Juggling
I have been juggling since summer 2004, when I first decided to practice what my friends John and Peter had been teaching me.
I discovered that juggling three balls is not as difficult as I previously thought, but it is a whole lot more fun!
Juggling looks cool, challenges one's coordination, provides endless tricks to practice, and offers a nice break from studying.
In fact, juggling is even mathematical, which makes it all the more appealing to me.
What do you juggle?
Just about any small object is juggleable, and I have been known to juggle fruit, candy, pencils and erasers, coins, and a toy rubber cow. Mostly, however, I juggle balls or clubs. I keep a set of balls in my office so that when I get stuck on a math problem, I can pick them up and juggle. With other people, however, clubs are more fun. I really enjoy passing clubs with another juggler or with a group of jugglers. On occasion, I juggle torches or knives.
How many can you juggle?
More isn't necessarily better. I've seen some really impressive juggling routines using only 3 balls. Yet people like to see lots of objects flying around in the air, so here is a list of my personal juggling records:
| 3 balls | 500 catches |
| 4 balls | 480 catches |
| 5 balls | 214 catches |
| 6 balls | 12 catches |
| 3 clubs | 400 catches |
| 4 clubs | 125 catches |
| 3 rings | 200 catches |
| 4 rings | 120 catches |
The difficulty of juggling increases exponentially with the number of objects. That is, juggling four balls is significantly harder than juggling three, and juggling five is much more difficult than juggling four. Many people can learn to juggle three balls in a week and four balls in a month or two. It was a full two years from the time I first made 5 catches with 5 balls until the first time I made 100 catches!
Can you juggle while riding a unicycle?
Well, I'm working on learning to ride a unicycle. After I learn to ride it, I will practice juggling while riding.
Do you have any juggling pictures?
You bet! Check out the juggling album in the photo gallery for photos of my friends and I juggling!
