Sometimes when I am out joggling, if I am running slowly enough, people will come up to me to ask if I can teach them how to juggle, besides asking for my autograph. For some strange reason, they just assume that I know how to juggle. Anyway, I don’t have a unique approach to teaching juggling, but here are some quick tips I usually offer:
1) Concentrate as closely as possible on the balls, keep your eyes on them at all times. Get rid of all distractions.
2) Relax, try putting yourself into a meditative state. In fact, meditate for a few minutes before you try to practice juggling.
3) Do some arm and upper body exercises to warm up the muscles you will use for juggling. Push-ups are ideal for this, along with doing curls with dumbbells(or resistance bands), but you can also do some very fast shadow-boxing to get your arms ready for juggling.
4) Listen to some music. I recommend music that helps you relax and/or makes you want to dance. I’ve made some big breakthroughs in the past while listening to some “funky” dance music. It makes sense the more you think about it since juggling and dancing are very closely related. Try pretending you’re Michael Jackson or James Brown while listening to their music. Early on you should stand still, don’t dance while juggling(you can do this later).
5) If you are trying to juggle 3 balls, master 2 first.
6) Believe in yourself. It’s okay to keep dropping balls, even the greatest jugglers in the world were once beginners who kept dropping balls.
It’s such a terrific upper body and brain exercise, so keep at it!
AcroTrekker 