Still Juggling Along !!

Not blogged for quite some time due to work, injuries and computer 'issues'.

Finally got my hands on 6 wonderful PX3 clubs with the narrow handle for numbers juggling. My 4 club pattern is very solid now, so I have no excuse to not master a 5 club cascade.

I have 5 shows in a row now during the run up to christmas, hard work this juggling lark :)

Too Many Juggling Balls

The Nantwich Acoustic Festival for 2007 has been cancelled due to the terrible weather. This was a really great festival last year and I was really looking forward to it. Everyone in the UK is going to have to learn to cope with this wet weather otherwise there will be no events or companies left to trade at them.

My four club practice is starting to feel more like a chore each day, I`m going to have to think of some way to make it interesting and exiting again. I have been ball juggling pretty hard for the last few days, the 800g DX pow3r balls make my 110g henrys feel totally weightless. Psuades (red & black) are probably my favorite balls, it`s such a shame they are not available anymore.

Club Juggling Takes Its Toll

Still trying to keep up 2 hours of four club juggling a day. Yesterday, my session went so well I surprised myself. Really long lasting and perfectly shaped async fountains throughout my session left me feeling empowered by the dark art of four club juggling. Today I again managed some long runs with an async fountain, landed some double triple throws and had some limited success at switching between sync and async fountains using a single triple throw. I now have blister on my left hand and some pain emanating from my right wrist so I might have to miss a session tomorrow :(

LarmerTree 2007 festival

I think that was the busiest and most insane Larmertree festival to date, I even managed to fit in some circus stuff between the drinking and dancing ;-) Mushypea run a great circus area every year with really well organised workshops, it is also an opportunity to get some individual pointers as most jugglers are more than willing to share their skills.

Most of my time was spent with my diabolos as Martin was there, so we could compare our progress and swap two diabolo tricks with each other. Stevoid demonstrated the two diabolo S-fan for me as well as showing me an easier way to start the S-fan involving a right stick grind to position one of the diabolos, I think I will be working on it for some time to come.

Rick has similar goals to me, in that he went to the BJC and also wants to be able to cascade 5 clubs. He was kind enough to let me have a go with his pirouette clubs which have a very long handle and are much lighter than the beach clubs I use. I took part in his hat manipulation workshop, I`m going to have to get a hat as I enjoyed it so much.

I attend Steve`s acrobalance every year, this year he taught me some much more complicated maneuvers performed by two people. Unlike every year before, this years weather was cool, so the workshop didn`t feel as physically punishing as I have come to expect.

Crazy Weather For Crazy Juggling

The freaky weather is really starting to get to me !

On setup day we where walking in 2 inches of mud with a further 2 inches of surface water. I decided to wear sandals, knowing that my feet are waterproof and fast drying and my shoes are neither. The weather decided to pick up for the Saturday and Sunday, it was red hot by 10:00 am each morning.

The show was nowhere near as busy as we where expecting, I can only assume the horrific weather of late has put people off the idea of leaving their homes. Daz was up for club passing all weekend which of coarse resulted in lots of throws and laughs. Diabolo was the most popular item for young people to either pick up for the first time or practice hard all weekend, as many did.

I`m off to LarmaTree this weekend, the huge juggling area is run by Mushy Pea and is staffed by 4 or 5 seriously skilled performers. I`ll take part in a few workshops, the acrobalance is always great and I need some 2 diabolo inspiration as well as some help getting 3 diabolos going.

Woburn Abbey Juggling In The Mud

During the 72 hour period we where on the grounds of Woburn Abbey, there where probably 2 or 3 hours that it did not rain. The grass was damp and soft when we arrived, it was like a swamp by the time we left :)

It was surprising how many people visited the show considering how heavily it was raining. The public really where not in the mood for having fun or buying anything and we didn`t even bother putting equipment out in the workshop area due to the mud. We did however spend all weekend juggling and diaboloing in a marquee with a very high roof, trying to inspire people with wet feet to try a circus skill.

I didn`t attempt 5 clubs at the weekend as there was not enough room for me to avoid injuring anyone ! So I worked on my 4 clubs, 5 balls and 2 diabolo routines, along with the usual mad range of circus skills including yo-yo, contact juggling and balancing skills. I only have a few days before we set off for the next show, this time of year gets really crazy and we totallt loose track of where we are and where we are going next.

Next stop is the Ely Folk Festival, a well established festival with lots of entertainment, music and a real ale tent. With a little luck my feet will be dry by then !

Non Stop Juggling

We have 5 shows in a row over the coming weeks and with widespread flooding and the most rainfall ever recorded in the UK I am pretty concerned about the weather !

This weekend is Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, a show run by Living Heritage Craft Shows. I intend to have a concerted effort to flash or juggle five clubs this weekend assuming that the show will not be flooded.

Rain Stops Play

Just had to finish my 4 club session a little early because of the weather. I think I`m going to work on 4 and 5 balls for a while :)

Finesse G2 diabolo with light set :)

Needing some four club inspiration

After keeping up at least 2 hours a day of four club juggling for several weeks I think I need to find a couple of challenging tricks to work on. I`ve made myself a nice large mat to practice over by attaching two roll mats together, the clubs bounce pretty high when they hit it :)

Superb Southwell Folk Festival

Well ! What a crazy weekend !

