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Hold the hat out in front of you, in an inside grip so that the brim is horizontal, and the crown is on top.
Pull back on the hat as you throw it, so that it floats, without spinning and catch it on your head. Here's what it looks like from the inside.
The key to the trick seems to be to keep the hat level, and pull it towards you as you let go. That and luck, and/or practice.
00:02
1996
0
04-12-2015
[0]
At some point, your hat will end up on the floor and you'll want it back in your hand. You could just bend down and pick it up (boring!), use a normal foot to head (less boring, but relatively easy) or you could use this little move... (Far more studly way to kick a hat :-)
Place the hat on the floor, to your left, crown downwards and the opening tilting slightly towards you.
Point your right toe, and bring it behind your left leg. Place your right toe into the opening of the hat, and give it a quick upwards flick. With luck (and practice :-) you can make the hat jump up into your left hand.
Top tip: If the hat isn't quite in the right position, you can use your right foot to move it around a bit before kicking.
Bonus points: Do it without falling over about 20 times whilst filming the damn clip for your website...
00:04
1749
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04-12-2015
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After getting the hat to your foot (the knock to foot is the most common way, but there are plenty of others) you can hop and quickly remove your foot from the hat. Quickly get your throwing foot onto the ground and place the other foot inside the hat. As you can see from the video the hat stays fairly still and it's you that does all the movement.
This video of the hat being spun as it is thrown between the feet should give you some ideas for variations on this trick.
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04-12-2015
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This one is quite easy, assuming you can already do a forward roll from a standing position.
So, learn to do a forward roll from a standing position (get a gymnast to teach you :-) then put a hat on the floor in front of you, with the opening facing skywards and give it a go!
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04-12-2015
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Grip the front of the crown of the hat and remove it from the head. Hold the hat vertically and spin it outwards while pushing the hat up with the finger tips. After one spin catch the hat in an outside grip.
With a bit of extra practice you can do this with two or three spins or do it in "slow motion".
00:09
1813
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04-12-2015
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Full arm roll - Roll the hat from hand to hand along outstretched arms
Hold the hat with the crown back in an outside grip in your outstretched right hand. Flick the hat so that it spins up onto the arm and rolls across the back of the neck (make sure the head is ducked forward out of the way) and down the other arm.
As the hat reaches the other wrist bend the hand up and catch it in a inside grip.
Make sure the arms are sloped so that the hat is always rolling "downhill", and practice, practice, practice - this is a difficult trick.
From the TricksWithHats archive
00:04
2101
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04-12-2015
[0]
Full arm roll (backhand release) - Roll the hat from hand to hand along outstretched arms
Hold the hat with the crown back in an inside grip in your outstretched right hand. Flick the hat so that it spins up out of the back of your hand onto the arm and rolls across the back of the neck (make sure the head is ducked forward out of the way) and down the other arm.
As the hat reaches the other wrist bend the hand up and catch it in a inside grip.
Make sure the arms are sloped so that the hat is always rolling "downhill", and practice, practice, practice - this is a difficult trick.
From the TricksWithHats archive
00:04
2859
0
06-12-2015
[0]
Headstop Cascade - A three hat juggling pattern where each hat is thrown to the head.
This is a series of Throw To Heads, alternating hands, but immediately after you make the throw, you have to take off the hat on your head with the throwing hand.
00:00
1638
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04-12-2015
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Place your palm flat on the back of the head for a neck chop and knock the hat upwards with the little finger side of the hand.
A few tries and you will see how much force is required to get it to spin 3/4 and land on your foot. You need to flex your foot as much as possible to stop it slipping off.
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04-12-2015
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Hold the arm out to the side and move the head so that you are looking directly along the arm.
Use the neck chop to knock the hat and a let it roll down the arm. Catch it with an inside grip.
Raise the arm up and flick the hat back along it. Tuck the chin in beside the shoulder as the hat gets close and it will pop back onto the head.
The key to this trick is to move your arm so that the hat is always rolling "downhill".
00:03
1648
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04-12-2015
[0]
Onehanded, Continuous Tumbles - The hat keeps tumbling, in your hand, continuously, infinitely, forever, or at least until you stop.
This trick is an extension of the Tumble - so go learn that one now.
You'll notice that after you have performed a tumble, you are holding the hat the wrong way round to perform a second tumble immediately after it. This is where the extension comes in.
During the first tumble (which is a standard tumble), the hat rotates 1.5 times. The second tumble is similar, but the hat is thrown without a change in grip, it still does 1.5 spins, which means that it is now facing the same way as when you started!
Inorder to give yourself space for the second tumble, it feels like you need to throw it a tiny bit higher or faster.
Try to make it all flow together into a continuous movement, the hat shouldn't ever pause, the hand acts more as a guide to keep it rotating in the right direction.
A nice variation on this is to tumble the hat infront of you, switching hands between tumbles.
00:08
1878
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06-12-2015
[0]
Use a palm-up fork grip at the back of the hat and remove it, straightening the arm. As the arm straightens twist the wrist and take the ring finger off the brim. Spin the hat so that it moves between the middle and forefingers, then transfer the grip to the forefinger and thumb and continue the spin for as far as you can.
Reverse the "twiddle" to place it back on the head.
The main video clip for this trick doesn't show the fingers in any great detail. See the closeup version (120K mpeg) for a better view. For best results you might want to set your video player to loop the clip.
