Basic Three Ball Juggling & Beyond, by Jacqueline Welbourne

Learn to Juggle - The Cascade Pattern

The first juggling move that any Juggler should learn is called the 'Cascade'. Once you have learn't it it will become as basic & simple as walking. The Cascade essentially acts as a rest pattern to which a juggler can return to at any point in a routine.

The Cascade is usually first learnt using Beanbags, Balls or Juggling Scarves. Later on, it is usually also the first pattern to be learnt when the juggler progresses onto Rings & Clubs.

So you can see that the Cascade is a very important base pattern, and therefore effort put into performing this pattern with good quality technique will be time well spent if you wish to progress further.

Preparation

Firstly you will need 3 Juggling Balls or Beanbags, ideally with a weight of 110g - 130g each. Next check that you have enough space around you, there is nothing within range of a badly thrown or dropped ball.

Posture

As with most circus skills, before you start try to make sure you start with a good posture. If you start in this way and keep checking your posture when practicing it will help stop you developing bad habits.
Stand up and try to get yourself into a comfortable relaxed position whilst observing the following:

Place your feet about shoulder width apart.
Relax your legs and bend your knees slightly.
Place your arms at your side, then raise your hands bending them at the elbows until they are roughly at waist level.
The palms of your hands should be facing upwards, your forearms moreorless parallel to the floor, and your arms should feel relaxed with your elbows close to the sides of your body.
Your back should be fairly straight, your shoulders relaxed and your eyes should look straight ahead.

Relaxing

If you are finding hard to relax you could try closing your eyes, taking a few breathes and try releasing any tension in your body, especially in the joints - wrists, knees, elbows, shoulders, neck. If you take a few moments to do this and it should help you to relax.
If you make sure your body is relaxed and free of unnecessary tension in all your early practices, your body will start to automatically adopt this posture by association, allowing you to focus better on the skills your are practising and enable you to concentrate better on your technique.

Focus

At first when you are learning news skills it will require at lot of focus and concentration, but as you progress with your skills, the movement patterns you are requiring your body to make become imprinted in your brain. This will allow you to focus more on the finer detail of your technique, and as your experience grows your body will eventually be able to produce high quality movement automatically with far less concentration needed - and this means eventually you will be free to put nearly all your efforts and focus into your performance!

Quality

Because your body is learning and improving its motor co-ordination in this way, the quality of imput and the focus you give to detail and accuracy of any movement based skill is highly important. Therefore a little patience and determination to get it accurate before you move on to learning the next trick that you are yearning to master, will in the longer term pay you back multiple dividens! Your sense of achievement and personal satisfaction will also be improved.
The message is therefore simple, take the time and make the effort to work on the quality of your movement when you first start. Though you may find yourself initially to be the tortoise who starts slow, in time you will overtake the hare who doesn't care, and win hands down with style & technique!

Step 1: One Ball

First check your posture (as described above) and that your body is relaxed.
Next you need to imagine an invisible frame or box.
The bottom corners of this frame or box are your two hands at waist height.
The top corners directly above the hands at a height just a little above your head.
When you juggle the balls need to stay within this rectangular frame / box and and also within its plane i.e. at around the same distance away from your body.
Now pick up one of the juggling balls and hold it in either hand, (palms up) fingers closed softly holding the ball.
Toss the ball from the one hand to the other hand, and back again, using your wrists and not your elbows or shoulders.
With each throw the height of the arc should be about the top of your head.
Try your best to keep the ball in one plane. When the ball is thrown more inward or more outward from your body as you are learning, take note and try to adjust future throws. You may have to concentrate more on throwing the ball from the one side than the other.
Work toward tossing the ball with the least effort, whilst achieving consistent throws - same plane & same height.
Again breathe, don't rush, check your posture, and make sure your body is relaxed.
Initially the quality and consistancy of the throw is more important than catching the ball.
However, as you get more consistent with your throws, really try to keep your hands down with forearms parallel to the floor. Let gravity bring the ball down to you!
Avoid grabbing or squeezing the ball, as this will make your juggling action slow & jerky. Instead cup the hand gently as the ball falls into your hand.

Once you are confident with One Ball, then its time to give Two Balls a try!

IMPORTANT: It is often very productive when learning the Two Ball pattern, to practise some One Ball throwing as well to remind yourself of the quality and consistancy of your throws!

