. Do a punching the air type flop throw with no spin and they flop back down to each hand. Or don't let them drop apart, they still split in the air nicely. Or throw 3 and catch one on your head as well.

The Fat Ring Special Power - Bouncing!

I had given up using thin rings because they hurt my hands too much. I bought myself some fat rings to save on plasters and fake fingernails but one thing I found annoying about them; every time I dropped one it would bounce and roll to the furthest reaches of whatever space I was in. It was like trying to juggle tennis balls again. Doing my nut in.

Then I thought "Wait, if I put a bit of backspin on the ring, it will bounce back to me..." and suddenly my fat rings were my favourite props. They provide a whole new dimension to juggle in.

So, here are a few ideas:

- 3 ring bounce cascade.

- 3 ring bounce shower.

- 633 with the 6's as bounces.

- 7441 with the 7 as a bounce and the 1 behind my back.

- Bounces as 90's

- I've managed up to a 6 ring bounce shower (but only for about 8 bounces).

- A big bounce back over my shoulder to a Lazy catch.

- Letting a ring bounce twice.

- Letting the ring bounce 3 times.

- Juggling 5, one big throw out far in front, pulling down four, turning to face my (imaginary) audience, taking a bow as I catch the bounced ring on my head.

- Bouncing to other placements, catching the rings when they are moving the slowest at the top of the bounce, between my legs, under arms, etc.

- Doing a Lazy throw, letting it bounce behind and catching in front (as yet still just an idea).

- All these with different catches, etc.

- Find some more ideas for yourself.

Then I found out another large area which, as yet, I have never seen done before. This is Multiplex Bounce Juggling with Rings. It all started when I threw a multiplex, caught one above my head, let the other bounce and then caught it. Since then I've developed many patterns but here I'll just give some examples of the individual throws and catches that I use as building blocks.

- Throw two rings, catch one, let the other bounce and catch in the same or different hand.

- Throw two rings, let both bounce once and catch in different hands.

- Throw two rings, let one bounce once and catch it, let the further ring bounce twice and catch in the same hand.

- Throw three rings, catch one above the head, let one bounce once and catch, let the last bounce twice and catch.

- Throw three rings, let one bounce once, one twice and the last three times before catching all.

- Four rings... you get the idea.

The most basic pattern using continuous multiplex ring bounce throws is 5 ring splits. Holding three in your left hand and two in your right, bounce one ring to your right hand. As this bounces back to the right hand, throw the two rings held there, one in a bounce to the left hand and one straight up. Catch the ring bounced from the left hand and the non-bounce throw in your right. Now do the same throw from the left hand, one bounced to the opposite hand and one straight up.... continue.

Some tips on ring bouncing:

- Use lots of spin.

- Throw high.

- Make sure you start by throwing every ring straight out in front of you, now matter what hand you want it to go to. It is a lot easier to move your hand or body to the right place for a catch than to direct a bouncing ring by the throw, learn that later.

- Experiment on how many bounces you can get out of a single ring every time you try it on a new floor surface, it changes a lot.

- Have fun.

Extra Special Power - Colour Changing Rings!

So simple, so fascinating. Rings which have one colour on one side and a different colour on the other. How simple can it get? No computer controlled LED's to be seen. I have seen juggling acts that have used this very trick as their finale after doing loads of other much harder tricks. Why? Because it is so visual. And easy.

However, all I have ever seen done with colour changing rings is the basic change, using only the colour change catch, never anything any more creative. Throughout this workshop I've given some hints to which tricks I think look good with my colour changing rings, at least from where I'm standing. Here are some more:

- Many of the passes and flourishes.

- Continuous 90's from one side.

- If you do a placement with one hand and pick it up with the other hand, chances are it will change colour.

Things I'd like to see, but can't be bothered to work out myself, are routines where:

- One side of one ring is a different colour to all the other sides of all the other rings, like one white side amongst all remain blue and red sides. All through the routine this one side is hidden but at the last trick it appears, as if by magic.

- Primary colour rings are juggled and when mixed (by multiplexes, maybe) make secondary colours.

How to make colour changing rings:

- Spray paint - Easy, gives consistent, solid and bright colour, even metallic if you want. The only thing wrong is that it can flake off and leave coloured marks on the floor and walls where you juggle them. It is very easy to reaply the paint but hard to get all the paint off the ceiling where your ring hit.

- Electrical tape - Nasty but easy and more durable. The colour is a bit dull.

- Buy them. Good luck, I've never seen them sold anywhere.

End Bit

I hope you’ve managed to find something new or interesting by reading through these notes. You might have noticed that there are many things I mentioned later on that could easily have fitted into previous categories but I decided not to include them until their most basic aspect was introduced. Maybe if you read it again backwards...

Have fun creating more ring stuff and if you find anything really interesting, email me and it could be included in version 1.01

Lukas
luke@juggler.net

Coming soon: Making 9 Balls Interesting, by Luke Burrage.