Basic Cigar Box Technique

History

First of all, they are not and never were cigar boxes. From what I’ve heard, the technique originated in ancient China. Some prisoners were not allowed outside to exercize, and the space inside their cells was very limited. They developed these techniques using the blocks they were provided for “pillows”. (By the way, in a Chinese martial arts film, I once saw such blocks used for sleeping.)

Basic Skill

Before we go any further, here’s a quick explanation of the three planes we’ll be talking about. This diagram may be of some help (on the other hand, it may leave you more confused than before, in which case, ignore it and read on):

First, consider the three axes, X, Y and Z. The X axis runs left and right (think of it as in front of your body parallel to the line that intersects your shoulders). The Y axis runs up and down (think of it as a vertical line, like a sign pole stuck in the ground in front of you). The Z axis runs from your front to your back (as if someone standing directly in front of you were to shoot an arrow straight through your stomach).

Now, each of the three planes we’re interested in is at a right angle to each of the three axes. One way to think of it is compared to a wheel and its axle. The wheel is the plane around the axle’s axis. This graphic might help:


Plane around the X axis		Plane around the Y axis		Plane around the Z axis

You will soon realize why cigar box manipulation is a very good cardio-vascular workout. Home position is shown to the left. The shoulders are almost directly above the boxes. You hold the two outer boxes, with your hands on the tops, not the sides of the boxes. The hands should be a little closer to the inside edges of the boxes than the exact middle. Using the back, the arms and the legs (bending at the knees), raise and lower the three boxes. Avoid inadvertantly letting all three boxes rotate around the X axis as shown to the right (shown in side view).

First, stand in home position (somewhat crouched, with the shoulders forward a little) holding the three boxes:

Notice that you are pushing inward a little to hold the middle box, the one you are not holding directly with your hands. The friction between the touching ends of the box is what prevents the center box from falling. Anytime that third box is free, it will fall. Newton was right. Therefore, when you separate the boxes what you are really doing is tossing at least one of the three boxes and “catching” it between the other two boxes as it falls. The way to do this is simple: as you go up with the boxes, you can separate them, when you come down, clamp them back together. (But notice how little inward pressure it takes. If you squeeze them hard, you’re going to exhaust yourself in no time.)

Usually, you want to separate just one box. That is, you want to pull one of the boxes in your hands to the side, keep the other boxes in your hand more or less in the same place (left to right) while the free box seems to be stuck to it. This is really an illusion. (If you juggle, think of the fake trick where you juggle two balls in one hand while raising and lowering the other to look like you have a puppet on a string.) You’re really tossing the middle box, but keeping one of the other two very close to it (preferably in contact with it).

So how do you keep them from flying apart? The trick is to tilt all three boxes in the plane around the Z axis just a tiny bit. In the graphic below, the tilt is greatly exagerrated. You can do it so slightly that the angle is imperceptible.

Avoid pushing the center box to one side. You’ll find it hard to catch it when it’ not in the center.

Now your ready for some basic practice. Try separating and closing as you move up and down. Try separting just the right hand box, and then just the left hand box. Try to establish a nice rhythm of up-separate and down-together. When you feel pretty comfortable with this, try a basic quarter turn. Raise all 3 and separate one as before, in the instant that it is separate from the other two, rotate it a quarter turn before closing. You should end up like so:

Try the quarter turn a few times. When you are comfortable with that with either hand (and both at the same time), then try a half-turn. You’ve mastered the basics!

Harder Stuff

Rotations

Since we’ve already started with box rotation (so far, in the plane around the Z axis), we’ll consider the other possibilities. It is possible to rotate any one of the three boxes in any one of the three different planes, in either of two directions (clockwise or counter clockwise if you are looking along the axis):


rotating in the plane around the X axis	rotating in the plane around the Y axis	rotating in the plane around the Z axis

Rotation in the plane around the Z axis is the easiest. Probably the most difficult is turning them in the plane around the X axis.

It’s also possible to rotate more than one box at a time. A nice trick is rotating all three in the plane around the Z axis. First do a half turn (as above) clockwise in the plane around the Z axis. This is just to get one hand on the bottom of a box. Next time rotate all three the opposite direction. You can keep doing this, first clockwise then counterclockwise with all three. You have to do a single box counterclockwise to get both hands back on top.

A more advanced combination of rotations: try flipping the center box in the plane around the Z axis while rotating the right hand box in the plane around the Y axis (which means that briefly, there will be two boxes in the air).

Translations

That’s a fancy way of saying “changing the positions of the boxes”. The other major type of trick involves rearranging the boxes. Up until now, your hands have kept their own boxes and you’ve never even touched that middle one. I’ll just describe the easiest one to learn in detail.

Again, on the way up separate the boxes. Using your dominant hand (the one you write with usually), let go of the box it was holding very early, then quickly snatch the middle box following its downward fall (but much faster because you have to get under the box that used to be in your hand, the one that is now falling according to Newton’s Laws). Go underneath the falling box, and finally catch that one as the new center box. Don’t try to toss that box into the center. It’s better to go straight up, but reposition the two in your hands so that the side where you released the box becomes the new center.

It looks real nice to do this trick first with the right hand, then the left, etc. You can exagerrate the side to side motion (adjusting to a “center” that is shifting right and left) by taking a little step each time.

Slightly more difficult, is the same sort of translation, but instead of carrying the center box underneath the other one, try pulling it upward and to the outside. You have to be a lot quicker because you’re changing the direction of the box’s falling motion.

Other Stuff

You can, of course, combine rotations and translations. Try the translation (carrying the center box underneath), while at the same time rotating the newly-freed box a half turn in the plane around the Z axis.

Another nifty, but fairly difficult translation is to pass one box from the right to the left hand (which means that at least momentarily all you have two free-falling boxes and one that is being transferred from hand to hand). Then, try the same trick but transfer the box from hand to hand behind the back (or under the leg).

Another hard one is to translate two boxes without changing hands. In other words, you end up with your arms crossed, the center box stays in the center, but the right and left change positions.

You can also catch the boxes interlinked with your leg (or even behind the back). Make a separation between two boxes and quickly pass your leg (or your torso) through before snapping them shut.

Here’s an easy one! Separate one box, and catch the center box with your elbow in place of one box (which is now behind held uselessly up in the air). Try the same trick using your leg, your toe, the side of your head, your friend, your dog, etc.

Pirhouettes are nice, too. Tossing one box while doing a pirhouette is not so impressive, but flashing all three is darn near impossible (at least without velcro), although I have seen it done.

One of the more creative variations is doing some of these tricks using large stage balls. (The tacky-surfaced vinyl juggling balls.) You can then mix them in with regular 3 ball juggling tricks.