How to choose juggling clubs

Start with four questions

For more than thirty years Play has made clubs in Italy. There is no perfect club. Play’s work is to offer variety: two bodies, four cores, handles, colours, millions of combinations. You choose by how you want to play, not by a “level” on a label, and not only because your friends already have one.

1. Are you learning to throw three clubs, or do you already know the style you want?
2. Are you on three or four, or moving to five and more?
3. Are you after fast traditional circus spin, or an object for manipulation, body, rolls?
4. Do you want a club already made, or to build it with the Generator?

If you are starting, Prima. A thick handle, it does not hurt.

If you are starting, or you teach: Prima

Prima — one-piece, 52 cm, 200 g. One of the products we are proudest of. Never mind the “cheap” look: it is fantastically balanced, and has nothing to envy in a pro club. Literally indestructible. The handle is thick, and it does not hurt when you start: that matters a lot. It is far better than many cheap import clubs that “look” more professional because they copy the look of expensive clubs, but are not worked out in centre of gravity or flight, and above all do not last. We recommend it for beginners and for teaching; professionals still keep one in the bag.

First of all, durability

The most important principle — the one that sets Play apart from any other brand in the world — is durability. Clubs are unique objects: they exist only to be juggled, and they have a miserable destiny. They are thrown in the air and fall in rotation hundreds and thousands of times a day. They are work tools. They must be reliable and robust first, in any condition.

Every Play club is unmatched in this. They do not break. Wood has a unique feel, as do plastic, fibreglass, 7075 aluminium and carbon. Play left wood behind only for this: strength, and a product that repeats to the gram.

Two gestures, and they last for years

A little maintenance now and then is needed, especially if you play on asphalt: it is by far the most wearing surface. It is a matter of tightening the knob screw every so often, when you feel the knob turning a little too easily on the handle. That simple step saves the fixing screws. Do not skip it.

And, if needed, replace the top every few months of hard use. That is all. Then they last years and years.

Be careful with friends’ advice

Everyone is different and plays their own way. The advice of a juggler better than you is not always the right advice. With clubs this matters even more, because for thirty years one shape has filled almost the whole field of view.

When Play started making clubs, in 1996, it started from something very close to today’s Quantum. It quickly saw that Henrys already ruled the market with the Pirouette, by far the most popular club in the world.

Before the Pirouette, traditional circus used — and still uses — much shorter clubs: 45, 47, 49 cm. Super-fast, dynamic play, classic circus technique. Anthony Gatto used 49 cm (19 inch) clubs from our friends at Renegade Juggling for his whole career. Faster spin and weight make the club stable, perfect for that traditional technique.

The Pirouette, with a short body and a long handle, introduced something completely new: an object better suited to manipulation, which met the young modern juggler. Body movement, rolls, a wildly varied new universe of use. From then on, 95% of the clubs used by modern jugglers have been Pirouettes. Play had no choice: it introduced the Sirius, dimensionally identical to the Pirouette, though mechanically different from day one. The wooden core was dropped for synthetics: weight consistency, infinitely greater strength.

The Pirouette has shaped the choice of so many people for thirty years. Everyone recommends it. If you want to play with the same clubs as your friends, 99 times out of 100 you need a Pirouette or a Sirius. Credit where it is due: good marketing. But there is something important.

Super modern jugglers such as Wes Peden, Spencer Androli and Moritz Rosner all use our Quantum EX1. These are the highest technical levels, the ones everyone watches. So is the Pirouette really the “best” club, or is its popularity mainly the result of years of spread and word of mouth? It is worth not assuming there are no alternatives just as valid — or even better — for your style and your level.

Two bodies: Sirius and Quantum

Both are 52 cm. They are not “levels”. They are two geometries, two centres of gravity.

Body	Geometry	What it does
Sirius	Longer handle (24 cm), shorter body. Centre of gravity a little further toward the top.	Backcrosses, alberts, flats. The Pirouette size: the one your friends have.
Quantum	Shorter handle (21 cm), longer body. Centre of gravity a little more toward the middle.	Snappier spin, fast reverses, hitting around objects. Where Play started in 1996. What the top players above use.

Two handles: smooth and wrapped

Both in soft-touch plastic: they hold when you sweat. They are not decoration.

• Smooth — a little softer, more friendly. The handle if you are starting, and still valid at every level.
• Wrapped — 0.5 mm thinner, and it tapers toward the knob. It sounds like nothing. Across three clubs in one hand it is a real difference: starts, multiplexes, numbers.

Four cores

Play is the only company in the world to offer four core options. All synthetic. All to the gram. All built not to snap.

Core	Material	Weight	Behaviour
PX3	Extruded plastic, slightly flexible	220 g	The most affordable, incredibly tough. The starting point.
PX3 Light	The same plastic	205 g	The same strengths, 15 g less. Hours a day, or five and up.
PX4	Fibreglass, rigid	215 g	Snappy, responsive. Fast, dynamic style.
EX1	Aerospace 7075 aluminium, foam inside	205 g	Lightness of the Light, rigidity of the PX4. The one the top players use.

Other models

D-Club — one-piece, 52 cm, 215 g, three interchangeable silicone inserts: grip and decoration. Light, for manipulation, passing and numbers. When the decoration wears, you change the inserts, not the club.

By situation

I have never kept three clubs in the air

Prima, three of them. Thick handle, it does not hurt, it does not die. PX3 Sirius smooth if you want what your friends have. PX3 Quantum smooth if you want to start where Play started. Do not start on wrapped “because that is what the pros use”.

I teach or buy for a course

Prima, or PX3 smooth. Fair price, they do not break, they forgive the yard asphalt. Keep a screwdriver for the knob screws.

I want the same clubs as my friends

Sirius. Dimensionally it is the Pirouette. Mechanically it is Play: synthetic core, weight to the gram, it does not snap. Then, once you have the throw, try a Quantum. It costs nothing to ask whether word of mouth was describing your game or the game of twenty years ago.

I already do five or more, or high-level work

Step down in weight: PX3 Light or EX1, 205 g. Wrapped if you hold more clubs in one hand. Wes, Spencer, Moritz play Quantum EX1. Not an obligation. A clue.

I already know what I want, or I want a colour that is not in the catalogue

Welcome: Sirius Generator or Quantum Generator. Core, handle, knob, ring, body, top: millions of combinations, the unique club, 100% custom. Play exists for this: not to sell you “the” club, to let you explore yours.

Before you buy

• Every Play club is built not to break. That is the difference.
• If you are starting or teaching, Prima. Or PX3 smooth. Wrapped when you hold more clubs in one hand.
• Sirius is the Pirouette size. Quantum is where Play started, and what Wes, Spencer and Moritz use.
• The popularity of the Pirouette does not prove it is the best club for you.
• PX3 to start. Light or EX1 when weight matters. PX4 if you want fibreglass rigidity.
• Tighten the knob screw when it turns too easily. Replace the top if you play on asphalt.
• If it is not in the catalogue, the Generator.