Juggling: Need help with consistent tosses

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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A generally good exercise to improve coordination is one-handed juggling. Use one hand and two balls. You can have the balls go straight up and down or in an arc. Practicing this with both hands, together and/or one hand at a time will improve your reaction time and make two-hand 3 ball juggling seem a lot easier.

For those having a hard time getting started you can use magician’s ‘silks’ or any handkerchief like material that is extremely light and will float in the air to get the action down.

I think this is the book I used long ago to go from frenetic tossing to actual juggling, it was published in the 70s and I know several others who used it as the basic guide, along with one person who had it as a text book at ‘clown school’. Lot’s of good information and the step by step guide to learning the art made it very easy to do.

22

I taught myself to juggle 3 balls by kneeling on the floor and rolling 3 tennis balls 2-3 feet against a wall in a juggling pattern. This allowed me to clearly see the pattern, gave more time for my hands to react since I could roll the balls slowly, helped strengthen the muscle memory in my hands/arms and allowed me to become consistant in the velocity of my tosses.

We were too poor for klutz books, but I could walk to the town tennis courts and find abandoned tennis balls :wink:

23

I decided to record a video of what I was doing. It was not pretty.
My arms were all over the place: I was reaching from side to side and I was reaching up to grab the balls.

I found a video online that has been helpful: Basics of Ball Juggling : How to Hold a Juggling Ball - YouTube
He says: "The basic idea is to throw the ball as high as your eye to your other hand. You’re throwing the ball to the hand, you’re not bringing your hand up to catch the ball.” This is the second most important piece of advice that I’ve come across.

Then I went back to the video that I posted in the OP. Near the beginning he says: "Take the time to master each step before going on to the next one.” I think that this is the single most important piece of advice, and it isn’t being emphasized enough. In fact, many of the written instructions and videos don’t mention it at all. They start with one ball, then two, then three but they don’t tell you to keep practicing each step until you master it before you go to the next step. And, of course, the question is: What does it mean to master it?

I’ve been practicing with one ball, with special attention to throwing the ball to the other hand, rather than reaching to catch it. This type of practice doesn’t require being near a wall, and it doesn’t require me to look directly at the ball. I know where my hands are, I know where I’m throwing the ball, and I can see the arc of the ball’s path. If the ball misses the hand, then I didn’t throw properly. If the ball reaches the hand, then I tossed the ball in the right direction with the right speed.

After tossing one ball successfully for a couple of minutes, it occurred to me that I should be able to do it with my eyes closed. I tried it and I was surprised but not shocked that I was able to catch the ball a few times.

I’ve also started practicing with two balls. The first toss is easy but the second toss is a bit tricky. There’s the additional issue of timing the toss, and, if I’m starting with my right (dominant) hand, then the second toss (which is harder) is with my left (relatively weaker) hand. If, though, I start with my left hand, the second toss is better.

Of course, after all this practice, I’ve tried juggling three balls. If I was merely trying to maximize the efficiency of my training, then I shouldn’t be doing this yet. But, I do want to have some fun, and it’s much more fun to juggle three balls than it is to practice with one or two.

I am much more consistent in the number of tosses that I can complete, and I’m rarely dropping a ball. When a ball starts to get away from me and I know that I can’t continue the pattern, I just catch it and start again. I’ve recorded myself again and I am smoother. My motions appear to be more efficient.

My target is to juggle for about 15 seconds consistently, meaning that when I pick up three objects (balls, oranges, apples), I have, say, a 90% chance of completing the 15 seconds. I’m not there yet. I need to practice more but now I have a clearer idea of what I’m supposing to be doing.

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What are you juggling? If you are using tennis balls, I’d switch to something else. Using something heavier makes it easier to toss a neat, high, narrow arc, which is what you need. Lighter objects tend to get tossed in a long, flat arc, which isn’t what you want. An experienced juggler can make any arc she wants, with any object-- I used to do a challenge, where I’d have the audience give me any three things they happened to have on them, and I’d juggle them (I once got a cigarette, a hotdog, and a condom; another time I got a dollar bill, a single pill of some kind, and a shoe)-- but if you are still learning, you want every advantage. Tennis balls also bounce even if they are “dead” balls, so you chase them a lot and wear yourself out. Beanbags or sandbags are better. Pool balls are great, and if you are on carpet, they don’t roll that much. Lacrosse balls are good. I know that used tennis balls are cheap (ie, free), but they just aren’t good juggling material. You could try going to a pet store and seeing what kind of dog balls they have-- they might have cheap ones that have some heft. Or maybe you can get used baseballs.

Try to keep your hands at your waist, and don’t move your hands and arms more than you need to to execute the throw. Keep the arc right at eye level, and stare straight forward. If you need to, stand in front of a mirror, and look yourself in the eye.

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One of the best tips I was given for the early days was practice over a bed- that way you don’t have bend so far to pick 'em up again. Also, practice daily- even just for 10 minutes.

It took me freakin’ ages to get the basic 3 ball cascade, but I got there in the end; currently I’m learning a few of the basic multi-person club passing patterns, which are way more fun, plus way more sociable :smiley:

26

Don’t do that.

I think it’s kind of funny that I went all the way through this thread to point out the one important tip I pulled out of Ken Benge’s book on juggling, which nobody else said, and you’re already there: start with one ball. Throw it to the other hand. If you miss, let it fall, and go get it. Your body will get tired of going and bending over to pick up the ball over and over again. Its first impulse is to make the catching hand wildly grab for the ball. If you don’t let it do that, it’ll fall back to making the throwing hand put the ball where it’s supposed to be. We’ve (most of us) got a lifetime of experience doing all the parts of juggling; the trick is to use as much hardwired reflex as we can.

27

Tennis balls can be cut open, filled with sand, and taped shut. That’s not elegant, but it works.

I’ll second the Lacrosse balls. You can sometimes find them cheaper at used sports equipment places.

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But won’t it make learning to juggle more difficult having some guy beat you with a stick until you drop the ball?

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1 and 2 are so easy it is not worth calling it practice. 3 is freaking impossible.

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You need to be able to do with your eyes closed before you can move to step 3. It seems easy to get started just going hand to hand, but your entire concentration is on that simple process. If you have to focus to do those 2 steps you’ll fail on step 3.

31

I recommend Koosh balls for learning. Decent weight, easy to catch, and don’t bounce all over if you drop one.

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Have him beat you if you do drop the ball, and then it goes much quicker.