h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A good solid starter.
What about the spirit of juggling? The philosophy? The motives?
What do you get out of it? How to find other jugglers? How do you make bucks?

That sort of thing.

p.s. please have a wadger's at my page 'I can only do two!' - Cheers

When I was learning to juggle my teacher told me to imagine a big square frame in front of me. When throwing from the left hand aim for the top right hand corner of the box. When throwing with the right hand aim for the top left corner.

Another friend, a woman took to juggling instantly. I was flabbergasted - not because she was a woman but because she just DID it. She said it was like plaiting hair.

PS I think we are all tumbling not juggling. Juggling, I've been told, goes round and round in the same direction, not back and forth.

Hehe, time for some more technical juggling info :

The type of juggling described is called the 'cascade'. The balls cross over, and a cascade pattern can be achieved with any odd number of balls.

Another type of pattern is called the shower... and, as you mention, the balls go round and round.

Then there's the fountain (even number of balls, they don't switch hands), columns, fake columns.... the whole art of juggling is a lot more complicated than you'd at first think!

And a lot easier. As I'm sure I mention in the article...

Knife juggling is fun.

I love it when you get technical. I thought computers were complicated.

Have you heard of the Reagan? You throw seven balls up in the air at once and run away as fast as stink hoping one doesn't hit you on the head.

Strangely enough, I actually attempted one of those yesterday... well, it was intended to be a seven-ball cascade, but I doubt if a bystander would have been able to notice any difference...

i never wanted to learn juggling.
i was wondering,
what is the use of juggling anyway?

What is the use of juggling?

Didn't you know that if .42% of all the balls in the world are not kept in the air the ozone layer turns to marshmallow and the creosote on all the fences could enter the water table.

By the way - could someone explain the benefits of juggling for accountants? I think they do it with books? Suerlye you stand a high risk of tearing them or at least losing a page.

A good answer from VestBoy, but I feel inclined to add that it's fun, relaxing, and, if all else fails, it *is* possible to make money by juggling...

Actually, it's all lies. All of it. Jugglers juggle for the look on their friends' faces when they obtain their first set of juggling knives...

I can't juggle.
I can get as far as two balls, but that just isn't enough to impress anyone into throwing money.
However what frightens me is that we were taught to juggle at SCHOOL; some sort of physical education programme promoting hand-eye coordination and other circus-based skills.
Is this the sort of thing we should be teaching our children?

I think that juggling in school would have been great!
I had to turn out on wet saturday mornings to play rugby under duress. (no that is not some sort of prophylactic)
If I'd had the optoin of doing challenging stuff like monocycling and juggling and tightrope walking I would have loved it.

Oh no, our more "big-top" influenced physical education (which included jump-rope as well) was in addition to the usual winter sporting choices of rugby, soccer/football and "minor games" - a third option added for those students who could not grasp the complexities of the more traditional activities. For some reason it always involved "medicine balls"; so named because trying to lift them caused such back injury that you were hospitalised for the rest of your life.

juggling, to impress?!
ho, i have the image in my mind....
this girl goes:
"i met a wonderful guy. he's beautiful, and smart, and even sensitive,
and HO MY GOD he even does juggling!"

reminds me my friends.

It probably depends on what you are juggling with.

try juggling carrots. i heard it's fun.

Hey, some girls are impressed by juggling. My ex-girlfriend was, or so I thought... Maybe that's why she's my ex? Anyway, I was wondering if anybody had ever heard of a juggling pattern called Mill's Mess. I saw it performed once when I was beginning to learn how to juggle and was very impressed. It only involves three thuds, (or so I think) but I loved the crossed arms pattern. If anybody has more information on this pattern, please let me know! Now that I am a fairly competent juggler I am VERY interested in learning it. Maybe it will get Ginger back...

Actually, although you'd think "Mill's Mess" is gramatically correct, it's officially called the "Mills Mess", possibly just to annoy pedants such as myself.

Anyway. It's a very cool juggling pattern; it's not as hard to juggle as five balls, but I'd say it's more difficult than four. Once you learn it, though, it's great fun.

The question, of course, is how to learn it... it's quite a common question, and in fact there are a number of web pages devoted to answering it... I suggest you stick "Mills Mess" into Google ( http://www.google.com ) and follow of a few of the links.

If that doesn't work, come back here and drag a tutorial out of me

26199

thanks, I'm beginning to work on it now
I'll let you know when I've got it
(expect a reply in a good, long, while)

Grin, good luck - and have fun!

26199

Mills Mess is definitely one of the most elegant patterns to juggle. I thought that I'd learnt Mills Mess until I saw a juggler with the French Circus Archaos juggle a beautiful, wide-armed version with ultra-violet balls. It was the only pattern he juggled, but anything else would have only detracted from his performance. To me, this is the attraction of juggling. It's like Mathematics, you either see a beauty in the patterns and symmetry of numbers, or you don't. There will always be people who hate maths, there will always be people who find juggling pointless. Maybe this is why there are so many computer geek jugglers. As a 'technical juggler', I think Charles Dancey's 'Encyclopaedia of Juggling' is the book that best captures this link. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more tricks, or even invent their own.

On the subject of learning new tricks, or learning to juggle generally, there is one important thing to remember. 'Juggling is Catching' may make a good bumper sticker, but 'juggling is throwing' will stand you in better stead. Most people can catch a ball instinctively, but to be able to juggle, especially the more complex patterns or with more numbers, the most important thing is to be able to throw consistently. The logical side of your brain (left or right?) will get you started, but to master a trick you need the creative side (right or left?) to take over. This is the equivalent of 'teaching your hands' the trick; being able to instinctively throw to the same spot, time and time again. I usually learn a new trick while doing something else, like watching TV. By not concentrating on the juggling, it's easier for the logical side of your brain to let go.

A bit philosophical perhaps, but that's what the start of this conversation thread asked for...

HOORAY! I JUST JUGGLED MILLS MESS FOR 5 MINUTES WITHOUT DROPS!!!!
2 WEEKS OF PRACTICE, THAT'S IT! I'M SO PROUD OF MYSELF!