Thought of the Day
Yesterday, when flashing 9b, I had this reflection \thought \insight \enlightenment(?), that juggling or getting your pattern up, then keeping it rollin', is very much about shifting focus, how you shift focus from one aspect or from one property of the pattern and-or your hands' ado, to the other.
Let me explain, give an example or two: when flashing nine, ..
- first, I focus on the first slow well aimed ball (kind'a paired with the second weakhand ball not awarely aimed, but following stronghand's throw, also slow), but also on being prepared to fire up the rest,
- then I focus on keeping that first ball spotted and orienting all the rest of the balls along that first ball's height, flighttime and trajectory in space (relative to the optimal front plane),
- then - if all goes well and all 9 balls up built a nice shape - I can focus on aiming the rethrows through the middle of my pattern.
- the next step, I'm currently working on, is to shift focus to pattern's top only and firing all rethrows into a hopefully well shaped top of my pattern focussing on the upper last ball up or upper three balls (maybe five) only.
when correcting, ..
when doing 7 balls or 5 balls and the pattern is ongoing and let's say somewhat stable, and my focus lies on for example simply doing left--right--a.s.o., or focus lies on in case the right height to keep, or in case on tuning the rhythm, or in case on reducing dwelltime. There might then be an outbreaker to bring back into pattern, and again the focus shifts to where exactly that ball lands, on spotting it, and on how its `wrong´ position in spacetime relates to my frontplane or the to the rest of the intact pattern, and focus lies on how and where I have to throw it in order to get it back into place.
All this happens within millisecs and is partly automized and-or unaware, but when learning, before having gotten there, these shifts of focus are maybe a major aspect of getting there, be they unawarely naturally found or rather by reflecting.
#JugglingWisdom (?) #focus #flashing #ThoughtOfTheDay
That's a lot of analysis. When I try 9, I pretty much just throw them up there best I can and hope for the best! I think it's good to not overthink these kind of things and trust that practice will improve it.
Hm .. it just doesn't come to me naturally, and by practising planlessly or unreflected, I might not get anywhere on that high level.
And also, I'm always in hunt for understanding what exactly goes on like in the brain when juggling, and hopefully find some kind of essence of how learning works best. And I some day want to understand what ``mastership´´ means.
I believe, knowing what to exactly focus on and when exactly, and also what there might be to anticipate, can help to find into higher levels and overcoming presumptive own personal limits.
And I wasn't referring to 9b only, .. I think, switching focus might be essential for juggling in general, like also for learning siteswaps.
But, yeah, .. trust that practise will improve it.
sounds good and I feel that too over the long run. And, indeed, doing without thinking gets me my best most fluent runs, but first I need to work myself into that mindstate going through all crucial issues one by one to refind back into automation every stint.
I think that natural subconscious learning plays a big part of it, but there will always be those local maximums in the learning space that are difficult to get over that way. Some techniques in juggling can be counter intuitive at first. Watching better jugglers can always help but there are some thing you can't see. I'm always thinking of new variables to focus on, but they're not always things that are easily described and communicated.
pretty much just throw them up there best I can and hope for the best!
LOL! I was thinking the same! but...
Let me share the way I see it.
Once upon a time I've discovered that the different things I've studied/practiced/learned in my life where interacting in my brain and, in some cases, helping each other.
For example, when I first began studying drums I was able to play pretty hard rythms, with different patterns on each limb (left hand, right hand, left foot, right foot), and I came to the conclussion that it was "a-little-less-hard" to me than to the other new players in my class, thanks to the coordination and disociation learned with juggling.
Now, when studying the cello I also had to break apart the challenge into little manegable tasks.
(like, you first learn the basic movement with the bow, then harder movements with the bow, then start pressing the strings with your left hand, and only then you start playing actual music)
The idea is that your body learns the basic movements well enough that you don't need to think each aspect of it ALL the time. Your body alone goes through the motions automatically, and your brain is free to think about notes, rythm, volume, etc.
I think juggling is the same. I've spent the last 5 months getting better with 7b, you know. Last week I've finally done it, made a qualifying run, and I think I got there thanks to the many hours of getting "familiar" with the 7-throw, using just 1 or 2 balls, and then letting my hands do their job when I grab the 7.
And me, I try to put my mind in a "focused-blank" state, if that's possible (like really focused, but blank... I really don't know how to put it better.. haha)
So, in conlusion, let it go, don't overthink, and trust your hands. You'll get it! :)
Two keywords come to my mind .. for different things interacting in the brain, helping each other
- synergy, i think, nails that; .. for focussed, but blank
- yeah, that's a queer state of mind, not always easy to get there when mind is `busy´ wanting sth, trying sth, utterly relaxed, .. maybe that's a ``relaxed alertness´´ or readiness, a standby-state of mind, ready and prepared to react fullspeed and full focus anytime when necessary without any ground-tension, only with that Qi to the point. I feel, it's got a bit of trance or self-hypnosis, too, maybe.
I'm not sure, how the notions of ``being in a tunnel´´ or ``in the zone´´ relate to this.
But it's also different when relaxing and getting prepared before starting, or else during an ongoing pattern.
it's got a bit of trance or self-hypnosis
haha! totally!
and its hard to get there when you're into hard stuff, alrright.
but, it's worthy. and at the level we are juggling we need to train our minds as well as our bodies.
what I try to do before each run is visualise the perfect run I want, then toss the balls and start counting in my head the number of catches.
with 7b I go 1 (when the first ball, yellow, comes down into my hand), then 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 are red balls, then 1 again. so it keeps my mind busy.
with 5b I count rounds (like only count the times the first, yellow, ball hits my hands) so its 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3 - - - - (where each "-" is a red ball) and then multuply by 5.
this gives more time to think..but then again, 5 it's kindda easy allready.
But i digress... what I meant to say, is to keep your mind occupied in the count, so it won't start overthink the throws and everything.
#mentalTechnique #theZone #counting [for better finding related threads later again]
Sometimes, esp. when I ran into some mental barrier (of amount of catches), I'd rather not want priority on counting, but rather on the pattern, thinking nothing, but "up--up--up--a.s.o. (or alike)" in snapped-in beat, or to only count ``unawarely, subconsciously, automized´´ (if that's possible) or if there's brain cells left for counting while focussing on the pattern, on doing right in the first place. Or I then try to think nothing at all and just watch the balls fly. But my uncounted runs, utterly delved into the ado only, are rare.
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