00:03
1728
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15-03-2015
[0]
Steve Rawlings showed me this trick in Birmingham and said that he used to do it in every show, but now that he's older (and a little rounder :-) he can't get it every time any more. Steve uses a china plate for this trick, but it works with hats too which is why it's here! :-)
Take the hat in your right hand, using an inside grip and hold it so that the crown of the hat is facing to the left.
Throw the hat virtically with some spin, and then do the following while the hat is in the air...
Put your right hand between your legs
Take the hand around the back of the right leg
Stand on your left leg and move the right hand & foot behind the left leg
Then, catch the descending hat in your right hand, from that position. Without falling over.
Top Tips: Practice the "tangle yourself up" bit first without the catch. Keep your eye on the hat as it decends, practice loads...
Luke Burrage managed to get this on video within 30 minutes. I've been trying for weeks and can't do it. It's pretty hard.
00:06
2514
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15-03-2015
[0]
The hatstand made its debut at chocfest 7, where I was compering. After a period of prototyping and refining, I built the version that worked. I demoed this a couple of times then it broke. I replaced the elastic and set it up for the big day, used it on stage and it worked, then broke next time I used it.
Be prepared to spend significant tinkering time in between uses, and for frequent breakdowns. That said, it's never let me down when I've needed it.
All in all I've found it a great way to get chicks[1], if you don't count the long evenings spent honing the design and strewing the house with geeky construction equipment, and the fact you'll be laughed out of most nightclubs if you go in wearing a topper. But on stage it works, and it has drawn admiring glances from fellow jugglers and even won us a bag full of croissants on one occasion.
Sweavo, June 2003
[1] facts may vary
From the TricksWithHats archive
00:07
3266
1
24-01-2015
[1]
The Shuffle - Another three hat juggling trick - this time it's the half shower
This is a variation of a jugglers' trick called the Half Shower.
Start with one hat on the head, and one in each hand, held in an outside grip. Throw one hat across the body, flat, with no spin. As soon as you've let go of this hat, take off the one on your head with your now-empty hand. The other hand slaps/places its hat onto the head, just in the nick of time to then catch the first (thrown) hat. You should now be back where you started.
The timing is a little odd for this one, but just remember "Throw.... take....place....catch", and you'll get it.
From the TricksWithHats archive
00:10
2761
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06-12-2015
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Three Hat Cascade - Ring Style - Juggling 3 hats in a cascade, throwing them as you would rings.
1. Learn to juggle 3 balls. See the IJDb tutorials page. Sorry non-jugglers, but it'll help a lot.
2. Throw each hat with a flick of the wrist to give it some stabilising spin. Catch the hats palm-upwards, in an inside grip. Rotate the wrist inwards 180 degrees before the next throw.
00:09
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06-12-2015
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Tumble - Tumble the hat over the back of the hand
Hold the hat crown up in a outside grip. Swing the hat inwards and let go so it can roll up past the thumb onto the back of the wrist. While the hat is above the hand keep the wrist bent so the fingers are pointing outwards and lift the fingers as high as you can. The fingers will touch the inside of the crown and allow you to catch the hat in a inside grip.
To repeat the trick throw a half spin and catch the hat back in a outside grip or do a Reverse Tumble.
00:06
1985
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04-12-2015
[0]
This is one of the videos that was filmed for our former site, TricksWithHats, which never went live. So it doesn't have a write-up and is presented here for posterity.
00:05
1685
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06-12-2015
[0]
Twiddled Big Circles - A trickier but nicer version of Big Circles
Big Circles is a big, visual trick, but the grip change can be slightly ungainly. The twiddle that this trick adds gives a similar effect but has a smoother, if slightly more difficult, change.
Mike and LP disagree on the best way to do this - LP's way, shown in the video clip above, is to do a finger twiddle, as described in the Forward Twiddle when the hat is at the top of the circle. Mike uses a Thumb Spin to adjust the grip.
Try both and decide which feels more comfortable to you, there's little point getting both smooth as they look identical to anyone except a hat manipulation geek, and there aren't many of them in the world!
From the TricksWithHats archive
00:05
1906
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15-03-2015
[0]
Upward twiddle - Twiddle the hat directly above the head
Use a palm-up fork grip on both sides the hat, and lift it off the head and straight up. Remove the ring fingers from the brim and twist the hat between the fore and middle fingers. Stop the spin by gripping the brim between the fore fingers and thumb.
You can either place it straight back on the head, or reverse the twiddle on the way back down.
From the TricksWithHats Archive
00:03
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04-12-2015
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Upward twiddle (one hand) - Twiddle the hat above the head.
Grab the hat in a palm up fork grip. Lift the hat straight up, remove the ring fingers from the brim and twist the hat between the fore and middle fingers. Stop the spin by gripping the brim between the forefingers and thumb. Bring it straight back down to the head.
From the TricksWithHats archive
00:03
1991
0
06-12-2015
[0]
While walking forward grip the front of the brim (using any grip you like) with the right hand and the back of the hat with the left. Stop when your right foot is forward and lift up onto the toes. Hold the hat still above the head and pivot round so the left foot and hand are now in front of you. You can continue walking or turn back and forth on the spot.
00:07
1876
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15-03-2015
[0]
Place the back of one hand against the front of the crown and the palm of the other hand against the back of the hat. Lift the hat off and roll the hands round each other so that the hat tumbles through one complete spin as you carry the hat down to waist level.
Reverse the process to return the hat to the head.
00:05
1841
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15-03-2015
[0]
Place the inside of the elbow against the forehead and duck your head down out of the hat. The little drop to the side in the video clip is based on a move normally done with plates.
This trick links nicely to levitation.
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1668
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04-12-2015
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