Juggling

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The " Butterfly " is for Contact Juggling what the " 3 balls cascade " is for traditional juggling. It's the essential move in Contact Juggling so it's the trick to learn to begin Contact Juggling. In its basic version it is a rather simple trick, but we can complicate it by adding a change of hand or a second ball.

For Contact Juggling, it is obligatorily to use solid balls (not beanbag), because it is necessary that they can roll.

The insiders of Contact Juggling have their personal site: www.contactjuggling.org

Stage 1    Stage 2    Butterfly with transfer Double Butterfly

 

Stage 1 : the pitch and catch

The principal difficulty of the butterfly is the obligation to keep a permanent contact between the hand and the ball; at the beginning we thus will be authorized so that the ball takes off slightly the hand.

Animation	Exercise	Some comments
	To throw and catch up by using the palm and the back of the hand	You must maintain the palm of the hand opened upwards, launch and catch up with the back of the hand and conversely; should be preserved the tended fingers.
	Throwed butterfly	The same exercise, but this time by performing a movement of " windshield wiper " with forearm.

If you make a success of the throwed butterfly several times, you are not any more very far from the true butterfly.

Stage 2 : the butterfly

Let us try not to throw the ball more but make roll it on the palm and the back of the hand while passing by the end of the fingers (which remain tended).

Animation	To note!	Some comments
	Let us reduce as more as possible the throw in order to preserve the contact	It is necessary to try to preserve a regular movement and without jolt with a transition of almost 180°. The wrist should only be very slightly folded.
	Let us reduce the angle at 90° approximately.	This definitive version of Butterfly is a litle more difficult but it's better to watch.

If you produce the butterfly as well hand right as of left hand, you will be able to perform many other tricks.
 

Butterfly with transfer

As its name indicates it " transfer " consists to transfer the ball from one hand to another.

Animation	To note!	Some comments
	Back-palm transfer	This transfer " back to palm " of the hand is easiest to realize, by connecting it of right-hand side on the left we obtain a likeable trick.
	Palm-palm and back-back transfers	This sequence combines the butterfly with transfers palm to palm and back to back.

Double butterfly

To perform butterflies with the 2 hands at the same time, it is necessary to have perfectly the basic trick of the 2 hands and without looking at.

Animation	Trick	Some comments
	Double butterfly effect " windshield wiper " .	To try this trick, it is necessary to have perfectly the butterfly of the 2 hands and to be able to do it the closed eyes.
	Double butterfly effect " mirror "	The inversion of the 2 movements adds a little more difficulty.
	Alternated Butterfly with exchange	The movements are desynchronized, the hand of the top releases its ball by letting it roll whereas it catches the ball of the lower part; the below hand recovers the ball which rolls.