August 31st, 2010 | Posted by Nathan
I was inspired to write this week after seeing Alex Barron and Peter Bone’s epic 11 ball battle that’s been going on. It’s so interesting to me that the 11 ball record was the same for nine years, and then suddenly it gets broken multiple times over the course of about a week. That coupled with all the other juggling records being broken recently has got me to thinking about the competitive motivation of juggling.
This isn’t the first time a back and forth record breaking battle has gone on in juggling. Just two years ago, Vova Galchenko and Anthony Gatto had an impromptu five club 360s competition with both men setting and breaking world records on internet videos in the span of just a few weeks.
It’s fascinating to see just how motivated people can get once something noteworthy happens that draws attention. Just seeing something done that no one else has ever done really pushes the boundaries and shows just what is possible. Even if a person isn’t necessarily out to “best” the other person, there is just something really inspiring to see something so amazing happen that it brings out the motivation in people to go out and immediately push themselves.
That’s one advantage of the internet age; as soon as a record is broken on video, it can be posted online for everyone all over the world to see within a short span of time. Not only are you becoming aware of a new record, but you are seeing it on video for yourself, often times within a matter of days of it actually happening. Just the constant flow of quality juggling videos online alone is a good motivator for jugglers trying to reach new heights. Not to mention the rise in sport juggling which has been pushing the next generation of jugglers to insane skill levels to train for competition.
It’s amazing just how many records are broken once jugglers really have a reason to push themselves at a specific goal. I don’t know how many other juggling records will be broken in the next nine years, but I can’t wait to find out.
June 22nd, 2010 | Posted by Nathan
There is an interesting phenomenon that is common with many jugglers, myself included. That being that it is hard to define when they really started juggling. Often when pressed as to how long a juggler has been juggling, the response is usually something along the lines of ”Well, I learned the three ball cascade when I was x years old, but I didn’t really start juggling until about y years ago”. Many times there is a gap of years between when a juggler first learns to juggle versus when they actually identify themselves as a juggler (this sort of ties into my previous Tuesday Thought in that regard). So, why the gap in time?
There is an occurrence in life that can be applied to practically any passing interest that evolves into a serious hobby. I’ve heard in used a lot in bodybuilding, where it is known as the getting “bitten by the iron bug”. This is when a person first really feels the power associated with weight training, and becomes hooked on pumping iron. They may have lifted weights before, but it isn’t until the feeling of that magical pump or visible increase in muscularity that they really become obsessed. I think a similar thing can, and does, happen with jugglers.
Someone may learn to juggle a three ball cascade early on in their life, but not really know of juggling beyond that. A three ball cascade is easy enough to where some people can learn how to do it out of sheer boredom on a Sunday afternoon, and then lose interest. There is little dedication involved and on the surface, once you can keep the three balls in the air for more than a few throws, you’ve seemingly mastered your goal. However, if later on in someone’s life, something triggers a re-interest in juggling, they already have the basis of three balls down, so it’s that much easier to move onto new things. Using that base and experimenting around results in new possibilities and opens up a whole new perspective on juggling altogether.
Beware the juggle bug. Once it bites you and shows you what you are capable of, there is no turning back.
June 1st, 2010 | Posted by Nathan
What makes a juggler a juggler? The obvious answer would be that once a person can juggle, they are a juggler. At the risk of sounding pretentious however, I’ve always felt that it takes a little more than that.
Many people can learn to juggle a basic sloppy three ball cascade in a day or two. They may use this rudimentary skill to show off at parties, but at this point very few of these people know of juggling beyond the three ball cascade. When a juggler meets another juggler, there is often a certain camaraderie, and it is usually easy to discuss such topics such as trick transitions, move variations, siteswap theory, or just share convention stories. These situations revolve largely around topics and a deep personal interest that would be completely foreign to the aforementioned casual party juggler.
I don’t think that one needs to be highly skilled at juggling before they can officially call themselves a juggler, but I do believe that it takes a certain mindset to really make the transition from ‘one who can juggle’ to juggler. Once you learn more than just a couple basic patterns there is a certain realization of the capabilities both within you and within the very art of manipulation. It is my personal belief that this understanding in turn triggers a whole new perspective on what juggling really is beyond a single monotonous pattern. This mindset is capable of opening the floodgates of experimentation as well as igniting a deep passion to learn more and more about juggling.
You don’t have to be able to do five club backcrosses or know a laundry list of siteswaps to be a juggler, but you do need passion. That’s what makes a juggler a juggler to me.
May 11th, 2010 | Posted by Nathan
It seems that the Las Vegas Athletic Club recently implemented a new rule stating that there is no juggling allowed in their facilities. This came about after there was an incident with a juggler at one of their locations.
