You may think that you know how to juggle, but you’re probably doing it wrong — because you’re doing it without the COMBAT. No joke, this is a fun-looking game.
So says Jason Garfield, founder of the World Juggling Federation and impresario of the sport of "Combat Juggling," a combination of dodgeball, tag, juggling and blunt-force assault. Per Garfield — a Seattle resident and performer who's kind of a juggling professor-slash-standup comedian; see some of his entertaining riffs here — "Combat" games have been a part of the juggling community for years, and his launch of Major League Combat in 2010, after what he says was three years of planning and preparation, turned the pastime into a formal sport.
The basic goal of MLC is simple enough: try to prevent your opponent from juggling (by knocking down their clubs) while maintaining control of your own three-club juggle. In other words, the last juggler standing wins. There are several strategies used to accomplish this, but players typically toss one of their clubs high in the air to give themselves an opening for an attack.
A competitor is out when they stop juggling, when one of their clubs hits the floor, or when one or more of their clubs is stolen by another competitor. Light bumping and arm-to-arm altercations are permitted. This is COMBAT!