Numberjuggling

As you can see from my juggling records, numberjuggling is not the thing for me(Yet) So this time I will add some post from JIS regarding numberjuggling. I haven´t asked the authors for permission or anything, so if your one of them and don´t wish your practisetips to bee on my homepage, email me and I will remove them.

But first some general tips from my own experience

The gateway to numberjuggling is five. But to learn five seems almost impossible when you start. And it almost is. You will probably have to spend at least a year on five, to get the pattern under reasonable control. But you don,t have to start to learn five at once, you can learn some 3-ball tricks that will help you to get your five ball pattern under control. The ones that I use are the three ball snake(505050), three ball flashes(55500) and a three ball cascade juggled at five ball height(525252?). I think you should also have the shower pretty solid both ways before attempting five balls.

And with five balls you first try to flash them, that is five throws and catching them all. If you find it difficult to throw all the balls(and you will indeed find it difficult), then you can throw the balls but let them land on the floor instead of catching them. Try to throw them to five ball level, whatever that is for you, anyway probably a little bit higher than you think.

When you one day flashes all five, then it is time to try to keep the pattern going. And it will take some time.

Well thats the basics I think. One thing that I really think helps with five balls is to do some strengthtraining, to build endurance in your arms. And to remember to breath while juggling, and relax and enjoy. Now for the tips from the pros

somebody got me talking about five-ball juggling, and I'm not likely to stop! Tim asked: "when can I say that I can juggle five-balls" (or something to that effect. My answer is: "whenever you feel like you can juggle five-balls". It took me a month to learn how to juggle 3 balls for one five minute run. I've been juggling five-balls for four years now, and I have only had one run of over five minutes. Therefore I would have to say that the ratio of difficulty between five-balls and three is about 50:1. This is why I see myself juggling seven in not less than ten years. I wouldn't be surprised if I could get fourteen throws within half a year, if I practised constantly, but to actually try to learn the art of seven ball juggling is not something that I see in my near future. Anyway, I am actually very content juggling five. Here are some of the steps that I took on the way to becoming a solid five-ball juggler.

1.Practice a lot. I can talk a lot about things that you can do to inspire yourself, but they won't do any good if you don't practice. 2.Change your routine a lot. Don't practice in just one way. If you do, you will get stuck in a rut. I have seen a lot of people try to learn five-ball juggling by standing in one place for hours on end, picking up the juggling balls after they drop them, and trying again. I admire their dedication to their practice, but I don't think that they are doing themselves any favours. Making five-ball juggling boring is a recipe for failure.

So: put on some music. Find another person who is working on Five, and have a five-ball juggle-off. Get a stopwatch and time yourself. Time yourself repeatedly, and make a chart. Chart your performance in five-ball once a month. Go to juggling conventions and watch numbers jugglers and get inspiration from them. 3.Work on juggling other than five-ball juggling. Learning to juggle five-balls is frustrating, and if you practice five-ball exclusively, you will become a frustrated juggler. Also remember that five-ball juggling is intimately related to three-ball juggling. If you let your three-ball slide while practising five, you won't get anywhere. 4.Warm up before you juggle five. Five-ball juggling requires a relaxed body. I have seen countless jugglers defeating themselves with five because they had their shoulders hunched.

Here's the five-ball practice that I recommend:

1.Stretch out. Work your neck around. To stretch out your arms, take a broomstick, hold it in back of you with both hands, and then stretch up. If you have any favourite stretches to loosen you up, use them.

2.Work on three-ball patterns. Start with a regular cascade, then do half reverse on both sides, and then work into a reverse. Work on showering from both hands. Throw behind the back and under the leg throws. If you can do Mills' Mess, do it now.

3.Do an endurance run with three balls. This shouldn't go so long that your arms are absolutely exhausted, but you should have a good feeling at the end of your run of how your arms move while you juggle. This run is like a dry run for five-balls. You should probably juggle for 5 - 10 minutes straight, but don't worry if you drop sooner.

