Surprised and delighted

 I got in a very good practice session yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. 

This was the first real chance i had to put hands to my clubs for any real lenght of time since I made my initial Mills Mess progress, and I was very anxious to get back into the pattern. It took me a good half hour to get really warmed up, it was a bit blustery outside and the wind made things tend toward instability, so it was a challenge to adjust. I moved into an area of the yard sheltered by the bamboo grove though, and things went very well after that. 

I started off just as before, working on getting my under-arm tosses very clean and steady before i actually made a go at mills mess. It was so exciting though! once i started the pattern came very naturally. I spent about an hour working on the new pattern. I absolutely love it. It has such an unexpected grace. 

Mills Mess looks very distinctive with balls. Of course there are many different stylistic changes you can make to the pattern just depending on how you arch each throw, but in general the pattern has a rolling, back and forth look to it when done with balls. It seems to flow back and forth from one hand to the other. 

This is not really the case with clubs. I started off trying to get that same sort of flow, almost as if i were attempting to toss one club over the other. The more i practiced though the more the pattern seemed to take on a very different look. Rather than following the easy rolling pattern of their spherical counterparts, the clubs seemed to prefer a sort of halting, mechanical-looking path. 

Mills Mess with clubs seems to work, and in my opinion look, best when the pattern seems to put just one club in the air at a time. This is a bit of a deception, but the effect makes it seem as if each club is just popping up in a straight line and falling right back down (like columns but with three). Because it is a Mills Mess pattern, though, and my arms are crossing with every throw the clubs are not actually doing this. They are changing their order with every toss so the colors switch up as they are juggled!

It has a very nice look to it. The throws all seem very simple but they are juxtaposed with the complexity of the arm movement. I love that my clubs are three different colors because this just adds to the pattern. It gives off a very strong feeling of change and really adds a lot to the pattern. 

I have loved Mills Mess since i first stared working with the pattern. It was fun with balls, but with clubs it is utterly immersive. The work I did yesterday really made the pattern stick and I am pretty confidant in it now. It was so much fun I really didn’t want to stop, but my fingers were cracked and bruised and I had a few broken nails (they were way too long anyway) so I called it a day and went out for a bit of unicycling. I woke up pretty early this morning and after a bit of coffee i couldn’t resist picking up my clubs to see if i could jump right into Mills Mess.

The wind was still a bit troublesome, but i was able to run through the pattern from a totally cold start. My first few attempts probably didn’t break eight catches, but within minutes i was juggling comfortably in Mills Mess. The beginning of Spring is so full of excitement!

The windy weather has been a bit of a challenge juggling-wise, but it has been perfect for unicycling. I’ve recently gotten much more comfortable on the unicycle. I can move in a totally new way that is more akin to a stairmaster in a lot of ways. It is a lot slower to do this, and instead of moving with a steady flow i move along in a halting bouncy sort of way. 

Shifting most of my weight off the seat and onto the peddles makes riding much more strenuous. It is very labor intensive but gives me a huge amount of control and stability. Since i’ve gotten more comfortable with this way of riding not only can i cross rough terrain much more easily, but i can also go for far longer rides.

One of the most limiting parts of riding up to this point has been what unicylists refer to as "saddle soreness." its a pretty self-evident term and up to this point i’d not really stayed out for more than about 30 minutes at a time. I easily doubled that yesterday. It was such a nice trip, riding through the sleepy little town on a warm spring afternoon. The whole world seemed to be new and taking its first cautious steps of life. 

Well, I’ve spent enough time writing about my hobbies for the moment. I’ve had so much fun with clubs over the past week that I want to go back and re-watch the 3 and 4 club section of my WJF DVD. 

I’ll be sure to tell you what i learn from old Jason in my next post.