In addition to being upsetting, I also find this very interesting. I have heard of other jugglers getting kicked out of gym practice spaces before, and to me it is very curious, as most of the time the juggler is not interfering with anything or bothering anyone. Some gyms may be concerned about juggling damaging the floor, though I fail to see how dropping a hollow plastic club could be more damaging than slamming rubbers balls full force into the walls and floor for its intended use. Then there is the issue of outside equipment causing liability. I would be very surprised if literally everyone else in the gym only used equipment they checked out from within the facility. Going further, where is the liability with juggling versus other activities? I have heard of more people suffering busted faces from playing racquetball than I have from getting hit with falling juggling props. I think it largely comes down to more of a complete lack of understanding of juggling. Sporty gym managers may see juggling more as a pure novelty act, and not as the refined skill or athletic activity that it is.
In this particular case, the juggler that was banned from the Las Vegas Athletic Club was preparing to compete in WJF 6. Shortly after the incident, he dropped out of the competition because he no longer had a place to practice his routine in. I can’t help but wonder if it had been a different, more understood sport, that not only would he not have been kicked out, but that the facility might actually have been honored to have an athlete using their facilities to prepare to compete in the world championships.
April 20th, 2010 | Posted by Nathan
Like many jugglers, I keep a juggling journal. The way mine is set up currently; I have all the props that I juggle listed, then have those broken down by number of objects. Under each of these subcategories, I list every pattern/trick that I can do that falls within those parameters (excluding obvious variations). This helps me keep track of what patterns I can do and when I learned them. It also helps to ensure that I don’t accidently forget about some tricks that I can do, but do not practice regularly. I think that in the future I might also start listing juggling festivals and events I attend, so that I can better keep track of what I have experienced with juggling over the years.
While I use my juggling journal mainly as a pattern inventory, there are different approaches to keeping a personal written juggling record. For instance, in Jason Garfield’s latest book, ‘JUGGLING: Fundamental Exercises and Practice Structure‘ most chapters conclude with a “Level Test” check sheet, where the reader checks off each move’s practice exercises, x number of catches reached (listed in increments), and logs the date as a means to better monitor their overall practice with that specific move. This method creates more of a practice log during the learning process of certain moves, and suggests different levels of proficiency to strive for if one so desires. Another approach would be to keep a list of certain moves that you wish to learn but cannot currently do, then check them off and record how you learned them as time passes. If you are feeling really ambitious, you could try the Matt Hall approach and attempt to learn one new trick a day for a year and keep track of the whole process.
Whatever your approach and format, a juggling journal can be a fun and easy way to keep track of your juggling, whether it be logging tricks you currently do, are learning, or someday wish to learn.
April 6th, 2010 | Posted by Nathan
It’s the return of Tuesday Thoughts! For now, Tuesday Thoughts will likely be more of a bi-weekly thing, but that may change in the future.
Every juggler has a story. I enjoy talking to other jugglers about what first got them into juggling, because their stories are usually pretty interesting and not just simply “oh I just decided to start juggling one day”. It’s almost always more than that.
Juggling in itself is esoteric enough that it usually requires a certain prompt in someone’s life before they decide to pursue it. The general populace knows what juggling is, but unlike many known recreational activities (sports, art, etc.) simply knowing what it is usually is not enough to peak an interest. More often than not, the transformation to juggler seems to involve a more personal experience: having a friend/family member that juggles, seeing or interacting with a juggler up close, finding an immersive old book on the subject, etc.
For me, I learn in college, slightly by accident. A girl I knew wanted to talk to me about a story she was writing for the school newspaper. Unfortunately, with the way our schedules conflicted, the only time we could meet on campus was during her meeting with the local juggling club. She invited me to the organization, and I initially said no, as I knew virtually nothing about juggling and thought it would be weird to go to a club that I had no interest in to talk to one of their members about something completely unrelated. I eventually caved and went to the club meeting. After we talked about the task at hand, the people at the club started trying to teach me how to juggle. They seemed like cool people, so I went back the next week…and the next…and the next…Pretty soon, I realize that I had somehow learned how to juggle. Two years later, I was on the student board for the juggling club. That club folded years ago, but it planted the seed. I am into juggling more than ever now.
Every juggler has a story. What’s yours?
March 10th, 2009 | Posted by tony
Before I realized what they were, I had picked up, looked at, and admired these “bowling pins” dozens of times in the eight years I’ve known my fiancee’s family. Her father collects antique sports memorabilia, and although I’ve seen plenty of photos of old fashioned club swinging and juggling clubs, it never clicked.
A couple weeks back I talked about such clubs with a fellow juggler, then took a trip to her family’s home. Once there, I visited the sports equipment room and confirmed that these were in fact not bowling pins. The small ones weigh 1 pound, the large, 4 pounds.
Her father knew all along that they were used for swinging and exercise — it was mostly me oblivious to these cool artifacts. In their honor, I chose not to take them to the park to try some throws. I just took a picture.
