Your Way Of Practicing

From JuggleWiki

Practicing is the only way to make progress. It's important to find a good way of practicing! Read all about the ways that other jugglers practice. Add practice tips and describe your way of practicing at the Your Way Of Practicing page. Also take a look at a Few Thoughts About Practicing.

---

• Mats (UK juggler):
  • I start of with 5 balls, beginning with a run or two of 5 ball cascade and then work through siteswaps, working on some for maybe only a few minutes and others for as much as half an hour (the fun ones).
  • After about an hour and a half I move on to six balls, practicing mostly the fountain but also half shower and a few multiplex patterns.
  • After 20-30 minutes of six balls I move on to seven, which I practice for about 30 minutes.
  • I then spend the rest of my practice switching between practicing my favourite 5 balls siteswaps and the 7 ball cascade.

• Costa Rican juggler (Alejandro) ;): I do exactly the same thing that you do: start with 3, then 4, then 5, etc... except I've only been juggling for about 4 months so I have never even tried flashing 8, I warm up til I'm ready to try 7 ball runs (my favorite trick to practice, even though I can only manage about 20 catches average). Oh, and there are no juggling shops in my country so I can't buy clubs or rings anywhere (I stick to ball juggling using hacky sacks I buy on the street).

• Old juggler (plasticsanta): I practice when and where I can. Sometimes that's all by myself in the workout room at my house. Sometimes that's in the family room with dogs and cats wrapped around my feet and a basketball game on the television. I try not to think of it as practice. I think of it as fun. And as focus. I start with a 3-ball cascade until my hands and arms are warmed up, then do simple tricks I know I can do well and ones that make me smile. Then I start in on ones that don't make me smile so much -- ones I miss a lot on or ones I can catch but that don't look smooth, that don't have any style even when I don't drop. I do those until it's not fun anymore. Then I 3-ball cascade to show myself that I can still do something really smooth and to cool down. The part I like best about practicing is when I get into a pattern or "zone" when things just flow together and instead of thinking "Next I'll do this" or "Next, I'll do that" they just happen. Cool.

• Dreamjuggler: read this and this on www.juggling.org I found many aspects which are important if we try to understand how learning works, however, some basic ideas are this:(NOTE:don`t read it if you`re a fast learner, I`m not- help me ;-)
  • Throw the things just up in the air, not in front or backwards, even with a hard trick, try to toss it straight up consciously, it has to land next to your body.
  • As long as you`re learning a pattern, warm up with easier tricks. If you can hold 5 clubs for minutes, you`re maybe able to start your practice with this trick, well...I can`t
  • Don`t practice the same thing for too long, 10-15 minutes are enough for a trick, and very long numbers practices will make you very tired...if you like to practice many tricks, don`t practice any trick too long!
  • Be concentrated. If you drop five times in five attempts on an easy trick, stop and try to relax. If you`re practicing the hardest things, don` t focuse on drops, just go for the trick

• Carlos Valdez
  • First, I begin with a stretch of all the muscles. Then I warmup every important move with three balls, usually to thirty catches and back to cascade. I make sure I include backcrosses, frontcrosses, over the head, on the side (both sides), behind the back shower (both ways), balls rolling off the head, and all of my body stall catches.
  • Next is the boring stuff, I go through my routine with 3,4,5,6,7 balls. I always finish each trick with a clean finish. Then I work on clubs, warming up backcrosses, alberts, treblas, and all of the other boring tricks that everybody does. I move on to four clubs, do all of my tricks with them, and then do long runs with five. I finish my club session with ~30 minutes of work with 5 club backcrosses.
  • Next come rings. I pull them out of the bag, look at them, and push them back in.
  • Then I run two miles. On Mon/Wed/Fri I do 50 pushups, 10 pullups and 200 sit-ups. On Tue/Thur/Sat I do 5 ball endurance for ~10 minutes with weight balls, and 5 ball over the head for as long as I can. These drills have helped my numbers more than anything. And hey, have you ever seen Anthony Gatto's Arms? I'm convinced that's the one thing he has that I don't ;)

• Icecold-- DO IT YOUR OWN WAY

Never practice too much, the time you spend not practicing is as important, if not more so, than the time you spend practicing, you subconsciously learn the patterns through your head, seeing and correcting your own mistakes as you go without noticing.

• Find whats best for you, get another juggler to tell you were your slipping up.
• Routine sessions suck, do it where you want, when you want, with who you want.
• Most importantly be creative yet precise, you WILL get it in time!!!!!!!

• 16YearOldLondonPerson - I usually juggle in my bedroom over my bed with 3 beanbag/ball things listening to metal or whatever. i usually start with a cascade then do a reverse, then maybe a mills mess and anything else i think of. then i sometimes just throw the balls in random directions to improvise patterns or just do something with a good rhythm. sometimes i do a crossed mills mess then extend it to the other side. i do the right over left side of the mills mess then do a reverse windmill with my arms still crossed to create a mills mess on one side, then take it over to the other side. i'm sure everyone already knows of this trick anyway. my only problem is that there isn't much or any of a juggling presence in my area, there r no workshops anywhere near me so i can't meet any other jugglers like me.

• Mark Schaschke: depends on what I'm trying to achieve...
  • Skill improvement, I try to be systematic
    • Warm up.
    • Figure out the exact physical skills I need to perfect the new skill.
    • Set goals and try to make them.
    • Use flashes to hone a skill.
    • Start easy and gradually get harder. I start by trying to get 1 catch of something new every 6 catches (6 count goal). Then I try every 5, every 4, etc. When I get to every other (2 count), go back and try to get 2 catches in a row every 6, 5, 4, etc... When I fail to reach a goal, I try to figure out what went wrong, then I break break it all down and work on getting the skill correct in isolation.
  • Play: it's all about fun, baby!
    • Put on some funky music - something to get me moving.
    • I move my feet and see if the props follow.
    • I throw the props around randomly and see if the feet follow.
    • I try to steer away from doing the sameoldsameold.

Collage freshman (Jesse Cooke): I like to start with pins to get the nerve endings alert. Then i do some spins tricks to get the blood moving in my legs. then i begin practicing my usual favorites with 5 balls. Definitely put on some upbeat tunes and try watching some videos of insane jugglers to get you inspired (and perhaps some humility) and then just go until you get to tired or somebody gets annoyed all that matters is that it isn't to scheduled because then it loses the fun aspect. But always try to improve and don't give up because it just takes time, and if your having fun that isn't such a bad deal.