/Arvid Andersson
March 21, 1999.

Learn to bounce juggle.

There are three Great Secrets to bounce juggling:

• good bouncing balls
• a good place to practice
• lots of patience

The balls could be either cheap ones (rubber, costs about $6-10 each) or expensive ones (silicone, $30+ each). My advice is to go for rubber ones, they will get more chipped and dirty than silicones, but mine still work perfectly after two years in use and they didn't cost $30 a piece! Perhaps there are other balls that work too, but they have to bounce at least 80% when you drop them, be about the size of tennis balls, and be pretty heavy. I've heard lacrosse balls work well for example.

The floor you are bouncing on should be as smooth and hard as possible. A smooth stone floor is excellent, some wooden floors work, but parking lots can damage your balls if the blacktop isn't smooth enough. Try it out for yourself, but make sure to have nothing fragile near. (This is true for all juggling, but especially for bouncing balls.)

When you start practicing, you'll notice when you drop you can't just pick up the balls. (You've probably been spoiled that way when juggling nice props like beanbags or clubs.) Welcome to the real world, you'll have to run a lot when you drop, so make sure the balls don't have anywhere to go. Juggling in an outside tennis court facing a corner would be good, because the balls would bounce back from the fence. If you have grass around you, the balls will stop when they hit it. Make sure you have something that stops the balls from disappearing, and always catch the fastest ones first.

This is serious, I'm talking from experience. I tried to learn a five ball bounce outside the house, on a driveway that was full of holes. When I dropped, at least one ball immediately bounced away through the garden heading for the pond. I was running more than I was juggling.

So anyway, find yourself these three things and start practicing!

First, take a ball and just play around with it. Throw it, bounce it, juggle it, and so on until you feel like you know the ball. It's important to 'get to know' your props before you try to juggle them.

Now start practicing. Take a ball and throw it from your right hand so that it rises a few inches, hit the ground in front of your left foot, and bounce up. Catch! Then throw it back in the same way. This is called a lift bounce.

Take a ball in each hand. Throw the right one like before. When it hits the ground, throw the left hand ball over the right one. Make sure each ball is lifted a few inches, then hit the ground in front of the opposite foot, and bounce up to the other hand.

Now try to flash three balls. Take two balls in your right hand and one in your left. Throw right, left, right, throwing the second ball when the first one bounces and the third when the second bounces. All the throws are lift bounces, every ball is thrown over the previous ball, and they all hit the ground in front of the opposite foot. Then just catch everything. Practice this until you can do it perfectly, starting from both hands.

When you have the flashes solid, try to continue after the third throw. The pattern just goes on in the same way. Be sure to practice stopping too. Anytime the pattern becomes unstable, catch all balls immediately and start over. This will save you a lot of running.

After a while, you'll see how easy this really is and how little force is needed for each throw. When you grow more experienced, you won't even have to catch the balls. A little push inwards-upwards is all that's necessary.

Back to the bounce juggling page.

/Arvid Andersson