Here is a collection of my thoughts and experiences with numbers juggling, including practice tips, things to look out for, and ways to think about numbers juggling that have helped me. I have also included some possibly bizarre images that may nevertheless capture some essential aspects, possibly in a very different, yet familiar light. Well, they make sense to me, somehow.

Generally Speaking, About the juggling itself:

Numbers juggling is hard: 3 tricks take minutes, hours, maybe days to learn; numbers tricks take rather longer. Unless you possess rare talent, expect to spend (at several hours a week) months on five balls, and years on seven, to get them comfortable. The single most important thing: don't give up!

Terminology: "Scoop" is the lateral motion made by a hand during a carry; "dwell ratio" is the fractional length of time a hand is full; "catches" means consecutive catches before a drop or miss; "gathers" is throws minus drops, equal to the total number of catches, but not necessarily consecutive catches.

Run lengths: "flash" of n objects = n catches. (It also means to toss some number of objects from a low pattern into a higher pattern, as a trick.) "Straight flash" = n throws, n catches, 0 drops. "Qualify n objects" = 2n catches; this is the currently accepted "legal run" criterion. To "run" a given pattern generally means to do longer than merely qualifying; a "solid run" has no widely accepted definition, but here are some: 100 catches; able to perform without likelihood of drops; 1 minute; free to stop at will; "solid is a state of mind, not a run length;" three times around, three times in a row, on first try, with no drops and no warm-up.

Count your runs, either throws or catches. Certainly, it gives you an objective measure of your progress, and it's easier to do alone, accurately, than time your runs. Also, it may facilitate an awareness of your pattern's rhythm: Though catches themselves are not silent, by actually counting them aloud, even if to yourself, you gain an additional opportunity to listen. Is the rhythm, whether galloped or not, uniform? And if it's galloped, should it be?

About Your Mind:

There are two opposing schools of thought about how to practice, essentially regarding the attitudes of error-correcting or aversion to drops, or equivalently, about the inevitability of making errors. I coin them "performers" and "hobbyists," though this classification doesn't hinge on whether someone actually performs - and in reality, these labels characterize the endpoints of what is really a continuum. Nevertheless it is helpful to realize the existence of the extremes. This classification is related to calling some jugglers "throwers" and "catchers," with throwers being performers and catchers being hobbyists. I believe Arthur Lewbel coined the "thrower" and "catcher" terms. Basically, throwers are able to throw accurately and hence have clean patterns, whereas catchers can not throw accurately and must concentrate on catching their bad throws. Throwers definitely make for nicer stage shows.

The Performer mindset:
"I don't like to drop, and I refuse to practice mistakes."
They only try to flash with clean finish, and when that is reliable, try to flash +1 with clean finish, and then flash+2... and only try to juggle or run later, but always try to finish cleanly.
They don't make wild saves: they concentrate on not making errors, rather than on saving them.
Stand still: concentrate on throwing to where you are; don't walk after patterns that want to move forwards.
Keep clean patterns... eventually, you will learn to make error-free patterns, so there's no need to practice error-correction.
Put off 7 until 5 is really solid... and put off 5 'till 4 is.
Juggle standing on one foot. If you can do this, your body is balanced, and you don't need to make off-balancing lunges, or walk about, and consequently juggling on two feet will seem easy in comparison.
Dan Bennett thinks your mind stews on the last attempt of every individual trick you try each session. So choose an excellent attempt to stop on for each trick, and let your mind stew on it. If you get lucky on your first try of a trick, stop right there for the day(!) and move on to a different trick.

The Hobbyist mindset:
generally doesn't care about drops: "it can't hurt to try; if you're not dropping, practice harder tricks!"
Try to run a trick ASAP ... and go 'till you wipe out, or you make a clearly unrecoverable error.
Errors will always happen, so learn how to save them: be willing to lunge, to make wild saves or to walk about when the pattern wants to go for a walk. Or maybe a run.
Trying to learn 5? a few hilarious minutes with 7 and even 9 will make 5 seem slow and empty! "You won't know where your present limits are 'till you have, without a doubt, exceeded them."

I identify Dan Bennett, Anthony Gatto, and Steve Ragatz as almost pure performers and myself, Alan Morgan, and Bruce Sarafian as more or less pure hobbyists, and John Nations as right in the middle. But don't mistake this identification as an endorsement... realize the different points of view, and use what suits you. However, be warned that these notes come from a hobbyist, and therefore probably underrepresent performer tips and advice. (Also realize that some performers will advise you to not ever take advice from a hobbyist ... such as myself.) That said, Anthony Gatto is phenomenal at making saves too, though he hardly ever needs to. (To be fair, I have, rarely, made a few accurate throws in my life as well... not that my juggling depends on it, LOL!)

If you suspect psychological barriers, trick yourself! If you always drop right before your best run length, it could be because you are psyching yourself out, getting stressed approaching it. If you always drop there, you might consider counting a different way, like every other left hand catch, or the number of times one single ball is caught. This way, you won't "know" when your personal best comes up, and you might be able to sneak past it.
Another way of tricking your psychological barriers is to think of the trick in a tamer way. Think of 7 as "a very high, fast, 5 cascade" and not as the dreaded 7. It might make a difference. Once in a while, the problem is that you are TOO stressed about a new number, and if you relaxed, it would become easier. Five is fast and seven very fast if you're used to three, but it's not panic-fast. Slow down, if things seem just too hectic. (It is invaluable to watch others juggle your goal tricks, not only can you see how to do it right, but they might be able to see what you were doing wrong.)

