Category: hobbies

Geezer Level One Leg Stand Juggling

This is just a suggestion for whoever’s on the rules committee for juggling world records. Recall that a couple of young guys grabbed world records for longest time juggling the 3-ball cascade while standing on leg.

The current world record is a little over 22 minutes. Wow!

I think there needs to be a new category—for older persons like me. I can tell you I can’t get past a few throws while juggling the cascade on one leg.

I’ve made a short YouTube on the kinds of allowances the world juggling records judges might consider for geezers.

I might have a ghost of a chance to set a world record in my age group if the officials decide they like my idea.

Sena and Jim Do Two Person Juggling Again!

Against all odds, Sena and I did what looked impossible the other day—Two Person 5 ball 2 Count Asynchronous Juggling. For some reason that was harder to learn than the first two person juggling trick we learned.

You can find only a stick figure GIF of how the trick is done on the web. It’s harder than it looks. It took us about 3 hours to get it right. It’s hard to appreciate how it’s done in a YouTube when the jugglers are shown from a side view. On the other hand, the balls fly in every direction and moving the camera closer might have resulted in knocking over the tripod.

It’s not a competition, even thought it reminds you of a table tennis match. You have to put the ball where you partner can catch it. The pattern is similar to the cascade in that on count 1 you throw a ball from one hand to the other and on the two count you pass a ball to your partner. The count is very important.

It’s very important to lob the balls up fairly high. This gives you enough time to catch what’s flying at you.

It’s great exercise. You can see why I wear safety goggles.

Air Purifier Went to Code Green and More Odds and Ends

Just some odds and ends here today. Our new RENPHO Air Purifier went to Green Air Quality yesterday around lunchtime. It’s the first time since we got it that it changed. Green still means “good” air quality. Blue is “very good.” Orange is bad, red is “polluted,” and magenta is “evacuate now!” The fan speed increases a little between air quality indicators. It went back to Blue in about 20 minutes. We’re not sure what made it switch. I would make a comment about Sena cooking tater tots for lunch to what you might call Black quality, but then I would have to leave town.

I saw a new juggling trick that has attracted some jugglers to post new world records. Since I like to brag about being able to stand on one leg for a minute, I can tell you there are world records posted for longest time juggling the cascade while standing on one leg. There are two records. The first one was set in 2017 by a young man who did it for almost 11 minutes. Then, in April of 2023, another even younger kid did it for over 22 minutes.

I’m thinking there is a need for an “Old Guy Juggler” category so that I could set a new world record for juggling while standing on one leg for 4 or 5 throws. I’m sort of practicing.

Sena and I are trying to learn a new 2-person 5 ball juggling trick. For some reason, it’s a lot tougher than we thought it would be. Slow progress. I’ll keep you posted.

Our freshly repainted doors are supposed to be delivered today by a couple of painters. I’m wondering if I’ll hear the three-legged pig joke from one of them. How about a painter joke?

So, the painters finished painting my house and hand me the bill. I notice that by the paint, it says $0. I say, “You guys did such a nice job, why didn’t you charge me for the paint?” The head painter says, “Don’t worry about the paint, it’s on the house.”

Clumsy Juggling

We decided to kick it up a notch with our two-person ball passing juggle routine. We switched out three of the bean bag Zeekio balls for some glowing LED juggling balls.

The LEDs are bigger and heavier than the bean bags, which led to more challenging passes. They also look better in low light, so it was a little harder to see the balls flying at us. We really didn’t know when we’d have to change our grip—so we often ended up losing our grip.

Clumsy juggling is fun juggling.

Two Person 5 Ball Passing Jitterbugging Juggling!

Sena and I are going to break the internet with another video of two person juggling! OK, so maybe we won’t exactly break the internet—but we might give it a nosebleed. We had to think of a way to top our recent side hug version of tandem juggling with 3 balls. So, we tried the 5-ball passing juggle pattern.

This one was also inspired by Niels Duinker and his sidekick Piet. On the other hand, it was difficult to get started at first. I found the video tough to follow and was dumbfounded on how to even get started.

Overthinking can put the brakes on any endeavor. Once we just got rolling and quit sweating the details, the pattern just seemed to flow. You have to give it your undivided attention. And you both have to be able to juggle the 3-ball cascade.

There are a couple of rules to remember. The jugglers face each other rather than stand side by side. One juggler tosses balls straight to the partner while the opposite partner tosses them back diagonally to the partner’s opposite hand.

