Figuratively and Literally JUGGLING

An  Quick Update

My goal is to try to learn how to juggle in 4 weeks by using only youtube videos and help forums. (For more info, view my previous blog post about the NLP Project).

I have made a lot of progress since the first time I tried to juggle, and now, I am proud to say that I am able to juggle 3 balls successfully. Now that I’ve met this goal, I’d like to continue learning and growing. 1st, I want to make my juggling act look less sloppy hahah (From the video, it is very obvoious that I’m pretty new at this) and 2nd, I ultimately want to be able to successfully juggle 5 balls.

The Process

So far, I have used the following youtube videos and wikihow step by step guides to help me learn the basics of juggling: How to Juggle 3 Balls

Juggling with 3 Balls for Beginners

How to Juggle using 3 Easy Steps

While all the resources helped me in some way, the resource most helpful in teaching me the basics of juggling was Jim from The Jim Show. He breaks juggling down into 3 easy steps, with a video to use for practice with each step. Because it was taught in a step by step format, iit helped me truly practice each part in isolation before I could finally put it all together at the end.

Juggling with 2 balls Juggle practice with 1 ball was pretty simple. However, when I tried to add in 2 or 3 balls, the hand-eye coordination became very tricky, and I kept on dropping 1 or even all of the balls. I would definitely say that the biggest struggle I’ve had so far is trying to focus on throwing and catching the balls at the same time. To correct my mishaps, I tried juggling while looking at the balls  in the mirror, but I continued to lose focus and drop the balls. It definitely made it worse. Next, I just tried to only focus on a central point (I looked in the air and kept my eyes focused on the space in which the next ball would be thrown) Because I was so focused on this one area, it’s like my hands just did the work in the same repetitive motion. I continued practicing with 2 balls over and over again until it became easy.

Juggling with 3 balls This was extremely difficult, at first. I kept dropping the balls, in the same manner as before when I transitioned to juggling with 2 balls. The way I got better, of course was by practicing, but more importantly it was the way I practiced. 1. I held 2 balls in my left hand, and 1 in my right. I juggled using only 2 of the balls. (This is what I was comfortable with and what I was used to doing) 2. After I became comfortable with the feel of holding 3 juggling balls in my hands, I tossed up the 3rd ball in the manner shown in Method 2, Step 1 on the  wikihow for Juggling. I only juggled the 3 balls in 1 quick rotation, then I’d stop. I’d try again to complete 2 rotations, then I’d stop. (When I say rotation, I mean 1 complete cycle of each ball being thrown and caught). If I dropped a ball, I’d start back over at step 1. Eventually, following these 2 steps, I was able to juggle a little better, and faster.