About Your Body:

Warm up - literally and figuratively.

Literally: Warm your arms and hands up before practicing. Cold, clammy hands aren't as responsive as nice warm ones. For a demo, try juggling when your hands and arms are really cold, and then go soak your arms up to the elbows in water as hot as you can stand, wiggling your fingers the whole time, for a minute. Dry off, and immediately try the same trick again. Also, try juggling right before, and right after taking a hot shower. If you notice any difference in either case, consider making this part of your routine.

Figuratively: Don't practice your hardest tricks first! Do them LAST. If you want to juggle seven, don't start with that many. Try a high, fast three and five first, and maybe also some tries at six too. Some people find value in trying odd numbers one day and evens another. It seems to work for me, and Bruce Sarafian (of 10-12 ball fame) suggested it to me.

Notice tension anywhere in your body when you juggle. Try to relax that which isn't honestly needed - do you clench your jaw, or your back, or your shoulders, for a trick that really only involves your hands and forearms? Some people stick their tongue out when trying difficult tricks. Why? Does this extra tension really help?

Breathe(!) If you have to hold your breath to do five clubs, you won't go past ~30 seconds, or maybe a minute at most, EVER! Even if you must tense up to throw all the stuff out of your hands, make an effort to try to breathe again when you finally get rid of everything and start juggling. If this is a real problem, then consider working out: if it takes you all the strength you have to just throw 'em up that high that fast, then of course you won't have much energy left over for dealing with error corrections, or worse, even simply dealing with accuracy in the first place. If you were just a little stronger, then some reserve strength is there to draw upon, and you can start to worry about accuracy of error corrections. In that case, consider weightlifting or other work outs to get your strength up. I started doing pushups and pullups when I first started trying to qualify 9 and flash 10, and it helped me.

Tendonitis might get you. Symptoms: sore along tendons that hurt when you extend them; Trainers say: (1) consume anti-inflammatories, f.ex. aspirin, ibuprofen before exercise (2) heat affected region before exercise (using the water as hot as you can stand up to your elbows thing given above), cool it, such as with ice compresses afterwards (3) skip the lead-filled tennis balls if that started it!

Also, be aware that you'll be looking up a lot, and that might place stress on your neck.

Work out if the simple effort, let alone accuracy, of target trick is a struggle: pushups, chinups, "air juggle 11": Lots of numbers jugglers are buff, notably Anthony Gatto and Bruce Sarafian, but also Toby Ayer, Dan Bennett, and Jason Garfield; maybe there's something to it.

About Your Props:

Use good props: The Flying Karamazov's "Challenge" (Where objects brought and then selected by vote by the audience must be juggled for 10 throws by the "champ" or he gets a pie in the face - but he ususally wins) proves an expert can juggle three of ANYTHING - so you might not notice if your beanbags really suck when you do three. Expecting numbers to command your attention for quite a while, in other words, that you'll be spending LOTS of time with your chosen numbers objects, you might as well really like them: get nicely weighted clubs, or quality balls or beanbags. When at conventions, check out all the vendors, and try things. But be aware that beanbags soften up with use. Ask numbers jugglers what props they use, and how long they've had them and if they like them.

General Practice Techniques:

Flashes are widely recognized as the first substantial goal of a given numbers pattern, "the minimum performable unit" of a trick, and even the Guinness Book of World Records has had some "most things flashed" entries. Mastery of a juggling pattern entails getting a clean start, keeping going, and then getting a clean finish. Flashes require two of these, all but keeping going.

Break down tasks such as the flash. I've successfully taught the five flash as "throw two up, then pause, then do a high, fast three flash" - or, in short, "5 = 2 + 3." Even though the pause requires that the throws be higher and more accurate than they would otherwise have needed to be, the task now regards much more manageable numbers of things, two and three, as opposed to five. Similarly, for seven think: "7 = 2 + 5," or "throw two up, then juggle 5 high and fast." You might succeed in tricking your mind into allowing you do something it thinks it can't. There are other ways to break down a certain trick, certain mindsets to approach them. Try out different ones. How many different ways can 7 be broken down? 1+6, 2+5,... each maps to a different mindset, and one or more of these might be the key to cracking the trick. (For example, I believe that juggling the 3 ball cascade is about 95% mental and 5% ability to throw, which is why it suddenly "clicks" when new jugglers finally "get it" - it suddenly becomes easy and the run length rapidly increases after that. So it is, at a much subtler level, with higher numbers as well - and any cheat that can bring about the clicking is a very good thing.)

Vary the "usual" pattern. Juggling is a sea of compromises, and finding the best tradeoff involves exploration. Try it too fast, too slow, too high, too low, too narrow, too wide, too high & too low dwell ratio, too far in front, up too close, too large & tiny scoop, etc, and in combinations - doing these expands your comfort zone and makes the default place for each of these parameters that much easier. Also run with n-2, especially way up high, too fast, and with large scoop and low dwell - this imitates the n pattern but with two fewer objects - which means you will be able to do it easily!

