juggle four balls

Still working my way up by practicing 2 balls in one hand . . . and I got my first 100 throws yesterday! (And rather than try to run the string longer, I made a clean catch and called it good).

I had another good run going with my left hand today, but muffed a catch somewhere in the high 80s, so no new record there.

• 97 throws left hand
• 100 throws right hand

• 97 throws left hand
• 89 throws right hand

I ran off a pretty good 87 on the right hand today . . . thought I might see a new record, but, alas, one got away from me and it was all over.

I also have given the 4-ball fountain a couple of quick tries. Best so far was 6 throws, which means I’m at least starting to catch and rethrow something.

• 76 throws left hand
• 89 throws right hand

That string of 89 included a lot of wild throws and subsequent recoveries until things went completely out of control. I’m still getting more consistent numbers on the left, but running off the occasionally spectacular string on the right.

Maybe another week until I get my first “century” with either hand?

• 76 throws left hand
• 60 throws right hand

Not seeing much consistency . . . I still got a lot of 15-20 throw attempts . . . but I do occasionally get into a groove where the throws (and catches) just sort of slide by in blocks of ten.

My left hand still prefers parallel columns, and my right hand is starting to agree, though I still throw a lot of outside loops on that side. Ideally, I’d be working on columns, outside, and inside loops on both sides, but I don’t think it’s quite time for that yet.

Today I improved a little bit.

48 throws left (despite a horrendous first attempt)
45 throws right

Those right hand throws are still, in general, a little more consistent. I tend to break down on the right by crashing the beanbags into each other, and on the left by throwing wildly around the room faster than I can chase ‘em down.

I’m doing this at work as a 5-minute break from the keyboard, and posting the current “bests” on my whiteboard.

I started practicing the “baby step” to juggling 4 balls, which is to juggle 2 with either hand consistently. When I can consistently make 100 consecutive throws, I’ll feel like I’m making real progress.

Today, I managed 43(!) throws with my left hand and 35 with my right. Most of my right-hand throws made a nice, tight outside circle. The left-hand throws were a little wilder, but I’m a little better at recovering left-handed; the juggling pattern shifted from an outside circle to columns to oh-crap-I’m-turning and I missed it anyway.

So juggling four balls is really just juggling two in each hand at the same time.

I can juggle two balls in my left hand fairly well, and in my right hand not nearly so well. But this is the sort of thing that’s amenable to small, regular amounts of practice with easily measured progress. So my next action on this one is to retrieve the juggling bean bags from the “spare” car (which is somewhat buried in the snow).

Thanks to headapollo for the practice strategy . . . when I’ve got cheers to give, one is going that way.

Like some of my other goals I’m shelving this evening, I just don’t have the time or give this any priority right now. I was close to this one, so it might be back sooner than some of the others. But all the best to those who continue to actively to pursue this.

I wasn’t counting but around forty asynchronous catches. Ha ha!

I need to practise a lot more to make this look fluid and easy but I can do it. I think the secret was to focus on my weaknesses and to try and throw consistent, low, tight throws. The higher they go, the less I seem able to control them.

120 two-in-one-hand catches in my left hand.