Hacker News Reader

Comment by comrade1234 | Hacker News Reader

I taught myself in junior high to juggle three balls with two hands and two balls with one hand. It's not a huge accomplishment but what amazes me is that I can go years without trying it and when an opportunity comes up I can just do it again, within just a couple of tries. Those neuronal connections just never go away.

View on HN

Learn to juggle two balls with the other hand and you are half way to 4 (which is two in each hand out of sync)

I may try that. I can do two balls in either hand already. I just never tried doing it in both hands at once.

Strangely even though I'm right-handed I feel more comfortable juggling two in my left hand. I also bat and golf left-handed so sometimes I wonder if my parents forced right-handedness was on me.

Out of curiosity - can you juggle four balls?

I can, but I wouldn't describe having two two-ball capable hands as being half-way there. If forced to put a number on it, something like 20% is the best I could do.

Sure! Juggle two in dominant hand. Then two in weak hand. Then two plus one both ways round, then 4. That's how I used to teach people anyway. Balls go up on the inside and down on the outside. For most people two really well in non dominant hand is the hard part.

When you taught, what was a typical uptake like?

I came in and out of 'actively juggling' through time, but I was at least 20 years with strong two in my off hand before four really started to do four for any real number of throws.

The perpetual issue was that the loops move in and out of sync, so the rhythm of responsibilities ends up with beat patterns that confuse my focus.

I always felt that 4 wasn't a huge step up from 3 for most people, especially given the right tips. If you learn 3 in a day or two then 4 is a week or two. That kind of thing.

A good trick to practice 4 is to throw 4 throws in the middle of 3. So you juggle 3 balls then throw one to the same hand (the 4 throws) while holding a ball in the other for a beat (the 2 throws). You can put the 42 throws anywhere in the 3 pattern and if you do it as quickly as possible you get 423 which is an interesting pattern. 441 is good too - harder but helps with that sync problem.

The big step comes at 5. It took me nearly a year to master 5 balls with consistent practice. I eventually got reasonably good at 6 balls (juggled in sync, crossing over) but that's where I plateaued as far as numbers go.

There are lots of other things than numbers though. Non jugglers will have no idea how many balls you are juggling so you can impress with 3 balls. My favourite party trick was blindfold juggling. I used to be able to juggle 3 balls for about a minute like that.

Juggling two with the non-dominant hand is so hard. Much harder than juggling three balls. There's something fundamentally different about using your non-dominant hand independently as opposed to in coordination with your dominant hand. I can use my left for many things: juggling, typing, playing guitar etc., but as soon as I try to do it with my right hand behind my back I feel incredibly weak.

It would be so useful to have two right hands. I'm curious whether you think getting over the hump helps with ambidexterity in general.

Something I learnt was when learning new juggling tricks, make sure to practice them both ways round. For example if you are learning to shower 3 (round in a circle juggling) make sure you practice the high throws with your right and left hands. It gets easier the more you do it so I guess that it does help with ambidexterity.

I can juggle 4 balls for a little while, but two in my non-dominante hand? That's so unnatural I don't think I've even bothered trying.

> I taught myself in junior high

I had a class in junior high where we had time each day to mess around with juggling.

I got good at the balls and then got pretty good at the bowling pins things (not as heavy but same shape).

I could do 5 pins for a decent amount of time. It felt really good when I was in the groove of the flow, the arc, the spin and the sequence.

I tried 7 pins and was pretty excited to get a cycle or two successfully.

Same! Every so often I remember that I can juggle, and spend a minute or two juggling, and feel better for it. And then I forget for weeks or months.

(I taught myself while procrastinating from exam revision, many years ago. I started with a large bag of oranges. Just enough of an incentive not to drop them, no real harm when they did hit the floor.)

I taught myself to juggle in a weird way. I had 3 lightweight plastic cubes, laid down on the bed, and began tossing them directly over my head (my hands on either side of my head). I think it gave me a good sense of where each cube was at all times.Once I got good at juggling supine, I just transitioned to sitting up straight.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com