JackJuggles - #
How to keep juggling?
Hey guys, my progress with juggling is really slow and it's hard to stay juggling. I don't have much muscle memory, which makes it really hard. I have tried to juggle 5 balls for about 4 months, and only have a personal best of 15 catches. It is also hard for me to find a time for practicing, as I am very busy. I love juggling, it is really fun. But I'm not making any progress?
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
Re finding time - Recently I've been finding myself in a similar situation. I think that juggling is better if you have plenty of time to play with. If you don't have much time and you really love juggling and want to keep it going then you may need to apply some discipline (something I need to be doing more of myself). Even if it's 15 mins of *good quality* practice - five days a week. Integrate it into your day at a certain time. Slot it into a gap that's in between one part of your day and the next part (before I shower/bath is one that works for me). Keep it ticking over slowly and the results will appear.
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
... For your short high quality practice slot - remember to break things right down. Don't move on to the next step until you're comfortable with the current one. Maybe better to concentrate on how many throws you're comfortable with and then stop, rather than your personal best.
Yep, if time is an issue, it's about practicing "smarter." Break down the move, work on building consistency. Muscle memory builds over time, so short practices, even 10-20 minutes a day is better than longer practices every few weeks.
Don't underestimate how difficult 5 ball is. After 4 months of 5 ball practice (~5 days a week, maybe 30 mins a day) I was probably at the same level as you. I'm well over a year in and I'm only now becoming comfortable enough with 5 ball to run it over 50 catches on a consistent basis.
If you're finding it difficult to block out specific practice times, just keep some balls handy around the house and pick them up when you've got something in the microwave, practice with one hand while talking on the phone, etc. Juggling is one of those hobbies that you can bring pretty much anywhere anytime.
You've already got some good advice about practice to make progress, so this is more for motivation.
When I feel that I'm not making any progress, I usually start practicing something new. A trick/throw/sequence I've never done before. I don't stop practicing the thing I'm not making progress with, I just mix it with something else.
That makes me feel that well, if I'm not making any progress with this thing that I've been practicing for so long, at least I'm learning this new thing.
Also, when I think about it I usually find that I am making progress, just not as fast as I'd like to. When I feel like "I did this many catches months ago, why can I still not do more?" I try to imagine how I would feel if I had done exactly the same practice session that I did today, say, one month ago... And usually I find that, well, then I'd probably have been very happy with how many times I managed a certain number of catches, or that it didn't take many attempts to do a flash (or something like that).
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