Body throws

This article is about between the leg throws. For other kinds of throws that go around part of the body, see Category: Body moves.

Body throws are throws that go between the legs while both feet stay on the ground. This trick was invented by Morris Cronin and is most commonly done with 3 clubs in single spins, with the clubs going between the legs from front to back.

For a normal front-to-back body throw, a club starts in front of the juggler, and is brought back between the legs and thrown from this position behind the juggler, and then it comes forward over the opposite shoulder and is caught in front of the juggler.

In a back-to-front body throw, a club is brought behind the back, thrown between the legs from back to front, and caught in front with the opposite hand. These throws are often called "reverse body throws" or similar names, but they're not actually time-reversed body throws - a front-to-back body throw in reverse would be something like a blind catch.

5 Club 3up Crotch Throw 360 Extra

3 and 5 club body throw tricks by David Ferman

World records

Body throw world records with publicly available video evidence:

Front-to-back body throws

• 3 balls: 29 catches in 2020 (video)
• 3 rings: 6 catches by Delaney Bayles in 2018 (video)
• 3 clubs: 4 minutes and 33 seconds by Ameron Rosvall in 2013 (video)
• 4 clubs: 8 catches by Kenny Cheung in 2016 (video)
• 5 clubs: 19 catches by Masahiro Takahashi in 2016 (video)
• 7 clubs: 7 catches by Masahiro Takahashi in 2020 (video)

Back-to-front body throws

• 3 balls: 40 catches by Ameron Rosvall in 2020 (video)
• 3 rings: 7 catches by Ameron Rosvall in 2020 (video)
• 3 clubs: 1 minute and 52 seconds by Ameron Rosvall in 2011 (video)
• 4 clubs: 4 catches by Anthony Gatto in 2005 (video), Ameron Rosvall in 2010 (video, more recent video), and Kenny Cheung in 2018 (video)
• 5 clubs: 5 catches by Anthony Gatto in 2006 (video at 58:55)

Unverified claims:

• 3 rings: 14 catches by Ameron Rosvall in 2007 (claim)
• 3 clubs: 499 catches by Ameron Rosvall in 2012 (claim)

Learn Crotch Throws!

3 club body throw tutorial

Alternative names

Kit Summers named this trick after Albert Lucas in his 1987 book Juggling with Finesse, because Albert was the first person he had seen doing that trick. Kit called front-to-back body throws Alberts, and back-to-front body throws Treblas. ("Trebla" is "Albert" spelled backwards.) In 2000 Jason Garfield, who disapproved of people giving Albert credit for a trick he didn't invent, introduced a new name for the trick, crotch throws, and later the euphemism body throws (which is an ambiguous name since some jugglers use the term "body throws" more generally, for any kind of trick throws that go around some part of the body). Between the leg throws is a longer, but more descriptive and less ambiguous name than "body throws". A less common name for body throws is butterflies.

Variations

• Crotch madness - Every third throw is a back-to-front crotch throw, and the rest are front-to-back.
• Blind catch
• Froggy style juggling