The Silver Man's Contact Juggling Page
Why?
The main reason behind this site is to help keep up the inspirational levels of those of us who don't meet up with other contact jugglers very often. I also hope that it will provide a place for beginners to come and see the basics that otherwise they may only get descriptions of.
How this page works:-
The idea of the site is that it grows as people send me requests for tricks they want to see and videos of moves they've come up with.
Short descriptions and tips to help learn tricks are to be found with the tricks as well as all the variations I can think of.
I've used animated Gifs derived from a video source to illustrate moves. All the animations you see on this page are thumbnails and, if you have the patience, can be loaded in larger, clearer forms.
Variations
An endless source of amusement, trying out stuff, basically. This site has only a few ideas but with variations there really is a lifetimes study here.
Try using a different number of balls for the same trick, setting isolations in any pattern, or try and make a trick work in a different plane, combine toss juggling tricks into your patterns and steal ideas from absolutely anywhere.
combinations
Moving between tricks and variations is a goldmine of inspiration. This is where the "how the bloody hell did I do that?" syndrome comes into force. Remember, if you did it already you can learn to do it again and again.
So take a trick, any trick and work out ways of getting into other tricks from it, this is the personal bit that will allow your own style to develop and shine.
Practice and Health
This artform takes a lot of it, this shouldn't present any physical problems. I've been doing it for eight years and making a living from it for the last five, the one thing I've learned is to LISTEN to your body, especially when learning palm spinning, it is possible to give yourself tendonitis so warm up your arms and hands especially. It's also possible to bruise your hands from repeated impacts, if this is happening you are doing something wrong and need to think your way around the problem or use softer balls until you aquire a more delicate touch.
Notes
This is a work in progress so the variety of moves isn't huge yet. Five ball plus tricks will come when I buy some more balls. Rests are absent but a video of a ball sitting on top of my head isn't thrilling! Any contributions or articles on these subjects, and any others of relevance would go down very well.
There are no difficulty levels in this site as one mans nightmare is another girls breeze, also contact is frustrating enough to learn without being told it's hard! Having said that I have put the basic building blocks towards the top of the list.
At the moment there are no categories involved but if I collect enough moves I'll deal with it.
Glossary
CONTACT: contact juggling, the art of moving a ball around the body without losing contact.
TRANSFER: putting a ball in another hand.
MOVE/TRICK: a definable series of events that may or may not repeat.
VARIATION: a MOVE that has roots in another MOVE usually with an added complexity.
ISOLATION: 1) the TRICK of keeping one ball still in space to provide theillusion of floating.
ISOLATION: 2) the natural state of a contact juggler.
The Moves
The Butterfly
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Practice,practice,practice.......
Don't expect this overnight, Do work on it.Start by holding your hand out flat, palm down, dip your middle finger and balance a ball in the cradle formed by your 1st 2nd and 3rd fingers.(This is known as a cradle hold by some, if I say "back", this is what I mean). Now throw the ball straight up and catch it in the center of your palm. Easy. Repeat endlessly throwing the ball lower and lower until it is rolling across the tops of your fingers(no bending them now, think cool, stylish, graceful.....).Et Voila, half of it. Repeat. this time going from palm to back. Don't give up. Do try it with both hands. Eventually you will be able to smoothly and effortlessly slip the ball over to the back of your hand and back with enviable grace.
Variations
The ball can leave your hand in 3 obvious directions, over the tips of your fingers, around your 1st finger or around your pinky(4th) finger. Play with all the variations of butterfly you can make by going to and from any of these exit or entrance points. A personal favorite is the "royal wave". The ball leaves the palm between 1st finger and thumb and returns around the edge of the pinky. The hand describes a "royal wave" gesture. With one ball, alternate this move in both hands, it looks superb. I also use it as a Flourish in multiball patterns and toss juggling.
