I’ve wanted to learn to juggle for around 20 years. At one point my housemate was going to a bootfair and I asked him to take a bunch of CDs with him. I don’t think any of them sold but there was a couple that he wanted. He had some juggling balls that didn’t sell. We arranged a trade.
I was able to throw the balls up… and they all came down again. Which is at least one of the fundamental parts of juggling.
I occassionally got out the juggling balls when I found them at the bottom of the box and gave it a go but I never really stuck at it.
One of my wife’s colleagues got married the same year we did and had a juggling themed wedding. Whilst there (and also whilst drunk) I threw up a juggling club and couldn’t even catch it once.
By this point, I had pretty much come to the conclusion that juggling was witchcraft and that you needed to sell your soul in order to be able to do it. I was resigned to the fact that it was not for me.
Then, for my 40th birthday, along with a bunch of other amazing gifts to help me complete items on my bucketlist, a group of my amazing friends got me 6 juggling balls. I resolved to learn to juggle.
With the help of the aforementioned couple who pointed me in the direction of some great YouTube videos (I really recommend this one if anyone is wanting to learn) I tried to spend 5 minutes a day practicing. And I can now juggle. The pandemic was really helpful as I had the juggling balls on my desk and in a few spare moments, I was able to get a little practice in.
Learning to juggle has been great because it really keeps my daughter entertained and is fun for me at the same time. Win win. I’ve even bought myself some juggling clubs which I spent a bit of time practicing in the garden last summer (they are definitely not for indoor use – at least not when I’m in control of them) and I’ve tried to learn a couple of tricks with the balls – although I’m not very good at them. It’s quite a fun way to pass a bit of time.
Learning to juggle, however, at least initially can be a bit boring. The method taught in the video I recommened is a lot of repetition and muscle memory (this seems like it must be the only way but I guess there could be others) by repeatedly throwing just one ball from hand to hand at the appropriate height (eye level). Then when you’re happy that you’re catching it enough, moving on to two balls, and then finally three. Once you get to three the fun begins!
Anyway, here is a video of me doing some juggles. Enjoy!