How to Juggle the 4-Ball Box

Four-ball juggling enhances and expands your juggling repertoire from basic 3-ball juggling. Although it only involved the addition of a single ball, the mechanics of juggling 4 balls can become complicated. For instance, making a 4-Ball Box Pattern is much more complicated than a 3-Ball Box, but the visual effect is worth the practice.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 4 balls or bags for juggling

1. Learn the 3-Ball Box Pattern before attempting the box with 4 balls. Juggling the 4-Ball Box is a little different from the 3-Ball Box, but it helps to understand the Box Pattern using 3 balls first since the 4-Ball Box is a variation.

2. Hold 2 balls in each of your hands at about waist level. Remember that you will need to make all of your throws symmetrical for the Box Pattern.

3. Stack your throws on each side of your body to create a box effect. You can either throw a 6 on both sides and do a rotation instead of stacking, or simply vary straight throws on both sides for a truer box.

4. Practice throwing very high straight throws simultaneously on both sides. It is important that you practice synchronizing both arms to throw together at various heights.

5. Practice enlarging and shrinking the box, making special effort to maintain the uniformity of height in your throws from both hands. Also practice watching the balls and moving your eyes up and down between differing heights.

Tips & Warnings

• Because this pattern calls for very high throws, make sure that if you are juggling outside you face so that the sun is not in your eyes when you look up. If you are inside, be sure to practice juggling the box with 4 balls in a room with high ceilings so that you can give yourself plenty of time to track and recover when practicing indoors.