Contact Juggle

I received a new 2.5 inch acrylic I ordered in the mail yesterday; this, I can already tell, is going to be the answer to my problems of trying to work with more than two balls at a time. My hands are unfortunately on the small side, but the 2.5 inch eliminates the issue completely.
I’m looking forward to ordering a few more of them now.

I was given a mini basketball that was going to be thrown out at work since my coworkers know I’m learning to contact juggle; being much larger than the practice balls I’ve been using and having a different weight it’s been strange adapting to using it. I’ve noticed the tendency to drop it unless I make every movement very large – otherwise the balance is thrown off. Which makes sense since the mass of the ball is larger than the other balls I’ve used, but for some reason I hadn’t made that connection initally when I started trying the different since.

Anyhow! I highly suggest people learning to contact juggle try out different sized balls while they’re still learning. It really gives you a sense of how the size affects your movements, and as a result I’ve noticed my balance is getting better with the smaller practice balls.

I’m very pleased with my rolls so far with my left hand – right hand not as much, need to start working on the right more often and stop favoring my dominant hand.
On a positive note for the left hand work though I’m now able to do a fluid pitch and catch while walking around the house, talking on the phone, or doing other, little mundane things.

Have started playing more often with my acrylic ball at home now that I’m not prone to dropping the ball so much. Much to my giddy glee I’ve found the contact juggling things on amazon.com and intend to order some more acrylics for my birthday.

On a dorky fangirl note I took my practice ball with me to Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade in Los Angeles and executed pitch and catch and a couple full butterfly moves the second night of the event. Very satisfying even if it was only for a very short span of time. Plan on taking them again next year when I attend.

I finally buckled down and have been practicing about four times a week the last couple of weeks. I can pitch and catch just fine with my left hand, my right is coming along well (much better than I expected for having so little coordination usually), I’ve started work on some transfers, and I’m able to execute The Butterfly left-handed.

Slow progress, but some progress is better than none while also “juggling” college classes and work. I’m feeling pretty secure that if I continue the current trend of practice (and hopefully can even step it up to more times and for longer sessions) I’ll reach my small goal of being able to CJ at FaerieCon in October. :)

I’ve made myself a goal to learn how to Butterfly without mistakes by October 12th, 2007, in time for FaerieCon. Otherwise my Jareth costume and cosplaying him would simply not be complete without this beautiful detail.

I really need to get started on this – I have an instruction book, I’ve downloaded video tutorials on how to do some basic moves, and I have the practice spheres; I need to just do it! I’ve wanted to learn ever since I saw “Labyrinth”, it’s high time I started.