IJA eNewsletter – September 2024

IJA logo
www.juggle.org		    IJA eNewsletter
   September 2024

Editors: Don Lewis & Martin Frost
(ijanews@juggle.org)

CONTENTS

  • IJA Festival survey
  • YJA Badge books
  • Reflections on a narrow cascade pattern
  • Get ready for Halloween
  • IJA Board meetings
  • Latest articles in eJuggle

 

 

IJA Festival survey  by Afton Benson

If you attended the 2024 IJA Festival in Green Bay, we hope you had a fantastic time.  If you were at the fest and haven’t already done so, please tell us about your experiences there in this brief survey by October 15.

Thank you for supporting the work the IJA does.  Your feedback helps us better serve our mission of rendering assistance to fellow jugglers.

Start making your plans now for the 2025 IJA Festival in Evansville, IN, July 14-20, 2025.  We cannot wait to see you there.

 

 

YJA Badge books

Did you know that the IJA’s Youth Juggling Academy has a book?  It does!The Juggler's Badge Book

The Juggler’s Badge Book is the ultimate companion for aspiring jugglers of any age!  Track your progress, unlock achievements, and earn badges as you learn the art of juggling.  With its engaging format and rewarding sticker system, The Juggler’s Badge Book makes learning to juggle an exciting and fulfilling adventure.  Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned juggler, let The Juggler’s Badge Book be your guide to skillful juggling and a collection of well-earned accomplishments.  Start achieving your juggling journey today!

The Juggler's Badge Book

The Juggler’s Badge Book is $25 and makes a great gift!  Purchase yours today!  Proceeds go to supporting further YJA initiatives and advancing the IJA’s mission to render assistance to fellow jugglers.

Published by the International Jugglers’ Association in collaboration with Modern Vaudeville Press.

 

 

Reflections on a narrow cascade pattern  by Don Lewis

I enjoy the privilege of teaching a couple of workshops at the IJA festival each year; Basic Club Tricks; and Chops with Clubs.  The basic workshop features a bunch of simple tricks that are easily mastered by anyone with a fairly stable cascade pattern.  Chops is an advanced trick that builds on skills learned in the basic workshop.

Curiously, there is one main thing that gets in the way of learning in both of these workshops, namely, a cascade pattern that is way too narrow.

It is perfectly natural to develop a narrow pattern when beginning to juggle clubs, particularly when the juggler is learning in isolation.  We tend to trust our central vision more than our peripheral vision.  This leads to a pattern that is “out in front” because we naturally don’t want to catch a club with our face.  The arms stretch out in front of us to keep the clubs away.  Then the body bends forward, the butt sticks out behind for balance, and eventually either the clubs escape or we fall forwards.  The whole thing is totally out of balance and rarely lasts very long.

The thing is, if this narrow cascade is the first thing you learn, it tends to be the pattern that you default to when things start to go wrong.  I’ve been there, done that, and still do that more than I would like.  It makes most tricks difficult, if not impossible.  It makes club passing far more difficult than it needs to be, especially when throwing tricks to your partner.

When I see this at workshops, I stand in front of a student with a club held vertically in front of me, about three feet in front of the student and challenge them to juggle a cascade.  Most can’t do it because I’m standing in their juggling space.  But there is plenty of space to either side, and that is where they should be juggling.

Start with a single club in one hand.  Place your catching hand palm up at waist level with your elbow loosely beside your waist, perhaps about four inches away.  Don’t let your elbow get in front of your body.  Now, look at that hand that is waiting to catch.  There is generally a line visible from between the thumb and forefinger diagonally across the palm to below the little finger.  This is where you would like the club handle to land, right along that diagonal.

In order for that to happen, swing the single club that you are holding in your other hand down and across in front of your body so that the club is at that same angle, and throw it straight up.  It should come back down and land perfectly in your other hand.  Repeat in the other direction.  Notice that absolutely nothing is happening in front of your face.

