Jordan's Kick'

Jordan's Kick is a passing technique for advanced passers which works in every others, express (showers) and other patterns.

In every others:

1. After any pass, but before catching the incoming club, place the club which is in your left hand horizontally behind your right knee as you raise your right foot off the ground. Grab the club by bending your knee around it. It helps if you concentrate on grabbing it at about 1/3 of the club's length from the knob rather than the exact middle, so it doesn't slip out of your knee's grasp. Although possible with long pants on a cold day, you'll find this trick easier if you are sweaty and wearing shorts - don't ask.

2. Maintain this position - right foot off the ground, club held behind knee, until just before it is time for the next pass. Then drop the club by straightening your knee. Just before it hits the ground, hop up with your left foot to kick this falling club to your partner. Keep your eyes on the club to be kicked, and kick it approximately in the middle of its length so that the club flies flat, without spin. Like any kick, this should be more of a gentle lift than an impact. Aim for an outside catch, since this tends to come into the middle of your partner's pattern.

Alternative:

Kick the club as high as a triple, and just before or after a regular pass, so it is passed at the "wrong" time, to make up for the delay caused by the extra height.

In express and other patterns:

Just do it whenever you can fit it in. You may want to hold the club until the hole in the pattern comes around again, so that you have time to kick it carefully.

Notes:

a. Jordan's Kick was invented by Jordan Saturen in Ashland, Oregon.

b. Isn't "express" a kool word? I heard it used in New York City as a synonym for "showers" and rather like it. How about you?

c. When you grab the club with your knee, the club is perpendicular to partner. The knob is pointing to your left.

Steven M. Salberg says:

Huh? I don't get it... must have been too much time floating in cyberspace limbo. Can you be more specific about how to actually kick this club? If your right leg is sticking out and it drops the club, you have to kick it *forward* with your left leg while you are floating in mid-air...?

Hi Doc, Get up and try it again. Yup, you are actually airborne for a moment. As you have let go of the club, you do hop into the air to kick it with your left foot.


Jordans Kick'' / Juggling Information Service / help@juggling.org
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