Tag: shower juggling pattern

Introducing the Hula Shower Juggle!

Today, I spent a lot of time practicing the shower juggling pattern. I didn’t know it at the time, but I invented a new variation of the shower: the hula. I made a video of it and about a minute and a half into it, I noticed I was doing the pattern wrong.

It looked like I was doing the hula! I was trying to get the horizontal pass across at first and was doing OK—until I wasn’t.

I think part of the reason was that I was tired of making only a couple of throws at a time. Doing the hula seemed to raise my average.

According to Juggleman:

Doing it wrong will make you an artist.

Juggleman

I guess inventing the hula shower juggle makes me an artist. You’re welcome. No applause necessary—just throw money.

Practicing the Shower Juggle Inches Along

I’ve been practicing the shower juggling pattern and progress has been slow. Part of the problem is that it’s a difficult pattern and very fast. I have trouble getting elements of it solid.

For example, I tend to make the horizontal transfer from my non-dominant hand more of a toss-up. That makes it look more like a shallow half-shower.

I tried to compensate today by trying to hold my left hand a little higher. That helps a little. But then I have to toss the balls higher, which is difficult to get just right. I drop a lot of balls. But then I usually do. I’ll have to work pretty hard to get more than just a couple of throws in.

It’s pretty ugly, but that’s the name of my YouTube section—Ugly Juggling.

Why Sena’s Juggling Balls Are Resting

Sena’s juggling balls have been silent lately, meaning I’ve not been hearing them hit the floor. She is pretty busy doing other things, like gardening.

But I’m pretty sure another reason is dropping the balls. She and I are probably at about the same learning stage in juggling. She’s trying to get past the hurdles of learning to juggle the cascade pattern. I’m still trying to get past the hurdles of learning the shower juggling pattern.

I practice every day. When I drop the balls (which is very often), I pick them up and try again. Some of my bloopers are funny, so I included them in an ugly juggling video. I don’t include all the bloopers because that would be monotonous in the extreme.

But you can tell I get pretty frustrated—and a little out of breath. I do the usual lunging, grabbing, and faking.

It’s still pretty fun. Keep trying, Sena!

Update: Sena practiced today! The evidence is on the floor:

Juggling Shower Practice Hits and Misses

I’m still working on the 3-ball juggling shower practice. I’m up to the toss and catch. It has taken me a couple of weeks to get beyond just dropping balls all over the place.

There are a couple of methods I’m trying. One of them is to start the toss and catch by tossing up the 2 balls in my dominant hand right away, one after the other (which I’ll call Method A). The other is to toss just one ball up (Method B).

Method A is illustrated using an animated stick figure and circles on a website called the Library of Juggling. It’s also recommended by some jugglers. Method B is demonstrated on the website Taylor Tries.

I thought Method A would be the only one I could hope to master, but I can’t seem to work my way up to tossing the second ball up high enough to work my way into the actual shower pattern—which is very fast, in my opinion.

But I couldn’t manage to do Method B at all until today. I would consistently drop all the balls. I’m not sure what made the difference today, but that’s been the usual way I progress. I get stuck and somehow, I get unstuck if I just keep practicing.

Where I’m at today is usually where I have trouble working into the juggle pattern. I had the same problem working into the 3-ball cascade (which Sena is working her way up to now). I have trouble letting go of the ball I need to toss in order to start the actual pattern.

I’ll be working on trying to sneak extra throws into the toss and catch for now. I need to let go.