Peripheral vision, trust and sober juggling

By Vanessa Howell

Juggling teaches us to develop and utilize our peripheral vision by having to be aware of the entire pattern without focusing exclusively on one element.
One of the most useful tools when first getting the grasp of a three ball cascade is to look through the pattern and not at each ball. you will notice that everything will be a little blurry, put down the beer, wait a few minutes and try again. Eventually you will learn to trust your peripheral vision and you will be able to drink and juggle at the same time, although you might think you are funnier, more impressive and juggling more objects than you actually are. Warning : juggling is not as easy as driving, although you may be very good on the roads after a couple of drinks, never attempt a fire walk of death over an innocent audience member unless said audience member is one of your friends and has also been drinking, In that case, two less idiots in the world is a good thing.

Try an experiment with one ball: Look straight ahead with the ball in your right hand and hold your left hand out in a natural position ready to catch and don’t move it. Throw the ball without looking at the ball but looking ahead at the wall in front of you. try to throw the ball directly to your left hand. This sounds obvious but when you try it you will realize that your catching hand will more than likely naturally compensate for your throws. The object of this exercise is to train your throws so you don’t have to think about catching and deepen your awareness of your peripheral vision. Once you get good at aiming your throws and keeping your catching hand still, try it with your eyes closed.

After doing this exercise for awhile bring the same awareness into your three ball cascade, you will notice that your pattern becomes more stable because your hands won’t be waving around all over the place making up for bad throws and your head won’t be bouncing around looking at each ball.

Wishing you good, stable, sober juggling.

Devin the juggler.

Juggling tips to attract the opposite sex

By Vanessa Howell

Practice tips:

In my opinion, the most important thing when starting learning to juggle is to do everything on both sides FROM THE BEGINNING. I know this advice smacks of when your teachers said “if you do your homework everyday you won’t have to study”. From experience I can tell you that cramming tricks on your left hand that your right hand was able to do three years ago is not fun.

As soon as you have got a pattern or trick under control with your right hand try it on your left side, because your right side already knows how to do it, it will probably be easier for your left side to pick it up.

Another thing is to always break the trick down into its smallest parts. don’t be afraid to zen out using two balls instead of hitting your head against a wall with three. Success comes from success, the more success you have the more you will be inclined to continue forward on your path of success. Dropping is like being rejected by the opposite sex, the more it happens the more likely you are to give up trying and take up some obscure hobby like… like…er scrabble or something… So My advice is to go from lots of success with two balls, then try again with three then go back to two balls, then back to three and continue in this way until you have it. This technique may not work with the opposite sex, but it will make you a better juggler, which will lead to better success with the opposite sex.. and my next bit of advice is to not believe everything you read on the internet…

juggle safely!

Devin the juggler