Tom's Trick
Other Tutorials:
- Siteswap: (4x,2x)(2,4x)(4x,2)(2,4x)*
- Difficulty (1-10): 5
- Prerequisites: Chops, Boston Shuffle
Tom's Trick (unofficial name)
is a three ball pattern established by Thomas Wood. It is essentially the
Boston Shuffle with a chop inserted before each slam. The pattern gained a
bit of infamy after being touted as "mathematically impossible," though this
claim was easily debunked by Nathan Peterson in his
tutorial video
(note that his asymetric interpretation is slightly different than my own,
since I am referencing a more direct demonstration posted by Woods after
Peterson had solved the trick). Ironically this "mathematically impossible"
trick is actually a fairly easy three ball pattern, as long as you are
already comfortable with Chops and the Boston Shuffle.
To begin learning Tom's Trick, start with two balls in your
non-dominant hand and one ball in your dominant. Raise your dominant arm up
and shift your non-dominant hand to the center of your body. Perform a chop
with your dominant hand while simultaneously making a fairly vertical
under-the-arm throw along the dominant side of your body with your
non-dominant hand. As that ball reaches its peak and begins to descend your
dominant hand should be finishing its chop. Once that arm motion is finished
you are going to make a throw from your dominant hand toward the
non-dominant side of your body, clearing space for your dominant hand to
catch the under-the-arm throw. Your non-dominant hand will then perform a
slam throw to your dominant hand, claw catching the ball your dominant hand
just threw.
As shown, practice this on both sides. For the next step you
are going to make a throw from your dominant hand toward the non-dominant
side of your body before catching the slammed ball (instead of simply
catching and holding both balls as done in the previous step). As that ball
crosses through the center of your body, make a normal Cascade-style throw
from your non-dominant hand toward your dominant hand. After that throw you
are going to raise your non-dominant hand up and grab out of the air the
ball that had been thrown by your dominant hand. You will then perform a
chop with your non-dominant hand while simultaneously making an
under-the-arm throw with your dominant hand, clearing space for that hand to
catch the Cascade throw previously made by your non-dominant hand. The
under-the-arm throw will be caught by your non-dominant hand after the chop
is completed.
Practice this on both sides. Notice how the final
under-the-arm throw and chop are a mirror image of how you started. To
continue the pattern simply repeat the step using the opposite hand
configuration. Overall Tom's Trick is a relatively easy pattern to master
while being surprisingly enjoyable to juggle.