One of Enrico Rastelli's juggling sticks (the knob end is not the handle end)
While jugglers had already been performing with linear objects such as sticks, torches, and long knives, club juggling, with the now familiar "Indian club" design, did not come about until the late 19th century. Some early European clubs were very thin and stick-like in their construction.
Enrico Rastelli is recorded as having juggled 8 sticks in practice in the early 20th century. Now David Cain has flashed 8 sticks onstage (video). Modern jugglers now mostly use clubs rather than sticks for toss juggling, but some still use lightweight sticks, mainly for numbers juggling. Sticks are easier to launch and collect, but harder to run. Clubs are harder to launch and collect, but easier to run. Daniel Eaker was not able to qualify 5 PVC sticks when he flashed 9 of them.
The Juggling Information Service Committee on Numbers Juggling (JISCON) only recognizes three types of props - balls (roughly spherical objects), rings (flat, roughly circular objects), and clubs (long, roughly cylindrical objects). Sticks are categorized as a type of club that may be used for numbers records. No one has flashed 9 clubs yet, but four people have flashed 9 sticks on video: Bruce Tiemann in 1996 (video), Scott Sorensen in 1997 (video), Chris Fowler in 2003 (video), and Daniel Eaker in 2009 (video). Scott Sorensen is the only person known to have qualified 7 sticks on video.
[[Video:9_stick_flash_New_world_record|thumb|left|640px|9 stick flash by Bruce Tiemann]]