Do tricks with the target numbers patterns, as soon as the normal pattern starts to run. Over the top, backcrosses, siteswaps, anything. As above, if you can do these even barely, the standard pattern will seem easier. And if you have a collision or other mistake in the regular pattern, the error recovery may resemble a trick that you have practiced. For example, the trick 6 4 from within a five ball cascade reverses which hand two balls are supposed to go. I have had collisions in that pattern and even in 7 cascade where the balls did a head-on and came back to where they came from. If you tried to catch the balls with the hands they were supposed to go to, it would certainly spell the end to that run since the timing has been so altered. But since I know 6 4 and for that matter 8 6 I just allowed both balls to return and did little else in the way of error correction, and continued. It's actually one of the simplest collisions to recover from, once you know it.

Siteswaps with 0s, 1s, and/or 2s, in addition to the target throws. What they mean: each number is a throw, and the kind of throw is the kind you do when juggling that many, in an alternating pattern. Bigger number means higher throw, odds cross, evens don't, and 0 = empty, 1 = handoff, and 2 = hold. The numerical value is only indirectly height; actually, it's how many throws later a given thing will be ready to be thrown again. The following table gives number of objects: tricks (There are many more than are given here.)

2: 5 0 1

3: 5 1
5 5 1 1
5 2 5 1 2
5 5 0 5 0

4: 5 5 2
5 5 5 1
5 5 5 5 0

3: 6 1 2

4: 6 6 0
6 6 6 1 1
6 6 1 6 1

5: 6 6 6 2
6 6 6 6 1
6 6 6 6 6 0

3: 7 0 7 0 1

4: 7 1
7 2 7 2 7 1 2

5: 7 7 1
7 7 2 7 2
7 7 7 1 1
7 7 7 1 7 1

6: 7 7 7 7 2
7 7 7 7 7 1
7 7 7 7 7 7 0

3: 8 0 1

4: 8 1 8 1 2

5: 8 8 0 8 1
8 8 1 8 1 8 1

6: 8 8 2
8 8 8 0
8 8 8 2 8 2
8 8 8 8 8 1 1
8 8 8 8 1 8 1 **
8 8 8 1 8 8 1 **

7: 8 8 8 8 8 2
8 8 8 8 8 8 1
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 0

4: 9 1 2
9 1 9 0 1
9 0 9 0 9 0 1

5: 9 9 0 9 1 2
9 9 0 2 9 1

6: 9 9 0
9 9 1 9 2
9 9 2 9 2 9 2
9 9 9 1 9 1 9 1
9 9 1 9 9 1 9 1

7: 9 9 9 1
9 9 9 9 2 9 2
9 9 9 2 9 9 2
9 9 9 9 9 1 9 1
9 9 9 9 1 9 9 1

8: 9 9 9 9 9 9 2
9 9 9 9 9 9 9 1
9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0

For many people, these tricks are easier to run than the target number, but yet provide aspects of the same sort of difficulty that the target presents. For example, in the 6 fountain, unless the 6s are scooped enough, they will either hit at top, or the hands will get wider and wider. But you can't do 6, how can you practice fixing this problem? Three in one hand (6 0) is no good because, instead of learning how to do the scoop, you can just walk in a circle to fix the problem. No good! However, these same problems haunt 6 6 6 6 1 and even 6 6 1 6 1, which are merely five and four ball tricks, making them quite easier to practice than fully juggling 6, and you can't just walk in a circle to make them easy, like you can walk in a circle when doing thre in one hand.

**I have given asterisks to two tricks with six balls for practicing 8s. Here is how they substantially helped my 8 ball juggling: There was a time when qualifying 8 was a rare occurence; for me. I could do it about once every five or ten sessions, a just barely qualifying run. (A typical session lasted about 15 minutes, and even by this limited ability, to my hobbyist mentality, this means that I "could do" 8 - it was easily repeatable.) For some year or two of practice, I made essentially no improvement. I then started trying the two marked tricks, 8 8 8 8 1 8 1 and 8 8 8 1 8 8 1. Both took a few weeks of effort before I could do them for several cycles, and even now I can't run them as long as I wish. Nevertheless, within only a couple months, I became able to qualify 8 two or three times in a typical session, as opposed to the multi-year plateau level of once every five or ten sessions. I consider that a dramatic improvement, and to me, the reason is clearly including these two siteswaps in my practice regimen. YMMV.

Unfortunately, clubs don't lend themselves quite as well to siteswaps with 1s as balls do.

Ideally you don't want to make any errors at all, but to the extent that you are not perfect (or not a performer) try to make different errors on different tries: Notice what errors you make, possibly with help of another person, especially a juggler, to watch, for example things like walking in circles, left hand throws too low, 2nd rt. hand throw always goes way in front of you, or doesn't cross. The reason for seeking to make different errors is that if it's always the same error - then you should change your practice style because you are stuck in a rut. If you're stuck in a rut, CHANGE SOMETHING. It may not result in an improvement, but at least you'll be out of the rut, and the way to improvement may become evident.

For a persistent error, exaggerate that error, then exaggerate the correction. For example, if your left hand throws in front of you, make it throw behind you. At this point you now know for a fact that the ideal place is somewhere in between those two versions you have just done; you have "bounded" the correct version. But you won't necessarily bound it if you stay on one side of the error-correction only. Like the poor rabbit in Zeno's paradox that can never catch up to the tortise, if you throw to far to the right, and TRY to go left and TRY to go more left and then TRY to go even more left ... there is nothing to guarantee that you have even made it close to the center! It might always be just a bit more left than you are able to go. But if you go TOO FAR to the left, then the correct place is now certainly somewhere in between places you have visited.

