Juggling 3 Objects Alone

Typically people start juggling 3 balls, then learn more difficult 3-ball and 4-ball patterns and then start juggling with clubs, rings, etc.

3 Ball Cascade

In short:

Step 1:

You first practice throwing one ball cleanly from one hand to the other:

• Throws should go up to about eye height
• needless to say you need to practice the throw from both hands
• You should be able to catch without moving your hand much
• You can take another object, e.g. a Frisbee as a base and do your throw above it handing the Frisbee to the other hand
• try to vary height and see how high you can do your throws without having to move the catching hand much
• try further variations on the throw by taking your target-hand further outside or further inside of your body and also try if you can do throws to your regular catching-position of the other hand if your hand has to do the throw from before you or far to the side, etc. When you catch balls in a non-optimal position, you may be forced to do throws from there.
• Also try lowering your hands much further than you would usually do and do throws from further below.

You should see these Step 1 exercises not only as a practice for one single throw motion, but also as a way to experiment what kind of stance results in a good throw and what results in a bad throw.

General recommendation: you can practice above your bed to not have to pick up from the floor.

Step 2:

Practice throwing with two balls. Do throws like in a 3-ball cascade. You are doing two throws out of that cascade

• take turns in doing the first throw from the left and from the right hand
• both throws should be at the same height, again roughly eye height
• try to do the second throw as late as comfortably possible. Doing throws earlier than necessary speeds up the juggling patterns and make them much more difficult. There should still be a gap between throwing and catching - if you touch both balls with your hand at the same time, then your throw is too late.
• if throws go forward a lot, try standing in front of a wall

Step 3:

Practice using 4 balls.

The reason for this exercise is, that precision in throwing is key to being able to juggle three balls. When you have to catch on a position far away from the intended one, you will either lose time to return with your hand to the optimal position.

• throw all 4 balls but do not try to catch them. This exercise is specially well suited for practicing above a bed or similar.
• try to make all 4 throws as similar as possible
• listen to the sound of the balls dropping. It should beat out a regular rhythm, because you did your throws spaced out with the same time delta and at the same height.
• watch out for where the balls drop. All 4 balls should land on the same two spots to your left and to your right

Step 4:

Continue using 4 balls, but increasingly try to catch.

• try to catch the last ball
• try to catch the two last balls
• try to catch the last three balls and do a fifth throw

When this succeeds, you should be very close to being able to juggle 3 balls.

There is a logical progression of juggling patterns that lead up to juggling 5 balls (and above, but usually by then you know what good practice patterns are). The same list also applies for clubs *except* the 3 object patterns with outside throws.

For now, I will just try to list them here in increasing order.

There are also many 3-ball and 3-club juggling patterns that have different types of difficulty (different types of throws) and do not progress towards juggling more objects. These are mostly not part of the list and will maybe be described later. Many of those can be found in the "library of juggling" https://libraryofjuggling.com/. The 3-object patterns there often contain carries and unusual throws, which makes it hard to create a relative difficulty rating - also, because those are mostly not a part of my personal juggling.

3 Club Cascade

Most of the wiki so far is on passing patterns that use clubs, so I will try to add some advice for juggling 3 clubs alone at this point, although you probably will first want to learn some more ball patterns with 3 balls.

The additional difficulty juggling clubs compared to balls is mainly:

• Clubs are larger and need more space in the air
• the way you throw differs from balls
• spin control: you need the club to arrive with the exact correct turn

In a first step, try throwing a single club back and forth between your hands. Try to get the spin right. Note that the club is not supposed to fly or arrive perpendicular to your body, but in a way that the club points a bit away from you.

One good way to start learning spin control is by combining one club with two balls. This does have some disadvantages, like that you have to do different throws on the different objects and that throwing around the balls is not the same as throwing around other clubs. But it is a much easier exercise and helps you to gain the control you need.

Progressing Beyond The Cascade

~3 object patterns

The list is written for balls, but also applies to clubs. Typically you would start juggling clubs after at least reaching somewhere in the middle of 3-ball patterns. There are a few tips on starting with clubs in Beginning Selfs - Juggling 3 Clubs

• 3 ball cascade

Patterns/Variations that help you become more secure with 3 balls:

• 3 ball "tennis" (one ball does outside thows)
• 3 ball with outside throws (not for clubs)
• 1 up 360 (or 1 up 180)

Patterns that help go towards juggling 4 balls:

• 423 or the "W" → https://passist.org/siteswap/423?jugglers=1
• two balls in one hand (for both hands, obviously)
• two balls in one hand while you turn 360° around yourself
• 3 ball columns
• 3 ball columns with shifting columns (hand with ball moves to a new column position)
• 3 ball columns with one fake column
• 441
• 3 ball box

3-ball patterns that help go towards juggling 5 balls:

• pre-exercise: throwing one ball hight of a 5b cascade or higher so precisely that you can catch without moving your hand much
• followed by: slowly juggling 3 balls on the height of a 5b cascade or higher
• 3 ball flash - rhythm problems that may make this harder or easier
• 3 ball shower
• 531
• 3 ball snake - this pattern has nothing forcing the rhythm and how you experience its difficulty varies widely depending on how large or small you make the gap.

( typically learned somewhere around here ---> different throw type: mills mess ) ( remark: every siteswap pattern can also be thrown in a mills-mess version of it )

4 object patterns

• 4 ball fountain

4 ball patterns that are also exercises for a 5-ball cascade:

• 552
• 5551 (there's two directions of this pattern)

4 ball patterns that are also exercises for a 5-ball cascade but are possibly harder than the 5 ball cascade:

• 55550 (clapping on the knee for the the "0" empty hand helps a bit)
• 55514 - really nice pattern, makes 5551 symmetrical
• 71 (4 ball shower)

other common 4 ball patterns:

• 534
• 642
• 633
• 6631
• 66314
• 7333 (this is kind of a "4-count with gravity")
• 7423
• 7342
• 7522 (uncommon, more a pre-exercise for 7531 with the two holds)
• 7441
• 74414 - one additional column makes the pattern symmetric, so high throws happen from both hands
• 7531 (very popular trick, as all balls line up vertically which looks nice)
• 75314 - one additional column makes the pattern symmetric, so high throws happen from both hands