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For a series of throws to work as a juggling pattern, on each beat you have to catch one ball, so that you have a ball to throw on the next beat. This fact can be used to check a prospective siteswap pattern. Every time a 3 is thrown in a juggling pattern, it is caught two beats later and thrown three beats later by the other hand. Similarly a 4 is caught three beats later and thrown four beats later by the same hand. Whatever the height of the throw, the same ball will be thrown again that many beats later. So to check a pattern , if it contains a 3, write 3 under the throw three beats later, if it contains a 4, write 4 under the throw four beats later, and so on. If a pattern contains a 0, write 0 underneath itself! When you’ve done this for every throw, the pattern will work if there is one number under each number in the pattern. If there are two numbers under one of the numbers, you would have to catch two balls at once. Alternatively if there isn't a number under one of the numbers, you wouldn't catch a ball or be able to make the next throw. Here are a couple of examples:
Now lets apply the same procedure to see whether 55235 is a valid
pattern. First write 5 under the throw five beats after the first 5:
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