Cliff's Confusion
Other Tutorials:
- Siteswap: 3[43]2
- Difficulty (1-10): 6
- Prerequisites: Mills Mess
Cliff's Confusion is a four
ball multiplex pattern which resembles the three ball Mills Mess, but
contains an extra vertically-oriented split-multiplex in the middle of the
trick. I uncovered this obscure pattern from a
website run by Todd Strong. The
animation I found for Cliff's Confusion shows the pattern juggled in a
slightly asymmetric fashion, with the multiplexes on one side of the body
being thrown more vertically. I couldn't figure out if this was the proper
form or simply an unconscious discrepancy, so I decided to focus on a
symmetric version (the original animation can be found by following the link
in the "Other Tutorials" box). Regardless, it is easy to transition between
the two forms, so learning one variation will not hamper your mastery of the
other.
To learn Cliff's Confusion, start with two balls in each
hand. Cross your dominant hand underneath your non-dominant hand, and then
make a vertical under-the-arm throw from your dominant hand. As that ball
reaches its peak, make a stacked multiplex throw from your non-dominant hand
toward the center for your body, clearing space for you to catch the first
ball with your non-dominant hand. As that ball is being caught, uncross your
arms and then recross your dominant hand over your non-dominant hand,
catching the bottom ball from the multiplex. The top ball will then be
caught by your non-dominant hand.
As shown, practice this on both sides. To connect the cycles,
you are going to add a third throw, made from your non-dominant hand, right
as that hand is catching the top ball of the multiplex. This vertical throw
sets you up for another multiplex, as shown in the animation below.
Once you have mastered this third throw, you simply need to
keep repeating the same multiplex/vertical throw pair that you practiced in
step one, and you will be juggling Cliff's Confusion.