medial side of the juggler's hand and once on the lateral side. Passing Clubs are the prop of choice for passing between jugglers. There are many reasons for this but some of the key ones are: juggling clubs have a larger catching area than balls; the variety of tricks that can be performed exceed either ball or ring passing; and they are visually more noticeable when viewed by an audience. Beginners club passing is generally done with six clubs between two jugglers, each passing a single club to their partner every fourth beat. The passes are made from one juggler's right hand to the other juggler's left hand, so the clubs travel perpendicular to both jugglers. This basic pattern is called four count or every-others. More advanced club passing can involve more objects, more jugglers and more intricate patterns. A notation for describing club passing patterns, called causal notation, was developed by Martin Frost of the Stanford Juggling Research Institute. The other main notation style is that of "four-handed siteswap" - a variation of basic siteswap. Combat/gladiators Combat, often known as Gladiators in Europe, is a popular competitive group juggling activity. A "last man standing" competition, the participating jugglers maintain a base level of juggling, normally a three club cascade, within a limited area. Participants who drop a club, or go out of bounds, have lost the round and are expected to remove themselves (and their clubs if necessary) from the competition area. The rules of combat juggling vary from country to country and juggling convention to convention. The most common rules do not allow participants to deliberately come into body to body contact with each other but they are allowed to use their clubs to interfere with other participants' cascades. Multiple rounds may be played, with the winner being the first to win a set number of rounds, or the person with the most wins by a set end time. Records The world record for most clubs juggled (i.e., longest time or most catches with each club at minimum being thrown and caught at least twice without dropping) is eight clubs for 16 catches, achieved by Anthony Gatto in 2006 and Willy Colombaioni in 2015. The record for most clubs flashed (i.e., each prop thrown and caught only once) is nine, achieved by Eivind Dragsjø in 2016 (11 Catches). See also Baton twirling References External links Historical juggling clubs