Juggling

Juggling is often considered to include only Toss Juggling, the art of repeatedly throwing several objects in the air and catching them, so that at least one object remains in the air at all times. Common toss juggling props include balls, beanbags, rings, clubs, knives, and torches, although other props are occasionally used.

In its general sense, however, the definition of juggling includes all forms of artful or skillfull object manipulation. Such variations include prop spinning and balancing, diabolo or Chinese yo-yo, devil sticks, bounce juggling, cigar box manipulation, and contact juggling (where one or more balls are skillfully rolled across the hands and body).

This Egyptian wall painting (c. 1994-1781 BC) appears to depict toss jugglers

The earliest known record of juggling is Egyptian, from the 15th Beni Hassan tomb of an unknown prince, dating from the middle kingdom period of about 1994-1781 B.C. In this painting -- one of several showing performers as well as day-to-day activities -- it appears as if the performers are toss juggling balls or similar objects.

Modern independently verifiable records for the number of objects juggled (defined as at least two catches per object - a "qualifying run") are 10 balls, 10 rings, and 7 clubs. The less stringent requirement (at least one catch per object - a "flash") has been reached with 12 balls (beanbags), 13 rings, and 9 sticks (or 8 traditional clubs). It has been said that the limits of human ability lie around the 14-ball mark, though evidence to back this up is understandably scarce.

Most toss juggling involves doing the same thing repetitively. It is this very uniformity that makes the art difficult to master. One of the most basic three-ball tricks, and considered the first trick a toss juggler should learn is the three-ball cascade or the three-ball shower. Other more difficult tricks can be described by a mathematical notation called siteswap. It has often been said, of many juggling skills, that it is "easier done than said", while it might be easy to learn a given maneuver, it might be much harder to describe it accurately.

Juggling is one of the circus arts.

Juggling patterns and tricks

See also:

Keepie uppie (football juggling).
Devil Stick
Hacky Sack

External links

The Internet Juggling Database (http://www.jugglingdb.com/) - very current; very exhaustive; active wiki community.
Juggling Information Service (http://www.juggling.org/) - dated but has a huge amount of information. Excellent.

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