Triazzle

Other Tutorials:

Guillaume Riesen (video)

     The Triazzle is a three ball pattern which uses a combination of Column, Cascade, and horizontal throws to create a highly geometric trick. With the help of a quick underarm carry, the balls form a triangle shape on each side of your body, making the pattern very lopsided during any given cycle.

To begin learning the Triazzle, start with two balls in your non-dominant hand. Make a normal Cascade throw from your non-dominant hand to your dominant hand followed by a second Cascade throw from the same hand. After your dominant hand catches the first ball, make a vertical Column throw with it from your dominant hand, clearing space for your dominant hand to catch the second ball. As the Column ball begins to descend back toward your dominant hand, make a Cascade throw from your dominant hand to your non-dominant hand, clearing space for your dominant hand to catch the Column ball. As the Cascade throw made from your dominant hand approaches your non-dominant hand, make another Cascade throw from your dominant hand (using the now caught Column ball). Use your non-dominant hand to catch the first ball, and then make a Column throw from the same hand, clearing space for your non-dominant hand to catch the second ball. Then catch the Column ball in your non-dominant hand.
    Practice this on both sides. Notice how the step ends with a vertical Column throw from your non-dominant hand. For the best practice, you will want to make a Cascade throw from your non-dominant hand back to your dominant hand, followed by a second Cascade throw using the Column ball. This will set you up to repeat the entire step again, creating one continuous two ball pattern.
    Once you have the two ball pattern mastered, you will be ready to add in the third ball. Start with two balls in your non-dominant hand and one ball in your dominant. Make a Cascade throw from your non-dominant hand to your dominant hand, and then follow it up with a second Cascade throw from your non-dominant hand paired with a simultaneous horizontal pass from your dominant hand. This pass will clear space for your dominant hand to catch the first ball, which will then be thrown vertically to clear space for your dominant hand to catch the second ball (these throws should feel very familiar). As the vertical ball begins to descend back toward your dominant hand, make a Cascade throw from your dominant hand to your non-dominant hand, clearing space for your dominant hand to catch the vertical ball. After that ball has been caught, make another Cascade throw from your dominant hand, while simultaneously making a horizontal pass from your non-dominant hand to your now empty dominant hand. Then catch the two other balls with your non-dominant hand.
    Practice this on both sides. As with the previous step, once you have one cycle of this step mastered, you will want to do the pattern continuously to maximize its instructional impact. Instead of stopping after making the horizontal pass from your non-dominant hand (after which the animation shown above simply catches the rest of the balls), you are going to follow it up with a vertical throw from your non-dominant hand, allowing the whole cycle to repeat again and form one continuous pattern.
    As you may have noticed, this pattern contains all the throws present in the full Triazzle, lacking only the side-to-side arm movements. To add them in, perform the pattern shown above and then, as you make a vertical throw from one hand, cross your other hand underneath the throwing hand. As the vertical ball descends and the throwing hand tosses its other ball, uncross your other hand and continue the pattern.
    Practice this on both sides. To run the full Triazzle, simply make those arm motions after every vertical throw. For such a simply pattern, it may take a surprising amount of practice to achieve true proficiency, since the pattern uses a wide variety of throws and movements.