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Tricks - 5 Ball Juggling

animation sent in by Rafael (many thanks!)
(animation sent in by Rafael)

In order to learn 5 ball juggling, it is assumed you can already juggle a very good 3 ball cascade pattern and do quite a few tricks. It is not essential that you have learned 4 ball juggling as odd numbers of balls are juggled differently than even numbers, but there are several 4 ball tricks that can help you to learn 5 ball juggling.

I have been juggling 3 balls since CHRISTmas 1993, but after many years of half heartedly trying to learn 5 ball juggling, it was only once I put in some solid practice that I finally nailed the trick in August 2005! It will take a lot of practice to get it looking smooth, and so I need to keep practicing regularly, and you should do the same!
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Some Important Advice

1) 3 ball cascade and 4 ball juggling may have took you just a few days/weeks to master, but 5 ball juggling will take you much longer! Don’t give up and you will get there eventually!
2) When researching how to do 5 ball juggling, everyone seems to have their own opinions as to which tricks and techniques are best. The advice I offer here is one possible way to learn to 5 ball juggling, but feel try other peoples advice also!
3) Nothing beats getting proper tuition by visiting a local juggling club or going to a convention (contact me if you would like to find out your nearest club or convention!)
4) There is no harm in learning every trick on this page as there are some good 3 and 4 ball juggling patterns! During a 5 ball practice session, you would probably be best to try a couple of the 3 and 4 ball tricks, but spend a good while on the 5 balls tips suggested too!


What the 5 Ball Cascade Looks Like

5 ball cascade

The actual 5 ball cascade is the same pattern as the 3 ball cascade, only it is higher and a lot faster! This may sound quite simple, but think about the fact that in the cascade the balls pass through the same central point, and therefore if your timing or accuracy is slightly off, then balls are more likely to collide!

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What height should I throw to?

animation sent in by Rafael (many thanks!)

This is a trade off, as you will know from juggling 3 balls that the lower you can throw, the more accurate a pattern you have, but the less time you have to make each throw, and vice versa. The choice is yours! Some people suggest that you should throw to the height that is as high as you can reach when you are on tip-toes.


How do I hold 3 balls in one hand/which balls should I use?

I juggle 5 x butterfingers skwoshballs, so I can scrunch them up slightly so they fit comfortably in my hand in a flat triangular shape. This is a personal preference, and you will find that 5 ball jugglers all have their own favourite type of juggling ball and favourite method of holding 3 balls, so experiment a little until you find a method that works for you!


So how do I begin?

There are several 3 ball and 4 ball tricks that I recommend practicing, which will help you with learning to juggle 5 balls. Of course nothing beats just picking up 5 balls and giving it a try, but these tricks are useful in helping you to increase your juggling speed, height, accuracy and improve your timing, which are all essential skills for improving your 5 ball juggling, so please give these tricks a try!


3 Ball Tricks

In any 5 ball practice session, probably best to pick a couple of these tricks and maybe one 4 ball trick and plenty of 5 ball practice, rather than just concentrating on one trick.

HIGH 3 BALL CASCADE

Practice throwing every ball to a 5 ball height and get the height consistent with every throw.
3 BALL SHOWER: One hand throws high to the other hand, which passes to the first. In essence, one hand does all the throws, and the other hand makes all the catches. The balls travel in one direction (a kind of triangle). To begin with, just use two balls. Have them both in your dominant hand, and throw them high and quickly (one after the other). As soon as one ball lands in your sub-dominant hand, pass it horizontally to your dominant hand. When you feel ready to try three, remember that this will take a lot of practice to look smooth. Remember to throw high and accurately, as you have no time to chase far-flung balls! It is vital to master the shower in both directions. Try to do a high shower pattern and keep the pattern smooth and accurate.
JUGGLING THE BABY Start with 2 balls in your dominant hand and one ball in your weaker hand. Throw 2 balls from the dominant hand like you are doing the shower, then toss the ball from your other hand straight across to your dominant hand. Now throw the 2 balls in the shower pattern back towards your dominant hand and throw the single ball straight across to your weaker hand. This trick is called holding the baby, because this is how you would juggle a real baby (the baby being the single ball that would be passed carefully using the arm as a cradle, straight across from one hand to the other!) PLEASE DO NOT JUGGLE A REAL BABY THOUGH!
HANDS DOWN TO KNEES Juggle a 3 ball cascade but bring your hand down to below your knees before throwing the ball high.
FLASH While doing a cascade, throw all 3 balls high, and then continue. This trick will help you get used to the speed and the height of the 5 ball cascade!
FLASH WITH HANDCLAPS Do a flash, and as soon as you have released the third ball, clap your hand once. Now try again but this time clap your hands twice before continuing the cascade. These 2 claps would represent the 4th and 5th balls being thrown in a cascade pattern, so it is a very useful trick. Try doing this trick continuously.