The Walk
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An illusion trick, the idea is to present a smoothly moving ball. The direction it takes is up to you,horizontal, vertical, around in circles, so long as its SMOOTH.Here I'm doing a horizontal finger walk with the ball rolling off the edge of my 1st fingers onto the pinky of my other hand and across the fingers. Thats it!
Variations
Go from fingertips to palm, use backs of hands, forearms, top and bottom, thighs, fingers, your imagination. Combine all of these and make that ball come alive.
Multiball walks can form lively snakes, great for chasing audiences with!
Prayer
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Don't worry about fixing your hands together for this one as you will only make life difficult for yourself, a loose approach is called for, working up towards a cathedral of grace.
Tip
The ball is travelling over the gap between 1st and 2nd fingers.
Variations
As for The Butterfly and plenty more to work on when the hands are opened with the wrists kept close together so the ball can roll across the palms.
With both hands vertical and almost together bring the ball to a Rest on the fingertips. This is a perfect precursor to Mineshaft moves.(If you fancy a challenge try this Rest on two fingers of a Butterfly, its more of a balance than a rest, but definitely worth the effort)
A Similar Move
The Cage,spread your fingers and touch all fingertips(and thumbs)as if you have the largest ball your hands will hold between your palms. Roll a ball in the groove formed by your 1st and 2nd fingers. It will go from knuckles to knuckles. Yeah right! practice practice, practice,.......
.......and now quickly turn your hands palm up(still in "cage" position) and move the ball inside the cage. Enjoy.
The Chest Roll
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An all-time favorite this one, and surprisingly easy to do.....so long as you use a reasonably sized ball. I have found that virtually everyone can do this trick within a few attempts with a basketball. With a 3" acrylic its a completely diffeent kettle of fish!
Tip
If you are having problems on the back of your arms try on the inside(palm side) of your arms, many people find this the best way to start.
The mineshaft
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The ball is going to hit the floor a lot of times before this gets smooth but you probably need a smooth ball to do it well. Practice, practice, practice.......
PPaBBa
(Palm 2 Palm and Back 2 Back and...)
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An ungodly name for an angelic move.
With the wrists together transfer the ball from palm to palm, butterfly to the back, mirroring your hand movements with your empty hand(cross your arms), back to back transfer and then butterfly to the original palm. Simple.
This move is a lovely embellishment to a hand swap, half of the trick will leave the ball in your other hand, just in the right place for arm rolls for instance.
Tip
Try and make the ball travel in circles in front of your face, if you've nothing else to do you can lose yourself for weeks in this pattern.
Variations
Try this one with two or three balls
Two!
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The whole concept of palm spinning starts here, the idea of keeping the balls moving, without touching each other is a fundamental building block of contact juggling as it allows the hypnotic grace, that characterises this artform, to flow.
To start, use a wave motion in your fingers(look at the video) to drive the balls in circles around your hand. Go with whichever direction (clockwise or anticlockwise) feels right and natural(though bear in mind you'll want to learn the other way as well) and with practice the balls will turn smoothly, although not at first seperated. Practice in both hands and try both directions.
Tip
As you progress open your hand out flat to allow the balls to ride on the extremes of your hand, this involves a lot of dropping as you find the limits.
Look at the video and take note of the finger motion and, in particular, how little the thumb is doing.
Variations
A helpful exercise is to Isolate one of the balls, that is to keep one of the balls "still" in space and move your hand under it. This gives the effect of a planet going around the sun,(ignore the carried ball in the trick Isoline below and you can see exactly what I mean.) For some reason this seems to make everything flow smoother. (4 ball Pyramids benefit from this excercise too.)
Combine Two with Butterflies by holding the second ball with your thumb as the first rides over your fingers. This is the basis of some Escalator moves.
Three! self explanatory really. The 3 Ball Shower in one hand. Three! allows for Thumb and Pinky Lifts(see Pyramid below)
Oscillate Wildly
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We're playing leapfrog at the elbow end of a back of the arm roll here. As the ball drops off the elbow, the other ball hops up onto the elbow!