Our workshop area was full of people from before 10am until after 10pm each day, although the show wasn`t huge we where the only thing for kids to do for the 3 days they where there, so I think we met nearly everyone at the festival.

I enjoyed watching the street performers doing their sets right next to us. Of special note Bruce Airhead has probably the funniest act I`ve ever seen, big respect for anyone who can do such a physical act in painfully hot sunshine.

Vinny The Silent Clown was really good, when he came to do his set we had several loud mouthed and difficult young people in our workshop area. With the most stunning application of simple mimes, he had 10+ kids sat watching him in silence waiting to be prompted to shout out a description of each mime. He was also a really nice guy and master ball spinner so I had to pick his brains on the dark art of ball spinning, he was more than happy to give me several really useful tips.

Lots of great music, plenty of nice people and a selection of over 40 real ales made for one of the best shows we have ever been to, impressive considering it is the events first year !

Four Club Torture

Only spent an hour with my clubs today. I`m noticing it takes 30 mins of juggling before I can get a solid 4 club pattern. Double spins feel almost as natural as single spins now.

Watching Club Juggling In The Park and relaxing, I have a feeling the Southwell Folk Festival this weekend is going to be pretty mad but I`m desperate to get some club passing in.

Long Hot Monday

Juggled 4 clubs in the sun to the point of exhaustion today, I don`t think there are any muscles in my upper body that don`t hurt ! Started thinking more about other 4 club patterns, starts and finishes involving tripple spins.

Watched a couple of vids to cool down ;-)
Club and fish juggling and Really Good Parkour

Club Juggling Is For Fools

Great 2 hour 4 club session today, really enjoyable. Managed to throw lots of tripple spins whilst keep a double spin pattern going. Had a couple of cracks at some siteswap patterns (531,551) with 3 clubs and I`m getting the hang of a box pattern with flat throws which I think looks pretty funky !

I`ve been playing with 2 balls and 1 cigar box, I might try to video some as there are loads of really unique moves and patterns. I`ll just have to prey Jason Garfield never watches it by accident, I personally think he is now doing more harm than good for juggling by being arrogant and unkind to others.

Has the juggling summer finally arrived ?

I really enjoyed todays practice session, the weather was nice and I managed some really nice runs of 4 clubs. I`ve had to alter the grip (for launching) on my left hand as I think I have badly strained something in my left hand which causes considerable amounts of pain every time I start juggling.

Just had it confirmed that we are juggling at a 3 day folk festival. The beer tent has 40+ bears from different microbrewery around the country, so I might struggle to walk in the evenings let alone juggle with anything !

Wet Shows Really Suck

Spent four days at Blenheim Palice in Oxfordshire, I don`t think I have ever seen it rain so hard for so long without stopping. The wet weather gave me lots of spare time to Spend juggling 4 clubs and have reached my target of 100 throws with double spins.

I have lights for 2 Mr Babache Finesse diabolos. After using them once, one of the cups filled with rainwater and shorted the batteries. Luckily a full charge brought the batteries back to life as I`m really impressed how the lit diabolos look.

I tried lots of pirouettes with various props over the weekend. It looks so easy when performed by other jugglers, like this ball juggling video. I`m so so bad at pirouettes it is quite shocking, you would think by the law of averages I would be able to land one in a hundred.

Almost too hot for juggling

Just finished my 2 hour 4 club session, I feel like dying it`s so hot ! My asynchronous double spin pattern is coming together really well, I think I`m going to do some work on each hand separately tomorrow in an attempt to increase my accuracy and endurance.

Nice day for juggling

It has been a great day for juggling, nice and warm with a minimum of wind :)

Finally building up the strength and endurance to practice with 4 clubs for 2 hours. Although after finishing a 2 hour session I`m pretty worn out !

Tried 5 rings but I`m rubbish at juggling rings outside. So I did just over an hour juggling balls instead. Really solid 5 ball runs, good 6 ball flashes and some poor attempts at flashing 7 balls.

I`m seriously tired now. I`d better stop before I add to the Worst Juggling Injury thread.

My Juggling Goals For May/June

My Juggling Goals For May/June

My main focus for the coming months will have to be clubs as I want to juggle 5 clubs before the end of the year.

Balls:

3 Ball continuous behind the back throws (ball backcrosses)
100 throws 5 ball
5 ball half shower

Rings:

50 throws with 5 rings
Alternative 4 ring and 3 ring patterns

Clubs:

Increase practice length before fatigue.
100 Throws of 4 clubs in asynchronous fountain with double spins.
Crossed pattern (5 club cascade) with 4 clubs.
3 clubs continuous backcrosses for 3-4 throws :)


There where quite a few 5 club jugglers at the BJC2007

Insomnia Strikes

I can`t get no sleep ..................



Watch Juggling Videos

5 Ball Juggling Video

Good 5 ball run filmed on the beach in Brighton.

5 Ball Juggling Video

Backflip back up

Backflip is finally back up so I can get to my bookmarks again :)

Crafts Directory

Shared Bookmarks

Juggling Blog first post

I`ll make the odd juggling blog post here and at this juggling blog

Juggling 4 clubs on YouJuggle juggling videos