4 Ball Tricks

SNAKE Start with two balls in each hand. Throw one ball from your right hand, then two balls from your left hand in quick succession. Then throw two from your right hand in succession. (i.e. throw the one still in your hand, catch the first left, throw it, catch and hold the second left) Then two lefts, two rights, two lefts, etc. It's confusing at first, but the pattern looks really good!
HALF SHOWER If you are able to 3 Ball Shower (see above), then this trick should be simple enough once you are comfortable with 4 ball juggling. You can start off by juggling this pattern synchronously (throwing a ball from each hand at the same time). Choose which direction you want the balls to go in, and at the same time, throw a ball high to one hand, and throw the ball low to the other hand. When both balls peak (which should be roughly the same time - needs a bit of work), then throw the next two balls in exactly the same way (the hand that threw a high ball, throws another high ball etc). Keep going, and practice this trick both ways!

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5 Ball Advice and things to practice

IMPROVE YOUR TIMING

Try throwing all 5 balls up in the air and letting them drop to the ground. Try to get it so the noises as the balls hit the ground are evenly spaced out.
IMPROVE YOUR ACCURACY Now throw the 5 balls and let them drop again. Look at where they have landed. They should have landed roughly in a clump of 2 near each other and 3 balls near each other.
5 BALL FLASH This is 5 throws followed by 5 catches. The 3 balls from your dominant hand should end up in your weaker hand, and the 2 balls from your weaker hand should end up in your dominant hand. Concentrate on keeping the throws consistent. You may find that it is your third or fourth throw that is consistently off in the same manner each time and therefore this trick gives you the chance to concentrate on just improving that particular throw.
STAND NEAR A WALL A tip from Jean-Claude Villemaire (Canada). "what really helped me is when I practiced against a wall. Since the balls touched a little bit the wall, their pattern was easier to make."
TRY FOR 6 CATCHES

A tip from Jahusafet Harold. "after you learn to do the five ball flash, you should try throwing an extra ball afterward, I researched and learned that in the old schools of juggling they taught to take one step at a time and it helped me a lot, for instance don't just flash but flash an extra ball so you eventually develop the quintuplet rhythm faster"

SIT DOWN!

and 2D versus 3D

 Another tip from Jahusafet Harold. "sit down or kneel by a wall so that it is easier to pick up the balls, thus you focus less on picking them up and more on getting the arches right. In my progress I also learned that at first you need to know how to juggle the right arches, after the arches are memorized then you work on the timing so you don't have any gaps, then you finally work on making it 2-D versus 3-D which is why you would use a wall. A trick on the last step: if you are standing up, pointing your feet forward and having your body symmetrical makes it easier to juggle five balls 2-D"
1 different coloured ball

Try using 4 balls of the same colour and one ball of a different colour. If you have, say, four black balls and one red ball, and you make sure that you throw the red ball last, then you will be able to keep track of how many catches you are making, because everytime you throw the red you know that you have done "5 more catches"! Tip sent in from Matt Burton (Cheshire)

All that is left to do is to keep practicing all of the above tricks, and persevere! The 5 ball flash can be extended to 6 catches, then try for 7 catches...etc You only need 3 repetitions of 5 balls to be classified as a 5 ball juggler (15 catches), so keep practicing!


If you are having problems!

The pattern gets too narrow

This may be because the pattern is too high. Try to bring the pattern down just a little and spread the pattern out slowly (if you do it quickly you may find that the balls collide!)
The pattern gets too wide This tends to happen when you don’t have enough time to bring the hands back towards the centre of your body to make the next throw. Try throwing a little higher to give yourself some extra time to return your hand to its proper throwing position.
I can manage “10+” throws and then can’t get any further! Try a few 5 ball flashes (5 throws and 5 catches). Aim for accuracy, and getting the timing improved. Now try to get 10 clean throws and catches and stop. If you can keep the first 10 throws and catches clean, then there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to keep going with a bit of practice!
The pattern seems way too fast! One way to make 5 ball juggling seem slower is to try flashing a 7 ball cascade! After a few attempts and the realisation that you have to be even more faster and accurate, your 5 ball pattern will seem a lot slower than before :-)
My arms hurt a lot when I practice 5 ball juggling 5 ball juggling tends to be the first pattern that makes your arms hurt as your muscles have to endure quite a lot! In order to build up some endurance, you could possibly try some weight training at your local gym, try juggling 3 or 4 of the heavy DX balls, or just keep practicing, but take regular breaks (your arms will eventually get used to this trick, but it will take time to build the endurance!)

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PLEASE let me know if this page has helped you to learn to 5 ball juggle, and if you have any more advice or tricks that I could add to this page to improve it. I would highly recommend that the best thing to do when learning 5 ball juggling is to attend a local juggling club or a juggling convention where you would meet other 5 ball jugglers who would be more than happy to help you to improve. Let me know if you would like to find your nearest club or convention and I will try to help!

 



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