Finish it off with both hands butterflying to repeat it on the other side. This move has one of the best timings I've ever felt in a contact move as you will find out after a bit of practice. It feels gorgeous.
I'd be glad if anyone can come up with a short descriptive name for this!
2 Ball Chest Roll
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This works with inside arm or outside arm chestrolls, and the secret is in the timing. Initially I found that staggering the chest rolls, by stopping with a ball in each hand, between chest rolls was a good place to start.
From there I started to do the hand to hand transfer whilst the first ball was on(or just leaving) the chest and delaying the start of the second roll, this seemed to give more control, until, after much practice, I am now rolling the balls in opposite positions and one day I'll even get them to do it smoothly!
Variations
Try crossing the balls on your chest, it is possible, though I can't do it on demand..........
Alternated half chest(from hand to opposite shoulder, half way...) rolls dropped from the shoulder into the same hand as rolled them works rather well.
The Silver Roll
2b vertical stack armroll
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An arm roll with one ball traveling on TOP of the other.
Easier than it sounds, but very,very new to me, can't find anyone who has seen it so I'm sure someone will tell me they saw it done in 1964 or something. Rushed the animation on to the site so apologies, I'll try it again when I've practised more.
To do it. Choose stage balls or silicons at first.(this animation is done with acrylics) 2 balls in palm in line with arm, lift hand keeping fingers fairly straightish, one ball rides on top of the other. You can see the top ball rolling backwards which is neat.
Tip
Yes Please!
Variations
As one ball drops to the original hand and the other to the other hand, you can do this trick continuously with right and left arm rolls. Further you can drop the "original hand ball" off the outside of the arm into a penguin style catch. This penguin style catch works with an ordinary 2b Arm Roll, just drop one ball off either side of your arm, a penguin catch with the same arm, the other ball joins the third in the "dead" hand
Milligans Madness
With much love and respect, for Spike.
click to enlarge
This image only shows one half of the trick, the enlargement has the whole thing, click and enjoy!
This is the variant mentioned above, still very much in development!
First, a slightly different trick to get started. A two ball arm roll to the elbow, one drops to the other hand(which is conveniently carrying the 3rd ball) and the other rolls back into the hand it came from. Repeat from the other hand. When you are comfortable with that, move on to dropping a ball from the outside of the elbow and catching in a penguin catch(as if you were accepting a discreet backhander....). This is a lovely trick in its own right. Now, finally, add in the 2b vertical stack rolls and you have Milligan's Madness.
Tip
Don't go camping underneath busses.
Variations
You can roll the ball up over your shoulder and then drop it into the backhand catch for extra brownie points. It also feels like you have a dead ball for a moment, I haven't worked out what to do with it, but I'm sure you'll think of something.......
3 Ball Shower
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Simple and very effective. It helps to be reasonably proficient at Two in both directions to get this really smooth.
Variations
This is one of the tricks based on a toss juggling pattern, hence the name. Try the somewhat easier cascade, and use as many balls as you can. Five ball showers, without touches, are possible.
A whole plethora of options are available by simply isolating a ball(see Isocade below), a shower with an isolation works well as do twin isolations with one ball running figure eights and circles.
The escalator
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Although done here fixed in space, this trick is normally performed in a vertically downwards walk, giving the effect of an escalator.
This can be a very visually appealing trick.
This trick uses a variant of the butterfly. One that allows a Butterfly to be done with two balls in one hand.
Simply hold a ball in the palm with your thumb and butterfly the other ball to a cradle hold, this leaves you with one ball above the other. It takes a little getting used to but mixes really nicely with palm spins and places(as above, where the palm ball is placed on the cradle of the hand below)
Variations
Reverse it!
Add flourishes....
Isoline
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This is a Two variant with the 3rd ball carried to form the illusion of a spinning line. Notice the Isolation of the middle ball.
Variations
Any of the three balls can be Isolated. By cunning variation of the Isolated ball you can "Walk" the line around your performing space.
