I’ll tell you… this "juggling every day" thing isn’t going as well as I’d hoped. I’ve managed it every day so far, but the last two days, I squeezed it in at the end of the day, as an "Oh yeah, I haven’t juggled yet!" thing before bed. Not a good sign.
It’s not entirely worth breaking the process down by days, but I will talk in general about how I go about my daily juggling:
First, I just start juggling. It’s easier to do a ten or twenty minute session if I can just get started. I haven’t been juggling the goslings much, although I did on the first day. Usually I just grab my set of three red juggling balls, and start with simple, standard 3-ball juggling. I need to work on my form, so I spend a few minutes just trying to perfect my aim and timing.
One thing to note: I juggle while standing up against my bed, facing the bed and the wall. This way, whenever I drop a ball (which is most of the time), it lands on the bed, instead of the floor. Which is nice, because then I don’t have to bend over to pick it up. It sounds like such a silly, simple thing, but it’s very effective in allowing me to focus, and to juggle for a longer period of time without getting frustrated.
Sticking with 3-ball, I start switching so that my initial throw is from my non-dominant hand (my left hand). I’m partially ambidextrous, but I tend to favor my right hand, and end up practicing too much with that one. So it helps to remember to give the left hand some practice, too.
Just for fun, I’ll throw in some little tricks, like making the first throw from behind my back (I’m very bad at that) or under my leg (better at that). Or I’ll try "claw" juggling, which looks like this:
Only in my case, it looks more like a crazy blonde girl clawing at the air and dropping three red balls.
I’m also trying to focus on my 2-ball juggling, which is where you juggle two balls in one hand. Once again, I’m much better at this on the right hand. Which isn’t really saying much, because even on my right hand, I’m pretty bad at it. For now. Progress is being made!
Areas to Improve
First of all, I need to juggle earlier in the day, and for longer. I can’t just do it right before bed because I’m "supposed to." It needs to become a bit more routine.
It might be good to, at least once, juggle in front of a mirror. On the other hand, that may confuse me and mess me up. But I think it would be good to see myself from a different perspective.
I also think I need to watch at least one juggling video a day. I know, that just sounds like an excuse to troll YouTube, doesn’t it? But my former instructor, Jeff Peden, said that watching good jugglers helps improve your juggling, by giving you good mental pictures of good form.
Lastly, I need to develop some quantifiable goals. Things like "3-ball for 100 throws" and "4-ball (2-ball in each hand, simultaneously) for 10 throws."
