Juggling: Equipment

Juggling is a skill where objects such as balls, bowling pins or rings are thrown and caught in succession. The first known record of juggling is illustrated on a 2nd Millennium B.C.E. Egyptian tomb wall. Court jesters and court musicians were known to juggle in the Middle Ages in Europe and in the 18th century jugglers started performing in modern circuses. Today juggling is performed on stages across America and on cruise ships around the world but it is also a national past time enjoyed by Americans of almost all ages. From juggling balls, rings, or scarves, juggling can be learned without years of practice.

In these free video lessons you’ll learn how to juggle three balls from Isaac Shivers, a juggling enthusiast and teacher. You will start with a basic one ball toss. Once you’ve mastered that, you will learn how to juggle two balls. From there, you will quickly advance to juggling three balls. You will receive tips on equipment, correcting common problems and correct posture. By the end of the series, you will know a variety of juggling patterns, including the basic cascade, over the top, tennis, reverse cascade, fountain, columns and the challenging Mills Mess. With a little practice you’ll develop a skill to keep you and your friends entertained for hours.

"So with this first series we're going to be talking about how you should learn how to juggle three balls. Now juggling is something that a lot of people wish they knew how, or that people have tried in the past and gotten frustrated pretty quickly. Jugglings actually not that hard to learn. If you take the time for maybe an hour the first time, and practice it the right way, you can learn how to juggle, and if you keep it up you'll be able to juggle the rest of your life. Today I'm going to be teaching you how to do everything from the basics of learning three balls all the way up to numbers juggling with four or more balls, or advanced club tricks. All you need to start are three medium-size roundish things. It can be an apple, it can be an orange, it can be a bean bag, whatever you can find. There are a lot of good resources online and in the juggling community to buy good juggling equipment, but at the basic level, you don't need any of that, just anything you can find you can learn how to juggle with it. We're going to start off teaching you how to juggle correctly with three balls."