Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Extreme Juggling

The latest attempt to make technical juggling palatable to the masses is X-Juggling.

First I'll give a simple logistical suggestion to the organizers for keeping the pacing of this event so that it will maximize energy and interest. Instead of having one staging area, have two. This way, after one performer finishes, the next can be ready in position and start without waiting for the first competitor to clear the stage (and dropped props).

I think that this competition will be very exciting for jugglers. I'm trying to figure how it is different than all the online juggling videos where the person took many attempts to do some juggling trick that they can hit once in many attempts. One problem might be that the competition will be less exciting than videos because the odds of hitting a trick in the short time are much smaller than the unlimited time one has for camera.

On the other hand, the emotion of watching close attempts could be very exciting. It is great to see people pushing the limits of their abilities and I know from gawking at people practicing in the gym, that sometimes near successes can be even more emotional than when a trick is hit. It's easier to appreciate how hard a trick really is when the person can't quite do it (that's why in circuses they often intentionally fail on a big trick once or twice before hitting it). And when you see someone getting close, you hope so strongly that they'll get it - it can even take your breath away. Hopefully X-Juggling will have the same exhiliration.

3 Comments:

At April 08, 2006 7:19 PM, Blogger Ed Provencher said...

Those are good observations. You might want to email Jack Kalvan with your suggestion. Seems he and Ben Tolpin are open to them.

I am going to be there and I am looking forward especially to the mixed prop category. At WJF II Toby Walker did a head bounce while juggling three clubs and one bean bag. Meanwhile, he spun a club across his head under the bouncing ball. He ran it for a while... very impressive.

 
At April 08, 2006 9:22 PM, Blogger Scott Seltzer said...

I did send Jack a link to the article.

 
At August 26, 2006 1:23 AM, Blogger Perry said...

I was going to attempt to joggle 100 miles next year. Do you think that will qualify for Xjuggling?

I like your site. I put a link to you on mine. Just Your Average Joggler

 

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