Tips for 5 balls

breadmonkey

I've been juggling since the start of August and am quite obsessed at this stage. I've been doing 4 for a while now and am feeling quite comfortable with it. Just got another 3 balls the other day and started trying to do 5.

I've read some stuff on 5 balls but I thought I'd start a thread here in case anyone has some nice tips.

This is what I've been doing.

1)Flashing 3
2)Flashing 3 while holding an extra one in each hand
3)I have different sets of balls so I've started with 2 and 3 and flashed them to see if the balls are indeed switching hands.
4)Flashing 4 as if I were doing cascade??
5)Trying to remain relaxed and not tense up.
6)Dropping balls

I'm not sure what height to aim for. At the moment, I'm just using the ceiling in my kitchen as a mark.

Where should I be looking as I throw the balls?

Would trying 6 help me?

Very generally speaking, how long does it usually take to get 5 ball cascade going fairly solidly? I seem to have picked things up quite quickly up to now.

Thanks!!

amazingemmet

5 is a real mountain compared to 4 balls. it'll take around 6 months to be hitting the 50c mark regularly but hen it shoots up after that. the patterns i found to help most were 50505 and 525

Hugh Hefner

Aye, a few months of preactice before things start getting nice and steadily good.


I think the best height would be about a foot above your head.

Also, try flashing 3 balls from one hand into the other (you should get a 3 ball arc in the air). Then as those 3 balls land in your other hand flash them again under the line of the original arc, back into your first hand. I think this is called Chasing The Dog. If you're doing it right you should only be using one or no hands at any given time.

breadmonkey

amazingemmet wrote:

5 is a real mountain compared to 4 balls. it'll take around 6 months to be hitting the 50c mark regularly but hen it shoots up after that. the patterns i found to help most were 50505 and 525

I tried to plug your examples into this [URL=]http://www.juggling.org/programs/java/nichols/[/URL]
to see what they looked like but it doesn;t seem to recognise them as valid. (or something)

amazingemmet

Their defintiely valid. come to juggling in trinity tonight and i'll show you how to juggle them

rparle

You're describing 50505 (or 55050), the three-ball snake. Also good are 552, 55550 (four balls in a five-ball pattern, with a gap), and some people swear by 5551 but I find it harder than 5. The three-ball shower (51) in both directions is a must aswell. And the four-ball half shower (53) in both directions won't hurt.

rparle

breadmonkey wrote:

I tried to plug your examples into this [URL=]http://www.juggling.org/programs/java/nichols/[/URL]
to see what they looked like but it doesn;t seem to recognise them as valid. (or something)

http://www.jugglingdb.com/news/siteswap.php?site=525
http://www.jugglingdb.com/news/siteswap.php?site=50505

breadmonkey

amazingemmet wrote:

Their defintiely valid. come to juggling in trinity tonight and i'll show you how to juggle them

Sorry, I only saw this just now but I couldn't make it down anyway. Thanks for the offer though.

NiallKelly

breadmonkey wrote:

Where should I be looking as I throw the balls?

You should be looking at the top of the pattern where the balls cross.

breadmonkey wrote:

Would trying 6 help me?

I don't think 6 is a good pattern to practice while just starting to learn 5, since its a completely different pattern. Maybe try flashing 7. 5 will seem a lot easier then.

andrewg

i liked to try to pretend i was juggling 3 just very fast. if you just think of the 3 ball pattern, you may do better.

try flashing 3 balls then while they are in the air, try throwing the other two up. this helped me improve. i am still not great at it. i have been juggling since february 2005