I'm learning to juggle!

Well, I’m learning to juggle three balls! I just picked up some from a toy store and have been practicing for a few days. I can do about 2 or 3 full ball “circulations.” Do any jugglers on here have any tips?

Practice, practice, practice… Gee, that’s just like unicycle learning instructions.

It sounds like you are starting to get the hang of it. Like unicycling, juggling will get better with practice. I taught myself to juggle balls when I was in college about 30 years ago. This past December, I learned how to juggle clubs. A couple weeks ago I bought some rings. Now I want some juggling knives…

I don’t really have any tips other than, if you are using bouncey balls, stand over your bed so when you drop a ball, the ball does not go bouncing and rolling away. The soft “beanbag” balls are good because they don’t bounce.

People say juggling is good exercise. I think some of the exercise comes from chasing the balls around the room when you drop them on the floor. :slight_smile:

Have fun.

Just praaactice, a lot. Try to see what’s making you drop them, and try to do something different every time. Like if one hand is tossing a little bit higher than the other, or a little bit further, then try to level them out. that is a pretty common mistake for beginners…
good luck!

if you got balls- make sure they just dont collide in the air. heck if itsw anything- i did three glasses and two of them hit and broke and there was like 10 million pieces all over the place.

peacock

Learn to stand still while you juggle. Juggle by a wall, facing it. So if the balls to go to far away they hit and don’t get away. Remember don’t walk forward while you juggle(It’s crappy skill).

I also have been inspired to learn to juggle. My oldest son (age 10) and I went out today and bought some juggling balls for each of us.

An excellent thing to do.

What kind of balls did you get? I only ask because I’m looking forward to disagreeing with tomblackwood about them.

Not sure. They are squarish bean bag type things that came in a tube of three.

sounds like Klutz beanbags

get the Mr Babache ones
fine looking knives and half the price of the (traditionally overpriced) Dubes

Thanks for the knife link. I am surprised at the difference in weight. I will give this some serious thought. The Dubes are expensive.

i’ve got the Flares and even at 308g, they’re pretty hefty
i don’t know what Dube were thinking

why do u particularly want knives?
are u a performing juggler and/or planning to be?

I know somebody who juggles fire clubs. I just want to be different. I guess instead of catching my hair on fire, I can poke my eye out. :wink:

Have you juggled knives? Are they particularly dangerous? I know the edges of the blades are not sharp but the tip looks like it could do some damage.

I don’t claim to be a very good juggler (I can only do three things at a time, but I can to balls, clubs <well actually sink plungers> or rings, or a mixture). But for what it’s worth…

I found it much easier to learn with beanbags, mainly because you can get away with some pretty crappy catches before they bounce out of your hand. With hard “stage balls” you have to be much cleaner with your catches.

I personally found juggling (meaning simple jugging three balls) much easier to pick up than unicycling, which I seem to be slower than average at. Perhaps it was because I learnt juggling when I was much younger.

Good luck with the juggling anyway!

Oh, and if you decide to try with some rings don’t do it with no shoes on - they hurt when they land on your foot :frowning:

Rob

if u drop the point on your foot from some dizzy height, yeah, it’ll leave a mark
apart from that, they’re about as dangerous as wire coathangers
and have about the same eye-gouging capabillity as a sharpened plunger
yes, they can hurt, but so can the back end of a T-spoon
which is what i will kick if they cover another joplin song

jay gilligan does a renegade show bit with knives where he catches each and every knife on the wrong end
it looks really funny

I checked and they are made my Higgins Bros.

aah, them

nice stuff
i did a corporate juggling workshop a while ago and they said that they didn’t need any balls as they would provide their own and i was a slightly apprehensive
when i got there, they ripped out this big box filled with those green boxed sets of juggling balls
it was quite a surprise

^Yes, the picture on that website is the exact package.

In other news, I have been trying to practice while on the phone and while watching TV for a little while last night. The instructions suggested starting with one ball and working on tossing it into the other hand; then moving to 2 balls. I have that down. But that third ball is a butt-kicker.

I know it will come with practice. But I will gladly heed any advice that any of you choose to give.

Don’t let your head rotate while you’re practicing.

And believe in yourself. I would recommend several rereadings of “The Little Engine That Could”.

Won’t that take away from my practice time?

It doesn’t seem to bother you that this takes away from your practice time.