If trouble arises in a pattern, attend to the crossing point. If the launch position is correct and the crossing point is hit at right speed, then the rest of the arc is assured. This gives the benefit of quicker feedback if a throw is in error: things get to the crossing point much sooner than they crest, the latter which might otherwise be thought a good place to look. Image: a small, horizontal hoop is located at the crossing point, floating in the air. You need to get all the objects aimed through it, coming alternately from each side. (Looking there, of course you need to use peripheral vision to make the catches more so than if you look at the top.) Another image: you are pummeling a target floating at the crossing point. Hit it equally hard on both sides, and don't let up. These images have helped me make wild saves: there's a localized place to aim for, even after the "pattern" has fallen apart too much to see the usual aim point. But when there are no errors to correct, look at the top, not at the crossing point.

Keep your elbows pinned to your sides. It seems claustrophobic, not moving them much, but try it anyway. It helps me make better throws during longer runs, because it's less tiring and also there's one less degree of freedom to screw up. I have only broken 200 throws with 7 balls a few times, but in every one of those cases my pattern was small, tight, fast, and done with my arms stuck to my sides. In those rare runs, when I make a bad throw, say too forward, it is better for me to thrust my hips around or forward to make a catch - elbows pinned to my sides, than for me to release my elbow and just go for the catch with my arm only.

On the same note, watch Gatto hardly move his elbows at all on the Baltimore tape. Indeed...

Watch people doing tricks you want to learn, in general. What do they do differently than you do? Some things to look for: How high is the crossing point? How wide is the pattern at the base, and how much scoop is there? What motions do their hands go through? Arcs? Back and forth? Triangles? How do these differ from your own movements? If these people are able to error-correct things that kill your own runs, try to discern their method of error-recovery. One of my methods: throw everything after a problem a bit high. This buys time, and keeps those throws out of the way of the bad one. Should the problem be fixed, things can be brought back down gently later.

Don't reach up for catches, usually. Gravity works (really!) and, believe it or not, things will fall into your hands if you can just budget yourself the time to let them. Imagine you had to carry a heavy painting or tray that you need to keep level. Where are your shoulders? Your forearms? Your elbows? Hold that thought! This is a good configuration for numbers juggling. Don't hold your arms up in the air like a sleepwalker, or Frankenstein!

With balls, the ONLY excuse for reaching up for a catch is because the next one to that side is too low, either from being a low throw or the result of a collision, so you need to get rid of it early by reaching up for it. Otherwise, don't.

For clubs, there is more excuse for reaching up. You need to catch the club in a good orientation, and if it's overspun, then you can take out the extra spin by getting to it early. However, if you make a regular habit of doing this, it means you should spin the clubs less, as by throwing them lower, and not by reaching up all the time.

Balls:

Balls or beanbags? Most people prefer beanbags to balls for numbers juggling, but each has benefits.

Beanbags are usually lighter and smaller, and they sort of mush in your hand so it's easier both to release and to gather a bunch in one hand. However, they can get caught in one another's fabric, are not honestly spherical, and also soften up with use. (Keep this in mind buying them: if they're "perfect" when you try 'em out at the vendor's table, they might become too flooby with use.)

Balls are honestly spherical instead of mushed cubes or other polyhedrons, so they never get caught between your fingers or each other, and also they don't get softer with use. However, they don't mush, so they're harder to get clean releases and gathers with 4 or 5 in one hand, and are usually larger and heavier. Oh - and balls look better, and using them keeps you from being called a wuss behind your back.

Making your own numbers beanbags and balls. Fillings, in order of increasing density, are rice, popcorn, millet, sand & gravel, steel shot (BBs), and lead shot. Mix and match, and make them weigh the same.

Cloth beanbags can be made by stuffing sock-bottoms with filler, sewing them shut, and sewing these inside more sock-bottoms. Instead, cubies can be made from six fabric squares (or a cross-shaped pattern, rolled up, etc.) and filled. Squeezit-like beanbags can be made by filling small balloons with one of these fillings, perhaps with help of a funnel, and then cutting the nozzle off. Now turn another circumcised balloon inside out around the filled one, in such a way that the holes don't line up so the filling can't escape. Now invert some more balloons over this thing, until there are three or four, and the holes don't line up at all. Small balloons stuffed tightly give firm, spherical results; larger balloons filled more loosely are more floppy, and slippery fillings such as popcorn and shot give squishier results than grippy fillings such as sand.

Balls: Dead tennis balls can often be had free for the asking at tennis-places, but empty are so big and light they bounce out of your hands. Some sand (or other filling, such as hypodermically-injected water), tames them and keeps them from rolling everywhere to boot. I've used street hockey balls filled with rice, sand, and BBs at one time or another. They're a bit big for more than 7, but you can adjust their weight just so, which for me was 120 g. The ones filled with BBs smack hard when caught, but the ones partially filled with rice or sand are very soft on the hands. These are interesting: they can collide quite squarely without being deflected much, and they wobble in the air if you throw them with spin, both consequences of being partially filled. As an added bonus, they also make a maracas-like sound every catch. Loud enough, perhaps, to embarrass you into keeping a nice rhythm!

Silicones are expensive and dangerously bouncy, but feel sooo good. I find them too heavy and scary for 8 or more, up in the air. They enforce performer attitudes: With them, if you make a slight error you'd much rather stop and catch them cleanly now than risk a failed error recovery and subsequent bonk on the head soon. With beanbags or non-bouncy balls, a hobbyist would find no reason to end the run there.

