Tips

Be kind to your Neighbors

If someone lives below you, a great substitute for acrylics are hollow vinyl stage balls. They are lighter, but improve your control and have improved my performance with acrylics.

Graph your progress.

Get several sheets of graph paper, tape them together, and graph your progress month by month. Set your goals during a certain month, then graph up for each trick or technique you learn. The best thing about these graphs, is they never go down.

Set no limits, only goals.

In the art of contact juggling the whole aspect is mind over body to a degree. When you first saw it did you think it was possible for you to attain? I sure didn't think so. But after so hard earn work the impossible is not so impossible after all. You could almost say that the ball/balls become a part of you.

New to CJ? Start with buying several balls.

Lets face it, you're new, you're gonna drop the ball... If you only have one ball, each and every time that
thing gets away from you, you're gonna have to chase it. If you have several balls, you don't have to chase
it each time you drop.

Once you get good. . . .Break the rules

Once "proper" form has been learned, and you feel comfertable with your basic moves. . . .just break the rules. Go out of the ordinary to explore possible new moves or combinations. There are unlimited possibilities with just the butterfly, by breaking the rule of having it go over the tips of your fingers.

Warm up with a wave

Hands together, ball running from side to side across your upturned fingertips, easy to learn, (watch your fingertips in the mirror), great trick for getting yourself into the right headspace......

Use hand lotion to restore a sparkle to your balls.

It's bound to happen sooner or later, your ball is going to get scratched, scuffed, or even a small crack... then
as you practice, they get duller and duller in appearance.

I use hand lotion to restore a sparkle to my balls.

PS: Upscale stores in malls are a great source for free samples of hand lotion... or for you
ladies...makeup, perfume, and mirrors .

Use a small mesh stuff sack when practicing on public transportation,

I ride the bus, and practice CJ. Occasionally I'll drop a ball, and then have to go chasing after it... with the bus in motion. (One driver is ready to have me banned from her bus).

I found that a small mesh stuff sack (found at a outdoor supply store for around $7 US) can keep the balls
from hitting the floor. I just pull the drawstring so that my hand (with a ball in it) cannot slip out, and voila, a
safe way to practice.

The bag also doubles to keep your balls from being loose in your backpack. TIP: How to Practice on Public Transportation.

Balance your muscles

Be sure to work opposite muscle groups. For example If you're practicing loads of palmspins you ought to work the muscles on the backs of your hands as well with skills that totally engage those muscles. This way you will avoid overworking the palms-- eventually tightening them all up, and underworking the back muscles-- causing them to atrophy

Never agree with them.

So often people will say, "I could never do that" or "I am too uncoordinated to do that". DO NOT AGREE WITH THEM!! Hand them one of your old, beaten up acrylics, and teach them how to hold the ball in the cradle. Tell them that anybody can learn how to Contact Juggle.

Learn from mistakes

Don't just make the same mistakes over and over again, learn each time you fail at some new move. Listen to your body: each muscle records what went wrong at the time of your mistake, and you can learn from it once you learn how. Also, if you have some weird mistake that looks kind of cool, fly with it! Turn a mistake into a new move.

Get a Signature Move

Once you get used to the basics of CJ, get a signature move, a move that just screams. . . .YOU! My signature move is the "Spined" Tandem Butterfly. A signature move is just a nifty little way of making yourself known.

Before CJing, stretch...your ENTIRE body.

Nothing is worse than getting a leg cramp in the middle of a CJ routine. Be sure to stretch all of the major muscle groups in your body, and be sure to stretch ALL of your arm, not just your wrist/fingers (even if you only palmspin!).

Both Hands, Both Ways

"Remember, if you can only do a trick with one hand, you are literally half the juggler you think you are!"

Make Learning easier. Big to small for rolls. Small to big for spins.

You should always practice with the ball you are going to perform with. Unfortunately it may be very difficult to start out with that ball doing certain tricks. I recomend that you use small balls to spin with then increase the size as you get better. For ball rolls I recommend the opposite. Start with large balls, basketball, then go to smaller balls, mini basketballs. Until one day you can perform with what you practice with.

Nothing is impossible

Whatever you set your mind ondoing, you will find a way to make it possible. I have seen lots of people saying a simple CJ move is impossible. And as a CJer you sometime get the feeling something is impossible, we have proved on numerous occasions this is not so. If enough effort is put you will find a way.

Stay loose

Even after stretching, ones body may tend to tighten up after a while of Cj'ing (especially when learning new moves). One way to overcome it is to smile, even chuckle as you CJ and it will greatly loosen you up. Act like you are on dope. Maybe even dance a little jig. Best to do when nobody else is around

Constantly be aware of your surroundings.

Whenever your preforming, keep in mind that no matter how good you are. Those little gremlin mess ups, can enter your act and cause a ball to take a little unexpected path. Always know what is around you and how far they are in case you need to recover. There isn't any worse feeling than messing up, and hitting the face of the little kid who snuck in close to get a better view, all within the same 10 seconds.

Make a Ball-stand with an old CD

That's right, just take any old CD you have lying around, and use the hold in the middle to hold your acrylic. This looks really nice if you have a lot of mini-CDs in an interesting pattern.

Go out and meet other contactjugglers at all costs.

The best information and ideas you get from fellow CJ-ers. As you look to ONE new move he/she created, the your brain will instantly see four other possebiletys out of that one new move. You show those four possebiletys back to the origionator and the possebiletys will expand again with a factor four.

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