Broken Box

Other Tutorials:

Michael Karas (demonstration)

     The Broken Box is a shape distortion of the regular Box pattern in which both vertical throws are made on the same side of your body, forcing one of your arms to cross and uncross each cycle. This makes the horizontal pass more difficult, since you need to move your receiving hand into position while the ball is in the air. The difficulty of the pass, combined with cramped vertical throws, makes the Broken Box a fairly hard variation to master.

    To learn the Broken Box, start with one ball in each hand. Make a vertical throw from your dominant hand coupled with a horizontal pass from your non-dominant hand, just like in the regular Box. However, as you are throwing the horizontal pass, continue the motion of your arm so that it crossed underneath your dominant hand. At this moment, the vertical ball should be at its peak, and your non-dominant hand should be crossed underneath your dominant hand. As the vertical ball begins to descend back toward your dominant hand, make a horizontal pass from your dominant hand while simultaneously uncrossing your non-dominant hand to receive the ball. This pass should clear space for your dominant hand to catch the vertical ball.
    Practice this until you can make the vertical throw and horizontal passes consistently. To add in the third ball, start with two balls in your dominant hand and one ball in your non-dominant. Make a vertical throw from your dominant hand at the very outside of your body, and then follow it up with a second vertical throw from your dominant hand, this time closer to the center of your body. Simultaneously, make a horizontal pass from your non-dominant hand, just like you did in the previous step. After you make the horizontal pass, cross your non-dominant hand underneath your dominant arm and catch the first vertical throw. Catch the second vertical throw with your dominant hand.
    While practicing these throws, it may help to raise your dominant hand up several inches to allow your non-dominant hand to cross underneath more easily (as shown in the animation above). Once you have these throws mastered, you will be ready for the final step. As the second vertical ball approaches your dominant hand, as it does at the end of the previous step, you are going to make a third vertical throw, from your non-dominant hand, and then make a horizontal pass from your dominant hand to your non-dominant hand, which will have to quickly uncross and return to the other side of your body to receive the ball. The pass will clear space for your dominant hand to catch the second vertical throw.
    Practice this single cycle extensively. To run the full Broken Box, just make another vertical throw from your dominant hand paired with a horizontal pass from your non-dominant hand, and then cross your non-dominant hand under your dominant hand to catch the last vertical throw from the previous cycle.