Statue of Liberty

Other Tutorials:

Guillaume Riesen (video)

     The Statue of Liberty is a three ball shape distortion of the Half-Shower in which one hand, extended above the head, drops balls to a feeder hand down below, which in turn throws them back to the raised hand. As you can probably figure out, the name of this pattern is derived from the shape your body makes when performing the trick. The Statue of Liberty is fairly easy to learn, but the massive height difference between hands can take a while to get used to.

    To learn the Statue of Liberty, it is best to begin with just two balls. Start with one ball in each hand, and then take your dominant hand and raise it above your head such that your arm is almost fully extended. With your non-dominant hand, make a throw toward your dominant hand such that the ball peaks about six inches above that hand. As that ball reaches its peak, drop the ball in your dominant hand toward your non-dominant hand, clearing space for your dominant hand to catch the first ball. Your non-dominant hand will then catch the dropped ball.
    This will likely feel awkward at first, though the throws will become more natural to you with practice. To add in the third ball, start with two balls in your dominant hand and one ball in your non-dominant. Raise your non-dominant hand above your head, as done in the previous step, and then make a throw from your dominant hand toward your non-dominant hand. As that ball reaches its peak, drop the ball in your non-dominant hand (as done in the previous step) down to your dominant hand. This drop will clear space for your non-dominant hand to catch the first ball. Immediately follow the drop with a second throw from your dominant hand, clearing space for you to catch the dropped ball. The second ball thrown from your dominant hand will then approach your non-dominant hand, which will drop another ball down to your dominant hand, clearing space for the second ball to be caught. Lastly, the dropped ball will be caught by your dominant hand.
    Practice this extensively. To run the full Statue of Liberty, simply keep making high throws from your dominant hand paired with drops from your non-dominant hand. This pattern is simple and easy, but quite popular with spectators, making it a good choice for performances.