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2torial #0418:
Learn2
Juggle (Three
Balls)
(Continued)
 Start juggling!
Got the "double jug" down? Good. You are now on
the threshold of becoming a full-fledged juggler.
It's time to introduce the third and final ball.
Real juggling is no more complicated than the
double jug, except that for the starting toss
you've got to hold two balls in one hand. That
shouldn't be too hard: try holding them side by
side (as in the illustration), and keep a grasp
only on the one you want to stay.
Which hand should you launch from? In general,
it's probably easiest to go start from your
"handed" hand--i.e., if you're right-handed, start
with your right hand, etc.
Eventually you should be able to start from any
direction, but it's sort of a moot point: once the
initial ball has been tossed, the pattern is
exactly the same: ball gets tossed. At its apogee,
next ball gets tossed. At ITS apogee, next
ball...and so on and so forth.
At first, it'll take some perseverance to keep
the juggling going beyond a few seconds. That's
usually because chaos intrudes into your
carefully-established order: one ball wanders a
little too far, and in moving your hand to catch if
you throw off the arc of the next, and so forth
until you find yourself wildly grabbing at thin
air.
Relax. This is a necessary phase, and not a sign
that you weren't cut out for this sort of caper.
Work on the regularity of your tosses and catches,
and when things start going wild, don't break your
rhythm and range of motion to accomodate them. Just
let the ball fall short or long, pick it up and
start again. You're in charge here, and the goal
isn't to keep the balls in the air at all costs,
but to find your own pace.
Hooray! Even if you can only keep 'em up for a
few seconds, you're now an official juggler. What
you've been working on is the primary juggling
pattern, often called the "basic cascade." Once
you're thoroughly comfortable with it, you might
want to try these variations on the three-ball
theme: try tossing all of them in big overhand
loops, or reversing direction suddenly. You can
also do a double jug in a single hand, sending two
balls up and down in that hand while you do
mischief with the other (this is how the old
eating-a-juggled-apple trick is done).
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