4.Now you are ready to juggle five-balls. Work on some variation of the theme of: Stand in one place and juggle. As I said earlier: Stand in one place, juggle, and listen to music. Or something! It is better not to do this part all in one chunk. Even variations on the theme of standing in one place and juggling will get tiring after 20 minutes. It is far better to break this up into four five minute chunks, each slightly different. Your ego will of course tell you differently, but five-ball juggling is not necessarily the best sport for those of large ego (think humble).

5.If possible, try to end your five-ball workout on a high note, or failing that, a happy note. 6.Give yourself a breather after juggling five-balls, and then pick up three clubs, or something else that interests you. I have always found that one-ball manipulation is a low stress variation of juggling that I enjoy after putting five up in the air. Remember that five-balls is not all that there is to life. In fact, the more that you can forget about five-balls at this point, the better you feel about juggling as a whole, because five-balls carries with it a high frustration level.

I started juggling two summers ago. Got 3 quite quickly, although

not as quickly as other people that I know. Was comfortable with 4

by Christmas, and had a goal of doing 5 by the following summer...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Try setting your primary goals at bit lower.

I learned juggling 3 more than 10 years ago, but couldn't do anything

but the cascade, reverse cascade and an occasional shower, although at

that time i didn't know that there were names for the juggling

patterns.

I didn't juggle anything for about 8 years or so, except for an

occasional orange cascade at X-mas. Approx. two years ago, I found

rec.juggling and got inspired to start juggling, now that I knew the

theory behind 4-ball juggling (a secret to me for 8+ years). It didn't

take long before I learned the 4 ball fountain.

Next was 5. At that time an impossible task, but the helpfiles at

piggy helped me.

Instead of setting my goals at 5 immediately I had the following

subgoals along the way. And I really recommend them because they are

all nice patterns on their own and learning them makes you happy, an

important positive feedback on the way to 5.

Don't consider yourself done with any subgoal along the way. Always go

back to perfect the individual patterns now and then. I used to

practice all these things in sequence at every practice session. It

worked pretty well. My 5 ball cascade is not solid, but that's because

I only practice it about twice a week.

With 3 balls:

* Learn showering 3 in both directions.

* Work a bit on the snake.

* Flash 3. Clap.

* Try to continuously flash 3.

* Any other nice three ball tricks that keep you happy. (Important!)

With 4 balls:

* Fountain (as a base for the following site swaps)

* 552 - Start with fountain, then throw 552, continue with fountain.

Next learn doing 552 continuously.

* 5551 - Start with fountain, then throw 5551, continue with fountain.

Next learn doing 5551 continuously. In both directions.

* 55550 - "Five with a hole". Start with fountain, then throw 55550,

continue with fountain. Work on doing 55550 continuously. This

might actually be a bit harder than 5 due to the weird timing.

If you have problems with this one don't worry.

With 5 balls:

* Flash 5

* Learn juggling with 5 in steps. First learn 5 throws. Then learn 6

throws. Go on to 7, 8, 9, 10. Then try to juggle as long as

you can. Don't always try to do endurance runs. Set your goal

to perhaps 20 throws and make sure that you can do that really

good, and perhaps with a neck catch as finish.

Nothing to it, really. :-)

Boppo (Bruce Tiemann) posted this to the net in June of 1995:

____General Stuff_____

Philosophy: numbers juggling is hard: 3 tricks take minutes, hours, maybe

days to learn; numbers tricks take, um, _rather_ longer. Unless you

possess rare talent, expect to spend months on five balls, and years on

seven, to get them comfortable.

Warm up - literally and figuratively. Don't practice your hardest trick

first! And cold, clammy hands don't have the responsiveness of nice warm

ones. For the hell of it, try juggling when your hands and arms are

really cold, and then go soak your arms up to the elbows in water as hot

as you can stand, wiggling your fingers the whole time, for a full minute.

Dry off, and immediately try the same trick again.

When you juggle, try to notice tension anywhere in your body. Try to

relax that which isn't needed - do you clench your jaw, or your back, or

your shoulders, for a trick that really only involves your hands and

forearms?