Bounce juggling:

It is easier to lift bounce a number than do the same number up in the air, both to learn and to get long runs. The record for seven in the air is ~3 minutes, but the record for the 7 lift bounce is past 20 minutes.

Patterns for bounce juggling:

Odds: Lift & force bounce ... lift is certainly easier for numbers. The balls spill into the center, and are caught outside coming up, with palms facing down and inwards. The force looks like a reverse cascade, upside down, and the balls land in the hands, now with palms facing more upwards. For the five lift bounce, the pattern is about as fast as, and the throws quite resemble, a small, three ball reverse-cascade. The crossing point is a few inches below the hands, and the impact sites should be perhaps five or six inches apart on the ground.

Evens: Unlike juggling in the air which has a bunch of good patterns, for evens numbers bouncing only the lift wimpy pattern (see below) is really good. Pairs are tossed nearly synchronously, with one side thrown ever so slightly higher than and before the other. The bounces are so closely spaced in time they're more like double-hits than separate bounces.

If you stand on a stool or something, the pattern slows down. But you can practice juggling five, say, fast by kneeling, which has the same pace as seven standing up, and as nine standing on a stool.

Zen "picking up", if you practice in a small, enclosed space: when the pattern explodes, don't try to get whichever ball you think is closest. Choose one and get it, then choose the next and get it... It's much more spiritually harmonious. Honest.

Toss juggling:

The "drop test" - for non-bouncy things only, unless you're at a sandy beach. Throw 'em up in the air, then step back and see where they drop. Only consider where they hit the ground and not where they roll to. Of course, collisions void the results - but do it over instead of sweating where they would have landed - and worry instead about having them not collide on your next try! Throw ONLY, and do your best to clear your mind of any thoughts of catches. With your mind so cleared, you might find the throws are now so good you try to catch 'em anyway. DON'T at first; let 'em drop. You want to hear an even rhythm when they hit, and you want to find them collected in piles right below your hands, but a bit wider since they are moving out. The drop test is useful because when you juggle at the limit of your ability, you might be too busy to also accurately diagnose whatever is your problem! This breaks those tasks apart: first you do the throws, and only well after they're gone do you step back and see where they hit, and listen to the rhythm. You can fully attend to each part.

The drop test makes specific errors easy to diagnose. If one hand always throws low, the impacts will be syncopated, or even synchronous, for an asynchronous pattern; if the throws are wild, the "piles" won't be piles, but instead will be scattered all over; and if one hand always throws in front of you, or you want to walk in a circle, the piles will be different distances in front of you. And so on.

As you advance, you can do the "run drop test" as opposed to the "flash drop test." Run the trick until trouble starts happening, and then let 'em drop and see what happens. To do this, you need only throw the two you are holding - the rest are already in the air, already heading for the ground - but try not to force those two throws.

(Easier: Get a Dad named Nick who tells you everything you do wrong, and hands you your props to boot. Less good, but still good: videotape your sessions, and look for what you might be doing particularly right or wrong. Other jugglers might be able to give you the same sort of feedback, but seeing yourself is probably more compelling.)

"Catching" beanbags or balls during juggling is a bit of a misnomer. They're not solid grabs, like shaking their hands, but instead are almost mere re-directions. With a cup-shaped hand, if a ball smacks the base of your fingers, your hand may close automatically around it, saving you the effort of having to do it yourself, especially if the things weight more than 100g each. Though it isn't necessary to actually grab the ball during a juggle, this automatic closure is certainly better than having to think about deliberately gripping each ball, every single catch. I just place my thumb on each catch to see where it is in my hand, and to keep it from rolling around.

With an easy number for you, first, not only grab but actually squeeze each catch. Then, open your hands as if holding an invisible grapefruit, and freeze them in that position. Now the balls are free to roll around in your oversized, cup-shaped hands, but you can keep going anyway just by angling your hands so the balls don't roll out. Finally, relax your hands in an open position. Your fingers might close around the ball each catch when it hits your hand, or it might not, depending on where it hits. But either way, you keep going, and you're not spending any hand-effort doing it (and your hands won't eventually cramp up as they will if kept tense).

Juggle in front of a sofa, and buy some extras. If you're just starting out and you drop a lot, juggling in front of a sofa or bed can save you some picking-up time, though it'll keep you from being able to chase a pattern that is trying to run forward away from you. If you own only as many props as you are trying to learn to juggle, you need to find and pick them all up every time you drop. But if you buy a dozen, you can distribute a whole bunch of them around the room, under chairs, in the fish tank, etc., before needing to round them up again.

Garbage juggling: juggle n different things. Also, try empty tennis balls, or whiffle balls, or lead balls. If you can do these, your favorite beanbags will seem easy. (But be careful of tendonitis when juggling lead-filled balls! It happened to me juggling 5 lead-filled tennis balls, and I gave it up and the problem went away.)

Evens vs. Odds

Odds patterns: cascade, outside halfshower

Evens patterns: synch. and asynch. fountain, inside and outside halfshower, wimpy (= crossing pairs) pattern.

