Clawing is a way of juggling with your palms facing down, with your hand on top of the ball. In a claw catch (also called a snatch), rather than waiting for the ball to come down and land in your hand, you reach up and snatch down at the ball from above.
Video: clawing with 3 and 5 balls by Luke Burrage
In some clawing tricks, instead of snatching down at the balls, one hand is held up at the top of the pattern with the palm facing down, moving back and forth and catching the balls and dropping them back down, but not moving up and down - see Cherry picker and the variations listed there.
3ball cherry picker variations
Variations of the cherry picker (half-clawed half-Boston mess) by Tsubasa Murakami
See also
- Back hand catches - another way to juggle with your palms facing down