Step 2: Add the 2nd Ball

Pick up a second ball so that you have one in each hand.
Again breathe, don't rush, check your posture, and make sure your body is relaxed.
Toss the 1st ball (the one in the Right hand) to the Left observing the same arc as with the one ball throws.
As this 1st ball reaches the top of its arc and just starts down to the Left hand, toss the 2nd ball (the one in the Left hand) up and underneath the 1st ball.
Try this a few times working towards a consistent height with both balls.
You should start to feel a rhythm which is 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3 etc.. where 1 is the first toss, 2 is the second toss, and 3 is second catch. It helps to count out aloud as the throws reach the peak of the arcs 1-2- and 3 on the 2nd catch.
Now try this the other way around starting with the opposite hand first. Work towards achieving a consistent height and timing with both balls.
The next step is to throw 1-2-3- starting with tossing the ball from the right hand, directly followed by throwing 1-2-3- starting with tossing the ball from the Left hand... and keep going... R1-2-3-L1-2-3-R1-2-3-L1-2-3 etc... It may seem confusing at first, but keep going and you'll get it, this repetition is really important to learning the 3 Ball Cascade!
You may have a tendency to throw the 2nd ball lower (especially if it's from your weaker hand). This is quite natural at first and it often helps to focus more one the 2nd ball and try to over-compensate by trying to throw it a little higher than normal. It'll eventually even out - and become natural and consistent.
It is also quite normal that the balls may tend to go out in front of you. If this happens you can try to compensate by throwing them in toward your body. Also, remember this for when you add the 3rd ball!
Again breathe, don't rush, check your posture, and make sure your body is relaxed.
Remember, initially the quality and consistancy of the throw is more important than catching the ball.
Again as you get more consistent with your throws, really try to keep your hands down with forearms parallel to the floor. Let gravity bring the ball down to you!
Its usually quite useful to start counting how many consequetive throws or 'exchanges' you can make that are correct and of good quality, and give yourself a target to achieve.

Once you are confident with Two Balls, then its time to give Three Balls a try!

Step 3: Add the 3rd ball

OK. Its time to juggle the 3 Ball Cascade!.

Juggling with 3 balls is not so difficult if the 2 ball pattern has been achieved with good quality shape and consistancy.
It is often therefore very productive when learning the 3 Ball pattern, to practise some 2 Ball throwing as well to remind yourself of the quality and consistancy of your throws!

Take a third ball and hold it in your Dominant hand so you have 2 balls in that hand and 1 in the other hand.
Again breathe, don't rush, check your posture, and make sure your body is relaxed.
Toss the 1st ball from your dominant hand, count 1 as it reaches the top of its arc and throw the second ball from the opposite hand underneath the 1st ball. (This is the same so far). Then, as the 2nd ball reaches the top of its arc count 2 and toss the 3rd ball (the one still in your Dominant hand) up and underneath the 2nd.. and KEEP GOING!.. As the 3rd ball from the Dominant hand reaches the top of its arc count 3 and throw the ball from the other hand (this is infact the 1st ball that you threw) up and underneath the 3rd.
It's very likely that the balls didn't behave as well as they should. The first 2 tosses may have been smooth. But then, when it's time for the 3rd, your body panicked. For now, as you repeat this, force yourself to make that 3rd toss, even if you miss catching the 1st or 2nd, remember the throws are more important than the catches - intially!
The arcs of the tosses to start with may be way off (very high or very low.) One or more balls are likely to go way out in front of you. If this happens try work out exactly what is happening with which throw and try focus on the worst throw and make a positive over-compensation as you did in the 2 ball pattern.
Most importantly don't panic! Again breathe, don't rush, check your posture, and make sure your body is relaxed, and try again.
If everything is feeling way off, try going back to 1 ball for a few throws, then add the second ball and get comfortable with the shape of the 2 ball pattern again, then add the 3rd ball again, making yourself throw all three tosses.
Remember to always count and focus on the peaks, and always work toward making the 4th (and 5th and 6th) tosses.
Keep practising, but also remember to take breaks. Try to work towards making 3 smooth tosses and catches, then 4, then 5, then 6, and on and on .... and you're juggling!
Goals:
(Stage 1) - Once you've got the 3rd ball up in the air at the right time even if you don't catch it you've essentially started to get it! just keep getting rid of the 3rd ball and keep going!
(Stage 2) - This is when you can do 6 or 7 throws, but not necessarily catches. At this stage your body understands the pattern, but just needs the practise for consistancy
(Stage 3) - You are throwing 12 or 13 - this means that you are really home and away, just a short practise away from
(Stage 4) - 20+ throws & catches in the Cascade Pattern, Circus Maniacs Basic 3 Ball Juggling Certificate.
(Stage 5) - Challenge yourself further: e.g. Pick a larger number or set a time duration? Take part in a sponsored juggle? Try Rings?