A good way to practice this is to stand in front of a tree and see how close you can get while juggling.  The corner of a building or the edge of a door works well too.  Or get a friend to stand in front of you with a club held vertically.

The act of swinging the club across your body gives enough rotation to the club that you don’t need to flick it with your wrist as you throw it to get it to spin.  All you have to do is open your hand as the club starts the upward part of the swing.  It will turn over all by itself.

Here are some examples of why a narrow cascade pattern makes your juggling life difficult.

Under the leg: You need to catch the club that you will throw under your leg somewhere beyond your leg in order to throw under it.  Raising your leg to throw under it will knock one of the other clubs out of the pattern before you can catch it.

Over the top: The club needs to travel over the top of your body to land in the hand on the other side.  The throw is usually outside your vision at the top of the throw and reappears in your peripheral vision as it arrives on the other side.  Narrow pattern jugglers tend to catch this throw with their heads – ouch.  A double throw here gives a bit more time, but the head catch hurts twice as much.

Behind the back: To do this trick you have to catch the club you are about to throw off to your side so you can redirect it behind your back.  Narrow pattern jugglers have to catch the club out in front and then carry it around behind before throwing.  This takes time that you don’t have, and introduces a circular motion that generally ends with the club whacking into your butt instead of sailing up over your shoulder.  Posture counts in this trick.  If you are leaning forward to catch your clubs, and counter balancing with your butt, you have set up a perfect target in the way of your throw.

Doubles: The higher you throw, the narrower the pattern tends to get.  The clubs spend more time in the air, spin twice, and collide with each other as if they were magnetic.

Under the arm: A lot of narrow pattern jugglers don’t actually reach under the other arm to throw straight up.  It is a guaranteed collision.  The throw needs to be off to the side and out of the way.

Chops: This pattern involves catching high on one side and dramatically swinging the club down diagonally and under the other arm.  Anything that gets in the way is going to get whacked to the other side of the room – quite violently.  Narrow jugglers tend not to throw their column throw far enough under the other arm, leaving it victim to the next chop.  There is no graceful recovery possible.

Flourish and Thumb roll:  You can’t finish either of these tricks if the other two clubs get in the way.

 

 

Get ready for Halloween  by Don Lewis

Halloween is coming soon.  Are you ready for it?

This is probably one of the best opportunities that we get for spreading awareness of juggling, simply because so many kids are out scrounging for candy at every door with a light on.  So spend a couple of hours outside juggling to impress all these little goblins.

Instead of having to get out of your chair to answer the door each time the bell rings, get in a couple of hours of juggling practice in front of an itinerant audience that is just waiting to be impressed!  Often, little kids are accompanied by their parents.  Sometimes, those parents knew how to juggle when they were younger and have totally forgotten about it.  You can plant the seed that gets them started again.  It’s a great way to add a few new members to your juggling club, or start a new group.

There are a lot of learn-to-juggle videos on YouTube.  You can check them out and make a short list of your favorites.  Print out the list, several copies to a page, cut them up and hand them out with the candy.  Most of them will get thrown out, but some of them won’t.  Some kids will get hooked on an activity that will last a lifetime.

Here is a great opportunity to get some extra use out of your illuminated props.  Oh, you don’t have any yet?  Well, here is the excuse you need.  Check out the prop vendors that participate in the IJA vendor discount program to look for great deals.

The great thing about LED style illuminated props is that they are safe.  Fire props are really not a great idea around kids unless you have a serious safety infrastructure in place.  Remember, lots of cheap halloween costumes may not be fireproof – including the one you might be tempted to wear.

Happy Halloween!

 

 

IJA Board meetingsIJA Board meetings

IJA Board meetings are open to all IJA members and are hosted on Zoom.  To find out the times of this month’s vision and business meetings, or to attend, please email ija.chair@juggle.org and say which meeting you’re interested in.

 

 

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