I can juggle four balls and three clubs. Some basic patterns and tricks. This has been a long-time ambition I never acted on, but when I was in quarantine last year, a good friend (waves at Heather) brought me some juggling balls and I taught myself the absolute basics. Mild progress, in fits and starts since then, with ambitions exceeded and then discarded and so on – the usual tale.
HOWEVER, I want to be able to juggle five balls (basic pattern is enough – the cascade) and four clubs. This is a serious step up. I also want to write about all this, using the metaphors for talking about what I always talk about – the (lack of ) socio-technical transitions and social movement organisation failure (SMOF). And I want to be able to do this by the end of November 2022- that is, two months and two days from today.
I am going to be guide in all this by two videos by the excellent Taylor Glenn
Which advocates the following
Three ball (at Five ball height)
Flash
Maximum dwell – ACCURATE
Minimum dwell – ACCURATE
Four ball
5-5-2
Five ball
Five ball flashes
And just adding more.
and
SO, this page is going to be a keeping of accounts in terms of how much effort I put in, and with what results. Ideally I will do stuff daily, or at least 15 minutes. And also ideally I will update this page
I also intend to blog intermittently, and to post videos on Twitter of what progress I do make. With luck, this will help me find other people nearby who are jugglers…
| Date | 5 ball cascade and/or 4 ball clubs | What did i do (time spent, things achieved) | Comments |
| S28 | 5 balls | 15 mins – Three ball flashes (which, oddly, I had never done) and max/min dwell times in cascade pattern. | Fun. And good to have done done flashes or the first time. |
| S29 | 5 balls and (3) clubs) | 30 mins – Balls 3 ball flashes, min/max dwells and attempted to do 552s, but am going to have to watch the vid again. Did some 4 ball drills (cascades, reverse cascades, pistons/columns Clubs – some doubles with fountain angle, some cascades with doubles over the top (both hands). | The blog about this. |
| S30 | Clubs | A few minutes with clubs – not enough! | |
| O1 | 5 balls | Flashes and min/max dwell time, plus lots of quick hands – pistons, close-quarters tennis etc | |
| O2 | 5 balls 4 clubs | 5 balls – flashes dwells and even some 552s 4 clubs – some doubles, lots of cascade stuff | Blog about day 5 |
| O3 | 5 balls 4 clubs | Mostly club work – doubles, half shower and the (singles) W – will progress to doubles on 423 as it is properly called Some balls – flashes, some 552s ( a bit better than last time) and some half-arsed 4 ball half-showers (this needs work!) Roughly 30 mins | |
| O4 | both | 5 balls – I practiced 552 with just the first 3 – need to get this right, obviously, before doing all 4. 3 clubs – more Ws and some doubles., some half-showers 15 mins | |
| O5 | both | balls – practicing 552 with three, four balls (columns, cascades etc 3 clubs – reverse cascades, variable heights, doubles etc | going okay. Need to set some specific goals though! |
| O6 | both | Various 3 club moves, including lots of doubles. Some flats for the shiggles. Two balls (from same hand) throws for accuracy, lots of three and four ball drills | still need to write down specific goals? Maybe do longer sessions twice a week? |
| O7 | clubs and balls | reasonable session, but have forgotten what. Then I came down with COVID… | |
| O26 | clubs | cascades, over the tops, a series of doubles and just generally getting back in groove – was able to recover from bad situations etc. Defo have not lost any skill. Did about 15 minutes – need to gradually build up stamina | Tomorrow will do four ball stuff… |
| O28 | clubs | More walking around juggling cascades, some doubles, recovering from tricky situations | |
| O31 | clubs | Some “Ws” (or whatever they are called. Lots of doubles in sequence (but all from the right – need to be bilateral!) Tmrw – will do sequential bilateral doubles | |
| N1 | clubs | 20mins, three clubs, basic patterns, but including doubles thrown from left hand as well as right. Feel I am closer and closer all the time | |
| N3 | clubs and balls | Three club patterns, low and high and doubles from left and right hands. Definitely improving Three and four balls – speed patterns, accuracy etc | |
| N5 | clubs | More three club patterns, with doubles repeatedly (but not all three doubling) | |
| N6 | clubs | Various low and high patterns, inc ‘over the top’ and so on. Now have good control, consistent doubles… – 20 mins or so. | |
| N11 | clubs | gradually getting more confident/controlled on doubles, fwiw. | |
| N12 | balls | lots of three ball stuff, hi-lo etc 15 mins | |
| N14 | clubs | Lots of doubles, with good control, have mastered (?) over-the-tops, saves from catching ‘wrong’ A solid 30 mins work out, very satisfying. | |
| various day (most days!) just haven’t listed. Probably about 25 mins per day | |||
| N21 | clubs and balls | Various club patterns – lots of doubles, Ws, over the tops. First practices with under the arms… | |
| N22 | clubs and balls | Clubs – double throws, over the tops, under the arms, all sorts of good stuff. Able to recover from tricky situations now. Balls – whoop, whoop – I did asynchronous four balls, and it was doable – I had been making it into a mountain but by now it was only a molehill | |
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