How to Juggle

Juggling is a matter of learning to catch and throw at the same time. Work up from one ball to two balls to three balls.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 3 Bean Bags
• 3 Juggling Balls
• your beds

1. Hold a ball in your right hand.

2. Be aware that as you juggle, you'll be moving your hands in two independent circles - your right hand clockwise and your left hand counter-clockwise. The left hand lags about half a rotation.

3. Throw the ball with your right hand so that the apex - the highest point - of its path is about head-high.

4. Catch the ball as it drops into your left hand, then throw it up again, catching it with your right hand. Practice this maneuver until you go blind with boredom.

5. Proceed with a ball in each hand and continue as you did with one ball, throwing the second ball just as the first reaches its apex, and catching each ball with the other hand.

6. Practice with two balls until you feel confident. Try starting with the left hand once you've mastered starting with the right.

7. Add a third ball by starting with two balls in your right hand and one ball in your left hand.

8. Begin as you did with two balls, by throwing one of the balls from your right hand and then throwing the ball from your left hand when the first ball reaches its apex.

9. Catch the first ball with your left hand.

10. Throw the third ball (from your right hand) when the second ball reaches its apex.

11. Catch the second ball in your right hand.

12. Throw the first ball from your left hand as the third ball reaches its apex.

13. Catch the third ball in your left hand.

14. Keep throwing each ball just as the ball thrown from the opposite hand reaches its apex. You will always have at least one ball in the air, and you will never have more than one ball in either hand.

Tips & Warnings

• Juggle facing a wall to keep the balls from running away from you. Also, try juggling things that don't bounce - like bean bags - so you don't have to chase after them.
• Stand over your bed or sofa while juggling so you don't have to bend down as far to retrieve dropped balls.
• If you're having trouble reacting quickly enough, try throwing the balls higher to give yourself more time to catch them, or try using handkerchiefs, which fall more slowly. You'll have to flick your wrists to toss them high enough.

[scottmitzi]

on 1/29/2009 Fun article. I really think I could do this!

[jugglingman]

on 9/14/2007 Ok, not a bad method. If you're still struggling with this though, try this:

http://www.viddler.com/jugglingman/videos/1/

It's the most gradual method on the Internet!

Enjoy!

on 1/18/2006 If your having trouble with the three ball cascade (three ball juggling), then practice hard the night before. When you wake up you should probably find that you've gotten better.

on 11/22/2005 Make sure the balls you use have enough weight to them that you really feel them land in your hand. That helps. In fact, there are professionally made juggling balls that are weighted up to 2 pounds for this purpose, and also so that juggling can be used as an upper body exercise.

Personally, although I don't recommend this, I learned with billiard balls. This is certainly not safe, but you should get the idea about having weight to the balls. Many beginners find that it helps.

It's not about directions. If any directions don't make sense, forget them. Just throw one ball, throw the next, throw the next. Go one at a time and figure it out. It's really not that hard. Everybody juggles a little bit differently. Whatever works best for you. Just so long as you're not throwing the balls directly in front of each other you're fine. You want to throw/arc them to the side (toward the other hand).

If you have any problems, join a juggling club. Or at least attend a meeting or two. Many of them are free and are simply a bunch of jugglers and juggling enthusiasts gathered together to have some fun.

Juggling can be used to your advantage. It improves concentration, alertness, and coordination. I actually juggle before a stressful situation and after. During late night work, if you need to refresh yourself, pick up some balls, turn on some music and juggle for 10 minutes or so. When you're finished you will be ready to work again.

Juggling is a fantastic skill and hobby, or a good career should you take it that far. Explore and innovate. Play with your props (balls, clubs) and come up with neat tricks. It's all about having fun and being creative. Try more than 3 balls. Try 4, or 5, or even 6! Try finding a friend and both of you juggling 3, 4, or 5, and passing them. Most importantly, just have fun. If you're not having fun, put the balls down and analyze how you're juggling, because you're doing something wrong.

on 11/22/2005 1. Juggle next to a bed or sofa, so you don't have to reach all the way to the ground to pick the balls up leaving more time for practice
2. When juggling three balls, keep your hands moving in circles all the time, instead of abrupt motions of catching and receiving. Throw when the hand is closer to the center, and catch when the hand is away from the body. Smooth; it's like a cycle.
3. Bean bags are the best juggling objects. First, its weight makes it stable, so it doesn't bounce on your hand like lighter objects. Second, (this is especially true if you make your own bean bag), it is not stiff making it easier to catch.
4. Juggling is a skill that you tend not to forget. So if you've stopped for a while, don't be discouraged, just pick up the balls where you left off and continue.
5. Set goals for yourself (but don't make it impossible). For example, you can set a goal of throwing 30 times to end your practice (my ultimate goal is to juggle for 1 minute). I found that it is better to practice on two days than practice for a long time on one day.
6. My motivation comes from an article by nature: "Mastering the skill (of juggling) increases the amount of gray matter in areas of the brain that process and store visual information, proving what was not thought possible -- that new stimuli can alter the brain's structure. A comparison of brain-imaging scans of non-jugglers and other volunteers before they learned to juggle and three months later, revealed an increase in gray matter in certain areas of the newly trained jugglers' brains."