Cascade: you want arcs to cross at ~90 degrees up there: this means wide base, and throw across, not vertically. Try to make the pattern "too wide" - it will be more arm effort to sustain from all the scoop needed, but there will be lots more room, and a bad throw will less likely collide. Consider the triangle defined by the two throwing positions and also the crossing point, which is also the region below both arcs but above your hands. This triangle should have as much area as possible... Look for this triangle in other juggler's patterns, especially those who have long-lasting ones. If it's a tall and skinny pattern, the arcs will "rub against" one another, or even the same arc going the other way for lots of length, making a bad throw much likelier to result in collision. If the arcs cross through each other at 90 degrees, when a ball goes through the crossing point, it screams through it and is never seen again, from the other arc's point of view. Here, a throw can be bad and still not hit the others. Lots of scoop keeps the two different arcs apart, and lots of arm width keeps the arcs wide, so throws going up aren't near throws coming down in the same arc.

Image: the paths made by the throws are two tall poles for a tent. You want them to have a wide base, and just tip to touch each other at the top. The more you juggle, 5... 7... 9, the wider they need to be, and the less tipping it will take to have them just touch up there. Another image: you're carrying a wide, ungainly box. Have your hands wide to provide support, not together so the box might fall off one side.

If you prefer reverse cascades: learn the forward as a "trick" because it is superior for numbers juggling: First, throws take more strength than catches, and only in the forward cascade are your hands close in, right in front of you where you have power. (If the lid on a jar is stuck, where do you hold it in relation to your body to open it?) In the reverse, the catches are closer to this strong position, and the throws are made out wide where you are weak. Second, the crossing point is the likeliest place for collisions. In the normal cascade, that point is traversed soon after the throws are made, before throws have much of a chance to wander astray. But in the reverse, the balls crest before coming to the crossing point, and so have had more time to wander off track if the throw is slightly wrong, so they have to be made that much better, just to get by. In the floating hoop image, the reverse cascade is like having to make three-point shots every throw. On the other hand, a seven ball reverse is as rare as a nine balls forward...

Clean cascades have a little "m" on top. Look for it and strive for it. The top of a pattern is the best place to see how clean it is. Throughout a pattern you can judge left-right-ness, and front-back-ness of the throws as they go up, but only at the top can you also see individual tosses bobbing up and down, perhaps mere inches from the heights others crest, so all the information about the throws is visible there at the top, which is why it's a good place to look. If the arcs are clean and intersect cleanly, they form a little "m" up there, sitting atop the big arcs, a MacDonald's arches. Look for it in other's patterns, and strive for it yourself. The top of a nine cascade is a tiny, fast five cascade, only one or two feet tall, but up five or ten.

Fountain: This pattern requires lots of scoop! it's not tall and skinny either, for the same reason as above. The throws are not only not vertical, they actually go outwards and look crossing if you bring your hands "past together" at the base. Try to think of "hooking" your throws around those that are already up there.

Opinions vary about whether synch or asynch is easier: Albert Lucas and Enrico Rastelli seem to prefer the synch fountain, and Anthony Gatto and I prefer the asynch. There is more room for scoop in the asynch, as you can bring your hands past together there; they hit at together in the synch pattern. Also, the synch version makes my body bounce up and down, whereas the asynch pattern balances the hands against one another, which I find feels smoother. Try both.

For n-in-one-hand, lots of ways are easier than doing them in a circle: "in, in, out", columns, cascade, and any which way. But these are not easier to do in stereo than the circle, except columns with two in each hand.

"Master/slave": even if you can't run 3 in your bad hand by itself, try 6 anyway. Instead of thinking "Left hand, do three even though you can't" think "Left hand, mimic the right hand, whatever it's doing." This may strengthen a weak, bad hand.

The reverse cascade people probably prefer the reverse fountain. It's pretty, but is subject to the same weak-throw argument made above for the reverse cascade. I would advise learning the forward fountain, though the reverse has novelty points as so few people do it.

Half showers: the height ratio dictates the throwing rhythm, so to find a comfortable rhythm, you need to adjust the relative heights of the arcs. Less adjustment of rhythm can be obtained by changing the dwell of one of the hands, but I prefer having equal dwells. Halfshowers can be done equally with odd and even numbers. I like the height ratios given by doing odd numbers synchronously, such as (6x,4x) and (8x,6x) and by doing evens asynchronously, such as 7 5 and 9 7, always using throws that differ by 2.

There are four halfshowers: Two hands each can either scoop in or out, for a total of four possibilities. (Each of these can also be left- or right-handed, for a grand total of eight.) If (1) the hand throwing higher scoops out, and the other scoops in, the result is the "outside halfshower" or "crescent," a beautiful, pattern that has no crossing point and so is the most free of collisions. Allen Knutson first met success with the 9 ball flash using this pattern, having found the cascade too collision-prone. If (2) both hands scoop in, the result is the "inside halfshower," which looks like a lopsided cascade, and works much better for even numbers. It's probably better practice for the n+1 cascade, or for clubs, than the crescent is. Then there's (3) both hands scooping out, the "reverse inside halfshower," which reverse cascaders might prefer but I can't recommend. Finally, (4) only the hand throwing lower scooping outside, the "sombrero" or "dumb halfshower." It's dumb because it has TWO crossing points, and so twice the collision possibilities. It also has the taller arc the skinniest of the four patterns, so it "rubs against" itself going the other way the most, which is asking for collisions even just within that one arc. It might be interesting, seeing the arcs thread through one another, crossing twice, but it ain't the way to numbers success!

Wimpy pattern: both hands cross, and one hand throws a tiny bit earlier and also higher than the other, so the balls don't hit at the crossing point. Most people find this easier than the other evens patterns; some even find it easier to qualify than n/2 in better hand(!) Notably, Bruce Sarafian qualifies 10, and Michael "Fergie" Ferguson nearly qualifies 10, using this pattern.

