Juggling

I like to juggle. I learned when I was about seven, but was (understandably) frustrated with the amount of practice it takes to be good, and so practiced only intermittently through the years. Then, in seventh grade, I got fairly good at juggling so I could do it in a show ('Annie Get Your Gun' at Act Two Performing Arts). I juggled in last year's third-quarter interdisciplinary (the USO Show), and am now practicing constantly to be able to do it in another show ('Pippin' at Imagination Stage). Last Sunday I was at the Renaissance Festival, and I spent at least half an hour at the Juggling Station, just talking to the instructors and learning tricks. I had never before attempted tricks, chiefly because I wasn't confident about my ability to juggle normally (technically called the three-ball cascade), let alone do tricks. However, as one of the instructors pointed out to me, the trick that everyone can do--beginners and masters--is called gravity. No matter what, the balls will fall. If dropping balls makes you a bad juggler, there is no such thing as a good juggler. (This can be construed into a life lesson if you look closely enough). So--with the enthusiastic prompting of the instructor, who, after many minutes had passed and I had not made any progress, looked at me seriously and said, "I believe in you"--I learned how to do an outside throw.



As the guy in the tutorial says, outside throws are the easiest tricks you can do with three balls. The chief difficulty with it is reversing the pattern: by this point, I've developed a lot of muscle memory for the three-ball cascade, and it was initially very hard for me to ignore that. However, after practicing for probably a total of 2 or 3 hours, I'm pretty comfortable with the outside throw (by which I mean that my only flaws with it are my regular juggling flaws, not flaws related to the trick itself. I can't always do it 'cause the balls hit each other mid-air, but that's because I have issues with throwing them high and loose, which is how you're supposed to do it to give yourself maximum room to work). Next time I practice (probably tomorrow afternoon), I'm going to work on doing the outside throw from the other hand; once I can do that, I'll work on tennis, and finally on reverse cascades.

I'm really excited by this new trick: not only because it's cool to be able to do tricks (it used to really irritate me when people asked me to do tricks, because regular juggling is plenty hard enough to learn, but now even I'm bored with the three-ball cascade), but because now I know I can do it. I learned a trick. It took me a while, and a lot of practice, but I did it and I'm proud. Now I can move on to new ones, even cooler ones, even harder ones. I'm excited. Are you? You should be. Because you can do it, too. Juggling is genuinely not as hard as it looks. Well--that's a lie. In the beginning, it is WAY harder than it looks. Then it gets easier, as everything must, if you just practice. Do yourself a favor, and get some juggling balls. Not tennis balls, though those are good to start with--juggling balls are better because they fit in your hand better and they don't bounce when you drop them. (Dropping balls is more frustrating if you have to chase them). Then practice. There are some very good juggling tutorials online, including the one below.



My goal is to master the ones shown below:



Wish me luck.