I’ve been thinking recently, as I often do, about where people get their humble beginnings. Before the ego sets in to a jugglers style. When was Garfield just another face in the crowd and where did he become simply “Garfield”? We admire jugglers for the way they present themselves, and style development is all about your view on juggling. Just as an example, Kristian Wanvik is known for power juggling, Vova Galchenko is in your face attitude, Francois Rochais is elegant and Sean McKinney was extreme. All those names not only give you a person, but also a style of juggling, so their style is a product of what tricks they learn, how they learn them and how they present them. Hopefully my article will inspire some of you to develop a style of your own, or tell you if you’re already on your way to becoming a stylish juggler.
There are basically two things that determines what your style will look like. Tricks that come easily to you and tricks you like to see done. If tricks come easily to you, like shower, then you will probably spend more time practicing the tricks you’re good at. If people see you do a lot of shower variations, then that’s part of your style, which is being good and creative with showers. The other way you will spend more time practicing tricks and their variations is if you like the way things look. Some people love looking at pirouettes, so they would probably want in on the action and start practicing their 360’s as well. If they work hard at it, they will develop more variations with less spins, more spins, multiple heights, number of rotations and other pirouette stuff. I for one love height variation in ball juggling, so 97531 is by far one of my favorite patterns, but I also will experiment with stuff like 753 and 97522 pirouettes. Hopefully that will become part of my style the more I practice it. We can also look to Dave Nager as a type of case study in proving my point about style. I chose Dave because I could talk to him and confirm information and because I think he is a rather unique juggler. He is a happy medium between two extremes of juggling, not quite a purely technical juggler and not quite a contact juggler.
Dave began juggling when he was a freshmen at RIT. He was surrounded by a good club and had the guidance of one Wes Peden. Dave saw good jugglers all around him, as well as plenty of ideas as to what he should learn. He picked balls as his main focus, with lots of three ball tricks, then some standard technical stuff with five+ balls like pirouettes, different siteswaps and the like. By the time Dave’s Juggling Video 2 came out, you could see what Dave liked to do and what his style was becoming. After Dave’s Juggling Video 3 was released, people obviously liked Dave’s work because he was being asked about Dave’s Juggling Video 4 often. People connected with Dave’s style of juggling, and they liked it because of two reasons. They liked watching his tricks and his way of executing them and they liked watching his progression from moderate juggler to really good juggler. When Dave and Vova made the Vnaygs DVD, Dave’s newest style was seen. He even comments in the video that he hates numbers and nobody can become the best by a numbers pursuit, so he would rather stick to lower numbers and be creative with them.
Everything up to the present suggests what kind of a juggler Dave is and why we love to watch him. He’s not just a talented technical juggler, but he is also a very creative three ball and club juggler and a great passer.
As a ritual, I can’t write an article without mentioning Anthony Gatto. As an avid member of the Gatto forums, I always read topics that ask Anthony direct questions about why he flips rings on his left but not on his right when doing a full reverse with rings, or questions about why he starts nine balls with his left hand but all other numbers with his right hand. The answer isn’t hard to understand… it’s just his style. You choose to watch him because he juggles in a way that entertains you, so sit back and enjoy each Gatto video you see and don’t question his style. Anthony also learned how to juggle five clubs at a tender young age, and his hands were not large enough to hold three clubs in his hand, so he holds the third club with his pinky. People often ask about how to hold three clubs in one hand, whereas Anthony just did what worked. If you want to be like Anthony or Dave, then don’t assume there is only one way to juggle. Do what works for you or learn what you’re willing to struggle through.
Back to my beginning point. Style is developed by two factors, which are tricks you want to learn and tricks that come naturally to you. Another important style developer is not listening to certain information about the way you juggle. What would people say about Kristian Wanvik if someone told him to bring his five ball pattern down a little bit when he first learned it? Next time you practice, think about what you really want to learn, then take the steps necessary to learn it. You shouldn’t have to worry about learning backcrosses in singles or doubles first, just practice backcrosses and it will pay off. If you are a young juggler, I would suggest not asking too many questions about technique. Just realize there is no quick fix to getting better at juggling, only practice. If you learn to shower before cascade, then good for you! It’s all part of your style. If we get more people to think in this mindset, I believe we might have a better group of stylish American jugglers instead of leaving all the “art” to the Europeans.