March 4th, 2009 | Posted by tony
Somewhere down the line somebody was the first person to advise self-limitation as a way to be more creative.
Now, the work shown in Manipulation Research Laboratory is making a big point of it for jugglers. Recent routine work by Wes Peden is also pretty blatantly “drillwork” — which often takes a simple idea or limitation and sees where it can be taken.
I think the way in which we choose to create, perhaps on a given day, is extremely interesting.
So, (as posted on rec.juggling), here’s a list of ways that jugglers can guide a practice session:
1. Self-limitation: Juggler picks a limiting physical characteristic (I’m going to stand on one foot; I’m going to sit; My catches are going to be made by catch/pressing the prop against my body).
2. Order of throws: As explored in MRL#1, the juggler numbers the props in succession (like 1, 2, 3) then writes out an order of throws, and only throws/moves the props in that order. So I write down 112321 and then I see how tricky it is to control the props in that order. This is often more manipulation-focused than toss-based.
3. By characteristic: Juggler picks one characteristic of throwing/catching and experiments with that. Maybe height: I’m going to take my patterns and try them at different heights. Tall backcrosses. Short floaters. It’s tricky to isolate a single characteristic, because it pretty quickly asks new questions: does high mean more flips with clubs, or more floaty throws?
4. By imitation: Today I’m going to learn a trick I just saw by Viktor.
5. By non-juggling inspiration: Today I sort of improv to a song or try to mimic or express something I just saw in a photograph or by a dancer.
6. By prop conversion: Working on technique with a prop not traditionally associated with that technique … head rolls with clubs.
By Tony Gonzalez
Street Juggling Contributor
February 25th, 2009 | Posted by tony
Again, more of a Tuesday Question this week: What happens when you find the legend/superstar/veteran who is doing what you want to do, or what you always aspired to do but couldn’t achieve?
My non-juggling example:
I’m a point-and-shoot photographer with bigger hopes, but when I found Lee Friedlander I found a photographer who had already been exploring, deeply, what I thought I might want to do. My first thought, while wandering through 300+ Friedlander photographs, was to quit photography. Yet in many ways, I think, Friedlander was arriving at his compositions for different reasons and in different ways. Same content, different reason for it (sometimes). I have since gone out on “Friedlander Days” to see if I could see the world as he did. And, because he was no One Trick Pony, he has also inspired me to try his methods I would not have tried before.
This connects, I think, to whether we should be hermits when we create, or if we should watch every juggling video and see every show that we can. (Lengthy forum discussion here.)
My juggling example: Lately I’ve had two influences putting unintentional pressure on me: Wes Peden and the Peapot boys. First, Wes, because he seems to create at such a frenzied pace (and move on) that I’m still catching up on Trick of the Day 2. He’s creating such a massive canon, so quickly, that I seriously doubt anyone could keep up if they tried (in terms of sheer variations).
Second: Peapot, and their Radical Club News videos (got them turned into DVD not long ago (thanks Nick)). Their videos are especially sharp daggers because they’re so old. Like, a decade old, but still so far ahead of so many “cutting edge” jugglers today. Without too deep a tangent, I’d be curious to know which youngish/instant jugglers have seen the wicked work of Maksim and Ville. I remember reviewers describing the Peapot videos as a “lifetime’s worth of tricks to work on.” That’s right, even in the explosive video culture of today.
Tangent aside, seeing such awesome juggling in a style I like makes me question why I juggle. And I answer: because it feels good; because I’ve gotten enough positive peer feedback to keep on keeping on, and so on.
But I still wonder how other jugglers react to such powerful juggling.
February 17th, 2009 | Posted by tony
If I were still in college I’d hop on JSTOR and answer what is in effect a Tuesday Question. But I’m not, so I’ll ask: Does music help in juggling practice or does it harm the timing of throwing and catching?
I remember the first day of the Buffalo IJA festival I ran into Thomas Dietz, Ole Soto, and Mark Douglass juggling outdoors (miraculous in itself), and before long Ole had made a strong statement against music during juggling practice. I believe his argument had something to do with the music encouraging a timing that doesn’t actually fit the flight patterns the juggler encounters.
A quick, non-JSTOR/Lexis search didn’t turn up much help, except for one decent overview article, obviously not a direct comment on juggling:
In a rather large study with over 600 boys and girls in grades 1 through 6, Beisman (1967) compared basic motor skills such as throwing, catching, climbing, balancing, dodging, bouncing, and striking learned to music and no music. In all grade levels and in both genders, students learned the motor skills better, as demonstrated by performance tests, with the rhythmic accompaniment. In the discussion the author noted that the music produced a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere for the students to learn.
Maybe a psychologist could use a juggler for a study. Then again, our variables might be hard to control, right?
Tony Gonzalez
Contributor
