How to Juggle: Five Balls

Okay, so apparently you are ready to juggle five balls. I highly doubt that, but who am I to judge. Someone out there must be ready so here goes. Five balls are hard. Really hard. If you can juggle five balls there is something wrong with you (that's me). Meaning you spent way too much time on one trick that is probably not worth the effort. And by effort, I mean at least 6 months of at least 2 hours of practice everyday. At least.

The only bright light in the learning of five ball juggling, is the tutorial above. The best juggling tutorial on Youtube by far. If you ask any juggler where they learned five balls, they will tell you "Steve's tutorial." (Steve is quite famous in the juggling community). In his tutorial, he goes over each step and what to do for each step. It is an amazing tutorial. If you do everything in this tutorial, and then add in 6-10 months of rigorous practice everyday, you will be juggling five balls, super easy stuff.

Mark Zuckerberg, the inventor of Facebook, spent many hours developing the social networking site that changed the world. He worked very hard and had to overcome many obstacles in order to achieve his goal. The same can be said for learning five ball juggling. Commitment and hard work can lead to anything you want it to, and both Mark and myself would both agree that it is worth it. 

How to Juggle: Four Balls

Stop reading this blog, and go back and master each of my previous tutorials.

Okay, If you are reading this hopefully you have achieved success with my previous posts, and are ready to learn how to juggle four balls. Four balls are not fun to learn, they are a lot different than three, and one more ball means a hell of a lot more frustration. The above tutorial is pretty good, and it is the same one that I used to learn four balls.

Four balls has one very big, very important difference from three. The balls do not cross. The four ball fountain differs from the three ball cascade, because you are juggling 2 balls in each hand without them ever crossing to the other hands. It is possible to juggle four balls in a crossing pattern, but that is much harder and way down the road. The fountain is the only way to have a symmetrical even pattern with four balls.

The most annoying thing when doing four is that the balls collide ALL THE TIME. The first week or so is going to suck, there will be a collision every 10 throws and it will be very frustrating. But don't give up, four balls are not impossible to learn and a lot easier to get comfortable with than five. If you don't believe me that you can juggle four balls, I will prove it. My roommate Chris, who learned how to  juggle probably around the second week of school has already qualified four balls (8 throws and 8 catches). Yeah he may have the best teacher in the world, but still. You can do it too. If you are reading this, and are someone who is pretty comfortable with three balls but are having trouble with four, I will give you a few exercises. Juggle two balls in one hand, in both hands, until your hands fall off. If you can do that with complete ease, four will not be hard at all.

Robert Putnam, in his book "Bowling Alone" talks about how people have stopped doing social activities that benefit their environment. People don't join organizations, or do community service anymore. They are always on the internet. Juggling is a great way to give back. Nursing homes and hospitals love it when jugglers put on shows for patients, everyone loves juggling and it really puts a smile on peoples faces when you perform for them. So everyone go become a juggler join the Skidmore Juggling Club that I am in the midst of starting, and we can all help the world.


Peace