The Drop Kick-Up

A drop kick-up involves dropping a club out of a juggling pattern onto the foot, and kicking it back up again, in theory without the club touching the ground. When doing this trick I usually drop from the left hand to the right foot or vice-versa. By dropping the club diagonally, rather than down to the same foot, you can replace a normal cascade throw with a kick-up thereby keeping the pattern going (if you drop from the left hand to the right foot and kick up to the right hand, the end result is the same as if you had just thrown the club from left to right).

The first thing to practice is the drop to the foot. Look at the distance between your hand in 'throwing position' and your foot - long way, huh? To make things a bit easier you should raise your foot about 6 inches off the floor, this reduces the distance and also gives you a chance to cushion the club when it lands by dropping your foot down before kicking back up. To make the drop even smaller hold the club right at the end, with your hand over the knob and point it down at an angle of about 45 degrees to the ground. In the end the club should only drop about 12-18 inches from hand to foot:

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It is also important to angle the club at 45 degrees to your body plane as you make the drop, this is the angle at which the club lies on your foot during a standard kick-up, and so you won't have to change the club's position much when it lands on your foot. Practice a few drops to your foot, don't bother with kicking up again at first, the important thing is to make sure the club stays on your foot. When the trick is fluid the club will not touch the ground at all, however while you are learning the trick you should just let the body rest on the ground and the handle on your foot, as with a normal kick-up. Relax your leg as the club lands on your foot.

Once you have managed to make a few catches try to drop the club to your foot and catch it there, adjust your foot if necessary so that the club is in the kick-up position, and then kick the club back up again. Lastly, practice the above and try to make the pause between the foot catch and the kick-up as small as possible. You should find that as your drop accuracy increases, the need to adjust the club's position on your foot disappears and the whole trick becomes a single movement.