Tag: two person juggling

Side By Side Steal Juggle

We took a couple days to get the hang of the side steal juggle. It’s not easy and a lot of the throws look more like sneaky passes than steals. But it’s a lot of fun!

Sena juggles with her arms really reaching for the sky, like she’s getting robbed—which actually fits this complicated crime of a juggling trick.

You have to get a feel for whether you feel more skilled by reaching with your left or right hand when trying to steal your partner’s juggling balls. That dictates on which side you stand. One of the key points is to stand fairly close together.

It helps to toss the balls a little high and close to the juggling pane of glass so that you don’t have to reach too far out in front or you or too far behind you.

We counted the initial throws just to get started. After the first steal, it got too difficult for us to keep track of the count and a free style pattern began to emerge. We traded balls 4 times and Sena was gunning for 5. We almost got there.

Because we were so close together, ball collisions were common, making it important to time throws.

Side by side, shoulder to shoulder, this is a juggling trick in which teamwork is the key. It really helps you develop more skill with the 3-ball cascade.

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!