Okay, I am nowhere near good enough to even be considered a juggler.

But, after struggling at this for a couple of months, I can, for very short periods of time, juggle three balls. For a while I was afraid that 52 was too old to even bother trying. I wear TRIfocals for gosh sakes. I'm old enough to be grandfather of some forum members. . . But I'm convinced that I will be able to juggle.

I keep tending to toss a ball too far away. It's consistency that I really need to keep on practicing.

I'm so happy for myself.

Good job. That encourages me to start trying to learn to juggle again.

Stand facing a wall. This will help force your brain to throw the balls up and not out. Just be close enough that you can touch the wall but have room to still juggle.

so does that mean i can call you grampa?

Don't give up, Pinky. It can take a while. I still go back and toss two balls back and forth to try to get consistent height and timing, and expecially to practice throwing the ball upward more than forward or too far off to one side.

Then I practice over and over with three balls and each day I see a bit of progress.

Maybe this helps because knowing why your body makes sertain mistakes can help to overcome these mistakes:

The reason for throwing out is the fear to be to late with the throws and therefor throwing to soon. Your hand is therefor not in the right angle yet to throw nicely upwards but in the position to throw the ball frontwards. When people start to juggle they tend to think they don't have much time for their throws. That they have to be quick. Take your time and try to force yourself to throw a milisecond later than your brains tells you to and you will notice you will throw more upwards.

Also force yourself to keep throwing softer than your brains tend to tell you. Often starters throw harder than needed for the same reason. Your brains tells you to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible to make space for the next ball. This fear makes you throw harder than needed and also your brains think that by throwing harder the ball will be longer away and that will give you more time. A ball thrown harder will come down faster and the higher the ball is thrown the more the inaccuracy will be noticable

Stay cathing the balls on belly buton hight. Starters tend to slowly start to catch the balls higher and higher. Your brains think the sooner I catch the sooner I'm sure I've got him and also the sooner I can get rid of it again this giving me more time for catching the next one. Your cheating yourself though and if you think tranquilly about it you know it doesn't work this way

And nice one Humblestone. It is harder to learn to juggle when older but you never to old to learn!

Juggle juggle juggle. I love throwing up. The 3 ball cascade is hypnotic and once you build muscle memory, juggling will become second nature. When you find yourself no longer seeing the pattern, start working on some tricks.

I have taught new jugglers to catch (and momentarily grip) the ball before throwing it upward, rather than allowing it to land on the palm and flipping it back up, where it tends to roll off the ends of the fingers, and away from the body. It has always worked for me, anyway...as usual, your mileage may vary.

Practice. A lot. 8-)

A concept that I've been playing around with recently is to think of juggling in twos rather than threes. Ultimately, everything is just a continuous right-left-right-left. I think if it is broken down that way, it's a little more instinctive, even if there is a buildup in speed/catch-release points for three balls or variations/tricks.

A concept that I've been playing around with recently is to think of juggling in twos rather than threes.

Yes to that, Tim. The hardest thing to get through at the beginning was was going One, Two, Three, stop. . .

The rhythm really is One, Two, One, Two, One, Two.

going One, Two, Three, stop. . .

The rhythm really is One, Two, One, Two, One, Two.

Thats my problem =/ I get past the third throw and sometimes the forth but then for some reason I stop throwing them and then they are all in my hands.. Its like I forget to throw again..

Just started juggling again myself (also a grandma...mimi is grandma in the south)
Believe it or not, I have some batons that I used to juggle that I hope to get back to...
Only by staying green and flexible do we stay alive!

Daisy is correct. the rythem is is more like a one two.

When you are learning if you try and keep you hands in the safe place and do most of the throwing with your wrists it helps. Then you do not have to worry about the catches. You can just think about the tosses.

Still if you are thinking about the tosses the rythem become more a one two rythem. There is always a ball in the air and if your toss is good you do not have to worry about it.

I learned how to juggle this week and remembered this thread so I just wanted to let everyone know. I learned how to juggle by asking other clowns at a clown convention for instruction, attending a juggling convention when I couldn't juggle because I wanted to learn from jugglers, and receiving encouragement from my dad.

Prior to this week, I remembered much of the advice I had got from clowns and jugglers but this week my Dad challenged me. Like dads and daughters, he challenged me to make 40 tosses and catches with 3 balls for $10. In one week, I went from 3 tosses and catches up to about 60 (yes we did count how many times)....so neat to be daddy's little girl and be like "look at me."

One of the best advice I had got to keep myself from moving forward to chase the balls is to pretend to throw the ball at my shoulders. Another helpful piece of advice is to keep my eyes straight ahead and develop periferal vision and not look at my hands. Also, to just learn how to keep throwing the balls. The thing that helped me get to the fourth toss was to think each toss through in my head before trying it...did the same for the 5th toss and catch and went from 3 tosses and catches to 6 in one day....then starting working on getting the tosses and catches more smooth with less effort....etc.....yay!

I didn't think it was possible but the 3 P's for success with juggling are Practice, Perseverace and Persistance! Do you feel like quitting? I sure felt like quitting when I practiced a whole day at a juggling convention and could still only make 3 tosses and catches but a sword swallower by the name of Dan Meyer at the convention (he could juggle as well) said that it took him 13,000 times to learn how to swallow a sword....I figured that since I haven't dropped the ball 13,000 times just yet then it wasn't time to quit. Can't juggle? Maybe you have given up too easily.