N.B. We hope that you have found these instructions useful and reasonably easy to follow.

It may help if you print out these juggling instructions for your reference offline.

Learn to Juggle - Next Steps

Learning the Three Ball Cascade is only just a short introduction to the most diverse world of Juggling & Manipulation Skills!

Whilst we have a lot of Jugglers involved with Circus Maniacs who are good juggling & manipulation teachers, it would take us a very long time to build up a well presented fully comprehensive on-line juggling course.

If you would like to learn more, you could:

Enrol on one of Circus Maniacs' courses, or alternatively book a private lesson, party or outreach workshop with us!
Check if there is a Juggling / Circus Club or Society close by that you could join (most Universities have one, try contacting the Student Union). Or search the Internet Juggling Database: http://www.jugglingdb.com/clubs
Also look out for 'Juggling Conventions'. Every year there are Juggling Conventions going on in all parts of the world, so you may be able to travel to a new country, have a short holiday on a reasonable budget & learn some new juggling skills!
Subscribe to Magazines to find the lastest 'What's on' in the juggling world are:
For Europe try: 'Kascade' Magazine: http://www.kaskade.de
For North America try: 'JUGGLE' Magazine: http://www.juggle.org
Check out our Recommended Juggling Links below.

Whatever skills you go on to learn, please remember our notes above about Posture, Relaxing, Focus & Quality when learning new technique. As soon as you can perform a few tricks with competetance start to play with speed, scale, timing, etc..

Learn to Juggle - Performers Tips

Here are a few tips to help you create and perform a successful juggling Act in front of an audience:

When you practise, be aware of what expression is on your face. A particular 'No No' to avoid is 'Juggler's Mouth' - the classic open mouthed concentrated fish look!
If you have already started to play with speed, scale & timing - take it further & try to juggle to all different types of music. Either adapt a set routine to fit the music, or improvise!!!
Think about where you want to perform and who your audience are, and how appropriate your choice of performance style is for each setting. You made decide to create different 'Acts' or adapt your 'Act' to suit different audiences & venues.
Make sure you have a good quality costume appropriate to the style an image of your act - it's usually the first thing the audience takes on board!
Think about how you use the available stage or performance area, also where the audience are seated and how best you can project and interact with them.
Don't try to perform all your material, concentrate on what you can perform best with style and accuracy, and think carefully about order & content.
Keep track of what other performers are doing & try your best to offer the audience something original - whether it is style, technique or both. There are a lot of jugglers out there, and the audience just loves to be surprised! - with good quality performance of course!
Have fun, keep positive & keep track of your goals. If your goals seem too distant to be achieved, break them down into interum stages with more immediately achievable tasks to help keep you focused.

So good luck & keep practising. You can let us know how you are getting on by signing our Guest Book!

Learn to Juggle - Recommended Juggling Links

We have done a bit of web research for you, and have found a number of sites dedicated to teaching Juggling On-line, and have listed the best ones we found below:

http://www.free-dome.org/orr/index.html - Club Passing and Juggling Simulators - Isaac Orr's club passing site - the most comprehensive online reference to date. Plus an online Java juggling simulator with hundreds of patterns. PLUS hundreds of downloadable patterns for JuggleSaver juggling simulator.

http://www.media-tainment.com/thejugglingtutor/default.htm - Media Circus - the juggling tutor - CD-ROM teaching 3,4,5 ball juggling, club juggling, diabolo, devilstick and cigar boxes to a very high standard. Over 200 professionally filmed video clips can be switched into slow motion, or played frame by frame. Each trick clearly explained and key points highlighted.

http://www.funnyjuggler.com/juggling - Paul Isaak's Home Page including Juggling Lessons!!!

http://bouncepage.com - The Bounce Page - The Web's only site devoted to bounce juggling that's right juggling off the floor.

http://www.jugglingdb.com - Internet Juggling Database (IJDb), a good online resource centre for juggling and other circus arts

http://www.geocities.com/jugglingschool/TrickList.html - Juggling School Tricks List

http://www.cix.co.uk/~solipsys/new/SiteSwap.html - Introduction to SiteSwaps - guide to writing down juggling patterns. This one is for the truely obsessed juggler!!!

http://www.juggling.org/fame - Some of the greatest jugglers who have ever lived, performers who have devoted a lifetime to reaching the highest peaks of both technique and artistry.