I don’t remember learning to juggle, but my friend picked it up, never having tried before, in 20 minutes he did about 15 tosses today.
This amazed me, is it unusual? I seem to remember it taking me much longer.
Took me about half an hour to get 10+ tosses.
If it is one of those huge beanbags only half filled with rice then that isn’t uncommon. But the smaller the ball and the firmer it gets the harder it is too juggle with.
Another key factor is wether or not he will be able to always do 15 catches from now on or if it was just a fluke. Are his throws mostly accurate or are they all over the place?
He’s juggling some millet filled bags that I made. They are pretty firm. He’s very regular with the throws, got regularly over 10. He still is walking forward some, but I guess that’s normal.
Pretty cool. Just a week ago he said,
“I’m terrible at stuff like that, I could never learn.”
i learnt to juggle in 15-30 mins during PE at school. easy as. i can ride whilst juggling no probs. i thought juggling was supposed to be hard?.
Okay, I see, you guys are so good!
I won’t show this thread to my friend, he’s feeling pretty special right about now 
. I think it took me a couple weeks to juggle, and my unicycle, too, took a while.
I learned in PE class too. I picked it up in less than 10 minutes with scarves. And less than an hour later I could do 15+ catches with juggling balls.
I’ve got an urge to go juggle now.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Oh! and if he’s going forward when he juggles, have him stand in front of a bed.
Nah, it took me a couple weeks to learn to. But I wasn’t really motivated back then.
Also, if it makes you feel better Jason Garfield says that it took him 3-4 weeks to learn the 3 ball cascade.
I taught “basic 3-ball juggling” to college students for 8 semesters, than taught it at the Learning Annex in NYC.
On average 17 out of 20 students are doing this at the end of a 90 minute class. Some learn VERY quickly, and some take a bit longer.
“Learning” the cascade means performing 3 “exchanges,” that is, 3 instances where a ball is thrown just before a ball is caught by that same hand.
Once there, it’s just continued practice to add exchanges.
Of course, this was with a skilled teacher, who had a number of strategies to assist people with specific difficulties, and who caught bad habits early and developed strategies to counter thsoe bad habits. After the basic lessons, beginning with 1, than the exchange with 2, then adding the 3rd, and lots of individual attention after that.
Nearly everyone can do it within 2 hours.
Without a skilled teacher, it took me over 8 hours, going all day. I did it after watching a juggler (maybe Ray Jason?) teach Johnny Carson on his show one night.
Your friend has reason to feel special.
I’d guess he’s probably in the top 5% of the population.
This forum will give you skewed results because a majority of people who post here have an above averagely developed ‘physical IQ’ and a lot of them are of an embryonic age-group where physical skills are learnt quicker.
Somehow this phenomenon does not extend to picking up clothes or wet towels.
Scientists are baffled.
For the walking forward, suggest to him that he juggles facing a wall, about knuckle-brushing distance away from it.
When facing a wall, most aspirant jugglers only walk forward about twice.
At first he’ll bounce the ball off the wall, he’ll notice when his throws no longer touch the wall.
When that happens, it’s time for him to leave the wall and for you to whisper ‘Mills Mess’ in his ear.
Sounds like there’s one more of us and one less of them.
I seem to remember that it took me about 3 weeks of regular practice. I was slow, just like with the unicycling. I learned on my own from written instructions.
However, I taught someone recently who picked it up in about 1/4 hour.
If you have an experienced teacher, like in Billy’s example, most adults can get three catches or better within fifteen minutes. I used to be one of those teachers; having worked with over 50,000 kids during my tenure with the National Circus Project. Most of them were elementary school aged, and not adults. Adults should be able to learn faster than kids 8 and under. If they can’t it’s usually because of preconceived notions of not being able to do things. Oh the number of times I heard people say “I couldn’t juggle for my life!”
Without the skilled teacher, however, anything goes. I know it took me lots of hours, but I learned it from a book. I basically kept making the X with two balls until I was so bored with it I finally stuck with the third and didn’t go back. Your friend should be proud of such quick progress!
I think that it is much easier to juggle than to unicycle because there are certainly more people around who do juggle than unicycle. That might be because of the availabilty of equipment though.
It took me a few months to learn to juggle. Right after I started to learn, I broke my ankle (unicycling). With a cast on my foot, since I coulding do much else, I thought it would be a perfect time to practice juggling. I didn’t get too far at that time since I coundn’t chase the balls, not to mention the dog had his own ideas about them… I also found juggling in front of a wall improved technique.
I really admire people who can pick up something that fast. Blake, tell your friend I’m proud of him.
Something I’ve noticed, and this is just a general impression, I’m not suggesting it as a rule, is that people who pick something up really quickly do not seem to stick with it.
Anybody else notice anything similar?
Well, if it’s taken you a long time to learn a skill, you don’t want to have wasted the time invested by giving up. You also value the skill more if it has been hard earned. I suppose it doesn’t matter if it didn’t take you long to learn.