(The reverse wimpy pattern is quite funny! Try it! The reverse cascade folks might prefer it, but I've never seen anyone seriously pursue mastery of it for numbers.)

Height ratios for siteswap throws, assuming dwell = 1/2 is (throw height #1)/(throw height #2) = ((siteswap #1 throw value - 1)/ (siteswap #2 throw value - 1))^2. For slightly different throws, the heights can be surprisingly different: in the four ball asynchronous half shower, 5 3, the high throws are not 5/3 as high, but rather 4 times higher than the low ones. This may seem out of place in a numbers notes, but if you can juggle 7 and want to flash them to the 9 height, keeping handspeed constant, you might like to know (9 height)/(7 height), which works out to about 1.8. Skipping the math, instead you could make sure the rhythm is correct: it won't be unless the heights are.

Clubs:

The hold and the release.

Holding three or four clubs in one hand, and getting clean releases from them is not as easy as with balls or beanbags.

Three clubs in one hand can be held as a triangle or in a line, or two in a line and the third separately grasped by the fingers on the outside. For each of these configurations, the handles of clubs on top can be over or under the handles of the buried clubs. I am in the minority in preferring the "circus grip", having the handles of the clubs-on-top underneath the handles of the buried ones. (This allows the handles to get out of each other's way upon the release, since the spin carries the handle down, away from you and away from the other handles.) The "standard grip" is the opposite, and a majority of jugglers prefer it.

Four clubs in one hand has nearly as many different holds as I've seen 7 club jugglers - so there is certainly no standard way. I use skinny numbers clubs for 7 and hold four in a line. I have also also seen four in a diamond, building on the triangle for three. There are also versions where the fourth club is inserted in some silly place after three are held. Anthony Gatto has one of the wierdest grips, ever: He holds two clubs in the standard circus grip. Club #3 is attached by a pinky clip exactly parallel to club #2, such that it touches at the knob and at the fat part of the bell, and there's a large gap beween handles. Club #4 is then placed in the groove on top of #1 and #2, sticking out such that the thumb just presses down on the knob. Club #5 (Yes, for doing 9 clubs) is hung by the knob, pinched between #1 and #2. (!!)

The release is worth practicing by itself.

Numbers clubs really help: they're long, narrow, and light, and I find them indispensable in making any headway at all with 6 and 7 clubs. Even for 4 or 5, they're helpful if not essential. Amongst non-numbers clubs, some are better than others. JuggleBug RYB are my least favorite, followed by Europeans: these are heavy and have hard-hitting handles. Americans, though huge and hard to start, are surprisingly light and also lofty, which amounts to slower patterns, making them excellent clubs to work with 4 or 5. Airflites are a better size, but are heavier than they look. This is all a matter of taste, of course. I find Radical Fish are just barely numbers clubs. Renegade wimp clubs are markedly easier for me for 7, but both them and Radical Fish seem fine for 6. (Even Anthony Gatto learned >5 clubs with wimp clubs, though he has since cruised 7 and qualified(?) 8 with full-sized Renegades.)

Natural spins: and flashy vs. good. Because clubs rotate with your arm as you come up for the release, they'll spin even without any "wrist" action at all. I call these "natural spins," and they're quite high. Thus, slow spin = more time and hence a slower pattern. Also if there's no added wrist spin, then throw height becomes connected to the number of spins: simply adjust throw height to correct overspun/underspun throws. (If they're underspun, don't think "need more spin" think "throws aren't high enough.") However, slow spins and slow patterns won't look very flashy, compared to forehead-height triples. Query: Do you want to look flashy, or do you want to juggle 5 (6,7) clubs? Again, I don't advocate one style over the other. Try both and see what works. But:

Most people juggle five clubs with doubles that are much higher than when they do three clubs doubles. Learning four clubs with singles is good practice for learning how to throw natural spins, because it gets awfully quick fast if you help the singles along with your wrists! Instead, relax the throws. Now throw doubles that same way... Did you know doubles could be that high? .. these are the doubles to use for five clubs. Image: The clubs are weakened birds sitting in your hands, but they will be able to fly if you give them a gentle push: Don't torque them on release, help them up. You want to keep touching them.

Make deep dips - a home place to return after each catch, and a long runway for each launch. After each catch, bring the head of the club down along your leg, almost down to vertical. No matter where you catch it, dip it back down to this place prior to throwing it. Passers often do nice dips with their passing hands; watch them and copy it.

With clubs much more so than balls, it it vital to make good catches the first time! With balls there is no orientational degree of freedom to worry about, and so there is little need to adjust the grip on a ball, except for locating it within your hand. Not so with clubs! But with three clubs, if you catch one badly you can bobble it in your hand, adjusting it into position prior to the next throw, but with five clubs, there is essentially no time to do this. So pay attention to the handles right before the catches, and twist your hand in any way necessary to make the catch so that you are holding the club exactly where you want to be (such as how high up the handle) for the next throw. Afterwards, during the dip, do your best to erase whatever weird motion was needed, by bringing your hand back down to the same place and in the same orientation as always. Then, the throw will be coming from a fresh and clean start, no matter how ugly the catch was.

Siteswap throw heights with clubs, assuming natural spins: if 3s are singles, 4s are doubles, 5s are triples, 6s quads. If 4s are singles, then 5s are doubles, 6s are triples, and 7s quads. So, if you want to practice 5s (as doubles) from within 4 clubs, doing four singles gives the best handspeed match, for example. I find this the easiest way to do the 4 -> 5 club kickup: four singles -> kick -> 5 doubles.

