Perl

Java

Delphi

Allegro

C

QBASIC

Art

Books

Hardware

Juggling

Maths

Music

Radio

How to Learn to Juggle

Juggling is a skill just like any other; playing an instrument, sports, even computer games. Practice and you will improve, it's as simple as that. But how do you get started?

Well, most people will need an hour or two to take the first faltering steps. Obviously you'll need three juggling balls, as well. These can be anything as long as they're easy to throw and catch; beanbags are ideal. Then you can start the four-stage process of learning to juggle.

Part One: The Drop

This is the move you will be executing more than any other. Take a ball, hold it in your dominant hand, and drop it. Then pick it up. It's a good idea to be comfortable with this, because you'll be doing it a lot. It's also a very good idea to juggle over a surface (a bed works well) so that the picking up part isn't too much work.

Part Two: The Throw

Place a ball in your dominant hand. Throw it to the subdominant hand, then throw it back. It should be a nice high arc, just a little above eye height, with your hands a comfortable distance apart. Try and throw it back and forth consistently. Now it's time to start thinking about what path the balls are going to follow. When you're juggling three balls, if the balls going left to right follow exactly the reverse path as those going right to left, they're going to collide in the middle. That's no help to anybody!

What you need to do is, when you catch the ball, move it inwards (towards the opposite hand) about four inches before you throw it. Throwing one ball backwards and forwards should go like this: catch, move in, throw, catch, move in, throw, etc..

This will get boring quite quickly, so it's time for the next step.

Part Three: Two Balls

This is where it starts to get tricky. Place a ball in each hand. Throw from dominant to subdominant, as before. But this time, when the first ball is about half way -- at eye level -- you throw the second ball from subdominant to dominant. They won't collide because you remembered to move inwards a few inches before throwing, in a kind of scooping motion. (Actually most likely they won't collide because they'll go in more or less random directions, but this will improve). You need to try and catch both balls, obviously.

Once you can do that -- and it will take a few goes -- you need to do the same thing, but reversed; throw from subdominant first, then from the dominant hand when the first ball is about half way.

And once you've got both down, that really is the hardest part out of the way. Now it's just a matter of putting it all together.

Part Four: Juggling

Start with two balls in your dominant hand, one in the subdominant. You'll need to work out how to throw one of the balls from your dominant hand while keeping hold of the other. Then you do exactly what you did before: throw one from the dominant, then when that gets half way, throw from the subdominant. This time, though, when the second ball gets half way, you have a third ball to throw. Throw it exactly like before. And that's it! You juggled!

Actually that's not quite it -- throwing each ball once is known as a flash, provided you manage to catch them. But after that it's just a matter of repeating what you can do already, without it all getting out of control.

Onwards and Upwards

A few handy tips to be getting on with:

If yourself having to chase after the balls because you're throwing them forwards, try standing in front of a wall while juggling.

Once you can do three balls (and it doesn't have to be well!) you can start on the tricks, of which there are hundreds. The most straightforward are throwing a ball over the top of the others and throwing a ball under your arm. (So instead of throwing right to left, the right hand goes under the left arm and throws to the left hand from there). These are fun to play with, and lead naturally into the more exciting tricks.

Have fun!