Juggling Resources
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[Juggling]
I started learning to juggle from the book “Juggling For The Complete Klutz”, but eventually I turned to the Internet and to other books. These are the video tutorials, books and web sites that helped me the most.
YouTube
The best juggling teacher on YouTube is Taylor Glenn with her Taylor Tries channel. Taylor is an amazing juggler and a great teacher. She divides the learning process into logical steps, uses slow-motion to clarify the physical movements, and discusses common problems and their solutions.
The second best YouTube resource is the Juggling Guild from juggler Robin Chestnut. Robin has a sparse, no-nonsense style, with excellent advice on learning and practicing.
Niels Duinker makes short, focused, well-produced tutorials on basic and advanced juggling. His videos aren’t as detailed as the ones from Taylor Tries or The Juggling Guild, but they are worth watching to supplement those sources.
Juggling with Jeremiah is a channel devoted mostly to club manipulation, but it has a playlist specifically for learning three-club juggling. Jeremiah’s process is detailed and methodical, and it helped me a great deal as I tried to learn three clubs.
There are many other juggling tutorials on YouTube, some fairly polished and some quite the opposite. It’s worth watching a few, even the less polished ones, just to see a variety of approaches, but the four above are the best in my opinion.
Books
“Juggling For The Complete Klutz”, by John Cassidy and B.C. Rimbeaux, got me started, and I know from experience that a person can learn the basic cascade pattern just from the book. It’s funny, with humorous illustrations, and the book comes with a decent set of juggling beanbags.
“The Complete Juggler”, by Dave Finnigan, lives up to its name and is perhaps the best overall reference on juggling. Unfortunately it is out of print, but the Internet Archive has a copy available to borrow, and I’ve seen used copies for sale. I borrowed a copy through my library. The book is an encyclopedia of juggling and related arts, covering so many topics: toss juggling with scarves, balls, clubs, rings, cigar boxes, hats; balancing; spinning plates and balls; using devil sticks and diabolos; and more. I haven’t seen any juggling reference as comprehensive and detailed as this one.
“Juggling: What It Is And How To Do It”, by the professional juggler Thom Wall, is the most useful juggling book I’ve found that is still in print. The book has good advice on learning and practice, and goes into some detail on Siteswap, which is a form of notation used to document juggling patterns.
Web Sites
I haven’t found many good web sites on juggling, but there are a few that don’t use annoying ads or popups.
The best web site dedicated to juggling is The Library of Juggling. The site contains a large collection of ball juggling patterns, illustrated with animated GIFs. The page for each pattern gives detailed advice for learning the pattern.
Club Juggling is the second best juggling site that I have found. The site is specifically about club juggling, but it has some good general information and practice tips that apply to any kind of juggling.
The web site of the International Jugglers’ Association is geared toward professional jugglers, but there is good information on the site for amateurs. There are a handful of tutorials, a guide to juggling prop vendors, articles on juggling history, and many performance videos.