534 Mills Mess

Other Tutorials:

Steve Hoggan (video)

     The 534 Mills Mess is a variation of the 534 (or Four Ball Mills Mess) in which the arm motions and throw paths of Mills Mess are applied to the 534 siteswap. Theoretically there are three different ways in which such a combination could be performed, but in practice most jugglers make the "5" throw under-the-arm and then go from there. Unsurprisingly it is recommended that you already be comfortable with both the 534 and Four Ball Mills Mess before attempting this trick, though also knowing the 531 Mills Mess would probably help as well.

    To begin learning the 534 Mills Mess, start with two balls in your dominant hand and one ball in your non-dominant. Cross your dominant arm underneath your non-dominant arm, and then make a fairly high under-the-arm throw from your dominant hand. Shortly after this throw is made (before the ball reaches its peak), throw the ball in your non-dominant hand as a fairly low Cascade throw toward the center of your body. After that throw is made you will uncross and then begin to recross your arms. As your dominant hand (which is still holding a ball) begins to recross over your non-dominant hand the Cascade throw made by your non-dominant hand should be descending. Make a medium (shorter than the first throw but higher than the second) throw from your dominant hand toward the center of your body, clearing space for your hand to catch the Cascade throw as it finishes recrossing. The high throw, now descending, will be caught under-the-arm by your non-dominant hand, followed by the medium throw which will be caught by your dominant hand.
    Practice this on both sides. To add in the fourth ball, start with two balls in each hand.  Make the same three throws that you did in the previous step then catch the Cascade throw with your dominant hand and recross as usual. Notice that you now have an extra ball in your non-dominant hand. Instead of simply waiting to catch the high throw you will instead make an under-the-arm high throw from your non-dominant hand, clearing space for it to catch the previous high throw. Catch the medium throw with your dominant hand as you normally would, and then also catch the second high throw using your dominant hand.
    Once again, practice this on both sides. Notice that the first and last throw (the two high throws) are mirror images of each other. To run the full pattern, make a short Cascade throw from your dominant hand before catching the medium throw. Then just repeat the other throws and catches performed in the step above, this time using the opposite hand configuration. Connecting the two sides of the trick can be difficult, but unfortunately there is no way for a tutorial to really help; your body must simply get used to it.