Garbage juggling with clubs: I find juggling four balls and a club is essentially as hard as 5 clubs. It's probably excellent practice for 5. There are two different ways to do two clubs and three balls, flash-like and chase-like. And so on. As practice for 4 (6) clubs, try two (three) clubs in one hand, and two (three) balls in the other. If you can run a trick fairly well, but not solidly, you might try juggling unmatched clubs. If you can make some sort of headway with this trick, then matched ones will seem easier.

Evens vs. Odds

Point head of club to where the throw is going, specifically, crossing vs. not. If a club is in your right hand and you are juggling 5, it's a crossing throw and you should point it a bit to the left of straight ahead. But if you are trying 4 or 6, the clubs needs to be pointed a bit to the right of straight ahead. That is, if the sun were directly overhead, the shadow of the club should point tilted towards where it will be caught: 4s and 6s need the shadow of the knob more towards the center of your body, the heads outwards towards the same hand, and 5s and 7s need to have the shadows of the knobs towards the outside, and the heads closer to the center, towards the other hand. Eventually, the clubs will be pointing almost straight ahead, that is, not tilted at all but the temptation to go the wrong way is so strong, especially with noncrossing throws, that it's wise to aim for overcorrection and thereby get almost enough. (For columns alone, this orientation doesn't matter - the clubs aren't going anywhere, so they can point in any direction.)

Odds patterns: cascade, inside halfshower

Evens patterns: columns, fountain, inside halfshower

Cascade: Angle heads in. Especially try to vary wide vs. narrow-based patterns; 5 is kinda wide, and 7 is very wide, at the bottom. Five clubs takes much more space than three! Also, the cascade CROSSES. Try to throw "too wide" so you have to zip out to catch 'em. That may be hard to keep doing, but at least they won't collide, usually by far the biggest problem with >3 club cascades. Use quite a bit of scoop, too. Most find 5 easiest with doubles, and 7 is usually done as triples. It is helpful to shower (n+1)/2 clubs each way as practice. When trying the cascade, an alternative mindset is to think of the two, separate but concurrent showers, instead of the cascade as such.

Inside halfshower: much like cascade, but look out for overspinning the lower throw: it's a Zen-like HARD-gentle-HARD-gentle...

Passers note: these might be good: your left only does singles for all but the last pattern - that may be all it's used to, and therefore much better at!

Rhythms of half-shower patterns:
4:2/1 (four clubs: doubles over singles) is galloped;
4:3/1 is asynch;
5:2/1 and 5:3/1 are synchronous... and the triple/single is pretty easy;
5:4/1 is asynch;
6:3/2 is galloped - Jack Kalvan prefers this pattern for six. I started out finding this easier than the triples fountain, but now find the latter easier most of the time. But some days, this works and the fountain doesn't. Go figure - and try them all.

Columns: easier for 4, but less helpful than fountain as stepping stone for 5, and useless for 6. Columns is unique in requiring no scoop at all, which is probably why it's easier. Should 5 clubs be the goal, it might work to learn 4 columns first as stepping stone to the 4 fountain, and then finally 5. Here are the columns patterns for four:

Which columns pattern is easiest depends on who you ask, (except the last one) so try them all.
asynch columns... (1 3 2 4) or (1 3 4 2) is the time-ordering of the throws, left to right. Many find it easier than but otherwise similar to the asynch fountain.
"inside, outside" synch: (1 2 2 1) - same numbers get thrown together. a pair in the middle, a pair on the outside. You can almost flat-front the outside pair and it won't hit anything.
"half splits" (1 2 1 2) has the inside member of each pair go between the other pair, and your hands both go to one side and the other, alternately.
"full splits" (1 1 2 2) is really a four trick and not a numbers method, but is included for completeness. One pair stays on the left and the other on the right. Everyone agrees this one is markedly harder than the others.

Fountain: KEEP HEADS POINTED OUT OR THE KNOBS WILL SMACK YOUR WRISTS!!!

Corollary: keep your elbows in, maybe even in front of you! Warped image: Your arms are amputated at the elbows, and you need to stir a cauldron that is right in front of your belly with them. To reach the bottom of the cauldron, lean slightly forward even though it's scary how close the clubs come to your nose, and how little time you will have to get out of their way should they collide in front of your face.
Also: if you face your palms together instead of up, then keeping wrists cocked back maps directly to the head being directed more out, which is good.

Use lots of scoop. More than you think! Grotesquely exaggerate it; it'll be about right at first. Try to make it "certainly too much" - probably you can't. Extra scoop adds "muscular difficulty" to the pattern - you'll be working harder. But it alleviates "juggling difficulty" - there will be more room, fewer collisions, and ironically it will be easier to sustain, except for all the damn effort it takes. (This last line seems self-contradictory, but will become clear when you get there.)

Synch fountain: spread the pairs enough so that subsequent pairs can fit between them. In other words, use enough scoop. This pattern can show you quite clearly how differently your two hands throw. (Accordingly, it takes more precision to look clean, compared to the asynch pattern, whose complexity makes it more difficult to spot imperfections.)

How many spins: Most people find doubles easiest for four, and triples easiest for six, but a few find singles easier for four. Doubles with six is doable, but I know of no one who prefers it that way.