Four ball progress
I feel like I am finally reaching a point where I am making some consistent progress with my four ball shower. It feels a bit trite to write this, since I’ve written about it in my journal and made mention of it on rec.juggling, but I want to get it down here as well so I am going to "grit my teeth and bare it," as they say. So, I started working with four pretty lackadaisically somewhere in mid-october. Honestly my progress was pretty terrible. Even after following the WJF practice guide (which is very comprehensive) I just didn’t have the time to do much concentrated practice, and the practice I did get in was pretty shoddy. It’s really only been since 2008 that I’ve found any modicum of success. I’d been quite busy at work and pretty stressed to boot, so I admittedly slacked off on my juggling–while I had been practicing occasionally it was quite lack-luster and unproductive. Come 2008 I started picking things up because I (with some degree of foolishness I now feel) resolved to learn a 5-ball cascade by spring. I’ve set a new goal for myself (since it’s still January I feel like I can do this). Once I began to really practice again I realized how far I had to go with four before I could really even think about adding a fifth ball. At that point I realized I needed to shift my priorities. My new goal is 4 clubs. This seems like quite a tall order at the moment, and I will need to drastically improve both my 4 ball shower and my 3 club cascade before this can happen. The biggest thing I need to work on with clubs is mastering (hell achieving competency. . .) the doubles throw. I think a few more viewings of the 3 / 4 club section on Jason Garfield’s Theory and Practice of Juggling will probably elucidate a few things, but what I really need to do is learn not to be so spastic with my doubles throws. As far as the 4 ball shower goes–practice practice practice. I am finally getting to the point where I can visualize the pattern I am juggling and this seems to be a critical step, especially for four since it gives me a way of focusing on both halves of the patter instead of trying to split my attention and shift it back and forth. Hopefully I will also be able to improve enough so that I can learn and absorb a lot at the upcoming AJA Groundhogs Day Juggling Festival in February.