Diabolo

Speed and Style

November 25th, 2008 | Posted by JH

There’s a rather thought-provoking write-up on Diabolo.ca about quality vs quantity when learning new tricks. It’s not a new viewpoint but it’s a well-put piece and I can’t agree with it more.

The article centers around a few points and I’ll talk about two of them (as quoted)-

Many people seem to think that pulling off some really difficult trick is a sign of progress. This is often not true.

As simple and obvious as this is, this was something I’ve actually only recently discovered and which would never have dawned on me if I’ve never videotaped myself juggling. I’m quite an impatient juggler and as a result, I’ve developed a sloppy style of juggling that’s more common in beginner jugglers than experienced ones.

It might take 5 minutes to pick up a new trick but an hour invested in perfecting each nuance and making sure that the throws are uniform and symmetrical would save so much more time later on correcting what has already been imprinted in your mind.

there’s too much emphasis on individual tricks rather than style and technique.

This is often a direct result of 1. Because you’re not as fluent as you are with a certain trick, it’s hard to blend it in with whatever else you’ve already learnt. For me, I pick up tricks rather fast (as opposed to master) and I’m qutie impatient so there’s a tendency for me to blaze ahead before I can even do the trick I set out to do with a good success rate.

One of the more important lessons I’ve also realised is that it’s important to slow down and give some thought about how you can integrate what you’re learning into something else. I agree with the author that this is essential to the whole creative process; to add your own touch or come up with a slight variation to a certain trick that works better when you integrate it into a routine.

Hours of practice might be important but invest some of that into mastering the bare basics. It rewards.