Remember to breathe when you juggle(!) If you have to hold your breath to

do five clubs, you won't go past ~30 seconds, or maybe a minute at most,

EVER! Even if you have to tense up to throw all the stuff out of your

hands, make an effort to try to breathe again when you get down to

juggling, with only one object per hand.

Use nice props: The Flying K's "Challenge" proves an expert can juggle

three of ANYTHING - so you might not notice if your props really suck when

you do three. Expecting numbers to command your attention for quite a

while, in other words, that you'll be spending LOTS of time with your

chosen numbers objects, you might as well really like them: get nicely

weighted clubs, or quality beanbags (or balls, if that's your fancy).

When at conventions, check out all the vendors, and try things. But be

aware that beanbags soften up with use (which balls don't); ask numbers

jugglers what props they use, and how old they are and if they like them.

Tendonitis might get you. Symptoms: sore along tendons that hurt when

you extend them. Trainers say: (1) consume anti-inflammatories, f.ex.

aspirin, ibuprofen before exercise, (2) heat affected region before

exercise (using the water as hot as you can stand up to your elbows

thing given above), and cold such as ice compresses afterwards, and (3)

skip practicing the lead-filled tennis balls if that started it!

Two schools of thought about how to practice: "performers" vs. "hobbyists"

This is really a continuum... I identify Dan Bennett, Anthony Gatto, and

Steve Ragatz as almost pure "performers" and myself, Alan Morgan, and

Bruce Sarafian as more or less pure "hobbyists." (Don't mistake this

identification as an endorsement... realise the different points of

view, and use what methods best suit you.)

Performers: don't like to drop: "don't practice mistakes",

only try to flash with clean finish, then flash +1 with clean

finish, then flash+2... and only try to juggle or run later, but always

finish cleanly

don't make wild saves; stand still, keep clean patterns

put off 7 until 5 is really solid... and put off 5 'till 4 is.

Also, Dan Bennett thinks your mind stews on the last attempt of

every individual trick you try each session. So stop on a good one! Let

your mind stew on that one. If you get lucky on your first try of a

trick, stop right there for the day(!) and try something else.

Hobbyists: don't care about drops: "it can't hurt to try; if you're

not dropping, you're not practicing hard-enough tricks"

try to run a trick ASAP, and go 'till you wipe out

willing to lunge, making wild saves or walking about

trying to learn 5? a few hilarious minutes with 7 and

even 9 will make 5 seem slow and empty! "You won't know where your present

limits are 'till you have, without a doubt, exceeded them."

Consider working out if simple effort, let alone accuracy, of

target trick is a struggle: push-ups, chin-ups, "air juggle 11"

Notice how buff Anthony Gatto and Bruce Sarafian are... maybe

there's something to it. Since Burlington, I have started such arm

exercises, and I attribute my recent success with 9 and 10 balls in part

to it.

Terminology:

"flash" of n objects = n catches;

"straight flash" = n throws, n catches, 0 drops.

"qualify" = 2n catches, currently accepted "legal run" criterion.

"run" and "solid"... no widely accepted definition; here are some:

100 catches; able to perform without likelihood of drops; 1 minute (which

is REALLY long!); free to stop at will; "Solid is a state of mind, not a

run length." Three times around, three times in a row, no drops, on first

attempt with no warmup.

_____General practice Techniques____________

Garbage juggling: n different things, tennis or whiffle balls, lead

balls.

-> if you can do these, the standard pattern with your favorite

beanbags will be easy!

Tricks: Try to learn tricks with the target numbers patterns, as soon as

the normal pattern starts to run. Over the top, backcrosses, anything.

As above, if you can do these even barely, the standard pattern will seem

easier.

Siteswaps with 0s, 1s, and/or 2s, in addition to the target throws:

5 0 1, 5 2 5 1 2, 5 5 0 5 0, 5 5 2, 5 5 5 1, 5 5 5 5 0 to work on 5;

6 6 0, 6 6 1 6 1, 6 6 6 2, 6 6 6 6 1, 6 6 6 6 6 0 for help with 6, etc.

