Learning New Juggling Technique
Iâve been shooting for my new video project on and off over the last 8 months or so. There have been a lot of practice sessions recently where I have a list of tricks I came up with but I donât know how to really do for the 20 side of the pattern that I want to shoot.
Because Iâm always making new juggling for shows and videos and stuff itâs become interesting to me figure out techniques to learn tricks as quickly as possible. I try to think of it race against the clock using all my wits and energy to figure out the rhythm, grip, body position, flight path, and the super secrets that make it work.
Here are 4 ideas Iâve been using to try to learn technique faster.
This is basically just changing up what Iâm paying attentions to at different point during a trick. For example, I was working on a (4x,6) variation and always concentrating on the 6âs. After a while I realized the 6âs were always good throws and it was the 4xâs that were the culprits. I tried doing the trick again focusing on the 4xâs and not caring about the 6âs. They got way better and the 6âs were still close enough to make it work. When I focused on the 4xâs I saw what was going wrong with them and could fix it. Once my body new how to throw them right I could switch my focus back to the overall pattern. This may sound basic but there are many times when I focus on the âbigâ part of a trick even though thatâs not the part thatâs going wrong and it doesnât really require all the attention I give it. Sometimes itâs useful to let the big parts happen by themselves and see whatâs up with the details.
In more complex juggling that I make a plan of what iâm focusing on during different parts of a trick or a pattern. I had a multiplex catch behind the neck pattern I was working on that had many different things that would go wrong. When I broke down the pattern into itâs little problems then made a mental schedule in the time of the pattern for when to focus on what. for exampleâŚ
-When you throw the multiplex with the right hand focus on resetting the grip in the left hand.
-Make sure to twist each hand palm up quickly right after the throw so itâs ready in time for the next catch.
-When your right hand is coming down focus on the left not throwing too far behind you.
Itâs really just breaking the trick down so itâs little problems to fix so I have specific things to focus on doing and not just DONâT DROP!
When Iâm working on base patterns like 6 clubs or 7 ball, I donât need to think about how itâs done. There are tons of people that do these tricks and have already figured out the technique. I just need to watch what they do and get my body to do it. When I work on a trick I havenât seen before I have to figure out the flight paths, height, tempo, grip and all the other nuances that make it work. I was working on a 5 club trick the other day that kept colliding. I thought maybe the whole pattern should be higher⌠then i was like naaaaaah and kept working on it with no progress. A couple minutes later I realized how stupid I was being. Why didnât I give it the 20 seconds it would take to try the pattern higher once??? That might solve the whole thing and i donât even try it? Thereâs no video of someone else making it work at the height Iâm trying so what makes me think it should be there? Now Iâm all about trying any way I can think of that could make it work before I decide which could be the real method and get to training. Even then I try to keep an open mind and remember that my method could be wrong, the goal is to make the trick work not the method.
This is more of a thing to keep me on track than an actual âtips and tricksâ. When I first started working on 5 club outsides I did it in two paths, the right hand throwing in the front and the left throwing behind. This made the trick exhausting since it natural made me twist and I needed to work my ass off to stay facing front. It did make it much less likely to have collisions even when I didnât throw very accurately. I could consistently do 10 catches but the pattern was too wonky to keep it going longer. I realized I had learned the trick like some people learn a 7 club flash. They flash the seven clubs but itâs such a whacked out tempo that the same technique would never work for a longer run. Now when I learn tricks I try not to focus on how many catches Iâve gotten but if Iâve understood how the trick works so I can eventually do it as long as I want.
I use my phone to film a lot when Iâm practicing to document when I come up with stuff and see if it looks cool. I also film technique so I can see if Iâm doing something stupid that I canât feel. When Iâm working on a trick I constantly think about what I need to do to make it work. By the time I do get it to work I have kind of a list in my head of things Iâve fixed to get it to this point. kinda like in the focus point stuff I was talking about earlier. Once I get the trick I film myself telling my future self what to do to make the trick work. Sometime I watch these on the way to training the next day to make sure the âtips and trickâ are fresh in my head but Iâve realized that itâs really useful just to be thinking of what Iâm going to say to my phone while Iâm trying it. It make me look harder for the solution and formulate the method for doing the trick clearly into words. When Iâm thinking of a clear sentence that Iâm going to tell my future self about how to do the trick itâs almost like having a coach telling it to me.
