This trick is as beautiful as it is simple. I don't actually know whether this is actually a Gandini trick, Dave L. introduced it to me & said it was one of their things. It looks like the sort of thing they do. TWJC had a series of ten weeks worth of workshops with Sean Gandini & I never once thought to ask.
Hold one hand out in front of you with your palm facing forward & spread the fingers out. Take one ball & place it in the curve between the thumb & forefinger of your outspread hand, close your thumb & hold the ball between your thumb & forefinger only. Do the same with the other hand.
Hold the third ball in one of your hands using the other three fingers & practise tossing it from hand to hand. In this trick you only throw & catch the third ball, the two held with your thumbs & forefingers don't move at all. Start with simple cascade throws with your palms facing up. This will get you used to using the two weaker fingers on your hand along with your middle fingers. Then move up to making 'soft' Claw catches. By soft claw catches I mean holding the catching hand with the palm facing forwards & gently catching the ball as it falls. A 'hard' claw catch is the normal fast & aggressive snatch from above.
Enough exercises. Hold both your arms straight out to the sides like a scarecrow. Raise them so that your hands are level with the top of your head & then move them forward a little & remember those positions. Start with a ball in each hand between your thumbs & forefingers as before & hold the third ball with the other three fingers of one hand. Hold the hand with one ball palm down in front of & above your opposite hip. That is hold your left hand by your right hip or vice versa. Hold the hand with two balls by your side as normal.
Make a big inside scoop with the hand holding two & make a really wide throw with the third ball. Aim for it to peak slightly to the inside of the point where you stretched your arm out to. With the other hand trace the path of the thrown ball out to the side of the pattern. Make a soft claw catch when the thrown ball peaks. Because the ball is at arms length when the catch is made you take the ball into your fingers from the side more than from above. Blend the catch into another big inside scoop then throw the same ball back again to peak at arms length on the other side.
& That's all there is to it. So simple, but it takes practise to do well. Concentrate on making consistent wide throws. Most juggling is done very close to the body, what is noice about this trick is that it is really big. Throw wide, if you throw too far then lean your body to give yourself a little bit more reach, but don't lean so far that you have to bend your arm at the elbow to catch the ball.
Gandini Orbit
The trick can be improved by adding an orbit. Instead of just following the path of the thrown ball make a tight circle around it with the carried ball before making the soft claw catch. Circle your right wrist in a clockwise direction & your left wrist anticlockwise.
Start the orbit early, carry down & underneath the ball in the air as it peaks. Then as you continue the orbit up the other side scoop the orbited ball into your hand from above with your outstretched fingers when the ball starts to fall. In this variation of the trick the throws will need to be not quite as wide as before because to comfortably rotate your wrist you need to bend your elbows slightly.
This trick looks very good on its own but I think its greatest use is to get in & out of tricks involving multiplex throws.
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes, Noice!