For many people, these tricks are easier to run than the target number,

but yet provide aspects of the same sort of difficulty that the target

presents. For example, scooping the 6s enough in 6 6 6 6 1 and even 6 6 1

6 1. Clubs do not lend themselves so well to siteswaps with 1s as balls

do, sadly.

Vary the "usual" pattern. Try it too: fast, slow, high, low, narrow,

wide, high & low "dwell ratio," far in front, up too close, etc,

and in combinations - also run with n-2, especially way up high, too

fast, and with low dwell. Doing these expands your "comfort zone" and

makes the default place for each of these parameters that much easier.

Notice what errors you make (may need another person, esp. a juggler, to

watch): things like walking in circles, left hand throws too low, 2nd

rt. hand throw always goes way in front of you, or doesn't cross...

-> you want to make different errors on different attempts: if it's

always the _same_ _error_ then you need to work on fixing that, until it

isn't the error you make _every_ _time_.

Also, exaggerate that error, then exaggerate the correction; (so if your

left hand throws in front of you, make it throw _behind_ _you_) now the

"correct" way is somewhere in between, but you'll never get there if you

stay on one side of the error-correction only.

Attend to crossing point: If launch position is correct and crossing

point is hit at right speed, then the rest of arc is assured. This gives

the benefit of quicker feedback if a throw is in error: it gets to

crossing point much sooner than it crests, the latter which might

otherwise be thought a good place to look. You might think of a small

hoop you need to get all the objects aimed through, coming alternately

from each side, which is located at the crossing point. (Looking there,

of course you need to use peripheral vision to make the catches more so

than if you look at the top.) Another image is to think that you are

pummeling a target floating at the crossing point. Hit it equally hard on

both sides. Don't let up. These last two images have helped me make wild

saves: there's a localized place to aim for, even if the pattern has

"fallen apart" or a wild catch is brought in.

Try to keep your elbows more or less pinned to your sides. It seems

claustrophobic, not moving them much, but try it anyway. I found it

helped me make better throws during longer runs. Later, I noticed (on

the Baltimore tape) that Gatto hardly moves his elbows at all. Watch him.

More generally, watch people doing tricks you want to learn. What do they

do differently than you do? Some things to look for: How high is the

crossing point? How wide is the pattern at the base, and how much scoop

is there? What motions do their hands go through? Arcs? Back and forth?

Triangles? How do these differ from your own movements? If these people

are able to error-correct things that kill your own runs, try to discern

their method of error-recovery. (One of my methods: throw everything

after a problem a bit high. This buys time, and keeps those throws out of

the way of the bad one. Should the problem be fixed, the pattern can

gently be brought back down later.)

_____Balls______

Most people prefer beanbags to balls. Many find tennis balls too big and

too light and bouncy, to be good, but some sand, water, or pennies in each

one tames them, and keeps them from rolling everywhere to boot. Silicones

are expensive and dangerously bouncy, but feel sooo good. I find them too

heavy and dangerous for 8 or more. They enforce "performer" style: You'd

rather catch them cleanly _now_ than risk a failed error recovery and

subsequent bonk on the head _soon_.

"Drop test" - beanbags only. Only consider where they hit the ground or

better, the sand, and not where they roll to. Of course, collisions void

the results - but do it over instead of sweating where they "would have

gone" - and worry instead about having them not collide! Throw ONLY, and

do your best to clear your mind of any thoughts of catches. With your mind

so cleared, you might find the throws are so good you try to catch 'em

anyway. DON'T at first; let 'em drop. You want to hear an even rhythm

when they hit, and to find them collected in piles right below your hands

(but maybe a bit wider). If one hand always throws low, or if the throws

are wild, you'll spot it in the drop test: (The impacts will be uneven,

and the "piles" will be spread out, respectively.) Also, if one hand

always throws in front of you, or you want to walk in a circle, you'll see

that too.

The drop test is useful because when you juggle at the limit of your

ability _and_try_to_diagnose_the_problem_at_the_same_time, well, you're

busy! The drop test breaks those tasks apart: first you do the throws,

and _then_ you step back and see where they hit, and listen to the

rhythm... and you can fully attend to _each_ _part_ since they're now

separate.

