Mills Mess Surprise

 Tut tut so much to blog about!

I suppose the best place to begin is where I left off in my last post. In that post I began a short dialogue on my renewed practice with three ball patterns. The main thrust of this "back to basics" movement as I suppose you could call it ties into the concept of deconstructionist training. 

My goal in incorporating some newer, faster three ball patterns is to work on my speed and timing with a number I am very comfortable with in the hope that I will be able to isolate training on hand speed and out of pattern throws. 

To put it bluntly this has been a success. My day to day three ball practice is a bit sporadic content-wise. I have been using three to warm up (something I should have been doing all along really) and doing a mostly freestyle but–and this is the important part–highly focused run through my tricks. 

Working on claw catches has been tons of fun, they feel really good and I have the idea that they are one of the coolest-looking things that I do. I’ve almost gotten to the point where i can throw a three ball flash and catch everything with claws on the way down. It is a bit sloppy but after a few tries I can nail it and I think when it is just a tad bit cleaner it will be very captivating. 

423 is still a work in progress, although the progress is there, however slow it may seem. 

The work with three has been really fun and i think the biggest affect it has had is on my club juggling. 

I’ve gotten fairly good with doubles, although i still need a pretty lengthy warmup to really get a pattern going and i am pretty much at the mercy of the elements if it starts to get windy. 

I did, however, make what i consider to be a phenomenal breakthrough Sunday.  I was juggling at a boat race while i waited for my camera battery to recharge and doing some casual club juggling. I started focusing on working out a smoother under-arm throw and found to my delight that I made very nice progress. The smoother the throws became the better able I found myself able to pick out the subtle shift in the patterns rhythm the throw created. This feeling grew until i suddenly realized something. 

"This feels like mills mess!" i thought to myself. Now, this is not that surprising because mills mess is, after all, an entirely underarm pattern. But once again it all came down to space. Making the one underarm throw, and getting it right, i began to become aware of my other, stationary arm. I could feel the space in the pattern to do something more with my other arm. 

I’d only seen mills mess with clubs once and briefly in a youtube video, but I am good enough at the pattern with balls to have a pretty good idea what to do. 

Now comes the astonishing part. 

On my first try i nailed it. I got about five catches and only broke the pattern out of disbelief. A few more runs and I was up to around fifteen catches. It was shocking. I have never experienced such immediate success in attempting something new. I could scarcely contain my excitement as I spent the next 20 or so minuets working with the clubs. 

I have loved mills mess since i first learned it with balls and now that i can actually pull it off with clubs i am so pleased i hardly know what to do with myself! I finally stopped when I figured my camera held a decent charge (also i cracked the nail on my thumb on a bad toss!)

Moving back to balls, I am still working on cleaning up my four fountain. At this point I could really go on to five, but I think I am going to keep working at four and try and pick up a few tricks. I tried a few claw catches and saw a bit of success, so I may begin to explore that soon. 

Other than that I haven’t had much time to work on anything too exciting. I am anxiously awaiting warmer weather and the opportunity to become a sweaty mess while juggling in the hot sun. During the summer months my loft turns into a hotbox and i can totally soak myself in about 20 minutes with the exerballs. 

It is nice, but not quite the same as juggling outside, barefoot and barechested, feet squirming in the grass, sweat soaking my shorts, sun at my back, balls in my hands. 

Just a few short months away. 

So many things to wait for, and all the time in the world to do it.