Beginner Siteswap 3
Three-Ball Cascade
The foundation. Every juggler starts here. Each throw takes three beats to return.
11 patterns
The patterns,
animated.
Each pattern below is an actual JugglingLab simulation - the same mathematics, the same gravity, the same physics every juggler runs through their hands. The notation is siteswap: a digit is how many beats before that prop is thrown again. Higher numbers mean higher throws.
Section 1
Three balls
The foundation. Where every juggler starts.
6 patterns
- Beginner
-
Beginner Siteswap 423
The 423
Cascade with a hold. One ball pauses while the others flow. The 4 buys time, the 2 is a held beat.
-
Intermediate Siteswap 441
The 441
A Mills' Mess building block. Cross-arm magic. The 1 hand-passes while the 4s arc high.
-
Intermediate Siteswap 531
The 531
Asymmetric beauty. High throw, low throw, hold. Three different timing windows in one cycle.
-
Intermediate Siteswap 51
The Shower
All balls travel one direction in a circle. Visually iconic. Looks like more balls than there are.
-
Intermediate Siteswap 312
The 312
The box foundation. Square patterns from round throws. The 1 is a quiet hand-to-hand pass.
Section 2
Four balls
Two parallel tracks. Each hand runs its own loop.
4 patterns
-
Intermediate Siteswap 4
Four-Ball Fountain
Four balls, two in each hand. Independent columns - each hand runs its own loop, no crossing.
-
Advanced Siteswap 534
The 534
Four-ball half-shower. Asymmetric with a pause. Three different heights weave through each other.
-
Advanced Siteswap 633
The 633
Symmetric 4-ball with holds. Meditative rhythm. A high throw followed by two equal mediums.
-
Advanced Siteswap 552
The 552
Four-ball cascade feel. Two highs and a hold. The 2 is the rest beat that makes it possible.
Section 3
Five balls
The milestone. The same pattern, the higher load.
1 pattern
-
Advanced Siteswap 5
Five-Ball Cascade
Five balls. The milestone. Same grammar as the three-ball, higher arcs, smaller margin.
Reading siteswap
A digit is a duration.
Siteswap notation describes a pattern by what each throw does. Read each digit as: how many beats before this object is thrown again. A 3 means three beats. A 5 means five beats - higher, longer in the air. Odd numbers cross to the opposite hand. Even numbers return to the same hand. A 2 is a hold. A 1 is a quick hand-to-hand pass.
Average the digits in a pattern: the mean is the number of objects. Cascade "3" averages 3. The "531" averages 3 too - same number of balls, different rhythm. The "534" averages 4 - same idea, one more ball. The math always tells you what is in the air.
Want to learn the cascade first?
Every pattern on this page assumes you have the three-ball cascade in your hands. It is the grammar of all juggling.
Pattern animations generated with JugglingLab, an open-source juggling animator by Jack Boyce. We adapted the rendering to create a custom feminine figure with a dark theme matching the site design. Source: jugglinglab.org.