In this pattern, I start with 3 balls, 2 in my right hand and one in my left. Sena starts with 2 balls, one in each hand. The person with 2 balls in the right hand starts by tossing one ball straight to the partner’s left hand. The partner must toss the ball in her left hand (to empty it so she can catch the ball flying in) across to the other’s left hand. One person always throws diagonally and the other always throws straight across.

Even saying that is confusing. You really have to see it and that’s why we included a slow-motion clip. There’s a sweet spot in the distance between jugglers. If you’re too far apart, there’s a tendency for throws to be too long and either too high or too low. There’s a juggle space between you and your partner just as there is for you alone. It’s a little wider, but not much, because lobbing it upwards more than tossing it in a shallow arc duplicates juggling by yourself.

The more we practiced, the smoother and easier the pattern felt. I tend to jitterbug around while Sena tends to stand solidly in place. Nevertheless, we both compensate for imperfections in our throws.

The result looks almost like dancing.

Discover Tandem Juggling Just for Fun!

I found out about tandem juggling yesterday and learned how to do it from a YouTube video by genius juggler Niels Duinker and his sidekick, Piet van Steen. Sena and I picked it up pretty quickly.

It’s a wide frame form of the 3-ball cascade. All we had to do was practice throwing a little wider and higher. It’s a very entertaining way to play catch.

You still have to throw the balls within the pane of glass. You also have to compensate for each other’s height. The two of you have to stand pretty close together, basically shoulder to shoulder.

This is a barrel of laughs and great exercise as well!

Now Playing! See My Psychiatric Times and Medical Word News Juggling Videos

My juggling video is up for viewing now on the Psychiatric Times website! The title is “A Journey of Juggling.” It’s in the section called More Than Medicine.

You can also find it on the Medical World News website with a slightlly different title, “After Hours: Juggling 101.” It’s in the section called After Hours.

They’re both essentially the same video with slightly different editing. They’re both around 14 or 15 minutes long. The Medical World News site requires you to register, which would provide access to a lot more features.

These are not YouTubes so they work a little differently. You’ll have to manually unmute the audio for “A Journey of Juggling.” The “After Hours: Juggling 101” starts playing right away with audio. There’s an introduction that lasts about a minute.

Psychiatric Times staff did the editing and publishing via Psychiatric Times and Medical World News websites. I had a lot of fun making this video.

I’m still juggling and have improved a lot on the under the leg throw trick. I can do the behind the back throw more consistently but still drop balls. I practice doing tricks from both my dominant and non-dominant sides. I can still do only 3 throws most of time with the shower pattern, but I’m still working on it.

I wear safety goggles and it’s really not just one of my gags for YouTube. I had surgery for acute on chronic retinal tear in my right eye last year and I don’t want to go through that again. I didn’t get the retinal tear from juggling. Just getting older puts you at risk for it. On the other hand, I drop enough balls on my head that it makes me leery of taking any chances.

Sena is improving on learning the cascade pattern. She can do up to 20 throws-except while I’m watching!

Wings in the Garden

We’ve got more videos of birds and a butterfly (which I think is a swallowtail) in our garden. The catbirds and oddly, song sparrows (I thought they were rare in our part of the country?) are turning out to be regular visitors. They like the mulberries and spend a lot of time preening. They visit every day and they’re always a welcome sight.

Every Minute Counts in Physical Activity for Health Even If Your Step Counter Does Not Count It!

If you want a quick read for how every minute counts in physical activity for your health, see the JAMA article “Physical Activity for Health—Every Minute Counts” (Katzmarzyk PT, Jakicic JM. Physical Activity for Health—Every Minute Counts. JAMA. 2023;330(3):213–214. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.11014).

Just for fun, I tried to see if about 5 minutes of juggling would result in a change in the step counter on my cell phone. Unfortunately, it didn’t but I sure could feel the effort!

As the authors state, public health recommendations for physical activity set a bar of 150-300 minutes a week of moderate intensity aerobic activity to get substantial health benefit.

But you benefit from just about any increment below that level. Your step counter probably won’t register it, but you can feel it.

I made a short demo video to show what good exercise juggling is. I didn’t cut any mistakes (and obviously increased the speed on it because 5 minutes is a bit long). Anybody can tell I’m pretty puffed out at the end.

Try juggling for physical activity!

Learning to Let Go in Juggling

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.