Sudden stops and reverses work well with this trick.
Changing the hand doing Two is a superb way of moving the pattern through space and a useful element of The ButterCross(see below)
Isocade
3b orbital isolation
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A Cascade pattern with bells on. Simply a cascade with an Isolation.
Variations
The carried ball doesnt have to be returned straight back into the pattern it can be lifted into a Butterfly Flourish, an isolation or, my fave of the moment, into a two fingertip balance.
Butterfly Cascade
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Back to Palm. As you do this trick you are transferring from the back of your hand into the palm of the other, then a butterfly to the back which then transfers to the palm. Think "Back to Palm, Back to Palm, Back to P....."
Try this with one ball first (as its a really nice one ball trick). Move up to two and three balls.
Variations
Reverse It! Think "Palm to Back"
Similarly you can do PPaBBa with three.
The ButterCross
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The key to this trick is in the timing of the transfers. A proficiency at Butterflies in both hands is fairly essential as well. It is basically a palm to palm transfer that moves a Two(see above) pattern from hand to hand. The butterfly is just an embellishment. Practice without the butterfly to start with until you can move the Two smoothly from hand to hand. Gradually put the butterflies in as you feel you can, allowing the Two to rotate as often as is neccesary for you to be able to make the transfer smooth. Eventually it will get to the rhythm you see here. Don't give up on this one, it's one of the best!
Help!
Can anyone describe this in a better fashion? Let me know.
Tipstalls
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I like Tipstalls. It's a balance rather than a hold and I've been practicing them for over a year and can still only hold it for a second(which looks more dramatic than it sounds.)
Basically you push the butterfly to the tip of your fingers and leave it there, sitting on top of your 1st and 2nd fingers. Of course you could do it on 3 fingers but when i do this, my hands are dead flat and edge on to the audience, they can appreciate the sublety and difficulty of the move(thank God...).
Here I'm doing the 3 ball variant which is based on the Isocade above.
Tip
This is much easier with larger balls!
4" acrylics are very stable on the fingertips.
It is also more succesful if you are lifting the ball upwards on your fingers as opposed to keeping the balance still in space.
Variants
Miss out the other 2 balls......Its nice as a 1 ball move in its own right, its also great as a pause with the arm lifted at full stretch.
The Windmill
Propellor
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I can't teach you this one you just have to try it. It came out of playing with the triangle formed by the 3 balls and moving it in and out of planes.This has resulted in some lovely Curls. Watch this space for more video because words are too clumsy.
Goof3
3b planebreak/palm flip
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Originally a 4 ball trick(The Revolving Door below is a variant) I thought this one was pretty cool, so cool it's the opening trick of my stage show! (look out for video soon)
Variations
Isolate either element of the move.
Lift the pattern until you have the "face" pattern in front of your face(2 balls at top=eyes,1 below=mouth, come on you've seen it, Gallery 4, The Silver Man Home if you're that desperate),look around in comical fashion, drop the "eye" balls to the sides suddenly with appropriate facial expression, totally cheesy crowd pleaser, give me more.
4 Shower
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See 3 Shower
Variations
Splitting the balls into pairs results in a fabulous array of moves.Video coming soon.
The Pyramid
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Practice,pratice,practice.........
As preparation for this take a one handed 3 ball shower, which you'll be proficient at, and try it with a large flat book or tray balanced on top. You should be able to make the book or tray spin quite fast.....eventually. Work at keeping it as flat as you can and then try placing a smaller ball than the ones you have for the base layer on top. Work up to being able to keep it all together with the same size balls.
Pyramid with Pinky Lift
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A variant of ThePyramid. The pinky finger lifts a ball and tilts the whole pyramid over. A thumb lift works in the same fashion. Incorporate Isolations for a cool effect.
Revolving Door
4b rotating columns
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Much easier to do this trick horizontally,as in Goof3, which is the place to start, check out 4 ball video when it appears
Variations
Be a truly sick puppy and do it with SIX!