Juggling/Symmetric Passing Patterns/Notation

Passes, Symmetry

The patterns are notated using a simple extension of siteswaps which involves putting a p next of a pass. This is essentially Jack Boyce’s passing notation. Essentially each jugglers role is notated from that jugglers perspective, regardless of how many other jugglers are playing. That way a self will be written as a 3 whether its a solo pattern or in a 7 person pattern.

Since most of the patterns in this article are symmetric, with all the jugglers doing the same job, in many situations only one juggler’s job is shown. So for example the well known 7 object Triple Singles, if written in its full form:

< 5p 3 3 3 | 3 3 5p 3 >

The first part of the pattern gives Juggler 1’s role and the second part gives juggler 2s role. So for conciseness we will often only write: 5p 3 3 3.