How to Juggle by Muscle Memory

Juggling by muscle memory is much simpler than it sounds. By spacing out your practices and allowing your brain and muscles time to digest the information they've been dealing with, you'll find you will have more luck learning to juggle three balls than you did before.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Three juggling balls

1. Practice a traditional three-ball juggling trick. If you find you are having trouble keeping them in the air, chances are it's because you are dropping the third ball.

2. Juggle two balls with your less-dominant hand. One secret to juggling three balls successfully is to be able to juggle two balls with your less-dominant hand well.

3. Find a rhythm with your muscles. Confidently juggling with your opposite hand is a form of muscle memory. When you feel happy with this, your muscles have found the rhythm necessary to perform this trick. Think of it the same way your body has memorized how to balance while riding a bicycle. Your body reacts the same way with juggling.

4. Take a small break every 15 minutes while practicing. While you might not feel physically exhausted, your brain needs this time to decompress from the complicated work it has been doing. This break also gives your muscles a chance to start from scratch, so they can memorize the patterns again.

5. Incorporate your third ball again. Now with your less-dominant muscles in shape, the trick should feel more natural and your mistakes should be fewer and easier to correct.

Tips & Warnings

• Go back down to two-ball juggling and work your way up to three over and over, until your muscles completely juggle three balls well.
• Try to work more with three each time. Eventually you'll find you don't need the two-ball maneuver as a crutch.
• Always practice juggling outdoors or somewhere where you have a lot of personal space and won't break anything or hit another person. A great indoor spot is a gymnasium.