A couple of days ago, Sena asked me to watch her as she practiced the toss and catch in juggling 3 balls. She could do the one, two, three, catch pretty well but for some reason couldn’t let go of the ball in her left hand to move forward to the one, two, three, four catch series. Toss and catch by the numbers makes it a little easier to get to the point where you just let go of the balls you need to toss to keep the 3-ball cascade pattern going.
As I write this, I’m reminded how difficult it is to explain juggling the cascade pattern to someone instead of just showing them. When I stood in front of her and could count the throws, she could toss three balls and catch, no problem. But she was frustrated because she couldn’t see how to move past the toss 3 and catch drill. She was sometimes even doing a toss 2 and catch because she was tossing so fast.
I stood next to her and could see part of the problem, which is that she was not letting go of the key ball. In fact, she was aware of it and would try to push the wrong ball up in an effort to keep the pattern going.
This is hard to convey by writing or talking. But the idea behind keeping the balls churning in the cascade pattern is to continually throw a ball from your hand so as to empty it in order to catch the next ball coming down.
So, we counted the throws out loud together. We both started with two balls in the right hand and one ball in the left hand. We counted “one” when we tossed the first ball from the pair in the right hand. We counted “two” when we tossed the second ball in the left hand. We counted “three” when we tossed the third ball remaining from the pair in the right hand. When that ball reached the top of its arc, I noticed Sena was not tossing the first ball she had caught—which would have moved her into a toss 4 and catch, with two balls ending in the right hand. As it was, she was stuck in the toss 3 and catch, ending with two balls in her left hand.
This is really hard to keep track of by talking about it.
I had previously made slow motion videos of the toss 4 and catch, but it was still too hard to follow. And I couldn’t slow my own demonstration standing right next to her in an effort to show her what she needed to do—which was to let go of the ball in her left hand when the ball from her right hand was at the highest point in its arc.
In spite of the difficulty in talking it through—she got it. She actually could do toss 4 and catch several times in a row!
It was a eureka moment.
Go Retire Psychiatrist 