(Easier: Get a Dad named Nick who tells you everything you do wrong, and

picks up your props to boot. Less good: videotape your sessions, and look

for what you might be doing particularly right or wrong. Other jugglers

might be able to give you the same sort of feedback.)

"Catching" beanbags or balls during juggling is a bit of a misnomer.

They're not solid grabs, like shaking their hands, but instead are almost

mere re-directions. With a cup-shaped hand, if a ball smacks the base of

your fingers, your hand may close automatically around it, saving you the

effort of having to do it yourself, especially if the things are > 100g

each. Though it isn't necessary to actually grab the ball during a

juggle, this automatic closure is certainly better than having to think

about gripping the ball, every single catch.

If you drop a lot, juggling in front of a sofa or bed can save you some

picking-up time. And if you buy a dozen balls, you can distribute the

whole lot of them around the room before needing to go fetch them.

________Evens vs. Odds____________

Odds patterns: cascade, outside halfshower

Evens patterns: sync. and async. fountain, inside and outside

halfshower, wimpy (= synchronous center cross)

Cascade: want arcs to cross at ~90 degrees up there: this means wide

base, and throw across, not vertically. Try to make the pattern "too

wide" - it will be a bit more arm effort to sustain from all the scoop

needed, but there will be lots more room, and a bad throw will less likely

collide. If it's a tall and skinny pattern, the arcs will be "rubbing

against" one another for lots of length, making a bad throw much likelier

to result in collision. If the arcs cross through each other at 90

degrees, when a ball goes through the crossing point, it screams through

and is never heard from again, from the other arc's point of view. Here,

a throw can be bad and still not hit the others.

Fountain: This pattern requires _lots_ _of_ _scoop_; it's not tall and

skinny either, for the same reason as given above. The throws are not

only not vertical, they actually go to the outside and look crossing if

you bring your hands "past together" at the base.

For n-in-one-hand, lots of things are easier than doing them in a

circle: "in, in, out", columns, cascade, and any which way. But these

are not easier to do in stereo than the circle, except columns with 4.

"Master/slave": even if you can't run 3 in your bad hand by itself,

try 6 anyway. Instead of thinking "Left hand, do three even though you

can't" think "Left hand, mimic the right hand, whatever it's doing."

Halfshowers: height ratio dictates rhythm; to find a comfortable rhythm,

you need to adjust the relative heights of throws. Some adjustment of

rhythm can be obtained by changing the dwell of *one* of the hands, but

not as much as with changing the heights. (I prefer having the two hands

have the same dwell.)

Wimpy pattern: both hands cross, and one hand throws a tiny bit earlier

and also higher than the other, so the balls don't hit at the crossing

point. Most people find this easier than the other evens patterns; some

even find it easier to qualify than n/2 in their better hand!

_____Clubs______

Numbers clubs really help: they're long, narrow, light. JuggleBug RYB are

my least favorite, followed by Europeans: these are heavy and with

hard-hitting handles. Americans, though huge and hard to start, are

surprisingly light and also lofty, which amounts to slower patterns. IMO

excellent clubs to work with 5. This is a matter of taste, of course.

Radical Fish are IMO good # clubs, but Renegade #s clubs, are markedly

easier for me for 7. YMMV.

Flashy vs. "good" and natural spins: Because clubs rotate with your arm as

you come up for the release, they'll spin anyway, even without any "wrist"

action at all. I call these "natural spins," and they're quite high.

Thus, slow spin = more time and hence a slower pattern. Also if there's

no added wrist spin, then throw height becomes connected to the number of

spins: simply adjust throw height to correct overspun/underspun throws -

if they're underspun, don't think "need more spin," think "throws aren't

high enough." However, slow spins, and slow patterns won't look very

flashy, compared to forehead-height triples. Query: Do you want to look

flashy, or do you want to juggle 5 (6,7) clubs? Again, I don't advocate

one style over the other. Try both and see what works. But:

Most people juggle five clubs with doubles that are *lots* higher than

they do doubles with, if you ask them to please show you three clubs

doubles. Learning four clubs with singles is good practice for learning

how to throw natural spins: It gets awfully quick fast if you help the

singles along with your wrists! Instead, relax the throws. Now throw

doubles that same way... this is how to do the doubles for five clubs.

Deep dips - a home place to return after each catch, and a long runway

for each launch. After each catch, bring the head of the club down along

your leg, almost down to vertical. No matter where you catch it, dip it

back down to this place prior to throwing it. Passers often do nice

dips; watch them and copy it.

Siteswap throw heights: if 3s are singles, 4s are doubles, 5s are

triples, 6s quads. If 4s are singles, then 5s are doubles, 6s are

triples, and 7s quads. So, if you want to practice 5s (as doubles) from

within 4 clubs, doing four _singles_ gives the best handspeed match, for

example.

Evens vs odds:

Point head to where the throw is going: crossing vs. not. In other words,

if the sun were directly overhead, the shadow of the club should point

tilted towards where it will be caught: 4s and 6s need the shadow of the

knob more towards the center of your body, the heads outwards towards the

_same hand_, and 5s and 7s need to have the shadows of the knobs towards

the outside, and the heads closer to the center, towards the _other hand_.

Eventually, the clubs will be pointing almost directly away from you, that

is, not tilted at all, but the temptation to go the wrong way is so

strong, especially with even throws, that it's wise to aim for

overcorrection, and thereby get almost enough.

Odds patterns: cascade, halfshower

Evens patterns: columns, fountain, halfshower

Cascade: angle heads in. Especially try to vary wide vs. narrow-based

patterns; 5 is kinda wide, and 7 is very wide, at the bottom. Five clubs

takes _lots_ more space than three! Also, the cascade CROSSES. Try to

throw "too wide" so you have to zip out to catch 'em. That may be hard

to keep doing, but at least they won't collide, the usual problem with

>3 club cascades.

Also, for five clubs, pay attention to the handles right before the

catches. Make good catches the first time! There is very little time to

adjust a bad catch, adjusting it in your hand, before it needs to be

thrown again. Instead, try to twist your hand in any way possible to make

a catch such that you are holding the club *exactly* where you want to be

holding it for the next throw, like how high up the handle you want to be

holding it. During the dip, do your best to erase the weird motion needed

to make the good catch.

Halfshower: much like cascade, but look out for overspinning the lower

throw. It's a Zen-like HARD-gentle-HARD-gentle...

Passers note: your left only does singles - that may be all it's

used to, and therefore much better at!

Rhythm of half-shower patterns:

4:2/1 (four clubs: doubles over singles) is galloped;

4:3/1 is async;

5:2/1 and 5:3/1 are synchronous;

5:4/1 is async;

6:3/2 is galloped

Columns: easier for 4, but less helpful than fountain as stepping stone

for 5, and of no use for learning 6. It might work to learn columns first

as stepping stone to the fountain, prior to 5.

Fountain: KEEP HEADS POINTED OUT OR THE KNOBS WILL SMACK YOUR WRISTS!!!!

corollary: keep your elbows in, maybe even in front of you!

Here's a warped image: Your arms are amputated at the elbows, and you need

to stir a cauldron that is right in front of your belly with them. To

reach the bottom of the cauldron, lean slightly forward even though it's

scary how close the clubs come to your nose, and how little time you will

have to get out of their way should they collide in front of your face.

Also: if you face your palms together instead of up, then keeping

wrists cocked back maps directly to the head being directed more out,

which is good.

Use lots and lots of scoop. More than you think! Grotesquely

exaggerate it; it'll be about right at first. Try to make it "certainly

_too_ much" - probably you can't. Extra scoop adds "muscular difficulty"

to the pattern - you'll be working harder. But it alleviates "juggling

difficulty" - there will be more room, fewer collisions, and ironically it

will be easier to sustain, except for all the damn effort it takes. (If

this isn't clear now, you'll know what I mean when you try it.)

________Rings_________

I used to juggle rings, years ago. The only thing I recall that

_really_ _helped_ was thinking of 6 rings as "just like 6 clubs."

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